Page Composer offers context-sensitive features depending on what kind of page and field is selected for adjustment. Dashboard pages focus on re-arranging of regions and adding catalog content, Overview pages (commonly a landing page from the navigator showing tasks, tables, and search) allow tweaks to the regions and components, whereas the Form pages used for data entry focus on the selection of fields for detailed property adjustment. Indeed different types of fields show different property lists, where some properties may show as disabled (greyed out), or as illustrated in Figure 1 even have properties that actually don’t get used at run-time.
Figure 1 – The generic properties of the HCM person Start Date field compared to the CRM opportunity Close Date field that is more restricted.
The following are some of the most common UI customizations that we’ve seen and heard our customers trying, and hopefully will serve as a quick-read reducing time wasted attempting something that has already been confirmed as not supported.
- You can only add Descriptive Flexfields (DFF) to a page, you cannot create and add custom fields in Page Composer. You’ll need Application Composer or JDeveloper to extend Business Objects and then expose them on the UI.
- You cannot create and add new Fusion Application pages in Page Composer (despite the suggestive name). You can only add new regions to existing pages and populate them with existing catalog content.
- You cannot change the data source (Business Object/View Object) for a field on a page using Page Composer.
- You cannot filter or re-order an existing list of values (LOV) using Page Composer.
- You cannot add any code, validation logic, or scripting to the buttons or fields using Page Composer.
- You may have to enter data in required fields in a page before customizing it, as the validation can interfere with the refresh done by Page Composer.
- Using Page Composer alone you cannot change the use of Security (data or function) for a page, such as showing different tasks, menu items, or a page regions based on a users role and privileges. Some page components may be hidden, however you should setup and use specific roles in APM to properly control fine-grained access.
- You cannot add calls out to other API’s (internal or external) to populate fields with values using Page Composer.
- You cannot change the Navigator Menu using Page Composer (you must use the Setup and Maintenance task ‘Manage Menu Customizations’).
- The customization levels against which the changes apply do differ between Fusion Application products, such as CRM supporting customizations for one specified Job Role, and HCM supporting customizations for a specified Organization. Generally speaking the Page Composer standard levels are User (via personalization) or Site.
- Both BI Analytics and BI Publisher reports can be added into new page regions using Page Composer. As long as they’re published to the content catalog, they can be added.
As needs and technologies evolve the features available via Page Composer may alter, and we’ll try to keep this post current (or make addendum posts). Please also share any specific requirements or challenges with us (via comments below) and we’ll work with you to get them considered.