Executing BAM webservices using ADF proxy

In this blog we are going to create ADF proxy to execute BAM service and then expose it as a datacontrol. Here are the steps

1. Make sure wsdl url is accessible: Acess wsdl url as http://<server>:<port>/OracleBAMWS/WebServices/DataObjectOperationsByName?WSDL

You will be asked for username/password. Provide it and see wsdl is appearing fine.

2. Create proxy for wsdl: Follow these steps in your model project

  

 
    Select next next next in other screens. No need to select any security policy.

3. Create a class to execute service:


import com.oracle.xmlns.bam.BAMWebServiceException_Exception;
import com.oracle.xmlns.bam.DataObjectOperationsByName;
import com.oracle.xmlns.bam.DataObjectOperationsByName_Service;

import java.util.Map;

import javax.xml.ws.BindingProvider;
import javax.xml.ws.WebServiceRef;

import weblogic.wsee.jws.jaxws.owsm.SecurityPoliciesFeature;

public class BAMServiceDC {
    private static String USERNAME = "weblogic";
    private static String PASSWORD = "weblogic1";
   
    public BAMServiceDC() {
        super();
    }
   
    public String invokeBAMGetService(String keyCSV,String xmlPayLoad){
        DataObjectOperationsByName_Service dataObjectOperationsByName_Service = new DataObjectOperationsByName_Service();
        DataObjectOperationsByName dataObjectOperationsByName = dataObjectOperationsByName_Service.getDataObjectOperationsByName();
        // Add your code to call the desired methods.
        Map<String, Object> reqContext = ((BindingProvider) dataObjectOperationsByName).getRequestContext(); 
//I would recommend to get username/password from credential store.
               reqContext.put(BindingProvider.USERNAME_PROPERTY, USERNAME ); 
               reqContext.put(BindingProvider.PASSWORD_PROPERTY, PASSWORD ); 
                       
               String response = "";
               try {
                   response = dataObjectOperationsByName.get(keyCSV,xmlPayLoad);
                   System.out.println(response);
                  
                  
                  
               } catch (BAMWebServiceException_Exception e) {
                   e.printStackTrace();
               }
              
               return response;
    }


    public String invokeBAMInsertService(String xmlPayLoad){
        DataObjectOperationsByName_Service dataObjectOperationsByName_Service = new DataObjectOperationsByName_Service();
        DataObjectOperationsByName dataObjectOperationsByName = dataObjectOperationsByName_Service.getDataObjectOperationsByName();
        // Add your code to call the desired methods.
        Map<String, Object> reqContext =  ((BindingProvider)dataObjectOperationsByName).getRequestContext();
        reqContext.put(BindingProvider.USERNAME_PROPERTY, USERNAME);
        reqContext.put(BindingProvider.PASSWORD_PROPERTY, PASSWORD);

        String response = "";
        try {
            dataObjectOperationsByName.insert(xmlPayLoad);
            System.out.println("Inserted successfully.");
            response = "SUCCESS";

        } catch (BAMWebServiceException_Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return "ERROR: " + e.getMessage();
        }

        return response;
    }


    public static void main(String [] args)
    {       
        BAMServiceDC bs = new BAMServiceDC();
        //GET       
String keyCSV = "EmployeeID,Name,EmployeeTypeCode";            
String xmlPayLoad = "<DataObject Name=\"Employee\" Path=\"/Sanjeev\"> <Contents>\n" +  
           " <Row>\n" +        
           "      <Column Name=\"EmployeeID\" Value=\"2\" />\n" +    
           "    </Row>\n" +     
           "</Contents></DataObject>";   
String response = bs.invokeBAMGetService(keyCSV,xmlPayLoad);       
System.out.println(response);
       
       
        //INSERT
//        String xmlPayLoadIns = "<DataObject Name=\"Employee\" Path=\"/Sanjeev\"> <Contents>\n" +
//        " <Row>\n" +
//        "      <Column Name=\"Name\" Value=\"B\" />\n" +
//        "      <Column Name=\"EmployeeTypeCode\" Value=\"APPLICANT\" />\n" +
//        "    </Row>\n" +
//        "</Contents></DataObject>";
//        bs.invokeBAMInsertService(xmlPayLoadIns);

}

We can run this class and also expose it as a datacontrol to execute BAM webservices.

ADF: Login page keeps on coming back in IE (iframe)

I faced an strange issue when using ADF ui on IE 8 browser with iframe.

<html>
 <body>
 Testing ADF in iframe
 <iframe width="1490" height="619" id="TheFrame" src="http://127.0.0.1:7101/cntx-root/faces/MyTestPG" >
 </body>
</html>


I found that login page was continuously coming back even after providing correct username/password. At times I found that _afrLoop was going for an infinite loop. My ADF page was working fine on IE/Firefox/Chrome but if I load it using iframe, it was only working in firefox and chrome. IE was showing above mentioned behavior.

If we have to show secured ADF page on BAM dashboard then we may face this issue as BAM only support IE 7/8 and it will use iframe to show ADF page.

I followed it in forum https://community.oracle.com/message/12720399#12720399 and finally found that issue was because P3P policy of IE. I would like to thank Dairo for suggesting correct solution.

IE treats a website appearing in iframe as third-party and does not save cookies from it untill it has certain P3P policies in header. To know if you are hitting this issue or not just look at browser status bar at bottom and if you see an eye icon it means you are hitting same issue.

Now question is how to solve it

There could be two ways.
1. Configure IE to disable P3P check for your website: We can configure IE to allow saving cookies from our site. For that just follow these steps
   a. Go to Tools > Internet Options > Privacy.
   b. Click on Sites button and set your site

This solution is only feasible if there are very few users and they can change their IE settings.

2. Set P3P policy in response header to satisfy IE: For that we can follow these steps
   a. Create a filter and put following code in it.

import java.io.IOException;

import javax.servlet.Filter;
import javax.servlet.FilterChain;
import javax.servlet.FilterConfig;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.ServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.ServletResponse;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

public class P3PFilter implements Filter {
    private FilterConfig _filterConfig = null;

    public void init(FilterConfig filterConfig) throws ServletException {
        _filterConfig = filterConfig;
    }

    public void destroy() {
        _filterConfig = null;
    }

    public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response,
                         FilterChain chain) throws IOException,
                                                   ServletException {
        ((HttpServletResponse)response).setHeader("P3P","CP='IDC DSP COR ADM DEVi TAIi PSA PSD IVAi IVDi CONi HIS OUR IND CNT'");
        chain.doFilter(request, response);
    }
}

Before setting P3P, I would recommend to look for legal bindings of P3P.

 b. Map url with filter in web.xml

 <filter>
    <filter-name>P3PFilter</filter-name>
    <filter-class>view.com.kbace.bam.filter.P3PFilter</filter-class>
  </filter>

<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>P3PFilter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
  </filter-mapping>

Now ADF site will have a response header and IE will allow it to set cookies when appearing in iframe.


Reference: https://community.oracle.com/message/12720399#12720399

Thanks
Sanjeev

Executing BAM weservice from SOAP UI

In This blog I am going to show how to execute a BAM webservice using SOAP UI.


To do this you need following
1. Up and Running BAM server: To verify that launch http://<server>:<port>/OracleBAMWS/WebServices/DataObjectOperationsByName. If you are asked to provide a username/password it means service is running.
2. Username/password: Second thing you need is a username/password. By default all BAM services are secured using http basic authentication. You need a username/password to execute them.
3. SOAP UI

Here are the steps to do it
1. Launch SOAP UI
2. Create a SOAP UI project:

    

   You will be asked for username/password twice. (One for accessing wsdl and other for associated xsd.)

   Project should look like

3. Run a service operation: Right click on service operation (say Get) and select 'New Request'

Next screen shows request xml text on one side and a blank page on next side for response.
There are few question marks in request. We need to replace them with appropriate parameter.


We can use  http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E14571_01/integration.1111/e10224/bam_app_webserv.htm#BABDBGBE document to get  more information about service operations and their respective parameters.

As per document for Get service

keysCSV (xsd:string): Comma separated column IDs that must be used as keys

Sales Number, Sales Area

xmlPayload (xsd:string): The payload specifies what to get from the data object. For the DataObjectOperationsByName web service the data object name is specified in the payload, for example:

<DataObject Name="Employees" Path="/Samples"> 
     <Contents> 
         <Row> 
            <Column Name="Salesperson" Value="Greg Masters"/> 
         </Row> 
    </Contents> 
</DataObject>

Key here is that xmlPayload has xml syntax and we need to pass it as a parameter. To do that we need to escape it. We can use any xml escaping site. I used http://www.freeformatter.com/xml-escape.html to escape above xmlPayload. Escaped xml text I got is

&lt;DataObject Name=&quot;Employees&quot; Path=&quot;/Samples&quot;&gt;      &lt;Contents&gt;          &lt;Row&gt;             &lt;Column Name=&quot;Salesperson&quot; Value=&quot;Greg Masters&quot;/&gt;          &lt;/Row&gt;     &lt;/Contents&gt; &lt;/DataObject&gt; 

Now put keysCSV and xmlPayload in SOAP UI.

 Last thing that we need to do is to provide username/password.

      Select 'Auth' tab below request section and create a Besic authorization. Provide username/password

Now click on green run icon above request panel. You should see below screen with response.

 

 Thats it.

Customizing webcenter pages programmatically

Webcenter provides a very nice way to edit page at runtime using Ctrl+Shift+E.

Still it might be a bit difficult for end user (admin) to show/hide certain section of a page. For example if we have header, body and footer section on a page. To show/hide header or footer on a page at runtime, admin can follow these steps
1. Hit ctrl+shift+e
2. Change the page mode to source
3. Select appropriate component
4. Click edit button 
5. A new popup appears on which admin can select checkbox show/hide

But at times customer wants some quick easy options to show/hide these prominent areas. For example when admin hits ctrl+shift+e we may want to show him two checkboxes to show/hide header and footer. He just needs to check/uncheck them to show/hide these areas.Yes this approach will not be good if admin wants ability to show/hide each component but most of the time customer is just interested in show/hide prominent areas like header/left menus/ right boxes/footer etc.

In this blog I want to show how to create custom UI to show/hide (or do any kind of customization) ui components. Let us list down our requirements first
1. On ctrl+shift+e we need to show a checkbox to show/hide footer section. Checkbox should only be visible in ctrl+shift+e mode.
2. Check box should be checked by default if footer section is visible and uncheck if footer section is not visible.
3. If user checks to checkbox footer should become visible immediately. Similarly on uncheck footer section should become invisible immediately.
4. Any changes done by this approach should be saved as customization and should retain its value post login/logout


Now lets start working on these requirements

A) Initial page design: 

To enable page customization we need to have page-customizable component on page. Security of page should be set appropriately so that admin can edit page. Let say initial structure of page is as shown in below diagram

B) Bind footer section with bean:

C) Adding a section on page to have checkbox to show/hide footer

Now we want to add a section in which we will add checkbox to show/hide footer section. Add a panel group on page above header section as shown below

D) Corresponding bean code

To set initial value of checkbox:

To perform actual MDS operation on selecting/unselecting checkbox.

On check/uncheck we can validate MDS file and see if its entry is getting changed.

=======================================

Conclusion: Core part of this blog is to show api to programmatically customize a page and modify MDS entry. We can use it for endless opportunities.

Disclaimer: Any views or opinions presented in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.

ADF Tree: Searching child nodes using af:query panel

Problem Description:
We all know how to create a ADF table and provide a query panel for that table. Even we can create a query panel for ADF Tree but it only works with parent most VO. For example if we have Department/Employee tree we can provide a query panel that search only on department. At times we may want to include few employee related attributes like JOB on search panel and when user search based on JOB we just want to show those employees having same Job. By this way filtering is on child nodes and not on parent nodes.

In this blog I will be creating a tree showing department and employee. I will be creating a search panel with Department and Job field. When user search based on department, system will filter department nodes and when user search based on employee, system will filter employee nodes.

We will perform following steps
1. Create Department/Employee VO with a view link and create normal search panel
2. Add Employee Job field in search panel
3. Search Employee rowsets based on Job


1. Create Department/Employee VO with a view link and create normal search panel: This step is simple one and we all know how to create normal search panel. Here are the steps
      a. Create view object DepartmentVO (have department-id as primary key)
      b. Create view object EmployeeVO
      c. Create view link DepartmentVOToEmployeeVO. (Join based on department-id)
      d. Create a view criteria "search" in DepartmentVO and select Department-Name as view-criteria-item.
      e. Add DepartmentVO and EmployeeVO in AM using view link.
      f. Drag view-criteria from data control and drop it on page to create a search panel with adf tree.

At the end of this step you should be ready with a normal search panel on Department-Employee Tree. Search field is just department-name and when user enters department-name system filters Department (parentvo). Within department all employees are visible.

2. Add Employee Job field in search panel: Follow these steps to do it

  a. Create a transient attribute JobId in DepartmentVO (NOTE: Its DepartmentVO no EmployeeVO)

     

  b.  Include this attribute in search view-criteria

     

   Now if you run the page, you will see a new field JobId but it would not do anything at this time. We will make it working in next step.


3. Search Employee rowsets based on Job
Follow these steps

  a. Write following java method in AMImpl.java

        /**
     * This method is used to execute childrowset of employeevo based on job-id mentioned on department vo's view criteria.
     * Logic:
     *   1. Select JobId value/operator from 'search' view criteria of DepartmentVO
     *   2. Create and apply a new dynamic viewcriteria on employeeVO based on JobId value/operator
     *   3. Iterate of all department rows and find out their employeeVO row-set. Execute that rowset.
     */
    public void queryDepartment(){
        ViewObjectImpl deptVO = this.getDepartmentVO1();
        ViewCriteria vc = deptVO.getViewCriteria("search");
        ViewCriteriaRow vcr = (ViewCriteriaRow)vc.get(0);
        String jobId = (String)vcr.getAttribute("JobId");
        String operator = vcr.getOperator("JobId");

       
        if(deptVO.first() != null){
            ViewObjectImpl empVO = (ViewObjectImpl) ((RowSet)deptVO.first().getAttribute("EmployeeVO")).getViewObject();
           
           
             ViewCriteria vc1 = empVO.createViewCriteria();
             ViewCriteriaRow vcRow1 = vc1.createViewCriteriaRow();
            
             vcRow1.setAttribute("JobId", jobId);
             vcRow1.setOperator("JobId", operator);
             vc1.addRow(vcRow1);
            
             empVO.applyViewCriteria(vc1);
        }
       
        RowSetIterator rsi = null;
        try{
            rsi = deptVO.findRowSetIterator("iter");
            if(rsi == null){
                rsi = deptVO.createRowSetIterator("iter");
            }
            rsi.reset();
            while(rsi.hasNext()){
               Row row = rsi.next();
              RowSet empRs = ((RowSet)row.getAttribute("EmployeeVO"));
               empRs.executeQuery();
                             
            } 
            }finally{
            if(rsi != null){
                rsi.closeRowSetIterator();
            }
        }
       
    }

   b. Expose this method to client



   c. Create a method action binding for this exposed method in pageDef file.

   

    d. Create a bean for page and register it in backing bean scope

  

   e. Write a method in searchEmployeeAndDepartment in SearchBean.java. It should perform following tasks

•          execute department search programmatically.
•          call AM method queryDepartment which executes all rowsets of employee VO
•          refresh tree ui component

 Code of  SearchBean.java should look like

import java.util.Map;
import javax.el.ELContext;
import javax.el.ExpressionFactory;
import javax.el.MethodExpression;
import javax.el.ValueExpression;
import javax.faces.application.Application;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import oracle.adf.model.binding.DCBindingContainer;
import oracle.adf.view.rich.component.rich.data.RichTree;
import oracle.adf.view.rich.component.rich.data.RichTreeTable;
import oracle.adf.view.rich.context.AdfFacesContext;
import oracle.adf.view.rich.event.QueryEvent;
import oracle.binding.BindingContainer;
import oracle.binding.OperationBinding;

public class SearchBean {

    private RichTree deptTree;

    public SearchBean() {
        super();
    }


    public void searchEmployeeAndDepartment(QueryEvent queryEvent) {
        // Add event code here...
        FacesContext fctx = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
                ELContext elctx = fctx.getELContext();
                Application app = fctx.getApplication();
                ExpressionFactory exprFactory = app.getExpressionFactory();
              
                MethodExpression methodExpr = exprFactory.createMethodExpression(elctx, "#{bindings.searchQuery.processQuery}", Object.class, new Class[] {QueryEvent.class});
         methodExpr.invoke(elctx, new Object[] {queryEvent});
        
         this.executeOperationBinding("queryDepartment", null);
        
        AdfFacesContext adfFacesContext = AdfFacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
        adfFacesContext.addPartialTarget(deptTree);
    }
   
    public static Object executeOperationBinding(String methodAction,
                                                               Map param) {
       
            OperationBinding ob =  getDCBindingContainer().getOperationBinding(methodAction);

            if (param != null) {
                Map paramOps = ob.getParamsMap();
                paramOps.putAll(param);
            }
            Object result = ob.execute();
            return result;
        }
   
    /**
        * Return the Binding Container as a DCBindingContainer.
        * @return current binding container as a DCBindingContainer
        */
       public static DCBindingContainer getDCBindingContainer() {
           return (DCBindingContainer)getBindingContainer();
       }
   
    /**
        * Return the current page's binding container.
        * @return the current page's binding container
        */
       public static BindingContainer getBindingContainer() {
           return (BindingContainer)evaluateEL("#{bindings}");
       }
   
    /**
    * Programmatic evaluation of EL.
    *
    * @param el EL to evaluate
    * @return Result of the evaluation
    */
    public static Object evaluateEL(String el) {
        FacesContext facesContext = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
        ELContext elContext = facesContext.getELContext();
        ExpressionFactory expressionFactory =
        facesContext.getApplication().getExpressionFactory();
        ValueExpression exp =
        expressionFactory.createValueExpression(elContext, el,
        Object.class);
   
        return exp.getValue(elContext);
    }


    public void setDeptTree(RichTree deptTree) {
        this.deptTree = deptTree;
    }

    public RichTree getDeptTree() {
        return deptTree;
    }
}





   f. Bind tree with bean's deptTree property

      

   g. Change af:query's querylistener and point it to searchEmployeeAndDepartment method of bean.
   


That's it. You can run your page now. You should see following result

The logic is
1. On search button click execute a bean method
2. Bean method will excute department search as normal
3. Bean method will also call AM method which will execute each employee rowsets based on Job-id
4. Bean method will refresh tree component.


Few things that we can try
a. Do not execute all row-set of employee vos but only those which are already open. Yes set criteria in all row-sets so that if user opens other, criteria is applied.

b. If we only specify JobId and there are departments which does not have employee with that job, we should not be showing those departments. We can use Exist operator (view-link) in DepartmentVO for that but we need to change AM code to refer job-id from nested row. Planning to implement it in next blog.

Disclaimer: Any views or opinions presented in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.