Defining ADF Control Flow Rules
The overall navigation through a JSF application uses a set of rules for choosing the next page to display when, for example, the user clicks a button or link. To define the navigation for your application, you need to define the control flow rules themselves, then include on the pages the controls that a user can interact with to navigate to another place in the application at run time.
ADF Faces components that can be used to implement navigation features on pages include:
Buttons and links, which users click to navigate to another place in the application
Components such as tabs and breadcrumbs
Train components for walking users through sequential steps of a process
Control flow rule definitions are stored in configuration files (adfc-config.xml or a similar .xml file). You can define the rules directly in the .xml configuration file, or you can use the Navigation Modeler and the Configuration Editor, which offer the following advantages:
Provide a GUI environment for modeling and editing the navigation between pages
Enable you to map out your application navigation using a visual diagram
Update the configuration file for you automatically
Use the Navigation Modeler to initially create control flow rules; use the Configuration Editor to create global or pattern-based rules for multiple pages, create default navigation cases, and edit control flow rules. These tools, along with the Structure window, are explained further in subsequent slides.