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Real World ADF Design & Architecture Principles ADF Task Flow Overview

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15th Feb 2013 v1.0

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Learning Objectives

•  At the end of this module you should be able to:

– Understand the difference between page oriented and task flow oriented development

– Explain the benefits ADF task flows provide – Understand bounded task flow metadata files and properties

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Program Agenda

•  Characteristics and Benefits of Task Flows •  Service Oriented Development •  Task Flow Design Fundamentals

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ADF Task Flow - Key Benefits

•  Partitions and modularizes large business applications •  Visual task flow diagrams

–  Provide a shared language between developers and domain experts

•  Reusable application flows published via ADF Libraries •  Can have isolated transactions •  Can be used as "remote services with a UI" •  Supports traditional web navigation model and rich internet

navigation models •  Support for nested control flows

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ADF Task Flow - Key Benefits

•  On-board security –  ADF Security –  Bounded task flow browser access protection

•  Additional memory scopes –  Avoid memory attribute name conflicts –  Avoid memory bloating

•  Improved and declarative exception handling •  Load on demand •  Static and dynamic configuration

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Secret of Oracle ADF Rockstar Programmers

"Develop User Interface Services – Not Pages"

Steven Davelaar, "Building Highly Reusable Task Flows" http://www.slideshare.net/stevendavelaar/reusable-taskflows

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Program Agenda

•  Characteristics and Benefits of Task Flows •  Service Oriented Development •  Task Flow Design Fundamentals

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Analogy Service Orientation

“When building distributed solution logic, design approaches revolve around a software engineering theory known as the separation of concerns. In a nutshell, this theory states that a larger problem is more effectively solved when decomposed into a set of smaller problems or concerns."

Thomas Erl, "SOA: Principles of Service Design"

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Service Oriented Development

•  SOA uses the concept of services –  Predominately about services and information flow –  Fine grained services are consumed by larger composite

•  Service Oriented Development –  Web based analogy to SOA –  Suits ADF development –  About web tasks/processes and how they’re chained –  Fine grained task flows are consumed by larger apps –  Aligns with the UX concepts of task driven design

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Hands up, are task flows services?

Exercise

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Task Flow Oriented Architecture (TOA)

•  Think task flow from design time on – Create a task flow portfolio plan

•  Inventory of existing task flows • Requirement for new task flows

•  Ensure objectives and requirements reflect task flow benefits – Reuse, loose-coupling

•  Use parent task flows to orchestrate child flows •  Identify patterns and standardize on them

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•  Knowing about SOA and service principles is a valuable starting point for developing Task Flow best practices

•  Task Flows prepare applications for change •  Task Flows implement business use cases or parts of •  Task Flows separate process flows from business logic

•  There is no fixed sizing recommendation: Sky is the limit and common sense a good judge

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Program Agenda

•  Characteristics and Benefits of Task Flows •  Service Oriented Development •  Task Flow Design Fundamentals

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Java Server Faces and MVC Responsibility of the Controller

request

response View Model

Controller

Faces Servlet

faces-config.xml

component events

Component Model

Converter, Validator, Renderer

JSF document

Business Objects (Managed Beans)

Phase Events

Component event Listener and action handlers

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ADF with ADF Controller and MVC Responsibility of the Controller

request

response View Model

Controller

Faces Servlet

adfc-config.xml

component events

ADF Binding

Converter, Validator, Renderer

JSF document

Data Control (Business Service)

Phase Events

Component event Listener and action handlers

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Bounded Task Flow

•  XML defined in View Controller project

•  Located in WEB-INF directory or (better) sub-folder(s) therein

•  XML –  Defines task flow behavior like transaction

management and Data Control sharing –  Defines activities

•  Activities reference views, methods, operations, task flows, switcher statements

–  Defines managed beans used in task flow –  May reference task flow template

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Bounded Task Flow Diagram

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Bounded Task Flow Properties

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Properties

Property Description Default Activity Activity that is invoked first when a bounded task flow is called.

Exception Handler Activity that is called by the framework in case of an exception

Initializer Invokes managed bean method upon task flow initialization before any activity is executed.

Finalizer Invokes managed bean method upon task flow exit using return activity.

URL Invoke Bounded task flows using JSPX documents may be called directly from a browser URL. This property defines which task flow is browser accessible and which task flow can only be accessed from within an ADF application.

Managed Beans Managed bean definitions for use within the bounded task flow.

Input Parameter Definitions API contract between the bounded task flow and the calling task flow or view.

Commonly Used in Bounded Task Flows

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Properties

Property Description Return Value Definitions API contract between bounded task flow calling task flow. Requires task flows

called via task flow call activity

Train Defines whether or not the bounded task flow exposes a train model for navigation

Critical If save point feature is used, critical ensures a save point is taken when the task flow is left for the application to recover to this state

Transaction Defines the transaction setting for the bounded task flow and whether the data control is shared or not (isolated). Also defines if an implicit save point is taken when navigating into a bounded task flow that does not run in its own transaction

Commonly Used in Bounded Task Flows

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Task Flow Communication

•  Input Parameter

•  Return values

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Exception Handling

•  Exceptions can be mapped to an activity •  Called when exceptions are thrown

–  Not a “normal” part of a flow

<exception-handler>unexpectedErrorPage</exception-handler>

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About ADF Regions

•  Display task flows in independent areas of a page or a page fragment

•  Executes a task flow without requiring the parent view to refresh •  Key enabler of enterprise Web 2.0 development with the Oracle

Fusion development platform •  Allows building desktop like web user interfaces that unveil the real

power of Ajax •  Basis of UI Shell layout pattern

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Use it Inside Another View

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How-to create an ADF Region •  Drag bounded task flow to visual page editor

–  Task flow must use page fragments

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Conclusion

•  Think task flow oriented architecture when building ADF applications

•  Bounded task flow and region is the most common pattern used when designing ADF applications

•  Bounded task flows can be deployed and reused as ADF libraries

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Further Reading

•  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/jdev/documentation/index.html –  Oracle JDeveloper and ADF Documentation Library –  Fusion Developer Guide

•  Part III Creating ADF Task Flows –  Getting Started with ADF Task Flows –  Working with Task Flow Activities –  Using Parameters in Task Flows

•  Task Flow Design Fundamentals –  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/jdev/adf-task-flow-

design-132904.pdf

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