Funny Souvenir from New Orleans

During Fat Tuesday event on ODTUG Kaleidoscope'08 I got funny picture of myself. Sure, it will be good souvenir and will remind me New Orleans :-)

ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2008

I'm enjoying this year ODTUG Kaleidoscope conference. I already did my two presentations, Development with Oracle JDeveloper/ADF 11g Reusing 10g Best Practices was on Monday (June 16) and "Oracle Forms Conversion to ADF 11g at VGO" was yesterday (June 17) during Oracle ACE Directors briefing. Presentation on Monday was well attended and I met a couple of my blog readers ;-)

My colleague - Rob Nocera, was presenting "Using ADF 11g as Platform for Oracle Client/Server Forms Conversions" topic and he got very good feedback from audience. He was doing demo during his presentation as well.

Most interesting sessions I have attended are those:

• "The State of the Fusion Address - Fusion Middleware Project Status Report" by Duncan Mills (Oracle Corporation)
  
• "Service Oriented Development with Oracle ADF Business Components and BPEL" by Shaun O'Brien and Clemens Utschig (Oracle Corporation)
  
• "Keeping Your Leftovers Fresh with JDeveloper - New Reusability Features in 11g" by Shaun O'Brien (Oracle Corporation)

I got clear view during this conference - Oracle Fusion Middleware is not anymore something abstract and unclear. Oracle FMW became focused on Oracle ADF framework, based on ADF Business Components. Its not a surprise, since new generation of Oracle Applications is based on this platform. However, Oracle TopLink (available in Model part of Oracle ADF) is used in Oracle SOA related products and solutions.

And of course, its a lot of fun to meet other Oracle ACE Directors with whom you chat almost every day - Chris Muir and Frans Thamura.

One Day Before ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2008

Hey New Orleans, I'm arrived to ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2008. I was lucky - no significant flight delays and travel was on time. Only one thing - time difference here is 8 hours comparing to my local time, hope I will not have any jet lag, at least I do not feel it now :)

I will have my presentation - Development with Oracle JDeveloper/ADF 11g Reusing 10g Best Practices on Monday, at 10:30 AM, Napoleon C3 room. It will be right after conference keynote. Everyone is welcome, I will do my best to explain how things in JDeveloper 11g work.

My second presentation will be during Oracle Fusion Middleware Product Briefing for Oracle ACE Directors. Oracle invited me to present about JDeveloper/ADF 11g projects I'm involved in. Presentation title - "Oracle Forms Conversion to ADF 11g at VGO". I will talk how we are adopting Oracle FMW 11g and how work is progressing.

ODTUG Kaleidoscope is one of the best Oracle technical conferences, I'm sure will get a lot of knowledge here by attending this year sessions - abstracts.

Oracle Open World 2008 - Abstract Accepted

I have very exciting news - my abstract for Oracle Open World 2008 session is accepted by Oracle and I will represent Vgo Software on this event. I will be presenting on the following topic - "Oracle Maps in JDeveloper 11g - Perfect Combination".

Actually, it was extremely good news for me, since there was only 5 (2.5 for Database and 2.5 for FMW) free slots available for Oracle ACE Directors submitted abstracts. So, I'm really happy, to take 1 slot from 2.5 available :-)

You can read about Oracle Maps combination with JDeveloper in my previous blog posts. I will provide detailed information about my presentation more close to the event.

Dynamic Buttons in Oracle ADF

Standard way to create buttons on the page, is to use drag-and-drop method and JDeveloper wizards. However, sometimes its not enough, especially when there are requirements to apply dynamic rules based on security roles or page groups. With dynamic buttons generation, you can use XML configuration files, this will allow to change displayed buttons and properties right on runtime. I'm writing this post, based on influence I got from Frank Nimphius post - ADF Faces RC - Implementation strategies for global buttons in page templates. Frank describes fundamental approach for global buttons, I'm in my post focusing on dynamic global buttons aspect.

You can download developed application - GlobalDynamicButtons.zip. This sample is based on two Entity objects - Countries and Locations, and provides two JSPX pages based on template JSPX. Button components for both pages are generated dynamically. Here is a navigation flow implemented in current sample:


Both of the pages are based on template. This template defines facet for data-bound components and empty toolbox for dynamically generated buttons:


You can notice, that toolbox contains two toolbar components, button objects will be added to those toolbars. Toolbox is binded to managed bean, this allows to initialize toolbox component on the page:


Next step is to bind BeforePhase property of f:view tag contained on the pages to the same managed bean where dynamic buttons are generated:


#{dynamicGenerator.addButtons} method generates dynamic buttons according to current page, information about current page is accessed through phaseEvent, for example:


Buttons are binded to actions defined in actual page definition using ActionListener, disabled property is also set programatically:


If button is not binded to page definition, and is is related to navigation flow, action expression is set:


Main advantage of described approach is that it allows to have the same code for the same actions in different pages - Commit action, for example. And only what you need to care about, is to define actions in page definition files. Actions for countries page:


Actions for locations page:


On runtime, all buttons specific to current page are generated:


First and Previous buttons are disabled, since first entry is shown, Locations button opens locations from current country:


Different set of buttons is generated and by default there are no locations defined for Argentina, we can create a couple:


When Save button is pressed, records are stored to database and sequence values for LocationId column are assigned:

Oracle Forms Modernization on Oracle Mix

I have created Oracle Forms Modernization group on Oracle Mix. Everyone for whom this topic is interesting are welcome to join.

I want to see this group as place where Oracle Forms to SOA modernization methodology and strategies will be discussed, as well as technical issues. It should be a good place to share experience and best practices from related projects.

Greece in One Day

This time I'm not only providing Oracle Fusion Middleware consulting in Greece, Athens. But doing some active tourism activities as well. If someone will be in Greece, I can recommend to take 1-day Saronic Island Cruise, it will help you to understand this country in short period of time.

I have visited three islands - Aegina, Poros and Hydra. Last one became my favorite one:


Yeah, sometimes it is good to be away from my MacBook ;-)