APEX or ADF?

From
Requirements
to Tool Choice
Sten Vesterli
sten@vesterli.com
Oracle OpenWorld
October 2015
Safe Harbor
 About Me
• Sten Vesterli
• Developer, consultant, trainer
• 20 years of Oracle experience
• Oracle ACE Director
• Oracle UX Advocate
• Day job: ADF Developer
• Side gig: APEX Developer
 Who is Scott/Tiger?
Scott Tiger

Bruce Scott Bruce’s daughter’s cat

(Oracle employee no. 4)
Also an Oracle-focused consultancy based in Denmark…
Scott/Tiger customers
 Use a Framework
• Getting data from fields on the screen to
the database and back
• Oracle offers three frameworks:
– Forms
– APEX
– ADF
 Use a Framework
• Getting data from fields on the screen to
the database and back
• Oracle offers four frameworks:
– Forms
– APEX
– ADF
– JET (doesn’t officially exist yet)
 Yes, APEX uses PL/SQL
• Developed in browser
• PL/SQL
– and HTML, JavaScript, CSS
• Runs in database
– No extra infrastructure
– Only scales up
 ADF is Java
• Developed in JDeveloper
• Java (JSF)
– and EL, Groovy, CSS
• Programming by exception
• Runs in application server
– Extra infrastructure
– Scales both out and up
 But with APEX, you could!
• Focus on development speed
• Set up one hosted instance inside the
firewall
• Self-service provisioning
 Oracle Internal APEX
• 16,601 applications
• Data for one week:
– 2,965,272 page views
– 2,275 different active applications
– 22,892 distinct users
 ADF is Strategic
• Focus on large development teams
– Modularity
– Source Control
– Team Productivity Center
• Oracle is building all new commercial
applications in ADF
• 20,000 man years invested in Fusion
Applications
 Learning ADF
• Forms developers
– Accept framework magic
– Have to learn Java
• Java developers
– Want to write code
– Don’t like Oracle
 Data-driven Applications
• Design starts with the data
• The user interface is derived from the data
structures
• Wizards enable and encourage this
 User Interface Driven
• Design starts with workflow and tasks
• Build matching UI
• Build matching business objects and
services
• Base on well-designed relational database
Data-driven UI-driven

User Interface User Interface

Data Data
 Technology Half-Life
• Database: 10 years
• Business Logic: 4 years
– Both PL/SQL and Java
– Integrations are business logic
• User Interface: 18 months
Technology Half-Life
 ADF Killer Feature:
Modular Task Flows
• Visual page flow designer
• Packaged into ADF Libraries
• Can call other task flows
• Allows you to build a big application in a
modular fashion
ADF Killer Feature: Components
 ADF Killer Feature: Customization
• Changing the application the user sees
– without changing the base application
• Customizations are stored in XML files
• Customizations are upgrade-safe
– you can upgrade the base application,
customizations still applied
• Multiple customization levels possible
 APEX Killer Feature: Eats Excel
• You can upload an Excel spreadsheet and
create matching table
• Then create default application
• Business user can do this
• Application developer can fine-tune
 APEX Killer Feature: Speed
• Setup time: Zero
– You work in a browser
• Deployment time: Zero
– You can work on a running server
– Make the application available when ready
 Conclusion

Requirement Recommendation
It has to run tomorrow APEX

Advanced UI requirements ADF

Customization required ADF

Large application ADF

My opinion on tools www.oratoolwatch.com
My blog: www.vesterli.com
Email: sten@vesterli.com
Twitter: stenvesterli and oratoolwatch