Developing a Regional Accent

My last column (“Task and You Shall Receive,” in the September/October 2008 issue) examined the basics of the new task flow feature in Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle Application Development Framework (Oracle ADF) 11g, which lets you assemble complex UIs from simpler units. I discussed two basic types of task flows: bounded, when the task flow behaves like an encapsulated function call, and unbounded, when users can start at any page in the flow. Each view activity I demonstrated last time corresponded to a distinct JavaServer Faces (JSF) page, resulting in a more powerful, declarative way to sequence pages and application logic.

In this column, I’ll show you how to create reusable UI components called regions. Think of regions as components with view activities that represent only a fragment of a JSF page and whose visual contents and runtime behavior are determined by a bounded task flow. Then I’ll show how easy it is to reuse a region, embedding it in the contents of another page. By the end, you’ll appreciate how this capability enables you to create reusable UI components using the full declarative functionality of task flows.

The article continues at http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/08-nov/o68frame.html