OAF Key Do's and Don'ts (Part 1) - "Top 10" Golden Rules

I don't know how many of you have come across this in the OAF Devguide, it was only by change that I found it, thought I'd share:

There's a lot to learn when getting started with the OA Framework, but the following list of rules are so universal -- and so fundamental -- they should be familiar to anyone who's doing Framework development.

1) ALWAYS try to declaratively define your UI. Resort to a programmatic layout only if the UI cannot be implemented declaratively. Programmatic layouts are difficult to customize (they don't leverage the Personalization Framework) and may diverge from the UI Guidelines over
time.

2) NEVER change your UI layout properties in processFormRequest(). ALWAYS make changes in processRequest(), even if that means handling an event in processFormRequest() and then redirecting back to the same page. This ensures that the web bean hierarchy is in a stable state when the page renders.

3) NEVER use index numbers to find beans when you want to change their properties. ALWAYS search by name. Index numbers can change during processing.

4) NEVER change the properties of a parent bean from a child bean. This is a poor design practice that hampers reuse while introducing fragile code (particularly if the child code executes too late in the page rendering cycle to properly affect the parent).

5) NEVER instantiate Beans using "new OA*Bean()". ALWAYS use the createWebBean() factory methods available on the OAControllerImpl class. Not all Bean properties are initialized correctly when you use "new."

6) NEVER create Form Beans in code (this means NEVER add nested Form beans to a page; your Page Layout region should be the only form region). Multiple form Beans on a page are not supported and can result in strange runtime behaviors.

7) NEVER count on your Application Module using the same database connection in subsequent requests. For example, NEVER post and commit in separate requests. For performance reasons, the Framework will start pooling and reusing connections in 5.7 instead of holding onto a single connection throughout the life of an Application Module.

8) NEVER use JDBC directly unless you're calling a PL/SQL routine (you should use a view object instead, and if possible, the view object should be defined declaratively and not programmatically).

9) NEVER add member variables UNLESS THEY ARE TRANSIENT OR FINAL to view objects, Controllers, entity object, view rows and Application Modules.

10) ALWAYS adhere to the Self-Service Performance Guidelines