Oracle Visual Builder Studio

Here are some key things you can now do to extend your application pages using Visual Builder Studio: 

• New project from deployed extension
  You can now import an extension's source files into a new project from any environment where it's currently deployed. This is helpful, say, if a project was deleted in Visual Basic Studio, but you still need to work on the extension. See How Do I Recover My Extension After Deleting the Project?
• Subcategory display for Oracle Customer Experience (CX) extensions
  When an extension in the Customer Experience (CX) pillar is assigned a subcategory using the Extension Pillar Subcategory option in the Settings editor, all extensions in that subcategory now show in the Navigator on the App UIs and Dependencies panes, as well as in the Layouts, Services, and Translations panes. See What Are Dependencies? and Add a Dependency.
• Usability improvements
  We've made some usability improvements for previewing and sharing an extension:

  • When previewing your App UI, the message indicating that the application is being prepared for preview now appears as a notification instead of a pop-up. See Preview Your App UI.

  • When sharing your App UI, you now share the extension and copy the deployment URL with a single click, instead of using separate actions in the Share Application Extension dialog. This way, you won't copy the URL without actually sharing the extension. See Share Your App UI.

These changes also take effect in Express mode. See Preview and Share Your Changes.

• Default for publishing page configurations from new workspaces changed

  Starting with version 25.01.1, extensions created by using the Edit Page in Visual Builder Studio option were configured to deploy changes directly to the target Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications instance, bypassing the CI/CD pipeline. With this release, this default behavior also applies to extensions created from a new workspace. See Enable or Disable the CI/CD Pipeline for Publishing.

• Simplified upgrade process in Express mode
  In Express mode, it's now easier to upgrade your extension to the most recent version of the Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications. See Respond to the Time to Upgrade Pop-up.
• Option to directly deploy from a branch in remote repository
  You can now deploy extensions and visual applications directly from a branch in the remote repository, You'll typically do this, for example, if your extension or visual application was deleted from an Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications or a Visual Builder instance and you want to restore it. This is also convenient if a merge request was approved and merged, but a CI/CD pipeline doesn't exist to automatically deploy those changes to the target instance. 

Deploy and Publish are distinct actions in the Designer: 

• Click Publish to merge new changes in your workspace to a remote branch, and then deploy those changes to your target instance. 
• Click Deploy if your changes already exist in the remote branch, and now you want to deploy those changes directly to your target instance. 

For visual apps, see Deploy Changes From the Remote Branch and for extensions, see Deploy Changes From the Remote Branch. This functionality is also available in Express mode, see Deploy Your Published Changes.

• Option to create CI/CD pipeline in Settings editor  
  When you publish your extension or visual application, you select a remote branch to merge your changes to, and then deploy from. If the remote branch doesn't have a CI/CD pipeline, you can now create one directly from the Settings editor by selecting the branch and then clicking Create CI/CD Pipeline. For visual apps, see Enable or Disable the CI/CD Pipeline for Deployments and for extensions, see Enable or Disable the CI/CD Pipeline for Publishing.

• Improvements to dynamic components
  We've made some improvements to dynamic components:

  • You can now use a layout property to control how grouped fields are rendered in dynamic forms. Use this property to specify whether a group is collapsed by default or not collapsible at all. For visual apps, see Group Fields in Dynamic Form Layouts and for extensions, see Group Fields in Dynamic Form Layouts.

  • When you open a layout in the rule set editor, you can now access a status indicator to see how quickly the list of available fields is fetched from the service. For visual apps, see Create a Layout for a Dynamic Table or Form and for extensions, see Create a Layout in a Rule Set.

  • When you add a new rule to a dynamic container, all available container sections are now added by default. You can then remove any sections you don't want to include in the container. For visual apps, see Add a Dynamic Container to a Page and for extensions, see Configure a Dynamic Container. This update is also available in Express mode, see Control the Sections Displayed on the Page.

• Improvements to business rules
  You can now edit a business rule to delete expressions used in the condition builder and when overriding the Value property. After removing a condition written as an expression, you can use the basic condition builder to create a condition. For visual apps, see Build Advanced Expressions and for extensions, see Build Advanced Expressions. This update is also available in Express mode, see Build Advanced Expressions.

• UI changes for backends, service connections  
  Settings that were previously found on the Overview tab for a backend, service connection, and endpoint, have been moved into a new Settings tab. As a result, the Overview tab has been removed.

  For visual apps, see Manage Backends in Your Visual Application and Edit a Service Connection. For extensions, see What Are Backends? and Edit a Service Connection.

• New Media & Files category

  The Components palette now includes a Media & Files category, which features the Camera and File Picker components.

• New audit severity for showstopper errors
  A new Stopper severity has been added in the Audits pane to identify showstopper errors that may cause your app to break at runtime. For visual apps, see Audit Application Code and for extensions, see Debug and Audit Your Code.

• New option for vb-process-local Grunt command
  A new additional-locales for the vb-process-local Grunt command now allows you to specify additional locales supported by an application. See Grunt Task - vb-process-local.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

If you have 25D version of Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, you automatically have access to these Visual Builder Studio features.

Key Resources

• How Do I Recover My Extension After Deleting the Project?
• What Are Dependencies?
• Add a Dependency
• Preview Your App UI
• Share Your App UI
• Preview and Share Your Changes
• Enable or Disable the CI/CD Pipeline for Publishing
• Respond to the Time to Upgrade Pop-up
• Deploy Changes From the Remote Branch
• Deploy Changes From the Remote Branch
• Deploy Your Published Changes
• Enable or Disable the CI/CD Pipeline for Deployments
• Enable or Disable the CI/CD Pipeline for Publishing
• Group Fields in Dynamic Form Layouts
• Group Fields in Dynamic Form Layouts
• Create a Layout for a Dynamic Table or Form
• Create a Layout in a Rule Set
• Add a Dynamic Container to a Page 
• Configure a Dynamic Container
• Control the Sections Displayed on the Page
• Build Advanced Expressions
• Build Advanced Expressions
• Build Advanced Expressions
• Manage Backends in Your Visual Application
• Edit a Service Connection
• What Are Backends?
• Edit a Service Connection
• Audit Application Code
• Debug and Audit Your Code
• Grunt Task - vb-process-local