Beauty of ADF- Taskflow, Difference b/w Facelets and JSP XML fragments in bounded taskflow

Oracle ADF framework support modular architecture for enterprize application development. Multiple small module can be bound together to form a large module .
The greatest advantage of ADF controller over core JSF navigation model is that it splits a single bulky module to multiple reusable and interconnected modules known as Taskflows.

i am not going deeper in Taskflows as every ADF developer know about it ,so the important part is page fragment.

• When  we create taskflow as bounded taskflow , and check it to create fragment in taskflow.

• Now when we create pagefragment in bounded taskflow, there is 2 option for creating fragment

Create fragment as Facelets
Create fragment as JSP XML 

Facelets- is default and official view handler for JSF pages, priviously JSP was used to view JSF pages but it didn't support all component so Facelets comes in picture under APACHE open source license. It supprts all UI component used by JSF (Java Server Faces).
Facelets was developed by Jacob Hookom in 2005.
If you create Facelets fragment in bounded taskflow, then taskflow must be dropped in a JSF page (parent page) not in .jspx (JSP XML ) page.
if you try to drop it into JSP XML page-

JSP XML- jspx is XML variant of JSP(Java Server Pages) to support XML document . JSP XML fragments are used in ADF inorder to support XML document and more powerful page validation techniques.
If you create jsp xml fragments in bounded taskflow, then taskflow must be dropped in a JSP XML(.jspx) page(parent page) not in JSF page.

Using Contextual Event in Oracle ADF (Region Communication)

Contextual event ,in simple terms is a way to communicate between taskflows.

Sometimes we have taskflow open in a region and have to get some values from that taskflow .

This scenario can be achieved by contextual event.

 

Contextual Event have two parts-

1. Publisher Event (Producer)- As button or any component that can raise event 
2. Handler Event (Customer)- that listens and process event published by producer

This tutorial is based on example developed on default HR schema of Oracle DB 11g

I have created two application and called first one in secod application as region.

• Create first application using Department table of HR schema and drag Department Name on page fragment, now create publisher event (follow steps) for Department Name .
• Select Department Name field in structure window and go to property Inspector select ContextualEvent
  click on green add icon and select event type and name for publisher event

 

• Select field value from Iterator Binding
  
• here you are done with publisher event or producer create a jar of this application in order to use it in second application.
• Now start Second Application that will handle and process this event, create a page and put an output text and set its value from managed bean
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Now create a event handler class to process published event and to make it available to page binding level , we have to create DataControl for this class.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Right click on event class and Click on CreateDataControl.
• Now add this method binding to page so that it can be accessible from page binding

• Now drag and drop taskflow from jar library on page as region by this published event will also be available to page
  

  
• Now go to page binding and goto ContextualEvents tab ,click on subscribers tab and click on add icon this will open a popup window ,click on search button , it will show available publisher event, now select event and goto handler search option and select function that you have previously added in page binding
• Give consumer parameter name same as event handler function

 

Now Run your Application - Download ADF Sample Application

Phone Number custom validation using Regular Expression in ADF and Java

Regular Expression (REGEX) is the best method to validate phone number. emailId, name in Java.
Here I have written this validation code for phone number using Regular Expression and Java code to use this in an Oracle ADF Application.

public void phoneNoValidator(FacesContext facesContext, UIComponent uIComponent, Object object) {
        String msg2 = "";
        if (object != null) {
            String phnNo = object.toString();
            int openB = 0;
            int closeB = 0;
            boolean closeFg = false;
            char[] xx = phnNo.toCharArray();
            for (char c : xx) {
                if (c == '(') {
                    openB = openB + 1;
                } else if (c == ')') {
                    closeB = closeB + 1;
                }

                if (closeB > openB) {
                    closeFg = true; //closed brackets will not be more than open brackets at any given time.
                }
            }
            //if openB=0 then no. of closing and opening brackets equal || opening bracket must always come before closing brackets
            //closing brackets must not come before first occurrence of openning bracket
            if (openB != closeB || closeFg == true || (phnNo.lastIndexOf("(") > phnNo.lastIndexOf(")")) ||
                (phnNo.indexOf(")") < phnNo.indexOf("("))) {
                msg2 = "Brackets not closed properly.";
                FacesMessage message2 = new FacesMessage(msg2);
                message2.setSeverity(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR);
                throw new ValidatorException(message2);
            }
            if (phnNo.contains("()")) {
                msg2 = "Empty Brackets are not allowed.";
                FacesMessage message2 = new FacesMessage(msg2);
                message2.setSeverity(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR);
                throw new ValidatorException(message2);
            }
            if (phnNo.contains("(.") || phnNo.contains("(-") || phnNo.contains("-)")) {
                msg2 = "Invalid Phone Number.Check content inside brackets.";
                FacesMessage message2 = new FacesMessage(msg2);
                message2.setSeverity(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR);
                throw new ValidatorException(message2);
            }

            openB = 0;
            closeB = 0;
            closeFg = false;
            //check for valid language name.Allowed- brackets,dots,hyphen

            String expression = "([0-9\\-\\+\\(\\)]+)";
            CharSequence inputStr = phnNo;
            Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(expression);
            Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(inputStr);
            String error = "Invalid Phone Number";
            System.out.println("Index of plus is--->" + phnNo.lastIndexOf("+"));
            System.out.println("Bracket index--->" + phnNo.charAt(0));

            if (matcher.matches()) {
                if (phnNo.contains("++") || phnNo.contains("--")) {
                    throw new ValidatorException(new FacesMessage(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, error,
                                                                  "Can not contain two hyphen(--) or plus(++)"));
                } else if (phnNo.lastIndexOf("+") > 1) {
                    throw new ValidatorException(new FacesMessage(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, error,
                                                                  "Plus sign should be in proper place"));
                } else if (phnNo.lastIndexOf("+") == 1 && phnNo.charAt(0) != '(') {
                    throw new ValidatorException(new FacesMessage(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, error,
                                                                  "Plus sign should be in proper place"));
                } else if (phnNo.startsWith(" ") || phnNo.endsWith(" ")) {
                    throw new ValidatorException(new FacesMessage(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, error,
                                                                  "Space Not allowed at start and end"));
                }

            } else {
                throw new ValidatorException(new FacesMessage(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, error,
                                                              "Only numeric character,+,() and - allowed"));
            }

        }
    }

Cheers:) Happy Learning