Deciding When to Use a Data Page or a Data Action

Oracle ADF provides two classes,oracle.adf.controller.struts.actions.DataAction and its subclass oracle.adf.controller.struts.actions.DataForwardAction, to prepare the binding context for databound web pages. The corresponding Page Flow Diagram components are the data action and the data page. This topic describes when to use which component in your page flow diagram and contains the following sections:

When to Use the Data Page
When to Use the Data Action

When to Use the Data Page

The data page is the recommended component for adding an action that forwards to a databound web page. Use a data page when:

You have a data action that is forwarding directly to a web page. In the Page Flow Diagram a data page represents the combination of a data forward action class instance, a forward transition, and a web page.
You want to simplify a complex page flow diagram. Using the data page reduces the number of elements in the Page Flow Diagram and makes complex application diagrams easier to read.

When to Use the Data Action

Use a data action when:

You need to perform multiple operations before rendering a web page. Use the data action to perform any operations that do not forward directly to a web page. For example, the data action in the following diagram sets the current row before forwarding to a data page that prepares the data for the edit form on the next web page. In this example, setting the current row requires a separate data action.

For more information see Deciding When to Chain Data Actions.
You are forwarding to the same web page from two or more data actions. For example, you might have a data action that displays a web page and a data action that refreshes the same page.
You would prefer to see all of the individual components in the Page Flow Diagram and the complexity of the diagram is not an issue for you. In this case each combination of data action, transition, and page is equivalent to a single data page component.