ADF 11g: Be aware of the right run context

Used version: JDeveloper 11.1.1.2.0

Problem description

Last week I did a two days training on fusion development with Oracle ADF BC / Faces RC. Everything worked fine except the following:

While doing the “Part 2 Create a Simple User Interface” from the cue cards some of the attendees (and me too) had the effect that at runtime the control flow rule defined in the bounded task flow did not worked.

So what actually went wrong here at runtime? Why a click on the Edit Order-Button did not trigger the control flow rule? Instead of that you just stay on the browseOrders page.

Solution

After some time of investigation I recognized that I had started the application under the wrong context. To test the application I selected browseOrders.jspx in the application navigator and have chosen “Run” because normally I am using taskflows with page fragments. So in real world projects you typically won’t start the application from a bounded task flow.

But because in this example the taskflow is based on whole pages rather than page fragments, the application must be started from within the bounded taskflow. Otherwise the control flow rules won’t be working at runtime!

You can check the correct run context by examining the URL in the browser. In the wrong case the URL will be …/faces/browseOrders.jspx of course whereas running the app from taskflow the URL is …/faces/adf.task-flow?adf.tfId=orders-flow&adf.tfDoc=/WEB-INF/orders-flow.xml

Lesson learned

Don’t panic if control flow rules seem not work as expected. Check the following

• Which type of taskflow? (bounded /unbounded, with/without page fragment)
• Does the action attribut of the command component match the control flow outcome?
• How the application has been started?