Displaying the Data - Oracle ADF 11gR2 Development Beginner's Guide - page 142

Creating a page
To display the content of the model layer, we will have to create the page that holds the
model layer informaion bound using the page deiniion ile. We can create a page without
the page deiniion to bind the data to the model layer by just adding staic content to the
page. We can include the layout informaion and design the page that will suit the web
applicaion context.
EmpDirectoryApplication has the index.jspx page to display the EMP table
informaion. As the index.jspx page is the landing page for our web applicaion, we will
move the employee informaion to a separate page named employee.jspx . In this way,
we have our informaion separated from the landing page. Categorizing the content of the
page is important in creaing a web-based applicaion. We will have a layout designed for our
index.jspx page. The page creaion for the DEPT table is similar to that of the EMP table.
We will have the department informaion displayed in the dept.jspx page. Therefore, we
will be creaing two pages in this secion.
Knowing the page template
It is always good to have a standard look and feel for our web applicaion throughout the
website. ADF uses the concept of page templates to provide a common layout that defines
a uniform look and feel for the applicaion which helps display the content of the page in a
more efficient way to the user. For example, the common layout for many of the websites
today includes a global menu at the top, navigaion menu stacked on the let-hand side of the
page along with the content displayed at the center of the page. There are some built-in page
templates that come in handy when creaing a page. They are Oracle three column layout and
Oracle dynamic tabs shell template. These are the default templates provided by ADF to start
with basic web page creaion.
Oracle Three Column Layout
This template is used to display three secions in the page and gives room for the user to add
contents by providing facets. The layout informaion uses the af:pageTemplate tag with
facets defined inside it, as follows:
<af:pageTemplate viewId="/oracle/templates/threeColumnTemplate.jspx"
id="pt1">
<f:facet name="center"/>
<f:facet name="header"/>
<f:facet name="end"/>
<f:facet name="start"/>
<f:facet name="branding"/>