#ofmForum 2015 in Budapest has rocked!

Last week I attended the Oracle Fusion Middleware Partner Community Forum 2015 in Budapest. Over 150 participants from Europe, US and even Latin America (Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela) joined the great event where various Oracle Product Managers and Oracle Partners exchanged their experiences with the community. Jürgen Kress  - well known from his soacommunity & weblogiccommunity blogs - and his team hosted a great event at a great location! Thanks a lot!

The Digital Transformation is just starting

We got an update about Oracles overall cloud & mobile strategy that drives the digital transformation. Nowadays there is a huge demand on business agility due to disruptive technologies and market shifts.

Oracles answer to these requirements are the upcoming Cloud Services

• Integration Cloud Service (ICS)
• Process Cloud Service (PCS)
• Mobile Cloud Service (MCS)

and SaaS solutions running on Oracles PaaS (Database Cloud Service, Java Cloud Service). The main focus for the upcoming releases for  Oracle SOA/BPM/ACM 12c is on stability & improvements.

The nice thing about the ofmForum is that there wasn't just slides but on the most products real working demos. On day 2 there were 3 parallel tracks dedicated for SOA, BPM/ACM and WebLogic&Mobile. The experts gave demos on API Catalog, API Manager, StreamExplorer, Event Processing, Mobile Alta UI & OSB Integration for SOAP to REST transformations, MAF, ICS, PCS, MCS and the Java Cloud Service (JCS) plus Developer Cloud Service.  Really a lot of new acronyms to learn ;)

Day 3/4 was dedicated to 4 parallel Workshops with a lot of hands-on sessions. (SOA, BPM/ACM, Mobile Application Framework (MAF), Multichannel Enablement). I attended the Multichannel workshop. Based on an existing  SOAP-Webservice we used OSB 12c to transform it (without coding) to a REST JSON based service. On top of that we built a mobile app with MAF. In the end I had a running MAF application on my real iOS device.

Networking & Get-together

Besides the cool and new technologies there were a lot of chances to network and get in touch with Oracle Product Managers and Partners. I enjoyed it a lot meeting persons I only knew from twitter or blogs. Thanks for all the great conversations! Further, Budapest is an amazing city! Good food, wine & bars and historical locations. Thanks Jürgen and Oracle for the nice dinner in the spoon restaurant. And if you are in Budapest check out the Simpla Kertmozi, a pretty cool "ruin bar":)

I am really looking forward for the next OFM Forum 2016. Which location will be next?

Further information

See more cool pictures of the event in the twitter stream #ofmForum

Oracle ACE Director Confirmation and Fusion Middleware Forum 2015 in Budapest

I am happy to say having been nominated as Oracle ACE Director and being accepted lately. Big thanks to the ACE Program and everyone who was involved and made this happen.  I feel really honoured! It motivates me to participate and contribute more with the community.

It is challenging doing the daily business, taking time for conferences, writing blog posts, sharing Oracle FMW Content through social media channels, enjoying free time with family, etc.  Anyway whenever time permits I will try to continue with content contribution for Oracle ADF,  WebCenter, WebLogic, Cloud Services, MAF! Hope you enjoyed my existing posts so far and will enjoy it in future :) @oracleace thanks for the nice welcome gifts!


Find my ACE Profile page here.

Oracle Fusion Middleware Forum 2015

This year I am going to attend the annual OFM Forum in Budapest with lots of great presentations and Hands-On. It is organized by the SOA Community (led by Jürgen Kress). I am looking forward to meet with the community and see what Oracle plans for the upcoming FMW & Cloud Services.

SOA Suite 12c & Integration Cloud Service
BPM Suite 12c & Process Cloud Service
Mobile & Development tools & Mobile Cloud Service
WebLogic 12c & Java Cloud & Developer Cloud Service


There are 6 days left to register ;)
March 3-4, 2015, 10:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Check out the Agenda and Registration!

More Information

• Oracle ACE Program
• Oracle Fusion Middleware Forum 2015

ADF 12c Deck component Overview & Programmer examples

This year the german ADF Community resumed with "ADF Spotlight" - a series of 30 min Webcasts. It was my turn to give use cases and a programmers overview for the ADF 12c deck component. Since I like to share with the international community I made an english version of the few slides.
 

ADF Spotlight: ADF 12c Deck component overview and progammer examples from Andreas Koop

Download Sample: enpit.sample.adf1213.deck-jdev1213-v2.zip (It contains the use case for Image -> Detail and Slideshow)

Further information

• ADF 12.1.4 Deck TagLibrary Documentation
• ADF Deck in a grid (WorkBetter Sample)

Create RESTful Services and deploy to Oracle Java Cloud Service with Netbeans

In preparation to one of my DOAG 2014 talks „Java WebApps and Services in Oracle Cloud" I created a new trial account for Oracle Java Cloud Service (http://cloud.oracle.com) two weeks ago. Now was the time to create a RESTful Service and deploy it to the cloud and make it accessible to public. 

Last time I tried the Oracle Cloud I used exclusively JDeveloper, this time I made my experience with Netbeans. From my point of view Netbeans has pretty good support for generating RESTService from Database tables. In a couple of minutes it is possible to create CRUD Operations and make it accesible by a REST endpoint. No matter what content type you prefer, by using JAXB XML and JSON content types are both automatically available.

Prerequites

Step 1: Create an Oracle Java Cloud Service trial account (fee less for 30 days)

Step 2: Download and install Netbeans Version 8.01 (http://www.netbeans.org)

Step 3: Make sure to install the Oracle Cloud plugin (1.5)  in Netbeans

Step 4: Download and Install (just unpack) Oracle Java Cloud  Service - Saas Extension SDK (release 14.1.12.0 Find it here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/weblogic/downloads/java-cloud-sdk-1848874.html)

Step 5: Next add your Oracle Cloud account as Cloud Provider to Netbeans (Goto „Services" Tab and provide your cloud account details)

Step 6: Add a WebLogic Service Instance under ‚Services Tab', so you are able to test the RESTService locally prior to deploying to Oracle Cloud. (I am not going into detail in this post for that task)

Step 7: Make sure to deploy your DB Schema objects plus data into Oracle Database Cloud Service (when subscribing to Java Cloud Service you will get the DB Service as well). See in my previous posts for more details.

HowTo develop RESTService with Netbeans

Everything is setup for cloud deployment. Now let's create a simple REST-Service on top of the HR  DB Tables EMPLOYEES and DEPARTMENTS.

Step 1: Start Netbeans, Create new Project Wizard from Type „Maven / Web Application"

Step 2: Enter your desired groupId, ArtefactId etc.

Step 3: Choose Oracle WebLogic as ‚Server' and Java EE Version 5.

Click Finish.

Step 3: Start „RESTFul Services from Database" Wizard

Step 4: Make a connection to your local database and select the desired Tables.

Step 5: Review and adapt Package-Settings if desired

Next:

Confirm your input and let Netbeans generate the source code. If you like you can make some adjustments to the generated code. Typically I would change the REST resource path. (in my sample: to „employees")

Step 6: In order beeing deployable to Oracle Cloud we need to make further some adjustments. That

is

Adjustment 1: web.xml

(1) We need to change the servlet class from org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer to com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer because the prior class is not available on the cloud server. (2) Further add an <login-config /> if you want to make the Service publicly (without authentication) available.

Adjustment 2: weblogic.xml

Add a library reference to jax-rs 1.1

Adjustment 3: persistence.xml

Configure your Cloud DB Service name as JNDI Data Source

Deploy RESTService to the cloud

Step 1: Open Project Properties, Choose ‚Oracle Cloud Remote" Server Type, Java EE Version 5

Step 2: Execute ‚Run'

The cloud deployment will start...

The WAR file will be virus scanned...

And Finally deployed to the cloud.

Test the cloud RESTService

Here is my REST Service url for departments https://jcssaasextensitrial9655-deenpitconsultrial83769.java.us2.oraclecloudapps.com/HRRestService/webresources/departments

If using Chrome install the Postman extension to test the Service. e.g. to test different content types. JSON, XML

….

Administer Oracle Java Cloud Service from within Netbeans

Right under the Service Tab your able to Open the Apps, Start, Stop or Undeploy.

To view the Job Status and Logs open the corresponding view from the Oracle Cloud entry.

Troubleshooting

If something goes wrong open the Cloud Job View and Logs Tab to check the details, e.g. if a deployment fails. (1) ClassNotFound Exception

Solution in that particular case is: Use com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer instead of org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer.

(2) java.lang.AbstractMethodError: javax.ws.rs.core.UriBuilder.uri(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljavax/ws/rs/core/UriBuilder

Solution: Somehow the generated POM had a fixed reference to JAX-RS Library which is provided from the cloud server. So I changed that dependency

Conclusion

- Having everything setup (Cloud SDK, local WebLogic Servece, DB Objects in the Cloud Service) it is quite easy to build and deploy RESTful services.

- Why is the SDK not bundled with the Netbeans Oracle Cloud Plugin?
- I wish there would be that kind of wizard (RESTful Services from Database) for JDeveloper ;)

Download Sample: enpit.training.cloud.hrservice-netbeans801.zip

Further Information

- http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/tutorials/obe/java/JCS-JAXRS/jcs_jaxrs.html (Tutorial)

- See also: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/enterprise-cloud-2227135.html (Build with NetBeans IDE, Deploy to Oracle Java Cloud Service)

Annotation Driven Bean and EJB DataControls in ADF 12c

So as the trend of using annotations over XML configurations goes on and on in software development there is no exception to  ADF. Many developers asked for more annotations to configure metadata on Bean DataControls. Since ADF 12c finally there is support for annotations on Bean and EJB DataControls. Let's have a look on it.

Sample POJO DataModel

In my sample I am using a simple Data Model that I want to expose as Bean DataControl to check the new annotation features. We use simple POJOs „Person and a PersonService". See next figure

Next we want to see some of the annotation features in action.

Primary Key Definition

In order to make your DataModel functioning correctly in most cases you should define a primary key. You can do this now with the @Id-Annotation: (No need to generate an XML file for these kind of metadata)

(If using JPA-based entity classes make sure to use the javax.persistence.Id annotation)

Setting UI Hints

To set specific UI Hints like label, tooltip, display, width, height, autoSubmit, controlType, formatType, format, timezoneId, etc. you can leverage the @AttributeHint, @DateFormatter and @Formatter Annotations. Further it is possible to define custom properties through @Property annotations

See the whole feature list for UI Hints here: http://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1213/adf/develop-data-controls/data-controls-ejb.htm#ADFDC996

Note a: If you set UI hints for an attribute both using annotations and in an XML data control structure file, the settings in the data control structure file take precedence. 

Note b: When you apply annotations for UI hints, you can not see the affect of the hints in the design-time view of pages that you create based on the data controls. However, you can test and verify the hints using the ADF Model Tester. 

BTW: Everything looks easy so far, but: The most challenging part for me was to recognize that these annotations only work on METHOD level and not on FIELD level although there are no compile errors! It felt natural for me to put these annotations on fields, but believe me, it won't have any effect in ADF 12.1.3. So remember

Interesting to note: The @Id Annotation works also on FIELD level!

Testing the result
Running the sample we see that the annotation driven meta data is recognized correctly. It has been applied to Table Column Headers and Form Labels, Formatters and Input-Types.

Setting AccessMode for Collections

For collections you can define the AccessMode (Scroll, Range-Paging or None).

For SCROLLABLE or RANGE_PAGING Mode to work correctly you need to implement the following method signatures (for every collection) 

List<Person> getPersons(int firstResult, int maxResults)

long getPersonsSize() 

Note: These annotations only work on getter methods.

Testing Metadata Using the Oracle ADF Model Tester 

For EJB and Bean Data Controls you can go to the DataControls.dcx file select the given DataControl and exceute „Run" from the context menu.

=> This is pretty cool. As your deployment roundtrips can be reduced ;)

Gotchas

First everything looks promising. But if you try to do some real world developer roundtrips some gotchas appear. Commenting some annotation out, testing changes etc you notice that some information are not refreshing properly inside JDeveloper. So, e.g.

Step 1: Change primary key definition

Step 2: Open DataControls.dcx

=> The change is recognized correctly by the DataControls Editor.

Step 3: Go to the  structure definition file (Person.xml)

=> The old attribute is still displayed as primary key! Expected: firstname, because of the recent changes. Hhhm. Is this a bug? It could lead to frustration and unexpected behaviour. Workaround is to close the JDeveloper application and open it again. Looks like a caching/synchronization failure.

Conclusion

The support for annotations is getting better in ADF. Besides some caching problems at design time views there is missing support for Validation. As JSR 303 (Bean Validation) is Java industry standard and widely adopted it would be cool to see ADF moving in that direction too! At this time Validations on POJO DataModel must be done in the DataControl structure files per entity. Due to the "sparse bean nature" the XML file only for the given entities needs to be generated.

Download

Sample application build with JDeveloper 12.1.3: enpit.sample.dc.annotations-jdev1213.zip

Further information

• Oracle ADF 12.1.3 Documentation: 4.8 Using Annotations to Declare Metadata for Bean Data Controls
• Oracle ADF 12.1.3 Developing Applications with Oracle ADF Data Controls
• See also my sample for Model-Driven LOVs in ADF 12.1.2

Using FlexSlider as Declarative Component in ADF

In the www there are a lot of cool photo slideshow components which one might want to use in ADF applications too. For example the FlexSlider.

Technically it should be easy to be integrated, e.g. like
..
<flexslider:FlexSlider animation="fade“ id=" fs1="" imagelist="#{someBean.imageList}" />
..

Environment

The following sample is based on ADF 11.1.1.7

How to do it

Well - in theory - it is quite simple. Take a look at the plain JavaScript/HTML Sample from http://www.woothemes.com/flexslider/ and put all necessary files in your component project which will be bundled as ADF Library for reuse. However based on your use cases (integrate inside a fragment based taskflow) there will be some challenges.
- How to deal with more then one instance on one page
- How to hook the javascript, which typically hooks into the onload javascript phase

        $(window).load(function() {
          $('.flexslider').flexslider({
            animation: "fade" /* or "slide" */
          });
        });


So here is my solution.
Step 1: Setup an ADF component project und copy all relevant files from the FlexSlider

Step 2: Next create the declarative component FlexSlider.jspx (by using the JDeveloper wizard, generate the component class and TagLibrary). The important part is to generate a unique id for the slider DIV and to make sure to call the needed javascript method to setup the slideshow. The FlexSlider.jspx looks as follows

and for the FlexSlider.java define the following methods

To make the Javascript call we use a known trick to bind the Call to a getter on an af:outputText with visible=„false“.

How to use it

Define a simple bean (or could also be a DataControl) that serves a List of Images

Drop the declarative component „FlexSlider“ from the component palette onto the given page and bind the given list via EL

As result you will get a reusable UI component to integrate slideshows into ADF applications.

Gotchas

The font resources like ttf, eot, woff, svg (that are referenced from the flexslider.css and are being used as the previous/next font-icons) are not served as expected from the ADF Library which holds the custom component. For now the workaround is to copy these resource into your master viewcontroller project. This way you make sure that all resources are loaded.

See ADF EMG Issue https://java.net/jira/browse/ADFEMG-244 for the current progress.

Download

enpit.sample.flexslider-jdev11117.zip