Zones usually depend on one or more of the global context keys. These keys are derived from the global context lookup. These are lookup values that each application defines for itself. When the web app server boots, the application will enumerate the available lookup values and make this information available to the browser. For e.g. Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing has ACCT_​ID, PER_​ID and PREM_​ID as its global context keys.

In addition, context-sensitive zones can depend on model keys. For performance reasons, zones are reloaded intelligently as needed. Hence, non-context dashboard zones generally redisplay only when one of the context keys changes.