Creating Workflows
Next we will create reusable workflows which define the build and deployment operations for Oracle ADF applications and Oracle SOA Suite composites. These workflows will then be used by many projects to deploy specific applications and composites (coming in the next section).
Select Workflows from the menu. Click the plus icon in the Workflows navigation tree to create a workflow for building an Oracle ADF application.
Enter the details for the workflow in the Workflow Details form as shown below. Use the Add button to create a workflow property.
Click the Save button, and then click the Definition tab to begin designing the workflow.
Locate the Plugin Operations pane on the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Expand FlexagonSVNPlugin, and drag the exportProjectSources operation onto the workflow editor pane. The SVN information will be configured in the project, so you don't need to fill in the inputs.
Click the OK button to save the changes.
Expand the FlexagonJDeveloperPlugin, and drag the applicationBuild operation onto the workflow editor pane. Enter the following details when prompted.
Click the OK button to save the changes. Verify that the workflow now looks as follows.
Click Activate button to save and activate your changes.
When you activate the workflow version (in this case 1.0) it becomes read-only and is unavailable for future edits. To make new changes you must make a copy by clicking the Make Copy button. The active workflow is executed at runtime unless overridden.
Finally, we must make the workflow properties we created available to projects which use those workflows. This is accomplished by associating the workflow to the instance(s) the workflow will run on (note that we skipped this step when we created the BuildInstance). Edit the BuildInstance instance and associate the buildADF workflow to it by shuttling it from the list of available workflows on the left to the list of selected workflows on the right.
Repeat the steps in this section to create the following workflows.
Workflow Name | Workflow Steps |
|---|---|
deployADF | FlexagonWebLogicPlugin->deploy (to deploy the EAR) |
buildSOA | FlexagonSVNPlugin->exportProjectSources (to checkout the composite project) |
deploySOA | FlexagonSOAPlugin->soaDeploy (to build the SOA artifacts) |
Don't forget to associate the *buildSOA workflow to the BuildInstance instance.
For more information regarding inputs for these plugin operations refer to the plugin guides located on the Flexagon Support site. For the FlexDeploy Community Edition the documentation is located in the <flexdeploy install folder>/docs.
Creating Projects
You should now have workflows for building and deploying both ADF applications and SOA Suite composites. These workflows can be used to build and deploy hundreds of ADF applications and SOA composites across your enterprise without any changes required.
Let's start by creating an ADF project. You will need to identify an existing ADF application that you want to manage build and deployments for, and find its location in SVN.
Select Projects from the menu. By default there is a root folder called FlexDeploy.
Right-click on the FlexDeploy folder and select Create Application.
Enter a name and description for the application and click the OK button. Then right-click on the newly created application and select Create Project.
Enter a name and description for the project and click the OK button. The newly created project will open. Click the light-blue Configure tab to enter further configuration.
Enter the Project Configuration information as shown in the image above. Additional information on the SCM configuration is available in the FlexDeploy User's Guide. Make sure that the Trunk Path Script (7) matches your configuration. Click Save and switch to the purple Properties tab.
Enter the Project Property Configuration information as shown in the image above. Enter values for the project property that are relevant to your ADF application. Notice the ADF_PROJECT_NAME (1) project-scoped property that we configured on the buildADF workflow. This property is exposed as a project property so that the workflow is generic and can be reused by many projects.
Click the Save button to save your changes.
For more information regarding inputs for these plugin operations refer to the plugin guides located on the Flexagon Support site or in the <flexdeploy install folder>/docs directory of the FlexDeploy Community Edition installation.
Repeat the steps in this section to create an application and project for SOA Suite, referencing the plugin guides as necessary.
Executing Build & Deployments
We have now configured FlexDeploy with everything it needs to begin executing build and deployment requests for the ADF and SOA projects that were created.
Click on the green Execute tab from within the ADF application you created in the last section. Next click the Build button to present the build request form.
Select the Build environment and click the Submit Request button. You may now click the refresh button periodically, or wait for the automatic refresh, until the status changes to Success or Failure. 
You can also click on the Execution Id to drill into the step details of the workflow or view the logs, which is critical in the case of failures.
Once there is a successful build you can request a deployment by clicking on the Deploy button. 
On the Deployment Request Form select the project version you wish to deploy, the target environment, and the target instance. Click the Submit Request button. Similarly to the build request, you may click the refresh button periodically, or wait for the automatic refresh, until the status changes to Success or Failure, or click on the Execution Id to view the logs.
Using the same steps as described above, execute build and deployment requests for the SOA project you created.