ADF JHeadstart Beta – Impressions of Build 10

Today we received a hot build of ADF JHeadstart Beta for JDeveloper 10.1.2 (build 10). We have been experimenting with the ADF JHeadstart beta build for several months now (see for example the post Sneak preview of ADF JHeadstart). It is good to see how things are coming together. We are pretty close to a production release now. Next Monday, we start our first ADF JHeadstart project. Also next Monday, Oracle starts an internal workshop for consultants from all across Europe. Based on the experiences gained in that workshop, from our work-in-the-field and from testing within the Oracle JHeadstart team, the final improvements will be made and a production release should become available in a few weeks time.

Installation of this Build 10 was pretty smooth: I extracted the zip-file, copied a set of jar-files to the JDeveloper 10.1.2jdevlibextjheadstart directory and I was in business. After creating the ADF BC model for my database (ahem, SCOTT’s EMP and DEPT) I ran the Enable JHeadstart Project wizard followed by the JHeadstart Application Structure File Wizard. This last wizard created a default application structure file for the ADF BC ViewObjects in my Model Project. Without any further work, I could generate my ADF JHeadstart application with two Master-Detail Table-Form pages for EMP (with subordinates) and DEPT (with employees in the DEPT).

I added a new group for DEPT with layout-style TREE and a detail group (EMP) with layout-style TREE-FORM. After regenerating the application, I got the following page:

Apart from the Descriptor Attribute – Employee ACCOUNTING – this is a pretty cool screen! I did nothing to get the subordinates in the tree under the Employee nodes so something is being smart here – I do not know whether it is ADF or JHeadstart.

One thing to note in comparison with JHeadstart 9.0.5.1 and before: previously you did not create any ‘child-ViewObject’-usages in the Application Module. You could create Detail Groups based on any (base level) ViewObject. In 10.1.2, you can only create Detail Groups for ‘child-ViewObject’-usages. Another remarkable thing: we convinced ourselves over and over again abotu JHeadstart 9.0.4.x and 9.0.5.1 that it was a good thing to have Resource Bundles in Classes rather than property files. In 10.1.2 this approach has been abandoned on favor of …. property files!

Another layout-style that sounds promising is the Shuttle. There are two types (only for Detail Groups): Parent Shuttle and Intersection Shuttle. The parent shuttle is a user interface widget that allows allocation of detail records to a specific parent (for example employees to their manager).

The intersection shuttle can be used to manipulate entries in an intersection table – for example ProjectAllocations for an Employee or a Project. I ran into some problems with the ParentShuttle layout-style – that I fed back to the development team at Oracle.

We will continue to report regularly on our experiences with ADF JHeadstart.