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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

New to OAF

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.


And if you get any doubts in the OA Framework you can get the experts help at the OAF forum http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=210&start=0



Article By:

Prasanna Jayaraman

Please post your Ideas and Comments

23 comments :

Anonymous said...

Prasanna,

How can I get the OA Framework Dev Guide and the corresponding version of Jdev without a metalink login? I don't have the required support identifier.

Thanks,
-Carlton

Pras said...

Hi Carlton,

All the Oracle customers will have metalink login. If you don't have a login on your own, check with your DBA or clients they should be able to get it for you.

There is no other place you can get jdeveloper for OAF.

--Prasanna

Ravikumar said...

Hi Prasanna,

I am new to OA Framework.I have two questions.Please answer these questions.

1.Can we create Tabs/Menus in OA page using Jdeveloper(not from Oracle Applications).If we can create Tabs then please provide me the related information.

2.In OA page can we display/hide some components based on the Admin/User Role or Previliges.This should also be done from jdeveloper.Can we Use Personalization concept for this.If so mention the related information.If any other alternate solution is present mention it.

Please provide me some information so that i can proceed further.This is very urgent for me.Thanks in advance.

Thank You,
Ravi kumar.

Pras said...

Hi Ravi,

1. There is no separate menu component in OAF. Tabs in OAF comes from Oracle Application menus. Tabs in OAF page will be automatically rendered based on the Oracle Application menus (eg. iProcurement, iSupplier). For more info refer jdev guide -> chapter 4 -> global button.

2. You can hide the components based on functional security. Refer jdev guide -> Chapter 4 -> Partial Page Rending -> Component based functional security. This is also dependent of Oracle Apps.

Without oraacle applications you can't achieve most of the functionality in OAF. Why are asking for without Oracle applications?

--Prasanna

Ravikumar said...

Hi Prasanna,

Thanks for your quick reply.

1.As I am new to OA Framework I thought that Menu/Tab can be created in OA Pages.

2.Displaying/hide some components can be done using Partial page rendering.Can it be used for rendering the components based on the User/Admin Previliges.

In my context "without oracle Applications" means from Oracle Jdeveloper. Please provide some information regarding the second point.

Thank You,
Ravi kumar.

Pras said...

hi,

2. jdev guide -> Chapter 4 -> Partial Page Rending -> Component based functional security

Functional security comes under PPR.

Follow these steps to control the display of items based on User privileages.

a. Create a Function in Oracle Apps.
b. Attach it to a Menu -> Responsibility.
c. In the read only property of the UI component, put ${oa.FunctionSecurity.FunctionName}

eg;
${oa.FunctionSecurity.SUPPLIER_READ_ONLY}

d. Now if you want to hide the UI component for particular user. Goto -> responisibility master -> add an entry in the funcation exclusion list.

this way you can control the display of a UI item responsibility wise.

--Prasanna

Ravikumar said...

Hi Prasanna,

Thanks for your quick reply.My doubt is cleared.Thanks once again for providing me the relevant informtion.

Thank You,
Ravi kumar

Ravikumar said...

Hi Prasanna,

I have one more question.I have created a Menu Tab in Oracle Applications.How can i display a page when the Tab is clicked.Please tell me the procedure about how to assign a url to Menu tab.Please provide me the related information.Thanks in advance.

Thank You,
Ravi kumar.

Pras said...

hi,

refer jdev guide -> chapter 4 -> tabs/navigation.

it contains step by step procedure to create menus in OAF page..

If you get any doubts then post your questions.

--Prasanna

Praveen Reddy B said...

Hi Prasanna,

i want to have a page where i can give the list of names of Reports that i can download from the site(iRecievables) i was trying out this with messageDownload Component but couldnt succeeded, and it is like giving a download for the file existing in table, but for my case it is in another server where in i can give the link to file, so how can i give hyperlink in OAF page? after clicking on that i should get a download file pop up.

Please help me, ur help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Praveen Reddy B

nageshmullapudi said...

Dear Prasanna,
i know OA Framework up to some extend and i want to attend some interview you have any list of FAQ's? if yes can u share with me?
my id:nagmullapudi@gmail.com

Thanks,
Nagesh

Manoj Kumar Pradhan said...

Hi Prasanna,
Could you please provide metalink url or patch from where I can download Oracle Applications instance.
And the necessary set up details
I have down loaded Jdeveloper ext from metalink.
But unable work as don't have Oracle Applications ,
Also can we run a Helloworld within embeded OC4J

phantom said...

Hi Prasana,
I am a novice to OAf, been following Jdev guide quite sometime. We have a requirement to add upload file option to an existing OAF page. SO i copied all the necessary files to my classes and my project. Now if i run the page. I am getting page cannot be displayed. Help me out.

Thanks
Narain

Neetu said...

Hello Prasana I have just heard the name OAF many times but is eager to learn about it. From the above details I got the idea about this framework and so many questions are also cleared after reading the whole article. Finally I have decided to make my career in this area as I have learnt J2EE, Java and Oracle. Thanks for this excellent guidance and support.
sap support pack implementation

Ashish Raj said...

Hi Prasanna,

Nice collection and very helpful for the OAF community. Here are few article I want to share too..

How to setup JDeveloper and OAF Project

http://www.adivaconsulting.com/adiva-blog/item/25-oaf-project.html

Deployment of OA Framework Tutorials in APPS Environment
http://www.adivaconsulting.com/adiva-blog/item/28-oa-framework.html

Naresh said...

Hi prasanna,
When i tried to run my page getting an error like "You have encountred an unexpected error please contact System Adiministrator".
Can u please help me.

Naresh said...

Hi prasanna,
When i tried to run my page getting an error like "You have encountred an unexpected error please contact System Adiministrator".
Can u please help me.

basha said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
basha said...

Hi prasanna,
When i tried to run my page getting an error like "You have encountred an unexpected error please contact System Adiministrator".
Can u please help me

what i want to do to avoid this error

Unknown said...

Hi,Prasanna,
Can tellme about oracle fusions applications which tools are use for developer?

Selvaganapathy said...

Hi Prasanna,

I am new to OAF, could you please explain how to change the LOV's in OAF page.

For eg., in the supplier form have to change the site level LOV with some more conditions, very urgent...

Thanks in Advance...

Regards
Selva

KANDIMALLA's said...

Hi Prasanna....
Could u plz.. tell me how to develop tree in oaf and based on the node , how to display vo........

Thanks in Advance

varun said...

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