Manipulating OA Footer

Manipulating OA footer region


How to render copyright information and privacy statement for custom page?

To render standard footer just Set the Auto Footer property in the pageLayout region to 'True'. This will render the Footer with default copyright information and privacy statement.

To render different privacy statement and copyright information
1. Set the Auto Footer property in the pageLayout region to 'False'
2. Right click pageLayout region and select New -> Copyright
3. Right click pageLayout region and select New -> Privacy



How to display "About this page" link?

Set FND: Diagnostics profile option to 'Yes'.
This profile option renders "About this Page" link at the botton left corner of the page and Diagnostics link at the top right corner of the page.



How to personalize page footer items such as Privacy Statement, copyright, standard footer?

This personalization is somewhat tricky because the navigation to this item is different from normal personalization.

Follow these steps to personalize the OA footer
1. Login in SSHR.
2. Select Personalize Page link at top right of page.
3. Select Choose context button.
4. In the scope drop down box select OA Footer.
5. Click on apply.
6. Expand all if its not already expanded.
7. Now you can see all the footer elements.
8. Click on personalize pencil icon and personalize the desired items.



How to display custom copyright infomation in the standard page?

You can edit the copyright information in sshr by updating fnd_new_messages table
select message_text from fnd_new_messages where message_name='JTF-COPYRIGHT';

Other way is just personalize the page and update the prompt in copyright item.

How to Call a Concurrent Program from OA framework

OA Framework provides the ConcurrentRequest class to call the concurrent program from the page. The submitRequest() method in the ConcurrentRequest class takes 6 parameters and returns request id of the submitted concurrent request:

public int submitRequest( 
String ProgramApplication ,
String ProgramName ,
String ProgramDescription ,
String StartTime,
boolean SubRequest,
Vector Parameters ) throws RequestSubmissionException

ProgramApplication -Application Short name of application under which the program is registered.
ProgramName - Concurrent Program Name for which the request has to be submitted
ProgramDescription - Concurrent Program Description
StartTime - Time at which the request has to start running.
SubRequest - Set to TRUE if the request is submitted from another running request and has to be treated as a sub request.
Parameters - Parameters of the concurrent Request


Here is the example for calling a concurrent program from a OA framework page.


import oracle.apps.fnd.cp.request.ConcurrentRequest;
import oracle.apps.fnd.framework.server.OADBTransaction;

public int submitCPRequest(Number headerId) {

try {

OADBTransaction tx = (OADBTransaction)getDBTransaction();
java.sql.Connection pConncection = tx.getJdbcConnection();
ConcurrentRequest cr = new ConcurrentRequest(pConncection);

String applnName = "PO"; //Application that contains the concurrent program
String cpName = "POXXXX"; //Concurrent program name
String cpDesc = "Concurrent Program Description"; // concurrent Program description

// Pass the Arguments using vector
// Here i have added my parameter headerId to the vector and passed the vector to the concurrent program

Vector cpArgs = new Vector(); 
cpArgs.addElement(headerId.stringValue()); 


// Calling the Concurrent Program

int requestId = cr.submitRequest(applnName, cpName, cpDesc, null, false, cpArgs);
tx.commit();

return requestId;

} catch (RequestSubmissionException e) {
OAException oe = new OAException(e.getMessage());
oe.setApplicationModule(this);
throw oe;

}
} 

How to monitor the submitted concurrent request OA Framework

The Request Monitoring user interface provides the ability to search for a current user's requests. It allows the user to specify criteria to search for a request based on a specific request ID, requests for a specific program or a range of scheduled requests. Using the search results list, a user can select a request to see the details of that request or view its output file. From the Details page for a request, a user can place a hold on a pending request, cancel a pending request or view the request's log file.



You can call the Request Monitoring page by calling following URL

OA.jsp?akRegionCode=FNDCPREQUESTVIEWREGION&akRegionApplicationId=0

Deploy OA Framework

How to Deploy OA framework in the Instance

Deployment of OA framework consists of 5 steps.

• Deploying Class files and VO/EO/AM xml files
• Deploying PG/RN xml files
• Deploying jpr files for Substitution
• Setup AOL to access the page
• Restart the server

Let's look at these one by one.

Deploying Class files

The files such as

• Controllers *CO.class
• Application modules *AM.class
• View Objects *VOImpl.class, *VORowImpl.class, *VO.xml
• Entity objects *EO.xml, *EOImpl.java

should be deployed in the $JAVA_TOP/<path of your file>.

For eg:
if your files path in jdeveloper is
$jdev_home/myprojects/oracle/apps/ap/setup/webui/setupCO.java
then place your class files in the following path in the instance
$JAVA_TOP/oracle/apps/ap/setup/webui/setupCO.class

Deploying Page and Region files

The Page xml files(*PG.xml) and region xml(*RN.xml) files resides in the database. So you have to import the file into the database to make it work in the instance. Oracle application provides XMLExporter/XMLImporter to export and import page files from and to the database.

Deploy the files to the Instance

java oracle.jrad.tools.xml.importer.XMLImporter /home/prasanna/pages/SetupPG.xml -username <data base user name> -password <data base password> -dbconnection "(description = (address_list = (address = (community = tcp.world)(protocol = tcp)(host =<hostname> ) (port = <port id>)))(connect_data = (sid = <sid>)))"

This command will import the SetupPG.xml file into the database.

Extracting from instance

If you have done your personalizations in the developement instance and you want to deploy the personalizations into the production instance, then you can extract the personalization using XMLExporter command from the developement instance and Import the extracted xml file into the production instance in the same way you did for PG.xml files.

java oracle.jrad.tools.xml.exporter.XMLExporter /oracle/apps/ap/setup/webui/customizations/site/0/SetupPG -rootdir <destination path> -username <data base user name> -password <data base password> -dbconnection "(description = (address_list = (address = (community = tcp.world)(protocol = tcp)(host =<hostname> ) (port = <port id>)))(connect_data = (sid = <sid>)))"

The above command will export the SetupPG from the data base to your file system at the destination path as XML file (SetupPG.xml)

Deploying jpr files for Substitutions, if any

If you have extended EO, VO or AM and created substitutions in your project. Then you have to deploy your .jpx file into the instance.

java oracle.jrad.tools.xml.importer.JPXImporter $AP_TOP/xxx/Setup.jpx -username <data base user name> -password <data base password> -dbconnection "(description = (address_list = (address = (community = tcp.world)(protocol = tcp)(host =<hostname> (port = <port id>)))(connect_data = (sid = <sid>)))"

Setup AOL to access the page

In case your page is referred in existing pages of Oracle applications you can skip this step. But if you want to access the page as a new Function then follow these steps.


Create Function as
ID: XX_SETUP
Name: SETUP
Function type(HTML tab) : SSW
URL: OA.jsp?page=/oracle/apps/ap/XXX/SetupPG&parameter1=xx&parameter1=xx


Attach the function to a Menu
Attach the menu to a Responsibility

Restart the server

After deployement you cannot see the page immediately on the server instance. This is because your Pages and class files would be cached in the middle tier. So you have to bounce the apache.

$COMMON_TOP/admin/scripts/adapcctl.sh stop
$COMMON_TOP/admin/scripts/adapcctl.sh start

After this process, clear the cache from the functional administrator responsibility and this step is optional.

Some times we may need to restart the whole middle tier to see the depolyed pages in the instance.
To Restart the instance use following command

Stop the instance
cd $INST_TOP/admin/scripts
adstpall.sh apps/apps

Start the instance
adstrtal.sh apps/apps

How to hide a mandatory field in OAF Page

If the business wants to hide a field in the seeded page, you can do it by personalizing the page and set Rendered property to false.
But this solution will not help you if the field is marked as mandatory by the seeded page.

The reasons are Mandatory Validations are usually done at the EO level. Hence even if you hide the mandatory field, the validation would still happen at the server. If the column has not null constraint in the table, it will throw a database error.


Can I extend the VO or EO and remove the mandatory property?
No, you cannot change the mandatory property through extension.


How to fix this?You can fix this by setting a default value for the mandatory field.


Should I extend the VO/EO and set the default value?
Do not extend the VO/EO for the defaulting logic. Because extensions are applied at the site level and the Oracle seeded pages share the same VO/EO all over the Applications.


Where to default the value?

Extend the controller and set the value in the processRequest(){} method. This is the safest way to default the value to the mandatory field.

After defaulting the mandatory variable, personalize the page and set the rendered property to false.

How to Call a PL/SQL block from OA framework

You can call PL/SQL block from the OA Framework using callable statement. Use the following code from application module.


import java.sql.CallableStatement;
import oracle.apps.fnd.common.VersionInfo; 
import java.sql.SQLException; 

CallableStatement updateStmt = null; 
try {
// Put your PL/SQL block in a String variable. 
String deleteStmt = "begin delete test_table where header_id = :1; "+
" :2 = xxx_pkg.yyy_function(); end;"; 
OADBTransaction txn = getOADBTransaction();

// Pass the PL/SQL block to the callable Statement 
updateStmt = txn.createCallableStatement(deleteStmt, 1);

// Set all the bind variables before calling the execute command 
updateStmt.setInt(1, headerIdToDelete);
// And register the output parameter types
updateStmt.registerOutParameter(2, Types.DOUBLE);
updateStmt.executeUpdate(); 
// After execute you can get the value of pl/sql block output
Number amount = new Number(updateStmt.getDouble(2));
updateStmt.close(); 
// Commit the transaction in the database
txn.commit();

} catch(SQLException sqle) { 
updateStmt.close(); 
}


If you want to call pl/sql from the controller then get the application module from the pageContext.
And then get the db transaction from the application module
OADBTransaction txn = pageContext.getApplicationModule(webBean).getOADBTransaction();

Oracle Applications

Hi All,

I have created this blog to share my knowledge in Oracle Applications. Please post your comments and suggestions.

Articles in OA Framework

1. How to start with OAF Development?
2. How to Deploy OA Framework Files
3. How to Call a Concurrent Program from OA framework
4. How to Call a PL/SQL block from OA framework
5. What is the difference between ADF and OAF?
6. How to hide mandatory a field filed in OAF?
7. How to edit OA footer region?
8. Can I leave System.out.println or System.err.println in the production code?
9. How to debug VO, LOV and Poplist queries ?
10. How to do logging in Oracle Applications?

Articles in Oracle Applications

1. How to gather SQL trace in OAF and other Oracle apps technologies?
2. What is Oracle Open Interfaces or Interfaces and conversions?
3. What are the standard documentations needed for Oracle Apps Implementation?
4. What are General Ledger Interface Tables?

Articles in SOA

1. How to create Advanced Queue in Database?
2. How to query the BPEL TreeFinder data from the dehyderation database?

...to be Continued

OAF vs ADF 10g

OAF vs ADF 10g

Hi all,

With the emergence of next generation Fusion technology middleware stack there is confusion between the technologies OA framework and ADF among Oracle developers especially for the people who are developing extensions for Oracle Applications 11i/R12. Both are Oracle technologies for developing web based User Interface with Jdeveloper. Hence I decided to bring out the detailed overview of OA framework and ADF, and identify the rite technology for your web development projects.

OA Framework

OAF (Oracle Applications Framework) is used to create the web based Oracle Application extensions and it is the default web technology for 11i and R12 development. It is closely integrated with Oracle Apps hence it is meaningless outside apps context. OAF is a model-view-controller technology stack which comprised of OA framework View (regions and pages) and BC4J respectively as view and model layers.

OAF and Oracle Applications 11i/R12

• OAF includes AOL which provides e-business functionality like functions, menus, responsibility, functional security, data security, messages, profiles, flex-fields, and concurrent programs.
• List of Values – validation, auto complete, auto clear is available in OAF.
• Transaction Search – Query Bean is available in OAF.
• Data export, Configurable pages and Rich text editor is available in OAF.
• OAF supports translatable table (TL tables).
• Who columns like created by, modified by, creation date, modified date are supported in OAF.
• Since OAF is tightly integrated with E-Business session management is done automatically.
• Menu that appears at the top of the page is integrated with AOL menus. Hence the menus can be configured dynamically by manipulating AOL menus and no coding is required.
• Functional security is available in OAF which allows you to configure the responsibility dynamically for the user.
• User authentication is done from SSO. So no need to configure or write any code.
• Data security is available.
• Secured against cross site scripting attack.
• OAF page access can be tracked.
• Standards and guidelines are available for developing extensions in OAF which is the most important thing.
• Reusable regions are available in OAF.
• UI cannot be migrated to ADF 11g (may be in the future Oracle will come up with migration utility for UI but even then only declarative pages would be migrated and the UI pages should have followed the coding standards strictly).
• BC4J can be migrated with minimal code change.
• Controller cannot be migrated hence you have to rewrite all the logic's in the controller if you want to migrate it to ADF 11g.

ADF 10g

ADF 10g (Application Development Framework) is the core technology for Fusion Applications and uses lot of open standards and technologies. ADF can also be used for common J2EE applications because ADF technology stack allows you choose between various options. ADF is primarily comprised of ADF Faces, ADF model and ADFbc (which is previously known as bc4j in OAF)

ADF 10g and Oracle Applications 11i/R12

• ADF 10g does not include any support for AOL
• List of Values and its associated features like validation, auto complete and clear does not exists in ADF.
• No Transnational search, Data Export, Configurable pages or Rich text editor.
• No support of Translatable Table and who columns.
• No support for E-business suite session management.
• No support for integration with Oracle Workflow.
• E-business security features are totally unavailable in ADF 10g. (security features include Data security, functionally security, SSO etc)
• Page access cannot be tracked in ADF 10g.
• No support of for menus in ADF.
• Reusable regions cannot be created in ADF 10g.
• ADF 10g can be easily migrated to ADF 11g.
• And most of all you cannot extend or personalize the existing page with the help of ADF.

And the advantage of ADF 10g over OA framework is that your investments would be protected when you want to migrate to ADF 11g.

(ADF has many advantages starting from the underlying architecture, the level of support for Web Services and SOA development and going all the way to the actual development experience of UIs using visual editor and drag and drop binding. -- Shay)

Conclusion

Consider following points when choosing technology.

• If you want to build few pages with close integration of e-business suite then opt for OA framework. Remember if you want to migrate your code to ADF 11g in the future, you have to follow the coding standards strictly and code all the business logic in bc4j rather than handling the logic in controller.
• If you don’t want a close integration e-business suite or your building entirely new application then go for ADF 10g.

New to OA Framework

Following are the most frequently asked questions in the OAF forums by new OAF Developers

1. What is OAF?
2. What are the prerequisites for learning OAF?
3. I am a forms developer and I want to learn a web technology, should I go for OAF or ADF?
4. Where to get the jdeveloper for OA Framework?
5. How to learn OAF and where to find step by step tutorial?
6. Can I practice OAF in home?

In this article I am going to explain what the developer should do if he is new to OA framework technology.

What is OAF?
OAF is web development framework based on MVC architecture for developing HTML pages and customizations in the Oracle Applications 11i/R12.


What are the prerequisites for learning OA framework?
You need the basic level knowledge in J2EE, good level of knowledge in Java and Oracle database (very important). Especially in java you should have good knowledge of inheritence, overriding, exception handling and collections etc.


I am a forms developer and I want to learn a web technology, should I go for OAF or ADF?
It depends on the purpose of learning the web technology. If you are an ebiz developer and want to do customization and extensions for the HTML based pages in the Oracle applications 11i/R12 then you should go for OA framework. This statment holds well till the release of fusion applications because ADF is well integrated with fusion apps. Also remember learning OAF is not going to be wasted, because ADF uses same bc4j in the name of ADF bc (of course, with good improvements over bc4j), so OAF developers can easily learn ADF in minimal duration.

If you're a forms developer, you're not working in Oracle Applications and you want to develop a new web application for your business, then you should go for ADF 11g. For more information about difference between OAF and ADF follow this link


Where to get the jdeveloper for OA Framework?
The jdeveloper available in the otn.oracle.com is meant for j2ee developers. So it cannot be used for OAF development. There are different set of jdeveloper versions available in the metalink corresponding to the OAF version of your Oracle Applications. First you need to identify the version of OA Framework available in the Oracle Application instance.

To know that

1. Open any OAF page
2. Select the "About this Page" link located at the bottom of the page.
3. Choose the technology components tab
4. There you can find the versions of OAF and all technology components of the Oracle application.
5. You can find the jdeveloper corresponding to the OAF version in the following metalink note How to find the correct version of JDeveloper to use with eBusiness Suite 11i or Release 12
6. And you need a Metalink login to view the above link and to download the jdeveloper zip file.

How to learn OA framework and where to find step by step tutorial?
The best way to learn OA framework is to start with toolbox tutorials. If you have any doubts in the tutorial you can refer the Developers guide and Personalization Guide. If you want to refer the documentation for OAF java methods like setForwardURL() etc. you can see it in Java Doc available in the index.htm page.

To See the tutorial index

1. Go to jdevDoc folder in the path where you unziped your jdeveloper.zip file.
2. Open the index.htm
3. There you can find Oracle Application Framework Toolbox Tutorials link.

There are around 15 topics in this tutorial to illustrate the basic and advanced topics of the OA framework. It will take 5-10 days to complete all the lessons in this tutorial. These tutorial lessons include almost everything you might need in the OA framework development and customization.


How to practice it in Home?Running a OAF page from the jdeveloper needs a Oracle Applications Instance up and running. So should have the whole Oracle Applications instance installed in your laptop/desktop or you should have network connection to Oracle Applications instance.