LOV Implementation with ADF BC Service-Enabled Entity Objects

I had a question about use case related to ADF architecture for different databases access. ADF system was running on multiple databases (Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2) at once. Part of the data was coming from Oracle DB, LOV's data from Microsoft SQL Server, the rest from IBM DB2. ADF BC 11g connects to all three databases and can work without issues. However, from architecture point of view - ADF BC Model project is configured with database type, means ADF BC Model can connect to only one DB type. If we want to connect to other DB type, need to have separate ADF BC Model project. No problem with that - only one question. How we can integrate all these projects with different DB types together. One of the possible solutions for this scenario I will describe in today post -  ADF BC Service-Enabled Entity Objects. I have blogged about it back in 2009, always nice to revisit same topic after couple of years - Web Service Interface for ADF BC Application Module in Oracle Fusion 11g and Service-Enabled Entity Objects in Oracle Fusion 11g.

Download sample application, it incudes both - LOV service and consuming application - LOVService.zip. The idea is pretty simple - LOV service and consuming application both are implemented with ADF BC. You can imagine that LOV service works with Microsoft SQL Server and  consuming application connects to Oracle DB (in this sample, both connect to Oracle DB). LOV Service is exposing View Object through Web Service. Exposed View Object is accessed in consuming application through Service-Enabled Entity.

LOV service defines LOV view object, this view object is registered under service interface. At least one operation must be defined to expose view object through the service interface - Find in my case:

Business Components Service Interface must be defined in deployment profiles - this allows to deploy Service-Enabled entities successfully:

Make sure only MiddleTier is selected for deployment from Application Deployment profile assembly:

Thats all about LOV service, now we go to consuming application. Here we can generate EO's based on view object exposed through LOV Web Service. Create EO based on Service Interface:

In order to run project with EO based on Service Interface, you will need to add common JAR from LOV service (add it to Model project as well, if you want to run ADF BC browser utility):

Define Web Service connection information in connection.xml file:

Next you can create VO from generated EO - create it as read-only (in other scenarios you can use updateable VO as well), because it will render read-only LOV data:

I noticed interesting custom property generated for VO created based on service interface EO - DeferEstimatedRowCountProperty. I will test this, how it affects standard VO in future posts. From Oracle API - "A custom property name that indicates if this VO should defer calling estimatedRowCount in the 'getDeferredEstimatedRowCount' method.". Here is custom property:

Define LOV in usual way for JobId attribute - LOV list will come from Web Service:

Choice list LOV is rendered on runtime:

LOV list data is retrieved from Web Service - Service-Enabled Entity:

Refreshing ADF Page Template from ADF Fragment Template

I had a blog about how to refresh ADF template content from fragment - ADF Page Template Refresh From ADF Page Fragment. There I was describing you can apply Partial Trigger to the template. There is another scenario for template refresh. Let's say we have two templates - page and fragment templates. Those two templates are completely unrelated on design time and only on runtime are rendered as one. When building custom UI Shell, you may require to refresh components available in page template from fragment template. How to do this - if two templates are just separate files and there are no references. Well - keep in mind on runtime all templates are just one JSF tree. This means we can reach Page template from nested Fragment template through JSF tree. I will describe how.

Download sample application - TemplateRefreshApp_v2.zip. This application is simple use case for potentially more complex implementations. Page template contains two tabs, fragment template contains Switch button. This button allows to manage tabs from page template and switch between tabs.

Sample application contains two fragments, implemented based on fragment template. There is main page, it is implemented based on page template:

Page template implements two tabs - each tab contains facet definition. Later we drag and drop regions into these facets:

Fragment template contains Switch Tab button and facet definition for content:

Fragments are based on fragment template:

Main page is based on page template and includes two regions:

I will describe now how refresh between fragment and page templates is implemented. Root component from fragment template - panel stretch layout, contains binding reference:

Binding reference points to the fragment template bean - the same bean, where refresh method is implemented:

Here is main part now - refresh method. This method firstly gets panel stretch layout binding instance and retrieves parent of this component. Parent will be UI template component - fragment template tag. But it doesn't end here - you can get next parent - parent of UI template. Its how you will move into the area of page template - it surrounds fragment template. It will return instance of the tab, if you get parent of the tab - it returns panel tabbed UI component. With panel tabbed, its easy to iterate over tabs from page template and set disclosed property. Once disclosed property was set, we perform partial refresh of page template from fragment template:

Here is how it looks on runtime - two tabs from page template, Switch Tab button from fragment template and finally region content included through fragment template facet:

Press Switch Tab - current tab will be closed, second tab will be opened:

Fragment template is able to refresh page template by acquiring instance of page template UI components through JSF tree.

Lightweight ADF Task Flow for BPM Human Tasks Overview

We can customize and include available Oracle BPM Workspace task flows into our own ADF 11g application. Additionally to out-of-the-box task flows in Oracle BPM 11g, we can use Oracle BPM 11g Worklist API and build custom ADF task flows. While there can be different requirements and scenarios, in typical case I would suggest to use customized out of the box Oracle BPM 11g provided task flows for core requirements and additionally implement your own custom task flows based on available Worklist API. Most likely custom task flows based on Worklist API would cover less functional, but more lightweight requirements.

I have implemented such sample lightweight task flow - it shows a list with assigned tasks. Download sample application - IntegratedBPMWorklistApp_v4.zip. Here is how this task flow looks - simple table with assigned tasks:

Same application includes BPM Workspace task flow with complete functionality for Human tasks:

In order to implement your own ADF task flow with access to BPM context, you should follow instructions from Oracle documentation - 33 Building a Custom Worklist Client. I'm using sample application from previous post - Tips & Tricks How to Run Oracle BPM 11g PS5 Workspace from Custom ADF 11g Application. This application is extended with additional libraries required to access BPM API:

You can access BPM functionality through BPM context. It takes time to initialize BPM context, its why Oracle says to create it ones and keep in session scope. Ideal place to create BPM context is Login method. Check - initBPMContext(username, password) method, it authenticated to BPM environment and when context is created - stores it into session scope:

ADF task flow contains one fragment with read-only table to list assigned tasks:

Table is created from data control generated on top of Java class, where we are accessing BPM context and retrieving assigned tasks:

Data control class is responsible to construct a list of tasks, with task state - assigned. I'm reusing BPM context from session scope:

Tasks query is created, iterating over results and populating list of tasks:

Task list construction method is executed automatically, when table is rendered on the UI. For refresh functionality to work, we need to re-execute retrieveAssignedUserTasks() method and refresh iterator. Here is page definition for the fragment:

Refresh invokes task list construction and at the end calls iterator refresh:

Issue with Show Printable Page Behavior in ADF 11g R2 (11.1.2.2.0)

You may experience strange issue in ADF 11g R2 (11.1.2.2.0, 11.1.2.1.0), related to printable page behavior. After af:showPrintablePageBehavior operation is applied, ADF fails to register Active Data for command component on runtime. It doesn't seem to break application completely, but obviously is annoying for the users. Same issue related to Active Data registration is reproduced after applying export to Excel operation. This seems to be a bug and most likely will be fixed in the next ADF versions. There are workarounds how to overcome Active Data registration bug, I will describe them at the end of this post.

Download sample application, where printable page behavior error is reproduced - PrintPageBehaviorApp.zip. This application is very basic - contains only one page, no ADF regions.

There is Print link, it invokes af:showPrintablePageBehavior operation:

Run sample application, open tab with Employees table data:

Print employees data, press Print link - printable page will be loaded from another browser tab:

Go back to application and select another tab - Department data:

Active Data registration error happens, on the next invoked action after show printable page behavior was invoked.

There are several workarounds. One of them you should try first - set ChangeEventPolicy to none (by default - ppr) for related iterator from page definition:

This works, but not always. I noticed that for more complex pages with ADF regions, it doesn't help to set ChangeEventPolicy to none.

Another option is to implement printable page rendering programmatically (it will render in the same browser tab where application is launched). Read more about this solution here - ADF Code Corner 95. How-to Navigate to Printable Pages.

Tips & Tricks How to Run Oracle BPM 11g PS5 Workspace from Custom ADF 11g Application

Oracle BPM 11g PS5 Task List task flow can be included into custom ADF 11g application. This task flow can be executed in 2 modes - worklist and workspace. I already blogged about worklist mode, see here - ADF 11g PS5 Application with Customized BPM Worklist Task Flow (MDS Seeded Customization). Today I'm going to cover different tips & tricks how to run Task List task flow in workspace mode. Workspace mode gives more functionality to the end user - it allows to render list of BPM processes, more dashboards, etc. User can start new BPM process through Task List task flow configured in workspace mode.

Download sample application configured with BPM 11g PS5 Task List task flow for workspace mode - IntegratedBPMWorklistApp_v3.zip. This application is based on the same sample from previous blog for worklist mentioned above.

Sample application is extended with additional custom ADF task flow, bringing data for employee record - this is to demonstrate, Oracle BPM 11g PS5 Task List task flow really can run together with other custom ADF task flows present in the same application. Employee data region is rendered from separate tab:

BPM Workspace tab brings BPM workspace region. User can access assigned tasks, initiate new BPM process from available applications, complete Human Task details, etc.:

Custom ADF application, includes Task List task flow in workspace mode, see task flow parameter value:

There is no very clear documentation about how to run Task List task flow in workspace mode and what libraries are required to be added to your custom ADF application. But we always can check how standard BPM application from Oracle is configured. Go to SOA home, navigate to soa/applications folder - open OracleBPMWorkspace.ear and check contents of this deployment archive. File - weblogic-application.xml includes references to the libraries deployed on the server, make sure to copy same library references into weblogic-application.xml from your custom application (if you deploy custom application on non-SOA domain, make sure to have these libraries deployed):

Library references found in weblogic-application.xml file:

Additionally to referenced libraries, some of the libraries must be packaged together with application. You can check this in the same OracleBPMWorkspace.ear file, WEB-INF/libs folder. Seven additional libraries are included directly into application:

You should notice that two last libraries are coming from JDEV home. These libraries provide us with BPM Task List task flow. Same libraries are available in SOA home as well - strange enough when using libraries from SOA home for BPM Task List task flow - my custom application was not working. Keep in mind this, if you face strange runtime exceptions, to check what libraries you are including.

Even with all libraries included, on runtime exception happens when accessing BPM Task List task flow in workspace mode. It fails to initialize ADF region for External Links task flow:

To workaround this problem, I decided to disable External Links task flow from Oracle BPM Task List library. In order to disable it, I restarted JDev in Customization Mode and opened main view for workspace - bpmHome.jsff:

I noticed that External Links task flow is registered in the left panel accordion. Panel accordion is implemented as declarative component by Oracle, is referenced directly from bpmViewList.jsff:

Open bpmViewList.jsff, now we can manipulate with panel accordion content and disable External Links section:

Select External Links af:showDetailItem element and go to Properties, select Rendered property:

Set Rendered property to be false - this means External Links section will remain hidden:

JDev creates MDS customization file and includes metadata info to hide External Links section from standard Oracle BPM library - this allows us to load Task List task flow in workspace mode successfully:

Running Oracle BPM 11g PS5 Worklist Task Flow and Human Task Form on Non-SOA Domain

With standard setup, both BPM worklist application and Human task form runs on the same SOA domain, where BPM process is running. While this work fine, this is not what we want in development, test and production environment. Mainly because BPM worklist and Human task form are ADF artificats, its easier to develop and run in production from different server. I will describe in this post how to run both BPM worklist application and Human task form on different non-SOA domain. There are two main advantages for such architecture:

1. BPM Worklist TF will be integrated into custom ADF application, no need to run standard BPM Worklist application from SOA domain (read more from previous post - ADF 11g PS5 Application with Customized BPM Worklist Task Flow (MDS Seeded Customization))

2. Human Task form will run on the same non-SOA server, where custom application is deployed (it integrates BPM Worklist TF)

All this makes ADF part less dependent on SOA specifics, as well allows to minimize workload on SOA domain.

Main goal of this post is to aggregate all available information from Oracle documentation into one single sample application. There are several things not working as described in the documentation, I will point below. In order to prepare sample applications for BPM worklist TF and Human task form to be deployed on non-SOA domain, I was using following chapters from Oracle SOA/BPM 11g PS5 developer guides:

1. A Creating Custom ADF Applications with Oracle Business Process Management Workspace Task Flows

2. 30.8.4 How To Deploy a Task Form to a non-SOA Oracle WebLogic Server

Download sample applications:

1. Sample BPM process and Human Task Form - Lab02_v2.zip

2. Custom ADF application with integrated BPM worklist TF - IntegratedBPMWorklistApp_v2.zip

Both applications are deployed on the same non-SOA domain (except for BPM process), I'm using JDev Integrated WLS server 7101 port for this - CreateOrderTaskForm (Human task form) and IntegratedBPMWorklistApp (BPM Worklist TF):

I was deploying CreateOrderTaskForm application first. Follow this section from Oracle SOA/BPM developer guide: 30.8.4 How To Deploy a Task Form to a non-SOA Oracle WebLogic Server. While provided documentation info is very useful, still you can't follow it completely.

Decide first, how you would like to run BPM Worklist TF. There are two options - federated and normal modes. Federated mode provides less functionality, is designed for remote servers. My sample app is configured (as by default) to run in normal mode, this means there is no need to create wf_client_config.xml file.

Create Foreign JNDI with links pointing to SOA server - this will allow to connect from non-SOA domain to SOA server:

Links:

Assign BPM security grants in system-jazn-data.xml from non-SOA domain. You still will see security error, when starting non-SOA domain, it will try to register Human task form with BPM process and will fail - you can ignore this.

One thing you should point your attention is oracle.soa.workflow library installation on non-SOA domain. If non-SOA domain already have WebCenter extensions installed, most likely there already exists another library - oracle.soa.workflow.wc. Developer guide says you can use either one or another. What I experienced - when I had both libraries installed, I was getting class path conflicts when starting BPM Worklist TF. If you will get similar error, double check may be both libraries are installed. I have only one:

Once configuration is completed - you can deploy Human task form. Deployment is done on JDev integrated server:

BPM process is deployed on SOA enabled domain:

Define Human task form URI for BPM process. Go to BPM process in Enterprise Manager and select Human Workflow component:

Specify address for Human task form associated with selected BPM process (server port should point to non-SOA domain in this case):

First part is completed - now we move to BPM Worklist TF (IntegratedBPMWorklistApp_v2 application). We are not using out of the box shell application - BPM Worklist. Instead we are using only Task List TF from that application, inside our own custom environment. Read more from Oracle BPM developer guide - A Creating Custom ADF Applications with Oracle Business Process Management Workspace Task Flows.

There is one thing that developer guide doesn't say. If you will configure BPM libraries for your project as developer guide says - you will get errors when running application directly from JDeveloper (libraries are not copied into deployment folder). It works well, if you will deploy on the server, but not when you run from JDeveloper. This happens, because standard BPM Worklist Components library available in JDeveloper is not marked to be deployed (and this option is disabled to change):

Same for BPM Services library, this library is mandatory on class path when deploying on non-SOA domain:

Libraries are not copied into deployment folder when running from JDeveloper, even there is a check:

Workaround it to create your own library group (for example - Custom BPM Worklist), add all 3 required libraries and set to be deployed by default (important if you want to run BPM Worklist TF application from JDeveloper directly):

Custom library is added to the project:

JAR files included through the custom library are targeted for deployment:

BPM Worklist TF - TaskList is included using Worklist mode (Workspace also possible, but will require additional libraries to be added):

Make sure security is granted to each resource:

Deploy custom ADF application with BPM Worklist TF to integrated WLS server:

BPM Worklist TF and Human task form is running from custom ADF application, deployed on JDeveloper integrated WLS server port 7101:

To summarize content of this post:

1. Enable JDev integrated WLS domain to run SOA

- Install Oracle SOA Workflow library, if required. Configure foreign JNDI. Set security grants for BPM

- Deploy

- Change Human task form URI

- Test from BPM Worklist application

2. Run BPM Worklist TF on non-SOA JDev integrated WLS domain

- Set domain trust password

- Define custom library for BPM components

- Make sure no conflicts between oracle.soa.workflow and oracle.soa.workflow.wc