You may not necessarily know me for all the useful things I do. I tend to find nooks an crannies in JDeveloper 11g and ADF 11g that are no real use to people doing a real job. However, today I have got something to share that is actually useful. I know this as I ran into a demand for it at a customer I visited today.

In short, the situation was like this: we are creating a web application that needs to have several appearances – not very much alike. The basic functionality – data entry, data display, navigation options – is by and large the same. However, there are substantial differences in the look of these various appearances. And no – it is not just styling or skinning, though that is certainly part of it. What in one appearance maybe located on the top of the page may go right into the center of the page in another appearance. And what in one incarnation maybe a search area with three items, positioned in a horizontal group, all of them plain inputText items may in another incarnation be implemented with two input elements, one a group of radio buttons and a dropdown, positioned in a vertical layout. (more…)