48 Integrating Notifications

48.2.4.1 What You Should Know About Subscription Defaults

Administrator-level subscription preferences are set in a custom XML file that you create and then use to supersede the file that is provided in the notification-repository.jar for this purpose out of the box (notification-service-settings.xml). The settings in the custom XML file are analogous to the application-level subscriptions settings available to users through the Subscription Preferences task flow.

Each setting provides the following attributes:

• id—for specifying the service ID:

  • oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.connections, the Connections feature of the People Connections service

  • oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.wall, the Message Board feature of the People Connections service

  • oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.kudos, the Feedback feature of the People Connections service

• subscription-enabled—For specifying the default value for the preference option: true or false

  Tip:

  Rather than enabling or disabling the entire subscription capability, the subscription-enabled attribute merely sets the initial state of the preference option. For example, if subscription-enabled="true", then the associated subscription option is checked by default in the Subscription Preferences task flow. If subscription-enabled="false", then the associated subscription option is not checked by default in the task flow.

• end-user-configurable—For enabling users to change the established default or preventing users from doing so: true or false

These attributes work together to determine the initial state of the Subscription Preferences task flow.

Table 48-2 illustrates the effect of custom administrator-level subscriptions settings on the appearance of the Subscription Preferences task flow.

^Footnote 1 Rather than enabling or disabling the entire subscription capability, the subscription-enabled attribute merely sets the initial state of the subscription.

Table 48-3 lists the types of actions that can trigger an application-level notification and associates them with their related service ID.

48.2.4.2 Setting Notifications Subscription Defaults

To set defaults for application-level Subscription preferences:

1. Navigate to a directory with a path that contains /oracle/webcenter/notification, and create the folder custom.

   Tip:

   The directory structure can start or end with any directory or directories, as long as it has /oracle/webcenter/notification/custom in the path.

2. In the custom folder, or in any subdirectory under /oracle/webcenter/notification/custom/, create the file notification-service-settings.xml.

3. In the XML file, enter values for all application-level subscription options.

   Example 48-7 provides sample content for an application-wide subscription preferences setting file and an example of each required option.

   Example 48-7 Sample Subscriptions Settings XML File

   <notification-service_settings xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/webcenter/notification">
    <subscription-settings>
     <service id="oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.connections" subscription-enabled="true"
      end-user-configurable="false"/>
     <service id="oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.wall" subscription-enabled="false"
      end-user-configurable="true"/>
     <service id="oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.kudos" subscription-enabled="false"
      end-user-configurable="true"/>
    </subscription-settings>
   </notification-service_settings>
   

   Note:

   If an option is not provided, the default values false/false are assigned for the service.

4. Run the WLST command importMetadata, and import the directory content into your metadata store.

   See Also:

   For information about the importMetadata command (and other WLST commands), see the section, "importMetadata," in Oracle Fusion Middleware WebLogic Scripting Tool Command Reference.

   For example:

   wls: /wc_domain/serverConfig> importMetadata(application='webcenter',
    server='serverName', fromLocation='directoryPath', docs='/**')
   

   Where:

   • application is the name that identifies your application

   • serverName is the name of the server on which the application is running

   • directoryPath is the directory path under which oracle/webcenter/notification/custom/<any_sub_dir_after_this>/notification-service-settings.xml is located.

     For example, if the directory path to notification-service-settings.xml is /scratch/mydir/oracle/webcenter/notification/custom, enter /scratch/mydir for directoryPath.

   • docs identifies the content to be imported, in this example, the path and files that fall under those specified for directoryPath.

Table 48-4 describes the effect of various combinations of settings for the service ID oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.connections.

^Footnote 1 This is the out-of-the-box default

Table 48-5 describes the effect of various combinations of settings for the service ID oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.wall.

Table 48-6 describes the effect of various combinations of settings for the service ID oracle.webcenter.peopleconnections.kudos.

48.2.5.1 Notifications Task flows

Notification Services exposes two task flows for managing user subscriptions:

• Subscription Preference provides controls for taking, viewing, and unsubscribing from application-level subscriptions (Figure 48-3)

  Figure 48-3 Subscription Preferences Task Flow

  
  Description of "Figure 48-3 Subscription Preferences Task Flow"
  
  

• Subscription Viewer provides controls for viewing and unsubscribing from object-level subscriptions (Figure 48-4).

  Figure 48-4 Subscription Viewer Task Flow

  
  Description of "Figure 48-4 Subscription Viewer Task Flow"
  
  

48.2.5.2 How to Add a Notifications Task Flow to a Page

To add a Notifications task flow to a page:

1. Follow the steps in Section 7.2.1, "How to Prepare Your Application to Consume Services" to implement security and create a customizable page in your application.

2. Open the page on which to add the task flow.

3. In the Resource Palette, in the My Catalogs pane, open the WebCenter Services Catalog, then open the Task Flows folder.

4. Drag the task flow onto a page region, then choose Region from the pop-up list.

5. In the Confirm Add ADF Library dialog, click Add Library to add all required libraries for the component.

6. For Subscription Preferences only, optionally, in the Edit Task Flow Binding dialog, provide a path to your input parameter map and values for the task flow's input parameters, and click OK.

   See Also:

   For information about Subscription Preferences task flow input parameters, see Section 48.2.5.3, "Subscription Preferences Task Flow Input Parameters."

   The task flow displays on the page. For example, in the Source view, you will see the content depicted in Example 48-8.

   Example 48-8 Source View Content of the Subscription Preferences Task Flow

   <af:region value="#{bindings.SubscriptionPreferences1.regionModel}" id="r1"/>
   

7. In the Confirm Add Form Element dialog, click No, to avoid wrapping a form element around the task flow.

8. Save your project, then run your page to a browser.

   The task flow appears in your browser (Figure 48-5).

   Figure 48-5 Subscription Preferences Task Flow

   
   Description of "Figure 48-5 Subscription Preferences Task Flow"
   
   

48.2.5.3 Subscription Preferences Task Flow Input Parameters

The Subscription Preferences task flow has input parameters that you can use to control the behavior of a given task flow instance. Table 48-7 lists and describes the input parameters associated with this task flow.

48.3.1.1 Configuration Settings Required to Use Notifications Java APIs

To use Notifications Java APIs, you must have the following entries in your adf-config.xml file:

<namespace path="/oracle/webcenter/page/scopedMD"
   metadata-store-usage="WebCenterFileMetadataStore"/>
<namespace path="/pageDefs" metadata-store-usage="WebCenterFileMetadataStore"/>

If these entries are not present in adf-config.xml, you can add them using your preferred text editor.

48.3.1.2 Introduction to Notifications Java APIs

Notifications Java APIs are located in the class oracle.webcenter.notification. Within the class, SubscriptionManager provides the interface for creating and managing user subscriptions using the following Java APIs:

• FilterOption—Provides the filter criteria. Use an instance of this class while querying a user's subscriptions.

• NotificationServiceFactory—Factory for creating and retrieving instances that correspond to Notifications interfaces. This is the entry point to the Notifications API.

• SortOption—Defines the sort attributes for fetching subscriptions. Use an instance of this class in SubscriptionManager methods to query a user's subscriptions.

• Subscription—Contains information about a user's subscription. Subscriptions for a user are created via the method that is exposed by SubscriptionManager. Instances of this class are returned by the methods exposed in SubscriptionManager.

• SubscriptionPreference—Represents application- or scope-level subscriptions as a preference and enables setting and unsetting of subscriptions for the corresponding service.

48.3.1.3 How to Set up Your Application to Use Notifications Java APIs

To use the Notifications Java APIs, the WebCenter extension must be present in your JDeveloper application. In JDeveloper, go to the Help - About menu, and click the Extensions tab. Look for the WebCenter Notification Service, as shown in Figure 48-6.

Figure 48-6 JDeveloper Extensions

After confirming that Notifications is included with the WebCenter extension, you must add the Notifications libraries to the project if they are not already present.

To add Notifications libraries to your project:

1. Right-click your project and select Project Properties and then Libraries and Classpath (Figure 48-7).

   Figure 48-7 Libraries and Classpath in Project Properties

   
   

2. Click Add Library and select the WebCenter Notification Service and WebCenter Notification Service View libraries.

3. Click OK.

48.3.2.1 Adding a Data Control to Your Project

Add a data control to your project by right-clicking it in the Resource Palette and selecting Add to Project from the resulting context menu. Once added, you can browse the data control's methods and attributes by expanding it in the Data Controls panel in the Application Navigator.

Add a data control to an application page by dragging it onto the page from the Data Controls panel.

48.3.2.2 Understanding the Notification Subscription Data Control

The Notification Subscription Data Control enables you to create a custom UI that is equivalent to the Subscription Preferences and Subscription Viewer task flows should these prove insufficient for your requirements.

You can use the data control as a means of adding application-level subscription preferences. For example, if you have developed your own preferences mechanism in your application, you can use the data control to add subscription preferences to that existing mechanism rather than using the Subscription Preferences task flow directly. Or you can build a custom subscription viewer UI, where all of the current user's object-level subscriptions are listed.

48.3.2.3 Notification Subscription Data Control Methods and Attributes

This section lists and describes the methods exposed in the Notification Subscription Data Control. It includes the following subsections:

• Section 48.3.2.3.1, "Method: getUserSubscriptionPreferences"

• Section 48.3.2.3.2, "Method: getScopeSubscriptionPreferences"

• Section 48.3.2.3.3, "Method: saveUserSubscriptionPreferences"

• Section 48.3.2.3.4, "Method: saveScopeSubscriptionPreferences"

• Section 48.3.2.3.5, "Method: getSubscriptions"

• Section 48.3.2.3.6, "Method: unsubscribe"

48.3.2.4 Notification Subscription Data Control Classes

The Notification Subscriptions Data Control exposes two classes as return values:

• SubscriptionPreference

• Subscription