Inserting Business Service Method Results Using the Data Control Palette

You can use the Data Control Palette to display the result of a method invocation. The method is defined by the business service through the Oracle ADF data controls. The Data Control Palette lets you display the method result using a range of visual elements that depend on the method's return type and whether or not the method returns a collection (or bean) which contains attributes.

The Data Control Palette relies on the presence of metadata specified by the collection's attributes to filter the list of visual elements. When no attributes are present, the Data Control Palette displays Show Result or Read-Only Dynamic Table for the method that returns a scalar value or collection.

Note: The Data Control Palette may appear empty when you first open it. Complete the prerequisite steps to populate the palette with business services from your model project.

To insert a method result into a web page to display a dynamic value:

Create the ADF-enabled web page or ADF-enabled Swing panel and open it in the Visual Editor.
Choose View | Data Control Palette to open the palette.
Expand the Data Control Palette hierarchy.

The Data Control Palette displays two types of method returns inside the Operations folder of the data control:
- Methods that return a collection or structured object are identified by the icon.
  You may need to define the type of the collection being returned.
- Methods that return a scalar value are represented by the icon.
  If you want to display the result of an method that returns a scalar, your application must provide the means to execute the method in order to create the ADF action binding before the result can be displayed. See Supplying Method Parameters for an ADF Method Invocation.
To display the result of a method invocation, expand the Operations folder at the root level, locate the method return node, and select the desired visual element from the dropdown list.

Note, Show Result will appear in the dropdown list, when the method invocation returns a scalar value:

Note, Read-Only Dynamic Table will appear in the dropdown list when the method invocation returns of a collection with no attributes defined:
Add the dynamic display component into your web page by dragging the selection from the top portion of the Data Control Palette into the open web page in the Visual Editor.
If the method that your action executes takes parameters, supply the parameter values.

An iterator binding definition is created in the binding definitions file for the displayed web page.