ADF Skinning: Change Style of ADF Table, Column, Header, Data Cell and pagination bar

After a long vacation I'm back to work :)
This post is about changing look n feel of ADF Faces af:table component

I have seen many questions related to changing table column header style , selected row style, changing row banding styles etc

ADF Skinning: Increase width, Change color of a tab in af:panelTabbed

We can change appearance of ADF Application by applying CSS and changing style properties of ADF Faces Component
Here i am writing a simple CSS to increase tab width of af:panelTabbed component

I hope you all know how to create a skin for ADF Application , If don't know then look at this post
ADF Basics: Using CSS to change appearance of application (Skins and Styles in ADF Faces) 

ADF Basics: Using contentStyle and inlineStyle property to change basic styling of component in ADF Faces

Hello All,
Again a post about ADF Basics for beginners
I have seen lots of thread on OTN about changing basic styles of component . for example,

How to change font size of inputText ?
How to change color of inputText/outputText ?
How to change color of link or button ?

and everyone starts creating a css/skin for these minor changes but there is no need of that
Skin should be used for complex styles or you have apply same style to all components of your application

If you will read API docs then you will know this, See what docs says about inlineStyle property-

The CSS styles to use for this component. This is intended for basic style changes; you should use the skinning mechanism if you require any complex style changes. The inlineStyle is a set of CSS styles that are applied to the root DOM element of the component. Be aware that because of browser CSS precedence rules, CSS rendered on a DOM element takes precedence over external stylesheets like the skin file. Therefore skins will not be able to override what you set on this attribute.

Difference between contentStyle and inlineStyle -

contentStyle property used to style content part of component like if you want to change color of inputText or any other input component then you have to specify this in contentStyle property of that component

inlineStyle is about whole component and also available in output (outputText) or collection (table, tree etc) component's property where contentStyle is not there. This can be use to set width, height ,border or color of output components etc.

So this is enough about theory , no one likes theory ;) , Everyone is looking for some code that is ready to use
Let's see some practical usage of both properties -

Change font, color, size(width), padding of input components (af:inputText, af:inputDate, af:selectOneChoice etc)-

Used this in contentStyle property of components
width:150px;color:white;font-weight:bold;font-size:small;background-color:red;padding:5px;
and check the output

you can also change input text to uppercase , lowercase, Initcap using contentStyle property, just use any of this -
text-transform:uppercase; // To change in uppercase
text-transform:lowercase; //To change in lowercase
text-transform:capitalize; //To change in initcap

Change properties of output components , color of link/button -

Output components doesn't have contentStyle property as there is not content part in component , here we make use of inlineStyle property
See what happens on applying same style in outputText and link using inlineStyle

It looks good :) , but same style doesn't work for button because button has multiple root element (we can only change width, color of text and font of button but background color and other styling can not be changed using inlineStyle property)
For more detail about button skinning check - Customize af:button (font, shape, size, color etc) using skinning -Oracle ADF (12.1.3)

Change data collection components (af:table, af:treeTable,etc) height, width -

just write in inlineStyle property like this
width:600px;height:200px;background-color:lightyellow;color:red;
background color will be applied on empty area of table and color will be applicable on column header and EmptyText
Remember to set table's height using inlineStyle ensure that autoHeightRows should be set to -1

In same way we can change color of columns too, see i have used different background colors (set background-color:colorName; in inlineStyle of af:column) for columns and it looks like this

Now it's your turn , try more combination on different components. you can do a lot using contentStyle and inlineStyle property. Remember all these changes can be done using skin also but if have some minor changes then why use skin , when framework provides these wonderful properties

Cheers :) Happy Learning

ADF Skinning : Change color and style of af:query buttons in ADF Faces (Jdev 12.1.3)

Hello All,

This is another post about ADF Skinning , in this post i am going to show you that how can we change button's style in af:query component
Actually this is very easy , if we define some styles for af:button component in our css file then it will be applicable on af:query's buttons (Search, Reset, Advanced, Save etc) too

Suppose i have defined this in css file

af|button{
    color:navy;
    font-weight:bold;
}

Now it will change color of all buttons of application including af:query
See this snap after applying this skin

But if you have a requirement to use different style in af:query buttons or you don't want to change color of all buttons
Then it is not that much easy as it seems ☺

There is a selector to style buttons of af:query - af|query::button 
But this works only if buttons are af:commandButton not af:button
See from docs-

af|query::button Styles the buttons of the query component. Note that this skin selector is only present when the skin selector -tr-button-type is set to 'old', and the query buttons are rendered as af:commandButtons. When the -tr-button-type is set to 'unified', the query buttons are rendered as af:buttons and have the default stylings for af:button applied, so that query buttons have the same look and feel as all other buttons. Tip: If you skin this selector's background-image, you may also want to skin it for :hover, :active, :focus. The :disabled state is currently not supported. Please note that for buttons :active and :focus pseudo-classes do not work in IE7. IE7 also does not allow disabled buttons to be styled. It is recommended that you use the .AFButton*:alias selectors as a shortcut to skin all button components the same.

So for this first i have to change -tr-button-type selector to old so that i can use af|query::button
Now see the css

af|query {
    -tr-button-type: old;
}
 af|query::button {
    color: red;
    font-weight:bold;
}

 af|query::button:hover {
    color: Orange;
    font-weight:bold;
}

 af|query::button:focus {
    color: maroon;
    font-weight:bold;
}

af|button{
    color:navy;
    font-weight:bold;
}

Check the output-

To use specific style for af:query you can create styleClass in css file and put this in styleClass property of af:query
Suppose i have two af:query components on page and i want to use different style for both
For this i have define two different styleClass in css file like this-

af|query {
    -tr-button-type: old;
}
 .mystyle1 af|query::button {
    color: red;
    font-weight:bold;
}

.mystyle2 af|query::button {
    color: darkgreen;
    font-weight:bold;
}

and on page put myStyle1 in styleClass property of first af:query component and myStyle2 in second af:query
See how it looks now -

Cheers, Happy Learning  ☺

ADF Basics: Apply and Change WHERE Clause of ViewObject at runtime programmatically

This post is about applying or changing WHERE clause of ViewObject programmatically, it can be also used in case we need a specific data(row) from database, suppose you are using Department table of HR Schema and on a button click you need to show records of department id 5

It means you want to filter viewObject on that particular event, you can do this using setWhereClause mehtod of ViewObjectImpl class.
See the image below , all rows shown in this

Now when we click the button, it will filter (apply WHERE Clause in Departments ViewObject) rows and refresh ViewObject , returns desired rows.




For Department_Id 4-

For Department_Id 5-

To apply WHERE Clause , see this simple snippet of code

ViewObject v1 = am.getDepartment1();

v1.setWhereClause("DEPARTMENT_ID=4"); // Pass Where Clause String as Method Parameter

v1.executeQuery();

This code snippet fetch the Row with Deprartment_id=4 and returns back to page. setWhereClause sets the Query's (SQL) Where Clause and doesn't take effect until executeQuery method of ViewObjectImpl is called

To reset Where Clause we have to set null value in method used

ViewObject v1 = am.getDepartment1();

v1.setWhereClause(null); // To Remove Where Clause

v1.executeQuery();

Thanks , Happy Learning :)

Customize af:button (font, shape, size, color etc) using skinning -Oracle ADF (12.1.3)

Hello all
this post is about styling af:button component in ADF 12.1.3
how can we customize a button , change it's color, background color, shape ,size, font and many more
In 12.1.3 Jdeveloper, some features are supported like width of button directly from inline style property (this was not supported in 11g)

you can see new features for client side css- http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/jdev/documentation/1213nf-2222743.html

So let's start
I hope everyone know how to create css (skin) file in jdeveloper , if don't then follow this

Right click on viewController project → New from Gallery → Categories → Web Tier → JSF/Facelets → ADF Skin



Dropped 3 buttons on page, third one is disabled

Changing button properties (width, font, color for different client event) -

I think no description needed as tags are self-descriptive

af|button {
    width: 150px;
    text-align: center;
    vertical-align: bottom;
    color: blue;
    border: skyblue 2.0px solid;
    font-style: italic;
    font-family: cursive;
}

Output-

Now change background color - to do this we have to use af|button::link  selector

af|button::link {
    border: skyblue 2.0px solid;
    background-color: #feffd5;
}

Output-

In same way we can change button behavior for hover, disabled and depressed client event

Hover event-

af|button:hover::link {
    background-color: #c7660b;
    border: skyblue 2.0px solid;
    color: White;
}

af|button:disabled::link {
      background-color: Gray;
    border: skyblue 2.0px solid;
    color: White;
}

Output- (hover on first button)

Depressed event- (Select )
 

af|button:depressed::link {
    background-color: maroon;
    border: skyblue 2.0px solid;
    color: White;
}

Changing shape of button-

1.Rounded corner (oval shape)
just change af|button and af|button::link selectors

af|button {
    width: 150px;
    text-align: center;
    vertical-align: bottom;
    color: blue;
    border: skyblue 2.0px solid;
    font-style: italic;
    font-family: cursive;
    border-bottom-left-radius: 15px;
    border-bottom-right-radius: 15px;
    border-top-left-radius: 15px;
    border-top-right-radius: 15px;
}

af|button::link {
    border: skyblue 2.0px solid;
    background-color: #feffd5;
    border-bottom-left-radius: 15px;
    border-bottom-right-radius: 15px;
    border-top-left-radius: 15px;
    border-top-right-radius: 15px;
}

Output-

2.Square Button-

af|button {
    text-align: center;
    vertical-align: middle;
    color: blue;
    border: skyblue 2.0px solid;
    font-style: italic;
    font-family: cursive;
    height: 50px;
    width: 50px;
}

af|button::text {
    padding-top: 12px;
}

af|button::link {
    border: skyblue 2.0px solid;
    background-color: #feffd5;
    height: 43px;
}

Output-

2.Round(Circle) Button-

changing shape is nothing just some hit and try in css, see the changes css other selectors remain same

af|button {
    text-align: center;
    vertical-align: middle;
    color: blue;
    border: skyblue 2.0px solid;
    font-style: italic;
    font-family: cursive;
    height: 50px;
    width: 50px;
    border-bottom-left-radius: 5em 5em;
    border-bottom-right-radius: 5em 5em;
    border-top-left-radius: 5em;
    border-top-right-radius: 5em;
}

af|button::text {
    padding-top: 12px;
}

af|button::link {
    border: skyblue 2.0px solid;
    background-color: #feffd5;
    height: 43px;
    border-bottom-left-radius: 5em 5em;
    border-bottom-right-radius: 5em 5em;
    border-top-left-radius: 5em;
    border-top-right-radius: 5em;
}

Output-

So purpose of this post is to give overview of skinning and different selectors, you can try it on any component. Jdeveloper provide built in skin editor for all component , there you can see all selector and pseudo element of a component
Thanks , Happy Learning

How to change default icons (info, Error, Warning) of FacesMessage and af:messages in Oracle ADF

Hello all
this post is about customizing or changing default icons of FacesMessage , it is very basic but sometimes it's hard to do easy things
if we need to use alternate icons in af:messages or in programmatic FacesMessage, so to do this just create a small ,simple CSS file (ADF Skin) in viewController project and use this code

Change url as per your icon image path, you can also define same for Fatal Error and Confirmation icon also

af|messages::info-icon
{
  content: url("../../information.png"); 
}

af|messages::warning-icon
{
  content: url("../../warning.png"); 
}
af|messages::error-icon
{
  content: url("../../error.png"); 
}

apply this skin to project and run your application to see changes

Default Icon	Changed Icon

Happy Learning :)

ADF Basics: Using CSS to change appearance of application (Skins and Styles in ADF Faces)

Hello All
This is a basic post about using CSS in ADF applications, how can you change appearance of ADF application using Skins (.css file)
See the steps to create and apply css in your ADF applications

• Create a Fusion Web Application and create a page
• Add Some ADF Faces component (input text,button,panel box, panel collection etc)
• Now to change appearance of default ADF Faces components , create an ADF Skin
•  Right click on ViewController--->New--->Web Tier--->JSF/Facelets--->ADF Skin 





• By default ADF Skin name is like skin1,2 etc




• After creating ADF Faces skin open it and, on left you will see all components as Button, Layouts, Output text and so on. this is ADF Skin Editor





• Now expand the components that you want to change , change it's color(on active, focus , hover etc) and other properties. See in image below





• After creating your ADF Skin ,open trinidad-config.xml file in Jdeveloper editor and your will see like this



<skin-family>skin1</skin-family>

This means that skin1 is applied on Application

• now if you another ADF Skin file- skin2 then in trinidad-config.xml, it will be changed to



<skin-family>skin2</skin-family>



• ADF automatically choose the most recent skin, so here this is done , now create and configure your ADF Skin and customize appearance of application
• For more details see Oracle Docs- http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E16764_01/web.1111/b31973/af_skin.htm

Cheers :-) Happy Learning

Overriding Reset button action (QueryOperationListener) of af:query, Changing query mode, Handling QueryOperationEvent programmatically-Oracle ADF

Hello All ,
previously i had a requirement of validating af:query fields so i have found two ways to do that
see -Overriding default query listener ,field validation of af:query- Oracle ADF

now i have to set some values in af:query when user clicks on Reset button of query so to do that i have to override default QueryOperationListener in order to handle QueryOperationEvent  



Oracle docs says-

af:query- The query component provides the user the ability to perform a query based on a saved search or personalize saved searches in Oracle ADF. The component displays a search panel with various elements, each of which help the user to accomplish various tasks. 

QueryOperationListener- QueryOperationListener class. A registered queryOperationListener is invoked when the user's action results a queue and broadcast of QueryOpertionEvent on the component. For example, click the delete icon in the QuickCriteria component or click "Save", "Reset" etc buttons in Query component to perform a Query Operation.

 QueryOperationEvent-A user can perform various operations on saved searches while interacting with a query component. These actions include creating, overriding, deleting, duplicating, selecting, resetting and updating a saved search

want to read more-  
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17904_01/apirefs.1111/e10684/oracle/adf/view/rich/event/QueryOperationListener.html
http://jdevadf.oracle.com/adf-richclient-demo/docs/apidocs/oracle/adf/view/rich/event/QueryOperationEvent.html  

so i have created a QueryOperationListener in managed bean that communicates with QueryOperationEvent

in this method we can capture various events of af:query as reset,update
so for this use-case i have to capture reset and set desired values in query attribute (viewObject's bind variable) , here i am using Departments table of HR Schema

now see the code (i have to set Human Resource department on reset in search panel) - how to capture raised event when user clicks on Reset button of af:query

    /**Custom QueryOperationListener that hadles variois events raised by af:query
     * @param queryOperationEvent
     */
    public void deptSeacrhQueryOperationList(QueryOperationEvent queryOperationEvent) {
        //Invoke default operation listener
        invokeEL("#{bindings.DepartmentsVOCriteriaQuery.processQueryOperation}", Object.class,
                 QueryOperationEvent.class, queryOperationEvent);

        System.out.println("Query Event is-" + queryOperationEvent.getOperation().name());
        //Check that current operation is RESET
        if (queryOperationEvent.getOperation().name().equalsIgnoreCase("RESET")) {
            DCIteratorBinding iter = (DCIteratorBinding) getBindings().get("Departments1Iterator");

            ViewObjectImpl vo = (ViewObjectImpl) iter.getViewObject();
            // Setting the value of bind variable
            vo.ensureVariableManager().setVariableValue("BindDeptNm", "Human Resource");
        }
    }

to invoke Expression use this method

    /**
     * @param expr
     * @param returnType
     * @param argTypes
     * @param args
     * @return
     */
    public Object invokeMethodExpression(String expr, Class returnType, Class[] argTypes, Object[] args) {
        FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
        ELContext elctx = fc.getELContext();
        ExpressionFactory elFactory = fc.getApplication().getExpressionFactory();
        MethodExpression methodExpr = elFactory.createMethodExpression(elctx, expr, returnType, argTypes);
        return methodExpr.invoke(elctx, args);
    }

    /**
     * @param expr
     * @param returnType
     * @param argType
     * @param argument
     * @return
     */
    public Object invokeEL(String expr, Class returnType, Class argType, Object argument) {
        return invokeMethodExpression(expr, returnType, new Class[] { argType }, new Object[] { argument });
    }

now run this page and check on click of reset button this listener is invoked and sets the value of af:query field
Default page view -on-load

 after click on Reset-

other than this reset we can handle other events of af:query (for saved search there are various events based on corresponding operations) as DELETE, UPDATE, CREATE

on clicking various button of this personalized search box we get respective operation  name in managed bean and can handle as  done for RESET operation

Changing mode of default search panel (af:query) of ADF-
this is nothing but  2 lines that changes the mode of af:query - Basic to Advanced & Advanced to Basic

so dropped a button on page to change af:query search mode and see the code of ActionListener for this

//Binding of af:query in managed bean  
  private RichQuery queryPanelDept;
    
    public void setQueryPanelDept(RichQuery queryPanelDept) {
        this.queryPanelDept = queryPanelDept;
    }
    public RichQuery getQueryPanelDept() {
        return queryPanelDept;
    }

    private String current_mode = "B";

    /**Method Action to change mode of af:query
     * @param actionEvent
     */
    public void changeModeAction(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
        if (current_mode == "B") {
            getQueryPanelDept().getValue().changeMode(QueryDescriptor.QueryMode.ADVANCED);
            current_mode = "A";
        } else if (current_mode == "A") {
            getQueryPanelDept().getValue().changeMode(QueryDescriptor.QueryMode.BASIC);
            current_mode = "B";
        }
    }

now run page and see-

Cheers - Happy learning :-) Download Sample ADF App

Changing default text of af:dialog buttons (ok,cancel) in ADF

Hello All,
you all have used pop up component with af:dialog in ADF,
default dialog component look like this inside popup

in ADF there is option to change dialog type , select dialog component and go to property inspector-

But sometimes we need to change default dialog button's text as per our requirement, to do this follow steps mentioned below

• Drag a popup having dialog as its child component on page
• select af:dialog in structure window and go to property inspector

• In property inspector navigate Appearance--->Text 

• Now set values for Affirmative and cancel text 
  
   
• Now run your application and see-
  
   



• But it's outcome doesn't get changed as it is static, you can see this in managed bean code, i have created dialog Listener and a cancelListener in managed bean 



import javax.faces.application.FacesMessage;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;

import oracle.adf.view.rich.event.DialogEvent;
import oracle.adf.view.rich.event.PopupCanceledEvent;


public class DialogListenerBean {
    public DialogListenerBean() {
    }

    public void dialogListener(DialogEvent dialogEvent) {
        FacesMessage msg = new FacesMessage("You have clicked- " + dialogEvent.getOutcome().name());
        FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, msg);
    }

    public void cancelListener(PopupCanceledEvent popupCanceledEvent) {
        FacesMessage msg = new FacesMessage("You have clicked- cancel");
        FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, msg);
    }
}

• When you click on ok and cancel (with changed text), it will return same outcome that was before changing button's text

Cheers- Merry Christmas :-)