Oracle Sites Cloud Service - Apps

It's possible to add kinds of widgets (named APPS) inside any page of a site built with Oracle Sites Cloud Service (SCS).
Any app is materialized by two URL:

• a Renderer Url which will render any HTML fragment inside an iframe tag at runtime
• a settings url which will be rendrered at design time in the settings menu.

all URLs must be called through https (meaning that the called server has to be ssl enabled)
In the following samples, we integrate:

• a dummy app (a simple html page produced with node.js) which demonstrates the parameteres caried by the Sites Cloud engine when calling the backend server, 
• a regular Apex report or form, 
• a custom report which calls a rest api generated by Apex /ORDS

Sample node.js server.js

below is a sample of parameter values get from a dummy node.js server

Main call

id=26e45e21-dbb6-4877-9886-482b37213d2f
instance=eyJpbnN0YW5jZWlkIjoiQTI0NUNFNUNFNjA5MjE1REZBRTA2RTQyRjExOThBNThFNzc4RDc5NzFDMkIiLCJzaWduZGF0ZSI6IjE0NTAxMDg1MDU3MzEiLCJzaXRlZG9tYWluIjoiZG9jdW1lbnRzLWZyZ21mYWN0b3J5dHJpYWwuc2l0ZXMudXMyLm9yYWNsZWNsb3VkLmNvbSIsInBlcm1pc3Npb25zIjpudWxsLCJlbnRpdGxlbWVudHMiOiIifQ%3D%3D.nnzuo3PtOvuCG1yM3qreNGkzwSfaIRaGqcR54tsP1h8%3D
cacheBuster=603206034
width=300px
height=515px
viewMode=navigate
locale=fr
settingsId=
customSettingsData=%7B%7D

Settings :

id=settings-26e45e21-dbb6-4877-9886-482b37213d2f
instance=eyJpbnN0YW5jZWlkIjoiQTI0NUNFNUNFNjA5MjE1REZBRTA2RTQyRjExOThBNThFNzc4RDc5NzFDMkIiLCJzaWduZGF0ZSI6IjE0NTAxMDg1NjQ4NzAiLCJzaXRlZG9tYWluIjoiZG9jdW1lbnRzLWZyZ21mYWN0b3J5dHJpYWwuc2l0ZXMudXMyLm9yYWNsZWNsb3VkLmNvbSIsInBlcm1pc3Npb25zIjoiU0lURV9PV05FUiIsImVudGl0bGVtZW50cyI6IiJ9.aMC6XtXcpExqgWjOPvZqb3yOFdGXIYmzy1XFx9hKUCI%3D
currCompId=26e45e21-dbb6-4877-9886-482b37213d2f
width=300
locale=fr
origSettingsId=
settingsId=9271b3c5-fba5-4d0f-afd9-c8e6d1b2aa74
customSettingsData=%7B%7D

in order to avoid undesirable call from other sources, a secret key must be shared between Sites Cloud and the backend server. This key is used for encryption of instance value. It's responsability of the backend server to decrypt this value with the help of sdk provided in documentation.


















cf parameter list in documentation of SCS.

Content of appinfo.json:

{“iconUrl”:”/_sitescloud/sitebuilder/components/images/icon/app.svg”,”appName”:”appelConsole”,”appDescription”:””,”appGUID”:”4fed0cdf-8174-4cc8-b6c3-f517ae348ae6″,”endpoints”:{“widget”:{“url”:”https://xxxxxxxx:7777″,”height”:300,”width”:300},”settings”:{“url”:”https://xxxxxxxxx:7777″,”height”:400,”width”:300}},”supportInfo”:{“supportUrl”:””,”supportEmail”:””,”supportPhone”:””},”company”:””}

Integration with Oracle Application Express (APEX)

just by registering an Apex URL, it's possible to add nice report or form inside a page.
Prerequisite; At Apex level:

• Authorize launching apex application through an iframe
• Choose the Universal theme and modal template for the page, in  order to put away all navigation stuff

Limitations:

I was not able to create a single apex applications with multi purpose page inside because deeep linking option causes problems. So, I have to switch back to a strategy where I create ONE Apex application each time I want to have a new page.

Calling a node.js app wich calls a Apex rest APi

This app calls a node.js page which in turn calls a REST api built with Apex /ORDS)

Parameters passing

The behaviour can be something strange because extra parameters dedicated to SCS are pushed at the very beginning of Apex url:

Sometimes, I get an error message if I go through the design console of Apex just before calling the site. That must be keep in mind.