Luc Bors presented tips and tricks for creating complex layouts with Oracle ADF Faces at ODTUG KScope 2013 in New Orleans. He discussed using various layout containers like the panelFormLayout, panelStretchLayout, panelSplitter, panelAccordion, and panelTabbedLayout. He emphasized the importance of using colors to understand layout behavior and reducing the number of layout containers. The panelGridLayout was highlighted as an effective way to create grid-based layouts without needing spacers or separators. Examples were provided for creating common application layouts like an Outlook-style interface using these techniques.

1. Luc Bors, june 2013, ODTUG KScope 2013 New Orleans
Tips and Tricks for Creating Complex
Layouts with Oracle ADF Faces
Goodbye Nightmare

2. Who Am I
• Luc Bors
• Principal Consultant
• AMIS Nieuwegein Netherlands
• Friends of Oracle & Java
• 5 Oracle ACE(D)
• Oracle Partner

3. Just a Quote…
Let's face it: With ADF Faces rich client, layout ……..
once you are a layout master, all bow before you, but it's more of an art than a
science, and it is often, in fact, way too difficult to achieve what should
(apparently) be a pretty simple.

4. Back to the drawingboard

5. Visio Stencils
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/indexes/samplecode/jdeveloper-adf-
sample-522118.html

6. ADF Layout Containers

7. The PanelFormLayout
• Organize (input) components in a form layout
– Aligning labels and fields in
rows and columns
– attribute labelAlignment to
display labels above the fields

8. The PanelFormLayout
• Use the ‘Rows’ attribute
• Use the ‘MaxColumns’ attribute

9. The PanelStretchLayout
• Stretches its components to fill available space
– Top and bottom facet can be set to fixed height (or auto)
– Start and end facet can be set to fixed width
– Facets with no content
do not render

10. Demo

11. The PanelSplitter
• To create resizable panes
– That stretch their content
• panelSplitter has two
facets: first and second
– Content for the panes is
provided in the facets
• Orientation horizontal or vertical
• Can be collapsible
• Position can be fixed
• Can be nested
• Collapse and resize events can be listened to

12. panelAccordion
• The panelAccordion displays one or more collapsible/expandable panes
in a vertically layout
– Multiple panes can be expanded at once if discloseMany=true
• discloseNone=true means
that all panes can be
collapsed
– Overflow icon is shown
to scroll to panes that
do not fit in the area
– Expanding & Collapsing
panes is a client side
operation
– Accordions can be nested

13. PanelTabbedLayout
• The panelTabbed displays one or more tabbed panes
– panelTabbed has position attribute
(tab can be shown at the top,
at the bottom or both)
• The content of a tab pane is
in a showDetailItem
– A tab has attributes for title, icon, disabled,
• panelTabbed can be nested
• Overflow icon and popup are
shown when the tabs do not
fit next to each other

14. Flowing and Stretching
• Setting Background color can help you
understand what is actually happening.
• Makes you recognize the components at
runtime

15. Demo

16. Be Aware !!
Stretchable ? Stretches ?
PanelStretchLayout YES YES
PanelSplitter YES YES
PanelCollection YES YES
PanelGroupLayout
(scroll, vertital)
YES NO
PanelGroupLayout
(default, horizontal)
NO NO
PanelFromLayout NO NO
PanelBorderLayout NO NO
PanelDashBoard YES YES
(Inside a grid)
PanelTabbed YES YES
(StretchChildren = first)

17. JDeveloper Can Help You

18. Quick Start Layouts

19. Predefined Layouts

21. Even better…

22. Colors rule !

23. The ADF Table
• Layout and the ADF Table
– How
– What
– When

24. A Common ADF Layout issue
• PanelGroupLayout does not Stretch it’s
children

25. Solution
• Remove PGL
– This does the trick
• Surround with
PanelCollection
– Very convenient

26. The (almost) stretched table

27. Using the column
• Consider Column Stretching
– none (default): Gives optimal performance
– blank: Inserts an empty blank column that is stretched; use this so that the row’s
background colors will span the entire width of the table
– last: Stretches the last column to fill up any unused space inside the viewport
– column:<id>: Stretches a specified column; use the ID of the column that you want
to stretch (requires that you explicitly set the column’s ID property—the drop-down
list for the property displays all columns whose ID has been set)
– multiple When the "multiple" option is used you can set the widths in the columns
(non-group) to be percentages.

28. The stretched table

29. Demo

30. Ready ?

31. ScrollBar ScrollBar Everywhere
• Never place a scrolling
panelGroupLayout inside of another
scrolling panelGroupLayout since
users do not like nested scroll bars

32. And now they are gone ….
• I Know what to do:
Lets use layout vertical
on the outer PGL………
…… and they are all gone….

33. This works best
• You learned earlier that:
– PanelGroupLayout does not Stretch it’s children
• Remove PGL
• Stretch via Styleclass
– AfStretchWidth

34. Now What …..

35. The PanelformLayout
• Can we create a properly aligned form ?
• Having alignment of fields on the left ?
• Having alignment of fields on the right ?
• Having First Name and Last Name in one line ?
• Look at the default layout for such a form…….

36. Step 1
• Bring First Name and Last Name into an aggregate Container
– use a panelLabelAndMessage component which is designed specifically for this
purpose of allowing several logical components, or components without their own
label property to be correctly laid out in a panelFormLayout.

37. Step 2
• Alignment Components For First Name and Last Name
– By default, the panelLabelAndMessage will lay out its children vertically. In this case
we want the components side-by-side. So simply use a horizontal panelGroupLayout
to align the two fields

38. Step 3 ?
• Remove Labels

39. Step 3 !
• Remove Labels
– The label is defined by the panelLabelAndMessage.
– set the simple property to “true” on each of the child components.
– also set the for property on the parent panelLabelAndMessage to the relevant child
component id. This will endure that error messages are correctly displayed.

40. Step 4
• Ensure Right Alignment
– Components such as the selectOneChoice do not stretch and are controlled by the
size of their data
– You will have to control the size manually using styles.
– The contentStyle property is used to control just the width of the drop down box itself
and therefore is the property to use. Unfortunately getting the exact width, is a matter
of trial and error.
– For precise alignment that can survive zooming by the user, you may have to set
explicit sizes in em’s for all the components in the form, or use the fieldWidth and
LabelWidth properties of the panelFormLayout.

41. And Finally……The Result

42. Separators and Spacers
• Default behavior • Spacers and Separators

43. Now What …..

44. Forget (almost) all Of the
Above….

45. The PanelGridLayout
• The panelGridLayout component is a layout container component that
– uses one or more gridRow components to describe the rows of a grid layout
structure.
– Each row defines a height and margins.
– Each gridRow uses one or more gridCell components to describe the cells for
columns in that row of the grid layout structure.
– Each cell defines width, margins, column span, row span, horizontal alignment, and
vertical alignment

46. How does it work ?

47. Bye Bye Spacers & Separators

49. How to make this layout ?

50. How we Used to do it

51. This is What we do Now

52. Creating OTN with ADF

53. Demo

54. What about Outlook ?

55. Demo

56. Outlook in ADF

57. Summary tips
• Work with colors
– Makes it clear what is going on
• Use as little layout containers as possible.
– The pages is smaller and faster
• Reduce the number of components that need to stretch
– The pages are faster
• Use the quick start layouts
– Saves you time

58. Summary tips
• Start with strechtable outer frame
– Such as…PSL, PSP,
• In there, have the flowing islands.
• Never try to stretch something vertically in a flowing island
– Inconsistent results accross browsers
– Also need to consider the case where you build pagefragments that can be reused in
other pages.
– Styling only via Styleclass.
• Use the Developerguide or create your own Cheat Sheet !
• Benefit from PanelGridLayout !!!
– 11.1.1.7 or 11.1.2.2+

59. And do not ….
• Do Not use RAW HTML in the pages
• Do Not use inlinestyle use skinning
• Do Not specify height with %
– Might result in multiple vertical scrollbars
• Do not try to stretch a none stretchable component by setting width =
100%
– Surround with stretchable componenent that also stretches its children
– Or use AFStretchWidth styleClass

60. Resources
• http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/ux/middleware/richclient/index.html

61. Resources
• http://jdevadf.oracle.com/faces11117/faces/index.jspx

62. Questions ….. Answers….

63. Luc Bors, AMIS, The Netherlands
Luc.Bors@amis.nl
LucBors@gmail.com
Follow me on : @lucb_