Complex datatypes for ADF AM/VO client service methods

JDev: 12.2.1.3.0

Source: GitHub

One very recent work-related requirement was to pass and return complex data types from an Application Module Implementation class method.

For those of us who are familiar with this concept, we know that we usually pass around native Java data-types, like String, Integer, Boolean, etc, or maybe List, Map. But what if we need to pass and return a complex POJO - such as an Employees object (as shown below)?

You might have also noticed that we are able to pass and return oracle.jbo.Row objects. But JDev does not allow us to create a service method if we want to return a view object's implementation class, such as EmployeesVORowImpl.

The reason that AM client service implementation allows certain data-types is that those data-types are available to both Model and ViewController projects. If you open up Model or ViewController project properties and search for oracle.jbo.Row class, you will find that it is included inside the 'ADF Model Generic Runtime' library, which is available to both projects.

So, in order to allow a user class to be available to both projects, and to preserve MVC principles, we need to create a new project inside our workspace and create the shared classes in that. 

The current application is built on JDev 12.2.1.3.0, and HR schema. But this concept applies to any version of ADF. This is more to do with the way you set your application up, and less about ADF. 

Let's see the structure now.

Add a dependency for this project to both Model and ViewController projects. And that is all that you need to do. Now both projects are aware of a class named Employees!

You create your AM's implementation class, and add a method which accepts an Employees object, modifies it and returns the same to the ViewController bean.

The same client method can be exposed as a method binding on any page or fragment. The method binding gets created as follows:

And that's it. Now you have your own class which can be modified and passed around.

Cheers!