Oracle ADF

Oracle ADF Enterprise Application Development - Made Simple: Successfully

As such from the Oracle Certified Associate, Java SE 7 Programmer I certification exam topics, in my honest opinion ADF developers need to know *all* of the following topics:

• Java Basics
• Working with Java Data Types
• Using Operators and Decision Constructs
• Creating and Using Arrays
• Using Loop Constructs
• Working with Methods and Encapsulation
• Working with Inheritance
• Handling Exceptions

I might have a few people argue with me on the list above, particularly inheritance and exceptions. But in my experience ADF developers who don't know about inheritance and in particular type casting, as well as exception handling in general will struggle.  In reality all of the topics above are Java basics taught to first year IT undergraduates, so nobody should be surprised by the list.

When we move to the Java SE 7 Programmer II exam topics, the list is as follows.  You'll note the numbers next to each topic, 1 being mandatory, 2 not mandatory but knowledge in this area will certainly help most projects, and 3 not required.

• 1- Java Class Design
• 1- Java Advanced Class Design
• 1 -Object-Oriented Principles
• 2 - String Processing
• 1 - Exceptions
• 3 - Assertions
• 2 - Java I/O Fundamentals
• 2 - Java File I/O
• 1 - Building Database Applications with JDBC
• * - Threads
• * - Concurrency
• * - Localization

In the #1 list there's no surprises but maybe JDBC. From my own personal experience even though ADF BC & EJB/JPA abstracts away from knowing the language of the database, at customer sites frequently I've had to build solutions that need to interface with legacy database PL/SQL using JDBC. Your site might not have this requirement, but the next site you work at probably will.

The #2 list is more interesting. String processing is useful because without some internal knowledge of the standard Java APIs you can write some poorly performing code . Java I/O is not an uncommon requirement, being able to read/write uploaded/downloaded files to WLS.

 
As for the #3 list, assertions simply don't work in the Java EE world that ADF runs.

Finally the topics marked with stars require special explanation. First localization, often called internationalization really depends on the requirements of your project. For me sitting down in Australia, I've never worked on a system that requires any type of localization support besides some daylight saving calculations. For you, this requirement might be totally the opposite if you sit in Europe, so as a requirement it depends.

 
Then the topics of threading and concurrency. Threading and concurrency are useful topics only because there "be demons in thar" (best said in a pirate voice) for future Java projects. ADF actually isolates programmers from the issues of threading and concurrency. This isolation is risky as it may give ADF programmers a false belief they can code anything Java. You'll quickly find issues of thread safety and collection classes that support concurrency are a prime concern for none-ADF Java solutions.

So do you need to be an expert Java programmer for ADF? The answer is no. But a reasonable level of Java is required. And this can be capped off with the more Java you know, of course this will be beneficial, and not just for your ADF project!