Oracle Application Framework
Oracle Application Framework
Contents
Architecture[edit]
Oracle Application Framework (OAF) is an architecture for creating web based front end
pages and J2EE type of applications within the Oracle EBS ERP platform. In order to
develop and maintain OAF functionality, Oracle's JDeveloper tool is used. OAF is based
on J2EE technology called BC4J (Business Components for Java). As per the MVC
architecture, in OAF, the XML Page forms the View, the JAVA based controller class
forms the controller and the Application Module along with View Objects (VO) and
Schema Objects (EO) forms the Model
Framework Structure[edit]
OA Framework works on basic Java EE principles, and the mainstay is the MVC
architecture,
Model View Controller[edit]
The Model is the place containing the business logic. The View is the presentation
layer. The Controller manages the flow between pages. Most web-based applications
work on these principles. Similar architecture is replicated in OA framework.
Every application has a package some location on the Application Server where all the
code is held, there are basically three types of location within a given package path:
1. Page
2. Regions
3. Controllers (CO)
Schema Server files
1. Personalization
There are certain changes, which are in fact small changes on a page that can be done
without any code changes is a feature that oracle provides to its users, this is called
personalization. Personalization can be done at user level, responsibility level, org level
and site level.
To enable the personalization link on every page use the Profile option, "Personalize
Self-Service Defn".
After setting this profile, on every page the Personalize link will appear. One can
personalize certain attributes like rendering items, making fields read only creating
items at required level (User/Responsibility/Site) etc.
After personalization the personalized page needs to be imported to the file system as
mentioned earlier each of the pages resides in the file system and stored in tables
within the database, for doing this there is a standard xml importer script.
1. Customization
In case some new customized codes needs to be created and added to the custom
level which will extend to existing codes.(We will discuss this later)
1. Debugging
Debugging and code analysis is a very major aspect of tracking and finding the required
changes in an OAF code. Set the profile “FND: Diagnostics” this will create a
Diagnostics link on the top as well as a “About this page” link at every page bottom.
These are very important utility for tracking the components on a page, like AM’s /VO’s
and CO’s on a page and helps in finding the various view objects that are attached on a
page and their respective queries. This is also helpful in tracking the components that
needs to be modified or extended during development.
References