Creating ADF Bindings in the Structure Window

As an alternative to working with the Data Control Palette to design the application UI, you can create your document's ADF binding definition file (UIModel.xml) and add ADF bindings definitions to the file directly within the Structure window. You can then write expressions in a web page's source code to work with those bindings or program against them in your JClient form or panel source code.

To create the ADF UI Model file from the Structure window:

Create your web page or JClient panel and open the file in the Visual Editor.
Choose View | Structure to display the Structure window for the open file.
Click (UI Model) in the Structure window toolbar to display the current binding definitions.
If no binding container definition exists for the open document, right-click the node in the Structure window and choose Create UI Model.

JDeveloper creates the <documentName> UIModel node in the Structure window and adds the <documentName>UIModel.xml binding definition file to the project package in the Application Sources folder.

To rename the untitled ADF UI Model file:

Select the DataBindings.cpx file in the Application Sources folder.
Choose View | Property Inspector to view the UI model id.
Select the untitled node in the (UI Model) folder of the Structure window.
Edit the Id field in the Property Inspector and press Enter.

To create the ADF bindings from the Structure window:

To create an iterator binding that you can use to manage the currency of a collection that your client document will iterate over, right-click the new binding definition and choose Creating Binding | Data | Iterator.

All value and action bindings that you create must be able to reference an existing iterator binding definition in your document's UI model file.
In the iterator binding editor, define the binding for a specific data collection that you select.
To create a value or action binding that you can use to operate on the collection whose iterator you just defined, right-click the binding definition node in the Structure window and choose one of these three choices:
- Creating Binding | Display when you want to work with a UI component that only displays data. The type of value binding you select will determine the specific UI component.
- Creating Binding | Input when you want to work with a UI component that works with the iterator binding in edit mode. The type of value binding you select will determine the specific UI component.
- Creating Binding | Action when you want to work with a button that lets the user initiate an operation on the data collection.
In each case, use the open binding editor to complete the binding definition. Click the editor Help button for additional help.

If you have created a JSP page, you can now write JSTL code and binding expressions to work with the bindings in your web page.

If you have created a UIX page, you can now write binding expressions to work with the bindings in your UIX XML component's model property.