18

Additional UI Features and Tools

Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Checkpoint
At this point, you understand how to use explorer and UI
map zones to construct portals
In this section, we'll describe additional functionality that
exists to help you construct an efficient and pleasant user
interface experience

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

18

UI Maps and Explorer Zones

Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Another Use For UI Maps

Up to now, you've seen UI maps used as follows:
A display-only map zone may use a UI map to define how it looks
A BPA script can invoke a UI map to capture or display information

In this section, we describe how info and query zones can

reference a UI map to control how the filter area looks
This technique would be used when the filter area requires a more
sophisticated user experience

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

There Are Two Types Of UI Maps

UI maps that are used in filter areas contain a subset of the HTML that is used at
run time
This is why, when you set up a UI map for a query zone's filters, you define it as
being an HTML fragment
At run time, the framework will insert the UI map's HTML fragment into the query
zone

UI Map

Complete
HTML
Document
Used in BPA scripts
and display-only map
zones
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HTML
Fragment
Used for filters in
query zones

Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

This is a fragment,
notice how there is
no head and body

It's Hard To Tell The Difference

Because the same style sheet is used for rendered filters
and UI map filters, they look almost identical

Notice how the Start Date and End Date are next to
each other. This is the only way you can tell that this
query zone's filter area was rendered with a UI map
(as these filters would be on top of each other if this
area had been rendered from the zone parameters)

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

How To Use A UI Map For Explorer Filters

Set up a UI map
Populate the zone
parameter to indicate that
you want to use a UI map
for the filters
Indicate each filter's value
comes from an xpath=
location (where
xpath=theNameOfTheElem
entInTheMap)
Sample zone parameters for a query zone that using a
UI map instead of dynamically rendered filters

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

UI Maps In Query Zones In The Base Package

Most base-package designs do not require the use of UI
maps in query zones because the dynamic rendering of
the filters is frequently sufficient
However, the next slide describes a use case where the
dynamic rendering wouldn't suffice

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

UI Maps and Idiosyncratic Dropdowns

Assume that you need to create a query zone that will be used to find
financial transactions linked to one of the account's SA's
Let's assume that this zone is designed to have a filter that is a
dropdown that contains a separate entry for every SA linked to the
account in globals
It's possible to implement this using a UI map:
Create a UI map that looks how you want it to look
On the UI map, indicate you want to invoke a service script to populate the
entries in the drop down
This service script has access to all of the globals (e.g., account id, premise id,
person id)

Configure the service script to invoke an explorer zone business service

that has a column with a FK reference
This explorer zone would be configured to have a filter whose value is passed in
from the service script (e.g., the global account id)

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Team Walk Through (30 minutes)

Create a UI map fragment
Break up into teams and follow the instructions in the workbook

Before adding any meta-data, please check your

solution against the solution in your workbook

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

18

Adding Links In Zone Headers

Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Links In Zone Headers

You've probably noticed that many zones have links in
their header bars
Explorer zones frequently have a link that initiates a BPA script to
add new instances of the object being queried
Display-only map zones may have a link that navigates the user to
a portal with a query zone
This query portal has a link that
initiates a BPA script to add a new
approval profile
This map zone has a link that
navigate to a query portal

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Zone Configuration
All query and map zones can be configured to have up to 5 links
For each link you define:
How it should appear: text, an icon, a button, or HTML (e.g., to add a link to
another site)
Whether it should initiate a BPA script or navigate to a page
The field values that are passed to the BPA script or page
This link is shown as text and it
kicks off a BPA script with no
fields in context (because it's
adding a new approval profile)
This link is shown as text and it
kicks off a BPA script and passes
it the id of the rebate claim
(because this script adds a log
entry to the claim in context)

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Team Walk Through (30 minutes)

Add links to your query zone
Break up into teams and follow the instructions in the workbook

Before adding any meta-data, please check your

solution against the solution in your workbook

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

18
Duplicating Zones

Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Changing The Zone Type

Case study:
You've created an Info Data Explorer - Single SQL zone
You realize you need another SQL condition so you change the zone's
zone type to Info Data Explorer - Multiple SQL's
When you change a zone's zone type, all of the zone parameters are reset
(this means you must re-enter the first SQL's zone parms)

You can avoid the retyping effort if you use the Replicate Zone
dashboard zone instead of the duplicate action (this zone appears
when you display a zone on the zone page)
Click Replicate to start a BPA script that will
ask you to define the zone type of the new
zone; it will then duplicate all parameter values
that are the same between the two zones

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Review Questions

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

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Copyright 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.