OAF (Oracle Application Framework) or ADF (Application
Development Framework)? This is one of the most common questions from customers
when we discuss the extension or customization strategy. The answer is very
context specific and depends on the solution that needs to be developed.
If we are talking
about a solution that does not involve Oracle EBS (E-Business Suite) then the
answer is probably ADF.
If the solution involves EBS, then we need to understand how
much of the data involved comes from EBS, how much of the solution is dependent
on the EBS configuration such as a user's responsibility, profile settings, etc
and if we want an UI other than what we get in EBS.
The table below shows a comparative study of OAF and ADF and the key considerations that should go into
selecting the appropriate technology for our needs
|
Consideration |
Advantage
OAF |
Advantage
ADF |
|
Data Involved |
If the solution is an extension of EBS reading from EBS tables and
inserting/updating them. |
If the solution is only reading or writing less data from EBS which
is relatively minor when compared to its overall functionality. |
|
Access and control |
Needs to use the users and responsibility from EBS to control
functionality |
Not dependent on EBS user access and control and needs its own |
|
User Interface (UI) |
Need the same UI experience as that of EBS |
Need a different UI experience |
|
EBS Application Object Libraries (AOL) |
Solution heavily dependency on the EBS AOL such as profiles, value
sets, lookups, concurrent programs, attachments, etc |
Not much use of EBS AOL |
For example, if we want to develop a custom solution to have
payable's clerk to key in invoices that has validations against the PO,
customer's data within EBS and the invoices need to be created in Oracle
Payables, then OAF would be appropriate
If we want to develop a standalone custom solution to have
payable's clerk to key in invoices that has validations against the PO,
customer's data NOT from EBS or may be only customer data comes from EBS and
the invoices needs to be created in a non-EBS application, then ADF would be
appropriate
There is a perception that all new solutions in EBS needs to
be built using ADF as this will make it easier during Cloud migration down the
line. This is so not true. If the solution is considered part of EBS, then it
has to be OAF and not ADF.