3 Setting Up Your Development Environment

Describes how to set up the development environment to integrate an Excel workbook with a Fusion web application, plus how to upgrade and remove ADF Desktop Integration.

This chapter includes the following sections:

3.1 About Setting Up Your Development Environment

Setting up the development environment involves making sure that you have the correct versions of JDeveloper and Microsoft Office installed.

After verifying that you have the required software, as described in Required Oracle ADF Modules and Third-Party Software, complete the setup of your development environment by Installing ADF Desktop Integration.

Note:

The instructions in this guide assume that you are using Windows 7 operating system and Microsoft Excel 2007. Note that the steps might be different for different editions of Windows and Excel.

3.2 Required Oracle ADF Modules and Third-Party Software

Ensure that you have the required Oracle ADF modules and third-party software installed and configured before you begin to integrate your Excel workbook with a Fusion web application.

  • Oracle JDeveloper

    Install the current release of JDeveloper. ADF Desktop Integration is available as a JDeveloper feature.

  • Microsoft Windows

    Microsoft Windows operating systems support the development and deployment of Excel workbooks that integrate with Fusion web applications. For information about supported versions of Windows, click the "Certification Information" link for this release on the following OTN page:

    http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/jdev/documentation/index.html

  • Microsoft Excel

    ADF Desktop Integration supports the integration of Fusion web applications with the following types of Excel workbook:

    • Excel Workbook

      The default file format for Excel workbooks is the Excel XML-based file format (.xlsx).

    • Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook

      Workbooks in this format (.xlsm) use the Excel XML-based file format and can store VBA macro code.

    ADF Desktop Integration does not support the use of other Excel file formats. For information about supported versions of Excel, click the "Certification Information" link for this release on the following OTN page:

    http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/jdev/documentation/index.html

  • Internet Explorer

    Some features in ADF Desktop Integration use a web browser control from the Microsoft .NET Framework. This browser control relies on the local Internet Explorer installation to function properly.

    ADF Desktop Integration uses Internet Explorer to render web pages inside Excel, regardless of other browsers installed on the system or any other browser set as the default browser.

Consider running the Client Health Check to determine if your environment is configured correctly after you run the ADF Desktop Integration installer. See Running the Client Health Check Tool.

3.3 Installing ADF Desktop Integration

When you run the ADF Desktop Integration installer, it verifies whether required software is installed on the system where you want to install the add-in. If required software is not installed, ADF Desktop Integration installs it.

The following list identifies the list of required software that ADF Desktop Integration verifies is installed. ADF Desktop Integration installs missing software in the order specified.

  1. Windows Installer 4.5
  2. Microsoft .NET Framework

    The Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 provides the runtime and associated files required to run applications developed to target the Microsoft .NET Framework. You can download the framework from http://www.microsoft.com/download/.

    Note:

    • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 is the minimum required version. ADF Desktop Integration is also compatible with Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.

    • Installation of Microsoft .NET Framework may require you to restart the system where you install it. After the restart, the installer automatically recommences to finalize installation.

  3. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime

    The Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime (version 4) is required to run VSTO solutions for the Microsoft Office system. You can download the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime from http://www.microsoft.com/download/.

  4. ADF Desktop Integration add-in

    You can install the ADF Desktop Integration add-in from JDeveloper, or from the adfdi-excel-addin-installer.exe installer available in the following directory:

    MW_HOME\oracle_common\modules\oracle.adf.desktopintegration

    For information about how to set up ADF Desktop Integration, see How to Install ADF Desktop Integration. You can also install it from an ADF Desktop Integration-enabled Fusion web application. See How to Install the ADF Desktop Integration Add-in From a Web Server.

    Note that the ADF Desktop Integration installation is specific to the current Windows user profile. If you have multiple Windows user profiles on your system, and you want to use ADF Desktop Integration integrated Excel workbooks from some specific user profiles, you must log in to each user profile and install the ADF Desktop Integration add-in. See How to Install ADF Desktop Integration.

3.3.1 How to Install ADF Desktop Integration

You can install the ADF Desktop Integration add-in from JDeveloper, and then create and test integrated Excel workbooks.

Although you do not require administrator privileges to install the ADF Desktop Integration add-in, administrator privileges may be required to run the installer for additional software that the installer attempts to download and install. You should also ensure that the proxy settings for Internet Explorer are configured to allow access to *.microsoft.com because the installer attempts to automatically download missing prerequisite software from Microsoft's website.

Before you begin:

It may be helpful to have an understanding of ADF Desktop Integration requirements. See Installing ADF Desktop Integration.

To install ADF Desktop Integration:

  1. Open JDeveloper.
  2. From the Tools menu, choose Install ADF Desktop Integration.

    Note:

    The Install ADF Desktop Integration menu option is available only on the Windows installation of JDeveloper.

  3. In the ADF Desktop Integration Installer page of Oracle ADF Desktop Integration 12c Add-In for Excel wizard, click Install.

    Follow the instructions that appear in the dialog boxes to successfully install the required components. If you encounter an error during the installation process, an error message with a description appears, and installation is rolled back. For more details, check the adfdi-installer-log.txt error log file in the temp directory of the user profile.

  4. If prompted, click Yes to restart the system and complete the install of ADF Desktop Integration.
    It may also be necessary to open Microsoft Excel to accept additional prompts to allow the installation to complete.

Note the following points about installation:

  • You can also install ADF Desktop Integration by running adfdi-excel-addin-installer.exe available in the following directory:

    MW_HOME/oracle_common/modules/oracle.adf.desktopintegration

    Before you run the installer, remember that the ADF Desktop Integration add-in installer does not enable designer features by default. You must enable the designer features in the add-in to create and edit integrated Excel workbooks.

    In the ADF Desktop Integration Installer page of the wizard, click Developer Options, and then in the Developer Options page select the Enabled option, and click Install. If you do not select the Enabled option, the Oracle ADF tab shown in Figure 3-1 does not appear in Microsoft Excel.

    Figure 3-1 Oracle ADF Tab in Microsoft Excel

    Description of Figure 3-1 follows
    Description of "Figure 3-1 Oracle ADF Tab in Microsoft Excel"

  • Designer features are automatically enabled if you install ADF Desktop Integration from JDeveloper.

  • You can also install ADF Desktop Integration from the command line.

If you want to install ADF Desktop Integration for end users, see Installing, Upgrading, and Removing ADF Desktop Integration.

3.4 Removing ADF Desktop Integration

Use the Microsoft Windows Control Panel to remove the ADF Desktop Integration add-in from the system where you set it up. After removing ADF Desktop Integration, you can no longer use integrated Excel workbooks on this system unless you reinstall ADF Desktop Integration.

To remove the ADF Desktop Integration add-in:

  1. Click the Windows Start button, and then choose Control Panel.
  2. In the Control Panel, select and open Programs and Features.
  3. Select the Oracle ADF Desktop Integration 12c Add-in for Excel program and click Uninstall.

Note:

If you have installed ADF Desktop Integration on multiple user profiles, you must remove it from each user profile.

3.5 Upgrading ADF Desktop Integration

To upgrade to a new version, run the ADF Desktop Integration installer from the new version. It is not necessary to uninstall the old version first.

You can run the installer from:

Note:

  • If you are upgrading from a previous release, you may receive a message that says that ADF Desktop Integration was installed with an incompatible installer. In this case, you must uninstall the ADF Desktop Integration add-in prior to running the installer.

  • When you test your integrated Excel workbooks, ADF Desktop Integration may prompt you with a dialog to install a newer add-in version available from your test server. Although this dialog contains an option to skip, you, as a developer, should never skip the installation of the add-in version that the dialog proposes. It is important to keep the version of the add-in that the client uses synchronized with the ADF Desktop Integration servlet version.