If you are an Oracle customer, you are probably familiar with Oracle ADF (Application Development Framework). If you are not, ADF is, in a nutshell, a Java EE based framework that simplifies the development of enterprise applications. It is the development framework that was used, among other things, to build Oracle Fusion Applications.

Oracle has just released ADF Essentials, a free to develop and deploy version of Oracle ADF's core technologies. As a good news never come alone, GlassFish 3.1.2 is now a certified container for ADF Essentials!

ADF Essentials leverage core ADF features and includes:

• Oracle ADF Faces - a set of more than 150 JSF 2.0 rich components that simplify the creation of rich Web user interfaces (charting, data vizualization, advanced tables, drag and drop, touch gesture support, extensive windowing capabilities, etc.)
• Oracle ADF Controller - an extension of the JSF controller that helps build reusable process flows and provides the ability to create dynamic regions within Web pages.
• Oracle ADF Binding - an XML-based, meta-data abstraction layer to connect user interfaces to business services.
• Oracle ADF Business Components – a declaratively-configured layer that simplifies developing business services against relational databases by providing reusable components that implement common design patterns.

ADF is a highly declarative framework, it has always had a very good tooling support. Visual development for Oracle ADF Essentials is provided in Oracle JDeveloper 11.1.2.3. Eclispe support is planned for a later OEPE (Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse) release.

Here are some relevant links to quickly learn on how to use ADF Essentials on GlassFish:

• Video : Oracle ADF Essentials Overview and Demo
• Deploying Oracle ADF Essentials Applications to Glassfish
• OTN : Oracle ADF Essentials Ressources