About the Data Control Palette

Client developers use the Data Control Palette to create databound HTML elements (for JSP pages), databound Oracle ADF UIX elements (for UIX XML pages), and databound Swing UI components (for JClient panels). The Data Control Palette comprises two selection lists:

Hierarchical display of available business objects, methods, and data control operations
Dropdown list of appropriate visual elements that you can select for a given business object and drop into your open client document

Additionally, web application developers use the Data Control Palette to select methods provided by the business services that can be dropped onto the data pages and data actions of the Struts page flow.

Overview of Data Control Palette Usage

In the case of client documents, the hierarchical structure of the business services displayed is determined by:

Which business services you have registered with the data controls in your model project. The palette displays a separate root node for each business service that you register:

Oracle Business Components application modules
EJB session beans
TopLink mappings&ndashbased beans
Standard JavaBeans classes
Web services

A bean design time description that is generated in an .xml definition file when you create the data control for the bean. The bean's XML definition classifies the bean's property accessors and methods into various categories described below.
Note: In the case of ADF Business Components, the ADF application modules in your model project are automatically published as a data control. Their XML metadata file already contains the information needed by the ADF data control and no additional XML definition files are required when you create the model project. In the case of web services, no bean is involved and the XML definition describes only methods exposed by the web service.

At design time, the Data Control Palette provides the first step to lay out the client user interface and prepare the ADF bindings. The task of selecting a business object, choosing a visual element for the service, and dropping it into the page generates these items:

A visual element, which is defined by source code to access the bindings in the client document (HTML and tags for JSP pages, UIX components for UIX XML pages, or Java method calls for JClient-generated panels and forms).
A binding container when one does not yet exist for the page. The binding container is an XML file that appears in the directory corresponding to the package currently set to the project's default package. (To modify the default package, select the project node in the Application Navigator and display the Property Inspector, where you can set the defaultPackage property.)
An appropriate binding definition to support the visual visual element. The binding definition is added to the binding container.

Note that, as an alternative, you can also create bindings, which you later reference in your source code, without dragging and dropping from the Data Control Palette.

The code that the Data Control Palette generates in your client document and the bindings that it creates depend on:

The type of document displayed in the visual editor (must be a JSP page, UIX page, or JClient-generated panel or form)
The combination of business service and visual element you select and drop into the open document

After you have completed laying out the client document with the Data Control Palette, you are ready to view and customize the individual binding definitions.

Overview of the Data Control Business Objects

The root node of the Data Control Palette represents the data control registered for the business service. While the data control itself is not an item you can select, you may select among the operations it supports. All data control&ndashspecific operations appear in the Operations folder of the root node. You can work with this type of operation when you want to perform an operation that applies across the ADF binding context, such as the commit and rollback operations provided by the data control for ADF Business Components.

Proceeding down the hierarchy from the root data control node, the palette represents bean-based business services as either:

Attributes, such as bean properties, which can define simple scalar value objects, structured objects (beans), or collections

OR
Operations, such as bean methods, which may or may not return a value or take method parameters

An exception to this hierarchy is the web services, for which the Data Control Palette displays only operations.

In the Data Control Palette, attributes and operations are represented by the following specific icons. Note that icons which appear more than once represent various accessor return types and may be supported by a different set of visual elements as shown in the following table.

Icon	Description	Visual Element Choices
	An attribute that represents a scalar value (such as simple Integer or String objects).	The full list of attribute-bound visual elements, such as text input, checkbox, choice list, and radio buttons. These choices vary depending on the document type you create.
	An accessor attribute that represents a collection of scalar values (such as ones that provide an array, Integers, or list of Strings).	The full list of collection-bound visual elements, such as table, graph, navigation buttons, and forms. These choices vary depending on the document type you create.
	An accessor attribute that represents a collection of structured objects that contain attributes and operations (such as a collection of employee objects).	The full list of collection-bound visual elements, such as table, graph, navigation buttons, and forms. These choices vary depending on the document type you create.
	An accessor attribute that represents a collection of structured objects that contain only operations and no attributes (such as a collection of service beans).	Read-Only Dynamic Table and Navigation Buttons for JSP, more choices for UIX, and the full list of collection-bound controls for JClient.
	An accessor attribute that returns a structured object that contains attributes and operations (such as an address object).	The full list of collection-bound visual elements, such as table, graph, navigation buttons, and forms. These choices vary depending on the document type you create.
	An accessor attribute that returns a structured object that contains only operations and no attributes (such as a service bean).	Read-only Dynamic Table and Navigation Buttons for JSP, more choices for UIX, and the full list of collection-bound controls for JClient.
	An operation which may or may not take parameter values (such as a Java method on a bean).	Button or a button with form (JSP), SubmitButton (UIX), Button (JClient).
	Built-in operations (such as navigate to row and execute).	Button or a button with form (JSP), SubmitButton (UIX), Button (JClient).
	Built-in operations to pass the primary key value of a rowset (such as set current row with key)	Button or a button with form (JSP), SubmitButton (UIX), Button (JClient).

In the Data Control Palette, operations that specify return values are represented by the following specific icons. The specific returned object determines which visual elements are available, as shown in the following table.

Icon	Description	Visual Element Choices
	An operation that returns a scalar value (such as simple Integer or String objects).	Show Result read-only visual element for JSP and UIX. The full list of attribute-bound controls for JClient.
	An operation that returns a collection of scalar values (such as ones that provide an array or Integers or list of Strings).	The full list of collection-bound visual elements, such as table, graph, navigation buttons, and forms. These choices vary depending on the document type you create.
	An operation that returns a collection of structured objects that contain attributes and operations (such as a collection of employee objects).	The full list of collection-bound visual elements, such as table, graph, navigation buttons, and forms. These choices vary depending on the document type you create.
	An operation that returns a collection of structured objects that contain only operations and no attributes (such as a collection of service beans).	Read-only Dynamic Table and Navigation Buttons for JSP, more choices for UIX, and the full list of collection-bound controls for JClient.
	An operation that returns a structured object that contains only operations and no attributes (such as a service bean).	Read-only Dynamic Table and Navigation Buttons for JSP, more choices for UIX, and the full list of collection-bound controls for JClient.
	An operation that returns a structured object that contains attributes and operations (such as an address object).	The full list of collection-bound visual elements, such as table, graph, navigation buttons, and forms. These choices vary depending on the document type you create.

Note that, depending on the business service definition, method returns which appear in the Data Control Palette may be redundant with the data control attributes defined for the business service. When a choice is available, it is preferable to select the attribute and accessor nodes rather than method returns. Only data control attributes and accessors provide full support for the Oracle ADF bindings. Iterator bindings, for example, are not available for method returns.

For details about the business objects displayed by the Data Control Palette in the context of individual business services, see About Oracle ADF Data Controls.