Workflow Notification using OA Framework

If the notification contents are simple and static then Message body is used to build. Otherwise mostly PLSQL Document Type Attributes are used to build complex and dynamic contents. It is easy to develop. But it has few limitations like

• Look and Feel won’t be like Self Service Pages
• Very difficult to format
• Maintenance is costly
• APIs (PL/SQL Web Toolkit) used won’t be available from R12

To avoid these, the notification body can be built using OA Framework. Same document type attribute can be used with small changes in the syntax like

JSP:/OA_HTML/OA.jsp?region=<OAFRegion>&<parameters>

Advantages of using this are

• Uniform Look and Feel across all self service pages
• Framework will format the contents
• OA Framework Personalization and Extension can be used for any modifications
• Much better performance than PLSQL
• Upgrade Safe

In fact Oracle is advising to use OAF to build notification contents. Developer should follow few important steps to use OA Regions in Workflow Notification. Refer Oracle Application Workflow Guide for more details.