OA Framework R12 Tutorial Mismatch

Posted on February 15, 2009

OA Framework R12 Tutorials
If you began learning OA Framework using a R12 version (See Metalink Note: 416708.1, "How to find the correct version of JDeveloper to use with eBusiness Suite 11i or Release 12") and and you attempted to follow the accompanying tutorials, you will soon uncover a problem: The screen snapshots and some of the instructions in the tutorials in OA Framework R12 do not match the actual screens in JDeveloper!

Currently, the tutorials that accompany the R12 releases have not been updated and still pertain to the 11i version. (See Metalink Doc 396294.1 for a list of differences between OAF 11i and OAF R12)

Now What?
Well, you can take a few minutes and "express frustration" over another bureaucratic blunder by a huge multi-national company (typically our first response). Then we move on.

Below we list examples from the OAF R12 tutorials that highlight incorrect instructions and offer our work-arounds.

Hello, World!
In the "Hello, World!" exercise of chapter 2, step 1 instructs how to create a new OA Workspace. Here are the updated instructions for R12:

1. In either the System Navigator or Application Navigator, right-click on the Applications root item. A pop-up menu appears. (See image below).
2. Choose New OA Framework Workspace

The excercise continues with only minor differences between R12 and the tutorial.

Search
In the "Search" exercise of chapter 2, step 1.3 "Organize Your Projects into Categories", the R12 icon has changed. From the System Navigator or Applications Navigator, use the Sort by Type icon to change the sort order from alphabetic to category. See the image below.



Task 2 of the Search exercise highlights a change from 11i to R12 that will carry throughout all of the exercises in the tutorial.

Step 2.1 instructs to create a BC4J package then populate it with OAF objects, such as entity objects and view objects. R12 does not require this step; packages are automatically created when you create an object. Thus, R12 obsoletes steps 2.1 and 2.2 of this exercise. You can skip these steps and go to step 2.3 "Create Your Root UI Application Module (AM)" and follow these alternate steps:

1. Right-click on your new project
2. Select New... (The New Gallery window appears)
3. Expand the Business Tier node in the Categories window (left window) 
4. Select ADF Business Components
5. In the Items window (right window), select Application Module (See the image below.) 
6. Click OK

The Create Application Module Wizard appears, and you can continue step 2.3 in the tutorial, at the second bullet.

Verify by expanding your new project in the System Navigator window. (If you have the Applications Navigator displayed, then expand the Application Sources folder.) You will see the BC4J package you defined, and by expanding the nodes of the package, you will see the Application Module you made in step 2.3. Note the number of levels displayed in the Navigators is controlled by Flat Level box. (See image below.)

At this point you have a package created and right-clicking on a package presents a menu where you can create the remaining objects required by the tutorial exercises. See the image below.