How-to deploy and run the ADF Faces Rich Client Components demo

An Oracle JDeveloper How-to
Written by Frank Nimphius, Shay Shmeltzer Oracle Corporation
September, 2007

Introduction

A technology preview of the Oracle ADF Faces Rich Client components is contained within the Oracle JDeveloper technology preview release that is available for download on OTN. To explore the ADF Faces Ajax components at runtime, the ADF Faces development team at Oracle created a runtime demo that allows you see the components in action , try different property settings on the components as well as read the documentation and get the source for each component's sample. This how-to explains how to set up the ADF Faces component demo using either a stand alone OC4J container or directly inside Oracle JDeveloper.

Installing the ADF Faces Component Demo on a Standalone OC4J 

The Oracle Containers for J2EE (OC4J) version 11 is available as a technology preview on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) or embedded in Oracle JDeveloper 11. To start the OC4J server, open a command line in the <OC4J_Home>\j2ee\Home directory, where OC4J_HOME is the name of the directory in which you unzipped the downloaded software. If starting the embedded OC4J in stand-alone mode, then the OC4J_HOME directory resolves to the JDeveloper 11 directory.

Using Java 5.0, type the following command at the command prompt to launch OC4J

java -jar oc4j.jar

If this is the first time you are starting OC4J, you'll need to define the administrator password. In this how-to we assume the password is welcome.

Download the ADF Faces rich client component runtime demo web archive (WAR) file and store it on the local file system (e.g. the C:\ drive, c:\adf-richclient-demo.war). Once the OC4J container is started, open a second command line for the <OC4J_Home>\j2ee\Home directory and type

<OC4J_Home>\j2ee\home>java -jar admin_client.jar deployer:oc4j:localhost:23791 oc4jadmin welcome -deploy -file C:/adf-richclient-demo.war -deploymentName adffacesdemo -bindAllWebApps default-web-site

The command above deploys the ADF Faces component demo to OC4J 11 so it can be accessed from a browser through http://localhost:8888/adffacesdemo

Running the Demo from Oracle JDeveloper

The rich client component runtime demo can also be started from Oracle JDeveloper 11 using the embedded OC4J container. Start Oracle JDeveloper and choose File | New from the menu. Select Applications and press Ok. In the Create Application dialog type adffacesdemo as the application name and ensure the No Template option is selected for the Application Template field. Press Ok to close the dialog. Cancel the dialog to create an empty Project.

Choose File | New from the JDeveloper menu and select Projects. In the list of items, select Project from WAR File and press Ok. On the first dialog panel, provide a name for the project, e.g. adffacesdemo and keep the location. On the second panel dialog, use the file browser to select the the ADF Faces demo WAR file on your filesystem before finishing the wizard.

Expand the project and select index,jsp under the Web Content node. Choode Run from the right mouse context menu.

What's in the demo

The demo starts with an index page showing all categories for which samples are available

The TagGuide is the entry link to the component demo and shows a list of ADF Faces components that you can select to further explore. Each component demo is launched in a browser that has a split screen layout. The split screen's right content area has a property inspector functionality that you can use to set properties for the individual component. Note that the right content area might be closed so that you have to drag it open before using it.

Viewing the demo sources

You can view the source for each JSF page directly from the running demo by clicking the View Page Source link at the top right of the specific component page. The demo source files are also available in the component demo WAR file and can be looked up there.