Generic BigDecimal Formatter in ADF 12.2.1.1

I have implemented couple of improvements for BigDecimal formatter based on ADF 12.2.1.1. Originally formatter was implemented and described in this post - Handling Format for BigDecimal Numbers in ADF BC. New improvements: option to support trailing zeros and disabling number rounding.

1. Support for trailing zeros

If you type number 3000.10, BigDecimal type attribute will keep it as 3000.10. But in database it will be saved without trailing zero as 3000.1. This would lead to "Another user has changed the row" issue, as there will be mismatch between value in DB and value in ADF BC.

Try to enter 3000.10:

Save, change any other field and try to save again. You will get error:

Double check in DB, value is saved without trailing zero. Thats the reason for the error, data mismatch:

Solution is to parse entered value into BigDecimal without trailing zeros in generic formatter class:

2. Disabling number rounding

By default when you type 2500.209 (and if only 2 digits after dot are allowed):

This will be rounded to 2500.21:

While rounding can be useful, most of the time it will be confusing. There is a way to disable rounding by removing af:convertNumber tag for UI component. Formatting still will be applied through generic formatter class:

If user enters incorrect number, instead of rounding it - formatting error message will be displayed:

Download sample application - ADFFormattingApp_12211.zip.

Oracle JET Hybrid Receiving Mobile Cloud Service Notification

Oracle JET Hybrid enabled with Cordova Push plugin can receive notifications sent from Oracle Mobile Cloud Service (MCS). You should read how to setup infrastructure in this article - Your first Push notification based Oracle JET Hybrid application!. I will focus on implementation steps and will provide working sample app for download.

Sample JET hybrid application provides login functionality. During login we register device ID with MCS service, this allows to receive notifications:

After login is completed, default dashboard page is displayed. At this point, application is ready to receive notification (even if application will be closed or mobile device screen is locked):

Notification from MCS can be sent programmatically from API implementation. I will show this in the next posts. For now we can use MCS UI to test if notification is working. Mobile Backend provides functionality to send notifications. I can target notification to specific user:

If mobile device registration was successful during login in JET Hybrid, MCS wil send notification and you should see confirmation message (if there will be error, this means registration from Oracle JET Hybrid was unsuccessful):

In few seconds you should see notification received and displayed in notifications screen:

Select notification and it will navigate directly to the app and pass notification message. This would allow to parse it do certain action in the app, for example refresh data, etc.:

To verify if registration with MCS was done correctly during login, you can check logs in Mobile Backend. There must be REST POST /register call logged, just after GET /login:

It would not work to send notification, if there is no Client defined in MCS Backend. You can read more about it from the article mentioned above. Make sure to specify all keys correctly, pointing to Google Cloud Messaging (if you are targeting for Android):

Let's take a look into implementation on JET Hybrid side. Login success callback invokes method to register device to receive push notifications from MCS:

Make sure Cordova Push plugin is installed into your app, otherwise PushNotification will be undefined. It gets registration ID from Google and makes another call to handshake with MCS:

I'm invoking wrapper method, which in turn have access to MCS SDK module in my JET app:

MCS SDK method registerForNotifications is invoked, where REST POST call is made to register device with MCS and allow to receive notifications:

Download sample application (this contains only JET implementation JS/HTML, you should copy it into root src folder of your JET hybrid app) - jet_mcs_notifications.zip.

Oracle JET and Mobile Cloud Service Authentication with OAuth

I will describe with practical example, how to authenticate against MCS in Oracle JET using OAuth. This is based on sample app from my previous post - Oracle JET and Application Container Cloud (with MCS Integration) (download sample app from there). It would be useful to read through MCS documentation - Authenticating with OAuth in Individual REST Calls.

Oracle JET sample application provides login form:

If login is successful, REST call is done and MCS returns data:

In order to authenticate using OAuth, we need to use Application Key defined in MCS Mobile Backend:

Go to Mobile Backend settings screen and note down OAuth property values for Client ID and Client Secret. We are going to use these values in JET application, to initialize OAuth authentication:

There is one test user defined in Mobile Backend - redsam. We can use these user to login from JET over OAuth:

MCS offers to download SDK Java Script code, we could use it in JET application, to authenticate against MCS service through OAuth, Basic or Facebook login. Download SDK from getting started page:

I'm using mcs.js from MCS SDK, you could find helper method in this class - it executes REST POST to authenticate through OAuth and gets temporary access token in return. This token can be used for subsequent requests in the same session:

There is one more wrapper JS file - mbe.js. Here you define mobile backend connection keys. Authentication type is specified as oAuth:

Make sure to add mcs.js module into main.js paths:

Key point - mbe.authenticate() method (call it from JET module, make sure to reference mbe module in require block). Provide username/password and callbacks for login success and login failure:

In login success callback, I'm reading temporary token and passing it through header Authorization : Bearer. This token can be used for REST requests to MCS:

UI component is displayed when authentication is successful:

Oracle JET and Application Container Cloud (with MCS Integration)

I have deployed JET application with Mobile Cloud Service (MCS) integration into Oracle Application Container Cloud service. It works perfectly well, you can try to access it yourself (until my trial cloud account expires on 15th of August) by URL: https://rsjetnodejsapp-deoracleem99369.apaas.us2.oraclecloud.com.

Follow excellent blog article written by Lucas Jellema on details how to deploy JET into Application Container Cloud - Deploying an Oracle JET application to Application Container Cloud and running on Node.js.

First step is to generate empty Node.js application, you can do this from command line (install Node.js and express generator before):

express RSJETNodeJSApp

Navigate into generated application folder and add dependencies using npm:

npm install

Node.js application is created and you could run it by:

npm start

You could test JET app locally with the same command, as soon as you add JET content into Node.js app.

Once you access deployed JET application by URL: https://rsjetnodejsapp-deoracleem99369.apaas.us2.oraclecloud.com. You should get into Home tab, where static chart data is rendered (no integration with MCS yet):

I did a test to check how same screen looks on mobile device. JET renders perfectly, template is adjusted, as well as chart itself:

Go to People tab, this is where integration with MCS is done. I have implemented oAuth security authentication in JET, against MCS service (I will describe it in the next post). You can login with redsam/Wel_come1 user:

Same login screeen is rendered on mobile device nicely:

Once login is successful, JET app executes REST call to MCS endpoint and fetches data (originally returned by ADF BC REST service deployed on Java Cloud and accessed by MCS Connector):

Mobile device view doesn't dissapoint again, same page UI looks great:

JET implementation code is copied into Node.js structure public folder. You can open app in NetBeans, this would simplify editing:

I have deployed this app to Application Container Cloud by creating zip archive (make sure to create manifest.json file). Don't include root folder into archive, include application folders/files directly. Deployment is straightforward, create new Node.js application in Application Container Cloud:

Upload archive, give application name and wait few minutes to initialize. All done:

Here you can download complete example of Node.js app with JET content (and all libraries) I was using to deploy to Application Container Cloud - RSJETNodeJSApp.zip.

Oracle JET Hybrid - Calling Oracle Mobile Cloud REST

Oracle JET allows to build mobile hybrid apps, based on Cordova and deploy to Android or iOS platform. Read more about it here - Go Mobile with Oracle JET As Easy As 1 2 3. In my previous post I have described how to call REST endpoint running on Oracle MCS from JET - Calling Mobile Cloud REST Service from Oracle JET. Its time to demonstrate the same from JET hybrid app, running on my Android phone.

Here is the screen capture of JET hybrid app running on Android device and displaying data fetched from MCS REST endpoint:

To test data re-fetch, I have updated one record directly through MCS endpoint tester UI, using REST PATCH:

In mobile app, I navigated outside Customers screen and back - data is re-fetched, chart is changed:

What is great about JET hybrid, you could use identical code for JET rendered on the Web and JET rendered on mobile device. You could copy paste the same code between Web and mobile hybrid implementations. Here is example from sample app, where chart and list are displayed:

JET model points to MCS endpoint and defines data collection, same as it would be done for JET rendered on the Web:

Data is fetched in special method - handleActivated. This method is invoked automatically when View Model becomes active (user opens it from the menu). This is quite handy, to have such entry points in the app:

Download sample app code - js_jethybrid_v1.zip, where I have packaged Java Script and HTML examples. You should copy it into application with JET libraries to run.

To build JET hybrid app use:

grunt build:dev --platform=android

To deploy to Android device use:

grunt serve --platform=android --destination=device

Read more about how to create JET hybrid app here - Go Mobile with Oracle JET As Easy As 1 2 3.

Calling Mobile Cloud REST Service from Oracle JET

Let's take a look how we can consume REST service exposed from Mobile Cloud Service (MCS). I will show how you could display data coming from MCS endpoint in Oracle JET. I will be using simple scenario in this post, based on HTTP Basic authentication method offered by MCS. In my next post I plan to review more advanced authentication described in this article - Hybrid Mobile Apps: Using the Mobile Cloud Service JavaScript SDK with Oracle JET.

JET application (download release package with sample code - release_jet_mcs_v1.zip) renders bar chart with data retrieved from MCS endpoint returning information about employees:

Once data is retrieved, I can see invocation statistics logged and reported in MCS dashboard. Calls are executed successfully:

To call MCS service from Oracle JET, we need to pass to extra headers - Authorization and Oracle-Mobile-Backend-ID. Values for both headers can be obtained from MCS dashboard. Go to Mobile Backend and navigate to Settings section. You will find required info under HTTP Basic section:

To bypass CORS issue, you can specify Security_AllowOrigin property in MCS (you need to be admin for this). Read more about it in MCS Developer Guide - Environment Policies and Their Values.  Download property file to your local environment, change it and upload back:

For test purposes, I have specified Security_AllowOrigin=allow:

Oracle JET application JS module is pointing to REST URL handled by MCS:

Fetch operation is configured to pass two headers specific to MCS - this will allow to complete REST request and get response:

NetBeans tool Network Monitor displays request headers (both MCS headers are included):

If request is successful, you should see data returned in the response: