Build a Web Application with JDeveloper 11g Using EJB, JPA, and JavaServer Faces

Purpose

In this tutorial, you use Oracle JDeveloper 11g Version 11.1.1.2.0 to build a web application. To build the data model, you use the EJB diagrammer, utilizing EJB 3.0 and Java Persistence API (JPA). For the web client, JavaServer Faces (JSF) is used. A master-detail page, a query/edit page and a search page are included in the user interface.

Time to Complete

1 hour and thirty minutes

Topics

The tutorial covers the following topics:

	Overview
	Scenario
	Prerequisites
	Creating a Database Connection
	Building the Data Model using EJB 3.0
	Creating a New Project for the User Interface
	Creating the Page Flow
	Creating a Master-Detail JSF Page
	Creating a Query Page
	Creating a Search Page
	Running the JSF Pages
	Summary

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Overview

The application reflects the Model-View-Controller architecture. The model is provided by EJB Components, while the view and controller are provided by JavaServer Faces.You use the ADF Faces set of JSF-compatible components to build a richer web interface.

You first build the data model portion of the application. The Java Persistence API (JPA) provides a POJO persistence model for object-relational mapping. The Java Persistence API was developed by the EJB 3.0 software expert group as part of JSR 220, but its use is not limited to EJB software components. It can also be used directly by web applications and application clients, and even outside the Java EE platform, for example, in Java SE applications.

Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) technology is the server-side component architecture for Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) that encapsulates business logic. EJB technology enables rapid and simplified development of distributed, transactional, secure and portable applications based on Java technology.

The Java Persistence API is the standard API for the management of persistence and object/relational mapping. It provides an object/relational mapping facility for application developers using a Java domain model to manage a relational database. The Java Persistence API is part of the Java EE platform. It can also be used in Java SE environments.

In the tutorial, you implement a persistence model by developing Session and Entity beans. These beans use the EJB 3.0 annotations and JPA for model persistence.

• EJB 3.0 entities represent persistent data from the database, such as a row in a customer table or an employee record in an employee table. Entities are also sharable across multiple clients. You use the Entity Manager API to create, update, delete and query the persistence model.
• Session beans perform a distinct, decoupled task such as checking credit history for a customer.

You then create a master-detail form for viewing Departments and Employees information. Following this basic master-detail page creation, you create a query page to find a particular employee, and you then edit the employee's record. You also create a search page to search for a particular department.

While developing and testing the application, you use JDeveloper's embedded Java EE application server.

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Scenario

You create persistence objects for the DEPARTMENTS and EMPLOYEES tables. The persistence objects are implemented as Entity Beans. Default getter and setter methods are created for department and employee data. These methods are implemented as part of a session bean. Then you create a Master Detail JSF page based on Departments and related Employees, a Query/Edit JSF page enabling a search for, and update of an employee's data and a search page that allows input of search criteria to find a particular department.

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Prerequisites

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Creating a Database Connection

Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is a standard API that is used for connecting a Java application to relational databases. JDeveloper uses a connection navigator to maintain connection information for your application. The connection navigator makes it easy to create, manage, and test database connections.

If you haven't already established a connection to the database, then do so by performing the following steps:

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Building the Data Model with EJB 3.0 Using the EJB Diagrammer

The data model provides data access and validation for an application. The data is always validated by the model, regardless of the client implementation. This cleanly separates the validation and business rules from the user interface.

In the next few steps, you create an application in JDeveloper and create a data model for your application.

	Create a New Application and Project
	Create the Persistence Model
	Create the Data Model and test it
	Run the Data Model outside Java EE container
	Create ADF data controls from EJB Session Beans

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Create a New Application and Project

In JDeveloper, you always work with projects contained in an application. The application is the highest point in the control structure.

A JDeveloper project is an organization structure used to logically group related files You can add multiple projects to your application to easily organize, access, modify, and reuse your source code. In the Application Navigator, projects are displayed as the second level in the hierarchy, under the application.

It is considered best practice to use projects to separate the model code from the code written for the view. In this tutorial, you create one project for the EJB Components model, and later on a second one for the JSF views.

Before you create any components, you must first create an application and project. To do this, perform the following steps:

1.	Click the Application tab to go back to the Application Navigator. Click the New Application icon.
2.	In the Create Application dialog box, enter the Application Name HR_EJB_JPA_App. Notice that as you enter the application name, the directory name changes automatically. Enter oracle as the Application Package Prefix. Select Generic Application from the Application Template list. This creates an Application and a single non-configured project. Click Next.
3.	In the Create Project dialog, set Project Name to EJBModel then click Finish.
4.	In the Navigator pane, click the Database Navigator tab.
5.	Select the HRConn connection in the IDE connections list and drag and drop it inside the HR_EJB_JPA_App node to make the connection available for your application.
6.	Click the Application Navigator tab. You see the application and project you just created.

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Creating the Persistence Model

In this section of the tutorial, you create the persistence model for Departments and Employees using EJB 3.0 entity beans.

To create EJB 3.0 entity beans, perform the following steps:

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Creating the Data Model and Testing it

A session facade presents client objects with a unified interface to the underlying EJBs (Enterprise JavaBeans). The client interacts only with the facade, which resides on the server and invokes the appropriate EJB methods. As a result, dependencies and communication between clients and EJBs are reduced.
If you are performing remote access without a session facade, numerous remote calls are needed for the clients to access EJB 3.0 entities directly over the network. This results in a large amount of network traffic that negatively affects performance. In addition, without a facade the client depends directly on the implementation of the business objects, so that if the interface of an EJB changes, client objects have to be changed as well.

In this section, you create a session bean that implements a method to find employee and department records.

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Running the Java Service outside Java EE container

A persistence unit can be configured to run inside or outside the container. In EJB 3.0, you can run entities in a pure Java SE environment, without using an application server. One reason you might do this is to create a simple Java SE testbed (using JUnit, perhaps) to test your entity behavior without the overhead of deploying/executing in an application server. Another reason is you may want to run a Swing application locally.

In this section, you create a session bean that implements a method to find employee and department records.

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Creating ADF data controls from EJB Session Beans

You now expose the EJB as a data control for the Oracle ADF framework. This simplifies the way that you bind user interfaces to the EJB. To learn more about the ADF Framework visit:
http://oracle.com/technology/products/adf

To create ADF data controls from EJB Session Beans, perform the following steps:

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Create a New Project for the User Interface

It is considered best practice to use projects to separate the model code from the code written for the view. For this reason you created one project for the EJB Components model, and you now create a second one for the JSF views.

To do this, perform the following steps:

1.	On the application name bar, click the Application Menu icon select New Project from context.
2.	In the New Gallery, select the Generic Project item. Click OK.
3.	In the Create Project dialog, set Project Name to UserInterface then Finish.
4.	In the Application Navigator, right click the UserInterface node and select Project Properties from context.
5.	In the Project Properties dialog, select the JSP Tag Libraries node. Select Distributed libraries then press the Add button.
6.	In the Tag Libraries list, select ADF Faces Components 11. Click OK. The libraries are added to the project.
7.	Still in the Project Properties dialog, select the Technology Scope node. In the Project Technologies tab, select JSF in the Available pane, and using the right arrow button, shuttle it in the Selected pane. Notice that selecting JSF automatically propagates the required associated technologies (Java - JSP and Servlets) Click OK. Then, click the save all icon to save your work.
8.	The Application Navigator should now look like this:

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Creating the Page Flow

You now use JDeveloper's JSF Navigation Modeler to diagrammatically plan and create your application's pages, and the navigation between them.

1.	In the Application Navigator, double click the UserInterface | Web Content | WEB_INF | faces-config.xml node to open a page flow diagram.
2.	The empty diagram opens. Notice the Component Palette to the right of the diagram editor. You use this to create components for the JSF Navigation Model.
3.	In the JSF Navigation Diagram page of the Component Palette, select JSF Page , and click in the diagram where you want the page to appear. Rename the page browse.
4.	From the Component Palette, drag and drop a JSF Page next to the previous one. Rename the page query.
5.	From the Component Palette, drag and drop another JSF Page below the first one. Rename the page search.
6.	Select JSF Navigation Case in the Component Palette. Click the icon for the source JSF page (browse), and then click the icon for the destination JSF page (query) for the navigation case.
7.	Modify the default label, 'success', by clicking it and typing query over it. Notice that there is a warning icon above the Navigation Case. This is because you have not yet created the JSF pages and so indicates that the Navigation Case would be looking for a page that doesn't exist. This warning goes away when you create the respective pages.
8.	JDeveloper gives you three views of the faces-config.xml file. You have already used the diagram view, but the same information is also accessible through a declarative dialog as well as directly in the source . Click the Overview tab at the bottom of the screen. Click Navigation Rules in the left-hand table to display existing Navigation Rules. Click the Source tab at the bottom of the screen. The <from-view-id> tag identifies the source page, and the <to-view-id> tag identifies the destination page.
9.	Switch back to the diagram view by clicking the Diagram tab, and select JSF Navigation Case in the Component Palette. Click the icon for the source JSF page (query), and then click the icon for the destination JSF page (browse) for the navigation case.
10.	Modify the default label, 'success', by selecting it and typing browse over it.
11.	In the same way add navigation cases between the browse and search JSF pages. Name the one that goes to the search page, search, and the one that returns, browse. Your diagram should now look something like the image below.
12.	Click the save all icon to save the diagram.

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Creating a Master-Detail JavaServer Faces Page

In the next few steps, you create a JavaServer Faces Page using ADF Faces components for the Departments Employees Master Detail page.

1.	On the Page Flow diagram, double-click the browse icon to launch the Create JSF JSP wizard.
2.	The file name should be browse.jspx. Check the Create as XML Document checkbox, and in the Initial Page Layout and Content area, click the Quick Start Layout radio button. It is best practice to use the quick start layouts to avoid display issues. Click Browse to choose a layout.
3.	In the Component Gallery accept the default, One Column layout category, and click Apply Themes in the Options pane. Themes add color styling to some of the components used in the quick start layouts and create a nicer-looking page. Click OK to save the layout selection. In the Create JSF Page dialog click OK to create the page. You now have an empty browse.jspx page. In the next few steps, you add a data-bound ADF Faces component to the page. This component displays a department along with the employees belonging to the department.
4.	In the Component Palette, ADF Faces library, select the layout section and drag a Panel Stretch Layout component onto the page
5.	From the Component Palette, drag a Panel Splitter component onto the middle of the page (the cursor should be to the left of the center tag).
6.	Open the Data Controls accordion and expand the HRFacadeLocal node, then drag and drop the DepartmentsFindAll node within the first facet. In the pop up menu, select Forms | ADF Read-only Form
7.	In the Edit Form Fields, check the Include Navigation Controls option and delete all columns except the following: departmentId departmentName locationId Click OK.
8.	In the Component Palette, Layout group, select Panel Collection and drag and drop it into the second facet.
9.	In the Data Controls, expand the departmentsFindAll node, select the employeesList node and drop it in the second facet. In the pop up menu, select Tables | ADF Read-only Table
10.	In the Edit Table Columns dialog delete all columns except the following: commissionPct, email, employeeId, firstName, hiredate, jobId, lastName, phoneNumber, salary, and select Row Selection, Filtering and Sorting options. Click OK. The page should now look like this:
11.	In the Property Inspector set the Column Selection property of the table to single.
12.	In the Structure pane, select the af:panelSplitter pane and in the Property Inspector, set the Orientation to vertical.
13.	Select the af:panelStretchLayout tag and using the Property Inspector, for the Style | Box tabs set the Width to 600 Pixels and the Height to 400 Pixels.
14.	Reduce the height of the Departments block.
15.	You want the employees section of this page to refresh when the user navigates between departments. Set the Partial Page Rendering trigger to fire when the user clicks any of those buttons. Select the Employees table. In the Properties Inspector, click Edit for the Behavior | PartialTriggers property. (The Edit button is on the far right of the field).
16.	In the Edit Property dialog, expand facet (first) | panelFormLayout - Departments | facet (footer) | panelGroupLayout to expose the navigation buttons. Use the shuttle buttons to add all four buttons to the selected list. Click OK. Now, when the user clicks any of the 4 buttons, the employees list will refresh to reflect the employees within the displayed department.
17.	From the Component Palette, Common Components, select the Panel Menu Bar component and drop it onto the Facet Top tag, in the Design view of the page.
18.	Click the Menu component then drag and drop it inside the Menu Bar.
19.	In the Property Inspector change the Text from menu 1 to Options.
20.	Click the Behavior tab and set the Detachable field to true.
21.	In the Structure Pane, right click the af:menu tag and from context select Insert Inside af:menu | MenuItem.
22.	In the Property Inspector, using the Common tab, change the Text to Query and from the drop down list set the Action to query.
23.	Repeat step 21 to add another menu item. Using the Property Inspector change the Text of this menu item to Search and from the drop down list set the Action to search.
24.	Click the save all icon to save your work.

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Creating a Query/Edit Page

In the next few steps, you use ADF Faces to build a query page to edit Employees.

1.	Switch back to the Page Flow diagram (click the faces-config.xml tab), and double-click the query icon to launch the page wizard.
2.	The file name should be query.jspx. Check the Create as XML Document checkbox, and in the Initial Page Layout and Content area, click the Quick Start Layout radio button. Click Browse to choose a layout.
3.	In the Component Gallery, accept the One Column category and click Apply Themes in the Options pane. Click OK to save the layout selection. In the Create JSF Page dialog click OK to create the page. You now have an empty query.jspx page.
4.	In the Data Controls accordion, under the HRFacadeLocal node, select the getEmployeesFindByName(Object) node and drop it onto the page. From the popup menu, select Parameters | ADF Parameter Form.
5.	In the Edit Form Fields click OK to accept the proposed fields.
6.	The page design should look like this: .
7.	In the Data Control accordion, expand the getEmployeesFindByName node and select the Employees node. Drop it onto the page below the Parameter Form. From the popup menu, select Forms | ADF Form.
8.	In the Edit Form Fields, check both checkboxes (Include Navigation Controls - Include Submit Button) and delete all columns except the following: commissionPct, email, employeeId, firstName, hiredate, jobId, lastName, phoneNumber, salary. Click OK.
9.	The design for the query page should look like this:
10.	This page needs to be updatable; to specify this, select the mergeEmployees(Employees) method in the Data Controls pane, and drop it onto the Submit button. In the Edit Action Binding dialog, in the Parameters section, click the down arrow in the Value field and select Show EL Expression Builder.
11.	In the Variables dialog, expand ADF Bindings | Bindings |getEmployeesFindByNameIterator | currentRow and select dataProvider. Notice that as you select each node in the expression. the editor adds it to the expression in the top of the window. Click OK, then click OK again.
12.	In the Confirm Component Rebinding dialog, click OK.
13.	Back in the design view of the query page, select the mergeEmployees button
14.	In the Property Inspector, Common tab, set the Text value to Save and in the Button Action section, set the the Action to browse from the drop down list.
15.	Click the save all icon to save your work.
16.	Your page should now look like this:

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Creating a Search Page

In the next few steps, you use ADF Faces to build a search page using the new ADF query feature.

1.	Switch back to the Page Flow diagram (click the faces-config.xml tab), and double-click the search icon to launch the page wizard.
2.	The file name should be search.jspx. Check the Create as XML Document checkbox, and in the Initial Page Layout and Content area, click the Quick Start Layout radio button. Click Browse to choose a layout.
3.	In the Component Gallery, accept the One Column category and click Apply Themes in the Options pane. Click OK to save the layout selection. In the Create JSF Page dialog click OK to create the page. You now have an empty search.jspx page.
4.	In the Data Controls accordion, under the HRFacadeLocal node, expand the departmentsFindAll node and then the Named Criteria node. Select All Queriable Attributes and drag and drop it onto the page. From the popup menu, select Query | ADF Query Panel with Table.
5.	In the Edit Form Fields delete all columns except the following: departmentId departmentName locationId
6.	The design for the search page should look like this: .

Running the JSF Pages

Now that you have built your application, you need to test it. JDeveloper makes it easy to test JSF pages through a built-in application server. The server is automatically launched when you test a page from within JDeveloper.

The next few steps take you through the testing process.

1.	To test the pages, return to the page flow diagram. Right click the browse page icon and select Run from the context menu.
2.	Your page is loaded in your default browser and should look like the following:
3.	Click the Next button to find a department with several employees in its list, for example department 30. Then click in the firstName column and experiment sorting the names in ascending/descending order using the up/down arrow icons.
4.	Scroll right to select the lastName column header and move it left to position it in the table just after the firstName column.
5.	Select the column headers and reorder the columns in this sequence: employeeId, firstName, lastName, email, jobId, salary, hireDate, commissionPct....
6.	On the top left of the page, click Options -->Query and move the menu to another location on your page. Then press the Query button.
7.	The query page opens in the browser. In the queryEmployeesFindByName_p_name field enter any name or partial name. i.e. A% then click the getEmployeesFindByName button.
8.	Experiment with the Navigation buttons if your query retrieved more than one record.
9.	Click in the hireDate field to see the Help text describing the date format to use.
10.	Increase Alexander's salary to 10000 and click the Save button to commit the change and take you back to the browse page.
11.	Back in the browse page, click the Options menu again, and this time select Search to navigate to the search page.
12.	In the search criteria area, click the Any radio button in the Match field, and type IT in the departmentName field. Click Search.
13.	The search returns four departments that contain IT in their name. Notice some of the other functionalities of the ADF query feature, including advanced searches and the ability to save searches.
14.	You have successfully completed this OBE. Close the browser window

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Summary

In this tutorial, you created an end-to-end application using Oracle JDeveloper, EJB 3.0, JPA, and JSF pages. You learned how to:

	Create a database connection
	Build the data model using EJB 3.0 and EJB diagram
	Create the page flow
	Create a Master-Detail JSF page
	Create a Query/Edit page
	Create a Search page
	Run the JSF pages

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