You can no longer create workspaces with environments where the Oracle Cloud Applications instance is connected to the VB Studio instance via Basic Auth or three-legged OAuth. This means only environments with the Oracle Cloud Application instance added via Identity Domain as an IDCS resource will be available for selection when creating a workspace. See Create an Extension.

This restriction also applies when you use the Edit Page in Visual Builder Studio option to customize Oracle Cloud Applications. If a workspace is tied to an environment that uses Basic Auth or three-legged OAuth, a new environment with the Oracle Cloud Application instance added as an IDCS resource is created and the existing workspace is switched to use the new environment. See Configure an Oracle Cloud Application.

By using an environment where the Oracle Cloud Application instance is connected as an IDCS resource, VB Studio can make REST calls against the Oracle Cloud Application instance using the identity of the logged-in user to load application pages in the Page Designer, load the Business Rules editor, or preview changes. This allows the user editing an Oracle Cloud Application page to perform the necessary functionality in VB Studio based on their assigned roles or privileges. If the instance was connected using Basic Auth or OAuth, REST calls against the Oracle Cloud Application instance would use the identity of the user whose credentials were used to create the connection—instead of the user editing the Oracle Cloud Application page—and, in some cases, fail to deliver the intended outcome.

• Changes to Oracle Deployment build step

  The Oracle Deployment build step, previously its own step in a job's configuration, is now available as Deploy in the Visual Application and Application Extension menu under Add Step. Existing jobs that use Oracle Deployment will be automatically converted to use the new Deploy step. See Deploy and Manage Your Applications.

  As a part of this update, the oracle-deployment build step in YAML templates is deprecated. We recommend that you update your existing YAML job configuration for this change. See Deprecated Features.

• Options for multiple jobs

  You can now select and update multiple build jobs. You can also manage email notifications for multiple jobs. See Create and Manage Jobs.

• Option to export, import, delete Oracle Integration projects

  You can now configure build jobs to export, import, or delete Oracle Integration projects. See Manage Oracle Integration Projects.

• Ant 1.10.11 on OL7
• Firefox ESR 128.5.1 or later on OL8, ESR 128.4.0 or later on OL7
• Fn 0.6.36 (OL7 only)
• GraalVM EE version 23.0.6 for Java 17.0.13
• Java 1.8.0_431, 11.0.25, 17.0.13, 21.0.5, and 23.0.1
• Node.js driver for Oracle Database 6.7.1 or later
• OCIcli 3.51.1 or later
• Oracle Instant Client 21.16.0.0.0 or later
• Oracle JET Command-line Interface 17.1.0 or later
• SQLcl 24.3.2.0 or later

See Software for Build Executor Templates.

Additionally, Node.js 20 is now the minimum version required for packaging extensions and visual applications. The System Default OL7 for Visual Builder VM build executor template has also been updated to use Node.js 20. See Create and Manage Build Executor Templates.

• Option to reapply all or some commits

  When you reapply merge request changes, you can now choose to reapply all commits or only the merged changes. Further, when a merge request is reapplied, linked issues from the original merge request are now retained. See Reapply a Merge Request's Commits to a New Branch.

• Option to close multiple merge requests

  You can now select and close multiple merge requests. Also, status icons have been added to help you manage merge requests. See Manage Merge Requests.

• Option to resolve and close inline comments

  It’s now easier to resolve and close inline comments in code. See Manage Inline Comments.

• Updates for CLI merge requests

  If you omit push options when pushing updates to a branch without a merge request, the command output now includes the command format to create a merge request, along with a link to the New Merge Request UI wizard for the branch. Also, if a merge request already exists, you don't need to specify the target branch when adding an issue or a reviewer (-o mr.target can be omitted). See Create a Merge Request from the Command Line.

• Configure the Deployment Job
• Configure a Job to Lock, Unlock, or Roll Back a Deployed Visual Application
• Configure a Job to Undeploy a Visual Application
• Configure a Job to Import Data to or Export Data from a Visual Application

With OAuth support in Visual Application build steps, setting up OAuth in a pipeline's Deploy job means OAuth tokens are used when the visual application is deployed via the Publish action in the Designer. As part of this setup, you'll need to authorize the OAuth connection to your environment's target Visual Builder instance. It's recommended that an administrator complete this authorization when configuring the Deploy job for OAuth. See Configure the Deployment Job and Create a Production Deployment Build Job.

If authorization is not done as part of initial configuration, developers can do this during the publishing process, if they have the credentials required to connect and deploy to the environment's Visual Builder instance. See Deploy a Visual Application.

In addition, the Manage Extension Lifecycle page now lists more extension details, such as the extension's extension ID, App UIs, dependencies, and version history. With this enhanced level of detail, the Deployments tab on the Environments page has been deprecated for extensions, and instead points directly to the Manage Extension Lifecycle page. See View Your Deployments.

The option to perform Git actions (such as switching to a different branch) is no longer supported in Express mode. Because the Express mode is designed for business users, all Git operations now require you to switch to Advanced mode. See Create or Switch a Branch.

This functionality is also supported in Express mode: see What Is the Designer?

• Set precedence to override a field's user-specified value

  You can now use a field property to specify the precedence given to field value input by a user that overrides a field's calculated value. For visual apps, see Specify How a User Input Overrides a Field Value; for extensions, see Specify How a User Input Overrides a Field Value.

• Map dynamic form field to global field template

  If you implemented a global field template for a dynamic form, you can now use the Layout Discriminant property in a layout's Fields tab to choose the global field template that must be applied to a field. For visual apps, see Map a Field to a Global Field Template; for extensions, see Map a Field to a Global Field Template.

• Create types from variable objects

  If your variable uses an object or array as its type, you can now use the Create Type option in the variable's context menu to create a type based on the existing structure of the variable right from the Variables editor. You can also do this for object types on the Types editor. For visual apps, see Create Variables and Create a Custom Object or Array Type; for extensions, see Create Variables and Create a Custom Object or Array Type.

• Test pages in Live view even without context

  When your page doesn't render in Live view because it's missing context (say, data stored in flow-level variables), you can now provide a mock value in an action chain to allow the page to display correctly. For visual apps, see Preview a Visual Application; for extensions, see Preview Your App UI.

• Check a component's details for availability in Components palette

  It's now easy to identify why a component installed from the Components Exchange doesn't show in the Components palette: Just open the component in the Navigator's Components pane to view its details in the canvas area, then look for the VB Characteristics field. Additionally, deprecated components are now badged for easier identification. For visual apps, see Get Components from the Component Exchange; for extensions, see Install a Web Component from Component Exchange.

Existing extensions will continue to use the CI/CD pipeline until you manually change the CI/CD Pipeline switch in the extension's Settings editor. See Enable or Disable the CI/CD Pipeline for Publishing.

• Ability to reopen a merge request

  Closed merge requests can now be reopened. See Reopen a Closed Merge Request

• New CLI options for creating a merge request

  Three new command-line options for creating a merge request are now available: mr.summary to add a summary about the request, mr.description to add a description of the request, and mr.issue to link issues to the request. See Create a Merge Request from the Command Line.

• Usability enhancements for merge request email notifications

  Some enhancements were made to merge request email notifications to make them easier to consume. For example, to facilitate grouping by subject in your inbox, emails for a single merge request now share the same subject line. And in an effort to reduce email clutter, only three people are now notified whenever a reviewer is added to or removed from a merge request: the merge request author, the person who made the change, and the person who was added or removed. See Merge Request Email Notifications.

• Queued, started, and completed details for build jobs

  You can now view the date and time a build job was queued, started, and completed by hovering over the Started column's value in the Job Build History section. This information is also available when you drill down to the Build Details page. See View a Job's Build History, View a Job's History by User Name, and View A Build's Details.

• Enable/disable option for pipelines

  The Pipelines Overview List Actions menu and the Pipeline Details page now include Enable and Disable options. See Create and Manage Pipelines.

Oracle Visual Builder and Oracle Integration instances that you can add to an environment are now tied to your OCI account and are considered OCI resources. Previously, these instances were IDCS resources. With this change, your VB Studio instance must now be authorized to access these instances (which can also include Oracle Integration 3), so they become available to add within an environment. See Authorize VB Studio to Access Visual Builder and Integration Instances.

To reflect this change, the Add Service Instance dialog's Identity Domain option is now renamed as Instance List. More importantly, the Visual Builder and Integration instances you see in the Instance List can be from the same identity domain as your VB Studio instance or a different one. Previously, the Identity Domain view only showed instances from the same identity domain. If you don't see your instances, you're likely missing a policy statement for the OCI compartment used by your VB Studio instance and should add it in.

Description of the illustration env-addserviceinstances.png

Once Visual Builder and Integration instances linked to an OCI account are added to an environment, you'll notice these instances labeled as "Visual Builder" or "Integration", a marker that they are now considered distinct resources. This means you can now add one of each instance type to an environment, where previously you could only add either Visual Builder or Integration. See Set Up an Environment.

• Git 2.43.5 or later on OL8
• Git LFS 3.4.1 on OL8
• Java 1.8.0_421, 11.0.24, 17.0.12, 21.0.4, and 22.0.2
• Node.js Driver 6.6.0 or later
• Node.js 22.6.0 and 20.17.0
• Grunt CLI 1.5.0
• OCLcli 3.46.0 or later
• Oracle Instant Client 21.14.0.0.0 or later
• Oracle JET CLI 17.0.0 or later
• Podman 4.9.4 or later

When creating an environment with Visual Builder and Integration instances from your OCI account in the Add Service Instance dialog, you can now use three-legged OAuth flows to secure programmatic access to the instance. While Basic authentication is still supported—except in the case of Oracle Integration 3 instances where OAuth is the only authentication method—it's recommended that you use OAuth when setting up your environments to eliminate the use of passwords in service-to-service REST interactions. See Set Up an Environment.

Additionally, you can set up OAuth in build jobs that use Oracle Integration steps to move integrations, packages, and lookups between Oracle Integration instances. See Manage Integrations, Manage Integration Packages, Manage Integration Lookups, and Manage Oracle Integration Connections.

OAuth support, added last release to an extension's Deploy job, is now extended to allow OAuth tokens when publishing changes via a CI/CD pipeline. With OAuth set up in the pipeline's Deploy job, you'll need to authorize the OAuth connection to your environment's target Oracle Cloud Applications instance. As an administrator, it's recommended that you complete this authorization when configuring the Deploy job for OAuth. See Create a Deployment Build Job and Create the Production Deployment Build Job.

When this is not done as part of initial configuration, developers can do this during the publishing process if they have the credentials required to connect and deploy to the instance. See Publish Your Extension. If the OAuth token used to authorize the connection expires, you'll need to enter the required credentials to renew the token when you click Publish.

While the ability to set up OAuth in a job is only available in Advanced mode, the setup takes effect in Express mode when the extension uses CI/CD pipelines for deployment. As a result, Express mode users may also be prompted to re-authorize the connection (simply by signing in to their environment) if the OAuth token has expired. See Publish Your Changes.

With this change, an extension created from the Workspaces page now uses the Unified Application as the base app. Once the extension is created, you can add dependencies when you actually begin to extend an Oracle Cloud Application's pages from within the Designer. For details on how to add dependencies, see Add a Dependency.

• Custom root pages across extensions

  You can now share a custom root page across extensions by adding the ID of the extension where the custom root page is defined, along with the root page ID.

• Expression support

  It's now possible to use expressions to identify your root page; this is useful when you've defined multiple root pages (say, one for anonymous users and another for authenticated users) and want to switch between the two.

• Support for optional parameters

  If you define JavaScript modules as global functions, you can now define an optional parameter by setting its Default Value in the Functions editor. The Default Value field corresponds to defaultValue in the parameter's definition in functions.json.

• Display names for functions, parameters

  Global functions have their own function and parameter names defined in functions.json. These labels are now displayed in the Functions editor, as well as in the Call Function action in the Action Chains editor.

See Manage Global Functions.

You can now use a dialog to enter a page's input parameters in Express mode. You can open the dialog box from a button in the header. The button is badged when the page requires an input parameter. See Other Views of the Designer.

• Support to call JavaScript action chain from a JSON action chain

  To help ease the transition to JavaScript-based action chains, you can now call JavaScript actions from your existing JSON actions. For visual apps, see Add a Call Action Chain Action; for extensions, see Add a Call Action Chain Action.

• Ability to reset dirty data status of specific variables

  A new Variables to Reset property in the Reset Dirty Data Status action now allows you to reset the dirty status of only the variables you want. For visual apps, see Add a Reset Dirty Data Status Action; for extensions, see Add a Reset Dirty Data Status Action.

• Coverage tab for action chain tests

  The Tests footer now includes a Coverage tab to display the average coverage of all tests, along with the number of failed and not-run tests, for the visual application or extension, as well as each of its web apps or App UIs, flows, and pages. For visual apps, see Use the Tests Footer in a Visual Application; for extensions, see Use the Tests Footer in Your App UI.

• Ability to search your action chain diagram

  The Action Chains editor in Design mode now has a search box at the top of the canvas to help you find text within your action chain. For visual apps, see Create Action Chains in Design Mode; for extensions, see Create Action Chains in Design Mode.

Fragments propagate values to the parent container (like a page or a dynamic container) through custom events—but this requires some manual configuration. Now you can use a new Auto Wire Event ID property to automatically wire the event to the fragment's parent container. So when you try to create an event listener on the container where the fragment is used, you'll see the autowired event listed under Fragment Events on the parent container, allowing you to simply select the event and link it to an action chain.

Autowiring fragment events is especially useful in the context of extensions. Where previously you might have had to define event listeners on the base parent container as well as the extended parent container, autowiring allows the event listener on the parent container to be invoked whenever the event is fired on the fragment, whether on the base parent container, the extended parent container, or both.

For visual apps, see Automatically Wire a Fragment's Custom Event to the Parent Container; for extensions, see Automatically Wire a Fragment's Custom Event to the Parent Container.

• Business rule templates

  You can now create business rule templates to help users when they create business rules. By providing templates, a user can create a rule from a template and modify it as needed, instead of starting with an empty rule. A template can provide examples of how to configure business rules, for example, how to specify rule conditions, how to write advanced expressions, or how to override properties. Templates themselves are not evaluated. For visual apps, see Create Templates for Business Rules; for extensions, see Create Templates for Business Rules.

• Improved condition builder

  The condition builder for business rules and validations has been improved to support additional operators. The operators drop-down list now includes "is null", "is not null", "includes", and "does not include". You can now also create conditions that compare the criterion's value to another field's value by selecting a field in the value drop-down list. For visual apps, see Set Conditions for a Rule; for extensions, see Set Conditions for a Rule.

• Support for adding messages to read only and required fields

  You can now include a message text when you set a field to Read Only or Required in a business rule. The message is displayed in the form when the rule is applied. For visual apps, see Override Field Properties in a Form; for extensions, see Override Field Properties in a Form.

• List of Values drop-down in Page Input Parameters dialog

  It's now possible to display a list of values retrieved from a service (like a REST endpoint) for an input parameter by adding @dt metadata to the variable's JSON and setting subtype to lov. For visual apps, see Enable Variables as Input Parameters; for extensions, see Enable Variables as Input Parameters.

• Support for the new oj-if component

  With JET 17.0.x introduced in this release, you can now use the oj-if component to conditionally show or hide components in your pages. This component is similar to the oj-bind-if component, but unlike oj-bind-if where the element is not removed from the DOM after bindings are applied, oj-if stays in the DOM and can therefore directly be used as the slot content of a custom element. If you want to conditionally render the content of a slot or if you want the element to stay in the DOM, oj-if is recommended over oj-bind-if. For visual apps, see Use Conditions to Show or Hide Components; for extensions, see Use Conditions to Show or Hide Components.

  Note:

  This functionality requires JET 17.x, or Oracle Cloud Applications 25A (with JET 17.x) or later for extensions.

• Core Pack component versions for quick start fields

  If you've enabled Core Pack components in your visual app, you can now choose the Core Pack component version for a field when using quick starts such as the Add Create Page, Add Edit Page, and Add Details Page. This option is also available in extensions, where the Core Pack version is automatically selected as the component for a field if the component's Legacy version was superseded by the Core Pack version. If the Legacy and Core Pack versions are both available, you can choose to use the Core Pack version. For visual apps, see Use the Create Page Quick Start, Use the Add Edit Page Quick Start, and Use the Add Detail Page Quick Start; for extensions, see Work With Core Pack Components.

• Improved breadcrumbs to view component children, siblings

  You can now use breadcrumbs in the Page Designer to switch to a component's sibling in the page hierarchy. You can also view its children by hovering over ... at the end of the breadcrumb trail. For visual apps, see Use the Page Designer; for extensions, see Use the Page Designer.

• Retarget a merge request

  You can retarget a merge request to a new target branch, which is useful when the original target branch has been moved, deleted, frozen, or locked down. See Retarget a Merge Request's Commits to Another Branch.

• Set a merge request to Draft state

  Set a merge request to Draft state to indicate that it's not ready to be merged. When in Draft state, the merge action is blocked, notifications to reviewers are paused, and linked builds are prevented from automatically running. See Set a Merge Request to Draft State.

• View a merge request’s active reviewers

  When a reviewer adds a change or a comment, their icon in the Review Status section displays a badge representing that they are actively reviewing the merge request; the badge also displays their rejection or approval of the merge request. See Merge Branches and Close the Merge Request.

• Customize editor for merge request comments

  The text formatting toolbar for merge request comments is enhanced to customize the content editor itself, so you can toggle line numbers on and off, change line wrapping, and show (or hide) the content editor's minimap. See Use the Toolbar to Work with Comments.

• Docker 26.1.1 or later on OL8
• Java SE 11.0.23, 17.0.11, 21.0.3, and 22.0.1
• Fn 0.6.33 on OL7
• SQLcl 24.2.0.1 or later

When the Oracle Cloud Applications instance in your environment is not in the same identity domain as your VB Studio instance, you can now use OAuth 2.0 flows to secure programmatic access to the instance. While Basic authentication is still supported, you can set up OAuth from the Environments page to eliminate the use of passwords in service-to-service REST interactions. For extensions, you can also set up OAuth in the Deploy and Delete jobs used by the extension.

Core Pack components, available under the Early Access category in the Components palette since 24.04, now require an opt-in if you want to use them in your application's pages. If you use these Core Pack components in your app, take note that Core Pack does not support theming at this time. The only way to theme your app is to roll back Core Pack usages in your app to Legacy components and re-implement your application.

If you don't ever plan to theme your app, you can choose to enable Core Pack components in the Components palette for use in your app's pages. See Opt In to JET Core Pack Components.

Many-to-many relationships continue to use the existing editor, now without the ability to change cardinality. A new + Many to Many Relationship option is also added to a business object diagram's context menu.

It's now possible to centrally manage published extensions using a new Manage Extension Lifecycle page. You can use this page to deploy a published extension to a new Oracle Cloud Applications instance, or delete it when no longer needed. See Manage Your Published Extensions.

This functionality is also supported in Express mode. See Manage Your Published Extensions.

• Explore dependencies in other extensions within the same pillar

  It's now easy to explore extensions in the same pillar as your dependent extension. Previously, you'd have to install an extension to locate resources you might want to add to your extension, but now all extensions with extendable resources in the same pillar as your dependent extension show in the App UIs pane. You'll also see a similar view in the Services, Layouts, and Translations panes. See What Are Dependencies?

• Remove an installed dependency

  You can now remove a dependency you installed. Simply hover over the installed dependency in the Dependencies pane and click . See Add a Dependency.

• List of custom pages

  You can now see pages that you've created grouped in a new section in the page navigator pane in Express mode.

• Add/update dynamic container sections in the Properties pane

  In Express mode, you can now add, remove, and change the order of sections in dynamic containers directly in the Properties pane. See Control the Sections Displayed on the Page.

• Default publishing

  When you use the Edit Page in Visual Builder Studio option to customize an Oracle Cloud Application page in Express mode for the first time (effectively creating a new repo), your changes are now directly published to your Oracle Cloud Applications instance, instead of going through the CI/CD pipeline. See Publish Your Changes.

  If you want to change this default setting, you'll need to switch to Advanced mode and update the CI/CD Pipeline setting in the Settings editor.

If you already work with business rules, you can now configure dynamic tables using a new type of business rule, called a Collection rule, which allows you to show or hide table columns when the dynamic table is first rendered. For visual apps, see Create a Business Rule for Tables; for extensions, see Create Business Rules for Tables.

You can also now use two special types of nested business rules: If/Else rules and Switch rules. For visual apps, see Use Nested Rules; for extensions, see Use Nested Rules.

• Actions within custom code

  You can now drop an action between single line and block statements in custom code, functionality that can improve productivity. Additionally, you can also take advantage of code completion in a Code action's Properties pane. For visual apps, see Add a Code Action; for extensions, see Add a Code Action.

• Shorthand syntax for variables, constants, functions in current scope

  When you create a new JavaScript action chain or add actions to an existing chain, the underlying code now uses shorthand syntax, by default, to retrieve the value of variables, constants, and functions defined in the current scope. So for a page, where previously the syntax was $page.variables.myvar or $page.functions.myfunc, you'll now see $variables.myvar or $functions.myfunc instead in your action chain.

25.04 - Jan 2025

Planned for April 2025

25.04 - Jan 2025

25.04 - Jan 2025

25.04 - Jan 2025

Planned for April 2025

25.01 - Oct 2024

Apps created on VB Studio version 20.07 or earlier were created with Oracle JET's Alta theme as the base theme. The Alta theme was deprecated in JET 10 and will not be supported beyond JET 13. To be able to publish new versions of an Alta-based app beyond January 2024 (when JET 13 reaches End of Life), we strongly urge you to transition your app to use the Redwood theme. Starting with JET 14, only best-effort support will be available for Alta; no bug fixes or new features will be provided for Alta-only issues.

To check the theme used by your web or mobile application, navigate to the application's Settings editor and look for the Theme field. If Theme is set to Alta, take time to redesign your app using the Redwood theme before support for the Alta theme ends.

22.01 - Dec 2021

24.07 - April 2024

24.10 - July 2024

The Enable implicit grant for Service Connections option used for backends and service connections in a web app has been deprecated. The change does not impact existing apps that enable this option—though it won't be available for new web apps starting from June 2024. If your existing web apps use the Enable implicit grant for Service Connections option, we recommend updating them.

No action is needed if your web apps don't have Enable implicit grant for Service Connections enabled and if none of your backends/service connections are set to Delegate Authentication.

24.01 - Nov 2023

Planned for November 2024

• Register deployed processes
• Use of Process actions in action chains
• Support for Process code snippets
• Process-related quick starts

You can still use these features if you're using an Oracle Integration Generation 2 runtime instance in your environment, but as you plan the transition to Oracle Integration 3, you should leverage service connections instead to interact with Process.

To leverage OCI Process Automation (Oracle Integration 3) in your application, create an OCI Process Automation backend based on your instance, then create service connections for the REST APIs you want to use in your visual application. See Connect to Oracle Process Automation APIs for more information.