Review : Oracle ADF 11gR2 Development Beginner's Guide

Though we have couple of ADF books available in market, but this one Oracle ADF 11gR2 Development Beginner's Guide has is own importance. The book is a real starter for beginners having basic knowledge of Java. Author has explained ADF concepts in below steps :
1. a description of the issue,
2. performance of the execution ("time for action"),
3. an explanation of how the solution works ("what just happened?"),
4. Explore things ("Have a go hero") and
5. Finally a quiz as check for reader to understand whether he learnt concepts or just mugged them up.

Book covers the ADF concepts distributed in 11 chapters as follows:


Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring JDeveloper IDE, familiarization with JDeveloper which is the official IDE for Oracle ADF applications.

Chapter 2, Getting Started with ADF, explains key concepts of Oracle ADF : MVC, Entity Objects, View Objects and Applications Modules.

Chapter 3, Understanding the Model Layer, explains the entity and viewobjects in details.

Chapter 4, Validating and Using the Model Data, covers the validations governed through Model layer. Declaration validation and Groovy usage is explained with simple example.

Chapter 5, Binding the Data, explains the binding between model and view layers of an Oracle ADF application and key concepts involved.

Chapter 6, Displaying the Data. Concept of Page Template and other ADF Components are explained which are required for building Web Pages.

Chapter 7, Working with Navigation Flows, presents the concept of a Task flow and the different types of task flows that ADF offers. ADF Lifecycle is also covered in this chapter.

Chapter 8, Layout with Look and Feel, explains skinning for ADF Applications. Create and deploy skins is also covered with example.

Chapter 9, Implementing Security, is about roles, permissions, and other security concepts related to Oracle ADF security.

Chapter 10, Deploying the ADF Application, explains the deployment of ADF Application. It covers the deployment profile creation including structure of the deployment files and deployment descriptors.

Chapter 11, Advanced Features of ADF, this chapter is all about advance configurations including: tuning Entity Objects, tuning View Objects, debugging ADF applications, among others.


Over all it's a good starter for beginner and reference for intermediate level ADF learners.

How To Locate Intradoc Jar, RIDC Extensions and Site Studio into JDeveloper

Importing RIDC extension into jDeveloper:
(Help -> Check For Updates -> Source -> Install From file)
%MIDDLEWARE_HOME%/Oracle_ECM1/ucm/Distribution/RIDC/jdev


Importing Site Studio extension into jDeveloper:
(Help -> Check For Updates -> Source -> Install From file)
%MIDDLEWARE_HOME%/Oracle_ECM1/ucm/Distribution/SiteStudioExternalApplications/jdev

Intradoc Classes are available as JAR in following location :
 %MIDDLEWARE_HOME%//Oracle_ECM1/ucm/idc/jlib/idcserver.jar


Done

Webcenter Content UserGuide Overview in Single Page

I am going to talk a little about Webcenter Content here. Nothing new in this post... it is just summary I tried to pull from UserGuide for my reference.

Overview 
When a file is checked in, Content Server stores the original or native file in a central repository for native files. For systems with conversion features installed and enabled, a web-viewable version of file is created and stored in special repository for web-viewable files. When a file cannot be converted, native file is stored in special repository of web-viewable files.
A file checked in to content server is called a Content Item.The native file and any Web-viewable files associated with a content item are called Renditions.

Check out, modify and then checkin will create new revisions of the content item. Every content item in the repository for Web-viewable files has a persistent URL that does not change from one revision to the next. The most current version is always displayed when you point your browser to the URL of a content item.

Metadata is information about a content item, such as the title, author, release date, and so on.When you check in a content item, you assign some metadata values, while Content Server assigns some metadata values automatically. The metadata is stored in a database that works with Content Server.

Users

Content Server defines two types of users:
Consumers:  No modification ...just view .
Contributors: Create , Find, View, Revise , Print permission.

Access Control List (ACL) Security

An access control list is a list of users, groups, or enterprise roles with permission to access or interact with a particular content item.

User Access List

Group Access List

Role Access List

To use access control lists with content items, you assign one or more predefined users, groups, or roles to the item. In addition, you assign the permissions (Read (R), Write (W), Delete (D), or Admin (A)) to each of the access list entries you specify.

Indexing

If your system is configured for full-text search, the indexing engine makes a list of all the words in every file in HTML, PDF, TXT, XML, and other supported formats, and stores the list in a database. After the indexing process completes, the file is released to Content Server.

Images And Videos

Digital Asset Manager functionality can be used to quickly find, group, convert, and download images and videos of various sizes, formats, and resolutions to meet your business needs, all while maintaining a consistency of use across your organization.


Managing Content with Folders and WebDav

Content Server includes components that provide a hierarchical folder interface, similar to a conventional file system, for organizing and managing some or all of the content in the repository.


Folders: This component (FrameworkFolders component) provides a hierarchical folder interface within the browser, similar to a conventional file system, for organizing, locating, and managing repository content and content item metadata. The Folders functionality is installed but disabled by default.

Contribution Folders: This optional component (Folders_g component) provides a hierarchical folder interface within the browser, similar to a conventional file system, for organizing repository content. The component is installed but disabled by default. The newer, Folders component is meant to be a replacement for Contribution Folders.

WebDAV (Web-Based Distributed Authoring and Versioning): Both folder components work with Content Server's built-in WebDAV functionality to allow users to remotely manage and author content using clients that support the WebDAV protocol. The WebDAV interface provides a subset of the options available through the browser interface. In general, you can create, delete, move, and copy both folders and content items, and you can modify and check in content items. To check out content items through the WebDAV interface, you must use a WebDAV client that can open the file. To perform other management tasks, such as specifying or propagating metadata values, you must use the standard browser interface.


Grouping Content into Folios

A folio is a logical grouping or framework to organize content stored in Content Server.
With a simple folio, you collect one or more items in a single level. With an advanced folio, you can organize content in a hierarchy of folders.
An advanced folio can contain folders, called nodes, placeholders for content, called slots, and content items These elements are displayed by default in a hierarchical structure, similar to a standard file system.



Routing Content Through Workflows

The workflow process routes a file for review and approval before it is released to the Content Server repository. You can optionally sign and approve a file with an electronic signature which uniquely identifies the contents of the file at a particular revision and associates the signature with a particular reviewer.

Criteria workflow - files automatically go into a workflow if the values entered in the metadata fields upon check-in meet certain criteria. Criteria workflows are useful for individual content items that are approved by the same reviewers on a regular basis.

Basic workflow - files are specifically identified in the workflow, along with the contributors, reviewers, and steps. This type of workflow requires an administrator to initiate the process, and is best suited for groups of content items that go through a workflow or individual content items with unique workflow requirements.