Getting started with OAF development

I have recently received a number of queries related to OAF development, particularly regarding the quickest way to get started. I will handle these questions in a two part post, in the first I will aim to provide you with the basic software and documentation requirements to get started. In the second post we will have a look at a couple of common OAF extension tasks.

OAF development can be split into two major categories namely:

• Personalization refers to the ability to declaratively alter the UI to suit user or business needs.

• Extensibility refers to the ability to programmatically extend an application's functionality.

Personalization is the quickest and easiest way of altering the OAF UI, changes are protected from future upgrades and most personalization tasks can be performed by functional consultants or even trained users. If you have any requirement to alter the OAF UI, personalization should be your first stop. The following document will be of great help in understanding and implementing OAF personalization:

Metalink Doc ID: 236618.1 - OA Framework Personalization and Extensibility Guide: Version 5.7+

Extensibility is used when you are required to implement changes to functionality not provided by personalization, or when you are required to develop add-on/new functionality to the OAF UI.

The following steps will get you up to speed with the correct software and documentation:

• Follow post: Find the right JDeveloper Patch for OAF development, once you determine the correct JDeveloper version for your development environment you can proceed to download the JDev patch from Metalink.
• Once downloaded, follow the installation step set out in the OAEXT_README.txt document, located in the root directory of the patch file.
• Oracle included excellent documentation with the JDeveloper patch, after installation you can locate the documentation index here: JDEV_INSTALL_DIR/jdevdoc/index.htm
• Follow “You are Customer, Consultant or Support Representative” in Chapter 1: Setting Up your Development Environment of the OA Framework developers guide, make sure you complete all setup steps successfully.
  

Congratulations you have successfully installed and configured your new development tool, now it’s time to get into the documentation. I suggest you complete Chapter 1, 2 and 3 of the OA Framework developers guide.

You can then proceed with the Oracle Applications Framework ToolBox Tutorial, it is an excellent step by step introduction to OAF development and extension, and will introduce you to all the key concepts required for OAF customization.

Keep tuned for part 2: Include a new column - Extending a standard LOV view object.