Unified Application Development using Oracle ADF

Several organizations have been using Oracle Forms for their database-centric applications while Java has long dominated the realm of Web-based distributed online business applications. Rather than having multiple silos for development technology and maintain separate Oracle and Java development teams, an increasing number of organizations are looking to combine the two teams (and technology) into a unified development environment.

The Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) combines the rich features of Oracle Forms such as sophisticated graphical components with easy database binding, drag and drop, WYSIWYG editing, transaction control, record locking, validation, query by example, and master-detail coordination along with the benefits of an online Java EE application such as distributed, platform-independent, Web-based, and with MVC support. It simplifies Java EE development by minimizing the need to write code that implements the application’s infrastructure allowing the users to focus on the features of the actual application and business logic. Oracle ADF provides these infrastructure implementations as part of the underlying framework.

Oracle ADF is based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern. It further separates the model layer from the business services to enable service-oriented development of applications. The Oracle ADF architecture is based on four layers:

• The Business Services layer – provides access to data from various sources and handles business logic.

• The Model layer – provides an abstraction layer on top of the Business Services layer, enabling the View and Controller layers to work with different implementations of Business Services in a consistent way.

• The Controller layer – provides a mechanism to control the flow of the Web application.

• The View layer – provides the user interface of the application.

The key layer in the ADF architecture is the Business Services layer where all the business logic is embedded .This layer can be implemented in a wide variety of technologies including EJB, Web Services, POJO, Toplink, or ADF Business Components. The view layer provides a large range of AJAX based rich UI components that enhance the user experience of ADF applications. The model layer provides bulk of the automated code that ADF builds on. It facilitates the auto-binding between the rich UI components of the view layer and business logic components of the business services layer. Additional detail on Oracle ADF is available on their website.