Working with ADF Faces Calendar Component

Introduction

Oracle JDeveloper 11g Release 1 has a number of new features and this How To Document highlights the new ADF Calendar Component and includes a sample application to demonstrate use of the component.

The ADF Faces calendar component displays created activities in daily, weekly, monthly, or list view for a given provider or providers where the provider is the owner of an activity.

ADF Faces Calendar Showing Weekly View

The calendar component also includes the following functionality:

• A toolbar that allows users to switch between monthly, weekly, daily, and list views.
• Configurable start of the week days and start of the day hours.
• Configurable styles using skinning keys.

Additionally, you can implement the following functionality using other ADF Faces components and the rich client framework:

• Popup functionality.
• Drag and drop cabability.
• Toolbar customization.
• Skinning

Software Requirements

• JDeveloper 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.1.0).
• Download included schema and unzip the archive. Create a user in your database with the credentials of  fod/fusion. Load the schema in an XE database for example via a command line as follows: imp fodcal.dmp. Use the user fod/fusion when prompted. Alternatively , you can download the fodcalendar.zip sql script and unzip the archive. This still requires the creation of the user fod/fusion and then you can load the fodcalendar sql script through sqlplus.
• Download sample application and unzip the archive.
• Oracle XE database or equivalent.

Data Model Requirements

• An ADF Faces Calendar component must be bound to a CalendarModel class. This class can be created for you when you use ADF Business Components to manage your calendar's data. For example, say you have data in your data store that represents the details of an activity, such as the date, time, title, location, and owner. When you create an entity object to represent that data, and then a view object to display the data, you can drag and drop the associated collection from the Data Controls panel to create the calendar. JDeveloper will declaratively create the model and bind the view to that model so that the correct data will display when the calendar is launched. However, in order for the model to be created, your Business Components must contain certain attributes, and your view object must contain certain variables that will be used to modify the query to use named bind variables that represent the date range and current time zone to display. This will allow the query to return only the activities that should be displayed in the given view of the calendar. For specifics on required and optional attributes  for the Entity Object  as well as required bind variables for the View Object please refer to the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.1.0).

Note: A Calendar can also be based on a non ADF BC data source. For further information please review  the Oracle Fusion Middleware Web User Interface Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework 11 g Release 1 (11.1.1.1.0)

Using the ADF Faces Calendar component: Create business components based on your data source

If you haven't already created an application workspace then do so now and give it an appropriate name. This should be a Fusion Web Application (ADF). For the model Default package name give it something like oracle.otn.adf.sample.model. Likewise, for the view Default package name, give it something like oracle.otn.adf.sample.view. After creating the application workspace proceed to creating a entity and view object based on the fod_cal_event schema. This is done by right selecting on the Model project and selecting new from context followed by selecting the ADF Business Components in the Business Tier node and Business Components from Tables.

Create the Connection to the schema for the calendar.

Query the schema and shuttle the FOD_CAL_EVENT schema from the available to the selected tables for the Entity Object. Note that their are Required Attributes for a Calendar and they can be found in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.1.0). Also note that an application module is required  in order to create and expose the data control to the view of the calendar application.

The Summary of Create Business Components from Tables page should resemble the following:

Select Finish.

Now you can proceed to additional requirements and modifications to the EO Business Component just created such as ensuring that EID is the primary key by right selecting on the FODCALEVENTEO EO and selecting Open from context. This may require deleteing a default created primary key of rowID. Select the Attributes Tree Item for the FodCalEventEO and  right selecting Eid and selecting Edit from context.  Ensure that the Primary Key is selected.

Now a few attributes that will be utilized when adding events to the calendar will be created in the View Object. Select the Attributes node within the Tree for FodCalEventVO and add the following attributes:

Add the following Named bind variable that will be used in the SQL query of this view object.

Right select  the TimeZone (Tz) variable, and select Edit from context. Add the following expression and ensure the Value Type is set to Expression. This is to get the current timezone for the calendar in use.

TimeZone.getDefault().getID()

The Entity and View Object are complete at this point, however, the Application Module needs the View Object added to it Data Model Components. Open the FODADFCalAppModule and select the Data Model node in the Tree. Select the FodCalEventVO and shuttle it from the Available View Objects to the Data Model and rename it to FodCalEventVO. Shuttle it over a second time for the insert operation and name it FodCalEventVOInsert.

At this point the entity and view objects based on the provided calendar schema, including required attributes, have been created along with the required bind variables.  Now the calendar component can be added to a JSF page, further configured, and additional functionality can be added if desired. In the next section, additional logic will be added to a managed bean containing logic for the calendar, activities, and providers along with popup functionality for the basic CRUD operations.

Creating the View for your Calendar

Select ADF Task Flow from the Component Palette drop down and within the Components accordion drag and drop a View on to the task flow and give it the name of calendar. Double click on the calendar View to create the new JSF page fragment.

Now the calendar can be created and configured. Expand the Data Controls accordion and drag the collection that represents the view object for the activity created above (FodCalEventVO) and drop it as a Calendar.

Configure the calendar to utilize the schema attributes and select Finish. Further configuring of the calendar will be done through the Bindings section of the calendar.jsff page fragment.

Once the calendar has been created select the bindings tab in the editor of the calendar.jsff page fragment and ensure that the Model resembles the following:

The following Executables and Bindings will have to be added to the Page DataBinding Definition as illustarted above.

Executables: Add the following Iterator

FodCalEventVOInsertIterator

Bindings: Add the following actions, attributesValues, and buttons all from the FODADFCalAppModuleDataControl.FodCalEventVOInsert

CreateInsert (action)

Commit (action)

Rollback (action)

Eid1  (attributeValues)

CommunityId1  (attributeValues)

Summary1  (attributeValues)

StartTime1  (attributeValues)

EndTime1  (attributeValues)

Location1  (attributeValues)

IsAllDayEvent1 (attributeValues)

IsAllDayEvent (button)

Create the Managed Bean. The Managed Bean contains the logic for the calendar, activities and the providers. The class itself is provided in the Application workspace that can be downloaded so all the details around the logic are left for the reader to review. Also provided are a couple of Utility classes ( ADFUtils.java and JSFUtils.java) that  the Managed Bean utilizes.

Now that the Managed Bean has been created, open the calendar-task-flow.xml  and select the Managed Beans node of the Tree. Add the Managed Bean to the calendar-task-flow.xml Managed Beans section .

Add Functionality using popup components

The basic functionality for the calendar has been created but now popup features will be included for the CRUD operations. This is done by creating the popups and associated components in the associated facets.

In the Structure window, expand the calendar component node so that the calendar facets are displayed.

Based on Table 15-1 of the  Fusion Middleware Web User Interface Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework, create popup components in the facets that correspond to the user actions for which you want to provide functionality. For example, if you want users to be able to delete an activity by clicking it and pressing the Delete key, you add a popup dialog to the activityDelete facet.

To add a popup component, right-click the facet in the Structure window and choose Insert inside facetName > ComponentName. In this case, a popup for creating a new event is being created so this is done by inserting inside of the create facet.

A second popup editing and deleting calendar events is also utilized in the sample calendar application provided and that is created inside of the activityDetail facet. The details are left to the reader and can be reviewed by referring to the source in the calendar.jsff page fragment. For more information about creating popup components, see Chapter 13, "Using Popup Dialogs, Menus, and Windows".

Implement any needed logic for the calendarActivityListerner. For example, if you are implementing a dialog for the activityDetail facet, then implement logic in the calendarActivityListener that can save-off the current activity so that you will know which activity to delete. As before, the details are in the code in the CalendarBean Managed Bean and are left to the reader to review.

Save your work at this point and create a jsf xml document and give it an appropriate name such as index.jspx. Drop the calendar-task-flow onto the index.jspx page and create it as a Region.

Run the Calendar Application.

To run the application simply right click on the index.jspx page and select Run from context. This packages up the application, starts up the integrated WebLogic server and deploy the application to the server so that you can test your work. Click anywhere in the calendar and a popup dialog will appear to create an event.  Also, experiment with the various views that are provided by default with the calendar component.

Select an existing event to update or delete.

For further information on creating a calendar application utilizing the new calendar component please refer to  the Oracle Fusion Middleware Web User Interface Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework 11 g Release 1 (11.1.1.1.0).