Developing Ajax-Based User Interfaces With JSF - An Introduction to ADF Faces Rich Client Components

Developing Ajax-Based User Interfaces with JSF: An Introduction to ADF Faces

Rich Client Components

Purpose

In this tutorial, you learn how to create JSF pages using Oracle ADF Faces Rich Client (RC). Oracle ADF Faces Rich Client is a set ofstandard JSF components that include built-in Ajax functionality. While Ajax allows rich client-like applications to run on standardinternet technologies, JSF provides server-side control, which reduces the dependency on an abundance of JavaScript often found intypical Ajax applications.

Time to Complete

60 minutes

Topics

The tutorial covers the following topics:

Overview

Scenario

Prerequisites

Open the Startup Application

Create a Page Template

Create a Page Using the Page Template

ADF Table Component and ADF Binding

Test the Page

Work with Image and Graphic components

Implement Partial Page Rendering

Work with Menus

Add Pop up Functionality to the Page

Add Drag and Drop Functionality to the Page

Work with ADF Data Visualization Components

Use Skins to Change the Look and Feel of the Application

Summary

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Overview

This tutorial shows how to create ADF Rich Client JSF pages and exposes some easy to implement facilities such as Drag and Drop,Pop up and images.

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Scenario

Starting from an existing application, you create a page template and use it to build your page.

The page holds the content of a shopping cart on one side and displays the available products on the other side. An other panedisplays the product details. You implement a drag and drop functionality enabling you to fill your shopping cart by moving a selectedproduct in the shopping cart area. You also create Tabs and Accordions and add a pop up window.

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Prerequisites

Before starting the tutorial, you should:

1.Have access to or have installed Oracle JDeveloper 11g Version 11.1.1.2.0. You can download it from Oracle Technology

Use JDeveloper 11g ADF to build a JSF Faces Rich Client Application http://st-curriculum.oracle.com/obe/jdev/obe11jdev/ps1/adf_richclient/...

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Network.

2.Download the startup application. Right click the following link and choose Save Link As.. from context to download theTutorial.zip file on a local directory of your choice.

3.Unzip the Tutorial.zip file on a local directory of your choice.

4.Start JDeveloper by selecting Start > All Programs > Oracle Fusion Middleware 11.1.1.2.0 > JDeveloper Studio11.1.1.2.0

If the Migrate User Settings dialog box opens, click NO.

If prompted for a User Role, choose Default.

Close the Tip of the Day window.

5.The JDeveloper IDE should now be displayed.


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Opening the Startup Application

Before you create any component, you must first open the startup application. To do this, perform the following steps:

1. In the Application Navigator, click Open Application.

2. In the Select Application to add dialog, locate the folder where unzipped the application and select Tutorial.jws.


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Click Open. If prompted with a migration warning message, accept the migration operation.

3. The application is loaded up in the Application Navigator, showing the adffacesrc project.

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Creating a PageTemplate

In this section, you are going to create a page template that will be used for the pages of your application. To create the page templateperform the following steps:

1. In the Application Navigator, right click the adffacesrc project and select New from context.

2. In the New Gallery, in the Categories pane, select Web Tier | JSF, then select the JSF Page Template item.


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Click OK.

3. In the Create JSF Page Template, type simple for the Page Template Name.

In the Facet Definitions tab, click the Add button and type center as the Name.

Click the Attributes tab, click the Add button , then type title as the Name and Default Title as the Defaultvalue.

Click OK.

4. The simple.jspx template page opens up in the design editor.


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5. From the Component Palette, using the ADF Faces | Layout library, drop a Decorative Box onto the empty page.

Using the Property Inspector, in the Style and Theme tab, set the Theme property to light from the list.

6. Drag and drop a Panel Group Layout onto the top facet.

In the property inspector, set the Layout property to horizontal.


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7. In the Application Navigator, expand the Web Content | images nodes and drag and drop the brandingImage.gifnode onto the Panel Group Layout. In the context menu select ADF Faces Image.

8. From the ADF Faces | Layout, drop a Spacer next to the image.

Set the Width property to 100.

9. From the ADF Faces | Common Components, drop an Output Text under the spacer component.


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In the Value field, choose Expression Builder from the drop down list.

In the Expression Builder, clear out the existing expression and select JSP Objects | attrs | title.

Click OK.

10. From the Component Palette, drag and drop a Facet Ref onto the center facet.


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In the Insert Facet Ref dialog, select center as the facet name.

Click OK.

11. The structure and the design of the template page should now look like this:

12.Click Save All icon on the JDeveloper menu bar, or select File | Save All from the menu to save the diagram.

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To create a page that uses the template previously created, you'll see how to:

Design the Basic Layout for the Page

Customize the Page Title


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Designing the Basic Layout for the Page

To create the basic layout for the page, perform the following steps:

1. Right click the adffaces project and select New from context.

2. In the New Gallery, in the categories pane, select Web Tier | JSF. Select JSF Page as the item.

Click OK.

3. In the Create JSF Page dialog, leave the file name to the untitled1.jspx default value and ensure the Create as XMLDocument (*.jspx) check box is selected. Select simple from the drop-down list for the Use Page Template field.


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Click OK.

4. The untitled1.jspx appears as a new node in the Application Navigator and it opens up in the Design editor using thesimple.jspx template.

5. From the component palette, using the ADF Faces | Layout library, drag and drop a Panel Splitter component onto thecenter facet.


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6. Drag and drop another Panel Splitter component onto the 'second' facet of the panel splitter.

In the Structure pane, expand the panelSplitter component and select the showDetailItem one. Using the property inspector,set the Orientation to vertical.

7. Drag and drop a Panel Accordion component onto the 'first' facet on the left hand side of the panel splitter.


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In the Structure pane, select the showDetailItem component and using the property inspector, set the Text to My Cart.

8. Click within the accordion you just created, then right-click and from context select Insert after Show Detail Item --> ShowDetail Item.

For the show detail item that you just added, using the Common tab of the Property Inspector, change the Text field to MoreInfo.

9. Drag and drop a Panel Collection component onto the right hand side 'first' facet.


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10.Drag and drop a Panel Tabbed component onto the right hand side 'second' facet.

In the Structure pane, select the af:showDetailItem component you just created and In the Property Inspector, enter ProductDetails in the Text field.

11.Right click the Product Details tab and select Insert After Show Detail Item | Show Detail Item from context.

In the Structure pane, select the af:showDetailItem component you just created and In the Property Inspector, enter Rating inthe Text field.


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12.The page should look like this:

13.Click Save All icon on the JDeveloper menu bar, or select File | Save All from the menu to save the diagram.

14.Right click within the page design editor and select Run from context to load the page in your default browser.


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15.The page loads up in your browser.

16.Try to move the Panel borders and experiment working with the tabs.


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17.Try the accordion by clicking the More Info plus sign (located at the bottom of the page).

18.Leave the browser window open and switch back to JDeveloper.

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Customizing the Page Title

In the following steps, you customize the page title component defined in the page template.

1. Back in JDeveloper, click the simple.jspx tab to open the page template in the design editor.


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2. In the page design, select the title component.

3. In the Property Inspector, expand the Style node, and using the Text tab, in the Color field click the color drop downlist and select the color of your choice (Aqua in our example).

In the Size field, select large from the drop down list.

4.Click Save All icon on the JDeveloper menu bar, or select File | Save All from the menu.

5. Switch back to your browser window where your application is running and click the Reload/Refresh button.

Note that after saving your JDeveloper application, refreshing your browser window reflects the new changes madeto your application as long as you haven't updated any binding component. In that case you will need to reRun thepage from JDeveloper in order to have the changes reflected in your browser.

6. The page refreshes with the new generic title characteristics.


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7. Leave the browser window open and switch back to JDeveloper.

8. Open the untitled1 page in the design editor.

9. In the Structure pane, select the pageTemplate tag and in the Property Inspector, set the title property to StoreFront.


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11. Switch back to your browser window where your application is running and click the Reload/Refresh button.

12. The page refreshes with the new title characteristics.

13. Close the browser window open and switch back to JDeveloper.

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ADF Table Component and ADF Binding

To create a data control and bind it to an ADF table component, perform the following steps:

1. From an existing POJO Class, we now create the data control using the ADF Data Binding facility.In the Application Navigator, expand the Application Sources node and right-click StoreProducts.java in the Application Sources |tutorial.model path and select Create Data Control from context.


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The Application Navigator should look like this:

2. In the Application Navigator, open the Data Controls accordion and expand the StoreProducts node. The Data Controls pane shouldlook like this:


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3. Drag and drop the StoreProducts | products data control onto the af:panelCollection in the design editor of the untitled1 page. Fromthe pop up menu, select Tables --> ADF Read-only Table...

4. From the Edit Table Columns dialog, select Row Selection and Sorting options.

Click OK.

5. With the table selected in the Structure pane, on the Behavior tab of the Property Inspector, set the Column Selection property tosingle from the drop-down list.


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6. For the Table component, in the Property Inspector type edit to look for a property containing this word.

If necessary, use the Down Arrow icon until you locate the EditingMode property, then select clickToEdit from the drop down list.

7. From the Data Controls pane, drag and drop products onto the Product Details component.

8. From the menu, select Form --> ADF Form


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In the dialog, select the Include Submit Button checkbox.

Click OK.

9. Your page should now look like this:


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11.Right click in the page and select Run from context.

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Testing the Page

To test the page, perform the following steps:

1.Once loaded in your default web browser, the page displays, showing the existing products data.

2.Select one of the column header to move the column to another location.


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3.Experiment column resizing on the Description column.

With the Description column selected, click the Wrap menu option.

Notice that multiple word fields are now displayed on more than one line.

Click the Wrap button again to revert to the previous layout.

4.Selecting the name column, click the Freeze menu option


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then use the horizontal scroll bar again to visualize the right most located columns.

Notice that the name column remains visible.

5.Click the Detach menu option to isolate the content of the panel in the browser.

Click the Detach button again to go back to the previous layout.


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7.Explore the Menu options for View, allowing you to hide some of the columns (description for example).

8.Sort by ascending and descending order on product name or category by clicking on the column header. The arrows may only appearwhen you move your cursor over the column heading.

9.You can also explore the Menu options for Format, allowing you to resize columns.

Close your browser window.

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Working with Image and Graphic components

You can display images and graphical representation of your products in the JSF pages. These images are provided as part of thestartup application. To enhance your JSF page with images, perform the following steps:

1. Back to JDeveloper, in the Product Details pane, right click the cost field and select Convert To from context.


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In the Convert dialog, select Input Number Spinbox.

Click OK. Click OK on the Confirm Convert dialog.

2. Notice that the image column is set to a text type of value. To be able to display an image, you need to convert thestructure of the column. In the Product Details pane, right click the image field and select Convert To from context.

In the Convert dialog, select Image.


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3. For the new image field created, next to the source field, select Expression Builder from the drop down list.

4. In the Expression Builder dialog, select ADF Bindings | bindings | image | inputValue.


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Click OK.

5. In the Structure pane underneath the image component, delete the validator component to remove the errorappearing on the design of the page.

6. In the Product Details pane, right click the rating field and select Convert To from context.

In the Convert dialog, select Input Number Slider.


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7. In the Product Details pane, right click the description field and select Convert To from context.

In the Convert dialog, select Rich Text Editor.



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8. In the Structure pane underneath the richTextEditor component, delete the validator component to remove theerror appearing on the design of the page.

9. The Product Details pane should look like this:


11. Switch back to the Browser window and reload the page.


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12. Experiment moving the Rating slider.

13. Try changing the cost using the number spinbox.


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14. Experiment entering a wrong date value for the manufactured date field.

Reenter a valid date using the pop up calendar.

15. Try the Rich Text editor, select a word in the description text field.

Click the arrow next to the color box and select a color from the palette.


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Increase the size of the selected text.

16. Move on the Product table and double click on any of the rows.

Notice that the Product Details pane doesn't reflect the change of product you've made. To implement thissynchronization, we need to add a Partial Page Rendering functionality.

17. Switch back to JDeveloper.

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Implementing Partial Page Rendering


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In order to have a refresh of the Product Details when you select another row in the Product table, we need to set the PartialRendering behavior. To implement this function, perform the following steps:

1. Back to JDeveloper, in the Structure pane, select the panelFormLayout within the Product Details component.

2. Using the Property Inspector, in the Behavior tab, using the down arrow next to the Partial Trigger field and selectEdit.

3. In the Edit Property dialog, expand the panelCollection component, and using the right arrow button, shuttle table* -t1 in the Selected pane.


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Click OK.


5. Switch back to the browser window and reload the page.


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6. Select another row in the table to change the product details.

You can see that Product Details are now synchronized with the selected row.

7. Leave your browser window open and return to JDeveloper.

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Working with Menus

To implement menu functionality on your page, perform the following steps:

1. Back into JDeveloper, in the second panel, right-click within the menu component facet and from context, select Insert insideFacets menus --> Menu

2. Using the Property Inspector, set the Text fields to My Options.


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In the Behavior tab, set the Detachable property to true.

3. Right click the Menu and select Insert inside Menu --> Menu Item from context.

In the Property Inspector, type Export to Excel in the Text field.

4. In the Structure Window, right-click the af:commandMenuItem component and select Insert after af:commandMenuItem -Export to Excel --> Menu Item from context.

In the Property Inspector, type Show Specials in the Text field.


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5. From the Component Palette, from the ADF Faces | Operations library, select Export Collection Action Listener componentand drop it under the Export to Excel menu item in the Structure pane.

In the Insert Export Collection dialog, type t1 as the ExportedId and select excelHTML for the Type.

Click OK.


7. Switch back to your browser window and reload the page.


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8. Click My Options menu option.

Notice that you can detach the menu options from the menu bar.

9. Select the Export to Excel option.

10.Your browser may prevent you from downloading files, accept to download. A dialog prompts you for an action to perform with thefile, allowing you to open it with Excel or save it.


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Click Cancel. Leave the browser window open and switch back to JDeveloper.

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Adding Pop up Functionality to the Page

Now you want to create a pop up window that enhance the properties of a specific product. To create this Pop up functionality, performthe following steps:

1. In the Structure pane, select the form component. In the Component Palette, in the Common Components library, selectthe Popup one and drop it onto the form one.

2. Right click the popup component and select Insert inside Popup --> Dialog from context.


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3. From the Component Palette, select the Image component and drop it within the Dialog.

In the Insert Image dialog, from the drop down list, select the JDeveloper.gif image as the source.

Click OK.

4. Click outside the image to get rid of the dialog.


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5. From the Component Palette, from the Operations library, select the Show Popup Behavior component and drop it ontothe second commandMenuItem.

6. In the Property Inspector, for the PopupId field, select Edit from the drop down list.

In the Edit Property dialog, select the popup component, and press Enter.


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Click OK.


8. Switch back to your browser window and reload the page.

9. Click My Options menu option, and select Show Specials.


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10.The Dialog pops up the JDeveloper image.

Click Cancel. Leave the browser window open and switch back to JDeveloper.

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Adding Drag and Drop Functionality to the Page

Now we want to create a drag and drop between Product Details and the shopping cart allowing you to fill the cart from the ProductDetails using a simple drag and drop operation. To realize this drag and drop, perform the following steps:

1.Back in JDeveloper, select the OutputText component and drop it onto the My Cart pane.

In the Property Inspector type No Item Selected as the Value for the Output Text.

2. In the Component Palette, from the ADF Faces | Operations library, select the Attribute Drag Source component and dropit onto the name field of the Product Details pane.


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In the Insert Attribute Drag Source dialog, select value from the drop down list.

Click OK.

3.From the Component Palette ADF Faces | Operations, drag and drop an Attribute Drop Target component onto the NoItem Selected text field.

4. In the Insert Attribute Drop Target dialog, select value in the Attribute field.

Click OK.



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6.Switch back to your browser window and reload the page, then select an item in the table to display the correspondingProduct Details.

7. In the Product Details pane, select the name field

and drag and drop it onto My Cart.

8.The product is added to the cart.

9.Don't close your browser window, and switch back to JDeveloper.

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Working ADF Data Visualization Components

Now you want to create a gauge representation of the rating value. To create the gauge component, perform the following steps:

1. Back into JDeveloper, click the Rating tab.


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2. In the Component Palette, from the ADF Data Visualization | Gauge library, drag and drop the Gauge component onto theRating pane.

3. In the Create Gauge dialog, select the Dial category, then Dial with Thresholds as the gauge type and finally pick up the leftmost quick start layout proposal.


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Click OK.

4. The new gauge appears in the rating pane.

5. In the Property Inspector, for the Value field, select Expression Builder from the drop down list.


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6. In the Expression Builder dialog, select ADF Bindings | bindings | rating | inputValue as the Expression.

Click OK.

7. In the Structure pane, select the gauge component and in the property Inspector, set the Gauge Data | Max Value field to 10.

Click OK.

8. In the Structure pane, expand the gauge | thresholdSet component.


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9. In the Structure pane, select the first threshold and in the Property Inspector, for the FillColor select Edit from the drop down list.

In the Edit Property dialog, select a 'reddish' color from the palette and click OK.

Enter 4 as the ThresholdMaxValue.

10. In the Structure pane, select the second threshold and repeat the last step with a 'yellowish' color for the FillColor field and aThresholdMaxValue set to 7.


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11. In the Structure pane, select the third threshold and repeat the last step with a 'greenish' color for the FillColor field and aThresholdMaxValue set to 10.

12.The Rating pane should look like this:

13.Right click within the page and select Run from context.

14.The page loads up in the browser. Notice the rating value.


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Then click the Rating tab.

15.The gauge displays the current rating value.

16.Click the Product Details tab and move the slider to change the rating value.

17.Click the Rating tab to see the change reflected in the gauge.


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18.Don't close the browser window and switch back to JDeveloper.

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Using Skins to change the Look and Feel of the Application

Finally in this section you see how to change the Look and Feel of the whole application using a parameterized css file. To implementthis functionality, perform the following steps:

1. In the Application Navigator, expand the Web Content | WEB-INF node and double-click the trinidad-config.xml file to open the filein the editor.

2.The file contains a parameter enabling you to use a different css file.

3. In the Application Navigation, notice that there is a princess.css file in the skins | princess folder.


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4. In the browser window, remove the last part of the URL (after the untitled1.jspx page name).

5.Append the following string ?skin=princess at the end of the URL and press Enter.

6.Notice the changes in the look and feel of the pages.

7.Colors, Tabs and Accordions are now using the princess css.


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Experiment the new look of the page.

Close your browser window. You have now successfully performed this OBE.

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Summary

In this tutorial, you've seen how to create ADF Rich Client JSF Pages and use some advanced features like:

Create a Page Template


Use ADF Table Component and ADF Binding

Work with Image and Graphic components

Implement Partial Page Rendering

Work with Menus

Add Pop up Functionality to the Page

Add Drag and Drop Functionality to the Page

Work with ADF Data Visualization Components

Use Skins to Change the Look and Feel of the Application

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Place the cursor over this icon to hide all screenshots.


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Developing Ajax-Based User Interfaces With JSF - An Introduction to ADF Faces Rich Client Components

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