Java Development Tools

I'd like to say a word on the how-to article "How to refresh a table of data after inserting or deleting a row using ADF".

(http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/howtos/1013/updtable/index.html?_template=/ocom/technology/content/print)

I spent a lot of time on it because I needed help in implementing simple CRUD functionality on a table, using JSF-ADF-TopLink technologies.

While the the article does provide correct steps, it is in one important place not specific enough, so the reader may easily get stuck. In section "Refresh the data table", point 1: when you double click on the removeEntity() button, in Structure window, then you do not get the required dialog. You get CommandButton Properties dialog.

You must click on the removeEntity() button in Editor's Design view. But even there you may get the CommandButton Properties dialog, not managed beans dialog.

You may resolve that by going to JSF configuration file, faces-config.xml, and switch to Overview view. This will show you the managed beans that you have.

Then, you may already have a backing bean for the page. You can use that and avoid creating a new managed bean.

I could understand what the operations mean only after very careful reading of "Creating More Complex Pages", section "Overriding Declarative Methods" in JDeveloper Help (or in ADF Developer's Guide PDF document).

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In general: I believe that "ADF bindings" need more conceptual explanation, maybe in form of an article. Grammatical form "bindings" may create a false understanding that "bindings" are just references. But they are not -- ADF bindings are active objects that handle traffic between UI components and Data Controls. It seems that "bindings" even communicate among themselves. Maybe it would be more understandable to differentiate strictly between "binding objects" (or "binders"?), binding object definitions and binding object references.

It would be very helpful to have a diagram showing grahically what specific binder objects are created in a small apllication (2-3 pages using 1-2 tables), with whom they communicate and what type of data is passed on.

Priit