Create and Set up a Project for Development

A project gathers all the resources you need for developing software—in this case, visual applications.

After you've set up VB Studio to develop visual applications, follow the steps in the this table to set up the project, add an environment with a Visual Builder instance, configure the deployment job, and add users to the project:
Action How to
1. Create an empty VB Studio project.
  1. Sign in to VB Studio. See Access VB Studio from the Oracle Cloud Home Page.
  2. On the Organization page, click + Create.
  3. On the Project Details page, enter a unique name and description for the project.
  4. In Security, select the project's privacy setting.

    A private project is accessible to invited users only. Users who aren't invited can't access it or make changes to it. You can invite users after creating the project.

    A shared project is accessible to all users of the organization. Any user can view the source code, create or update issues, edit wiki pages, and interact with project builds. However, only invited users can make updates to the source code in Git repositories, create and run build jobs, and perform deployment operations.

  5. In Preferred Language, specify the language for the email notifications your project users will receive. You can change the language in which the user interface appears in your user preferences.
  6. Click Next.
  7. On the Template page, select the Empty Project template, then click Next.
  8. On the Properties page, select the wiki markup type, then click Finish.

After the project is provisioned, the Project Home page opens where you can see a summary of the project's provisioning activities. Review the activities feed for any errors.

2. In the project, create an environment with your Visual Builder instance.
Note

Before you try to create an environment, make sure your VB Studio instance is authorized to access the Visual Builder instances that are connected to your OCI account. Without this authorization, those instances won't be available for selection in your environment as a deployment target. See Authorize VB Studio to Access Visual Builder and Integration Instances.
  1. In the navigation menu, click Environments Environments, then click + Create Environment.
  2. In Environment Name and Description, enter a unique name and description, and click Create.
  3. In the environment's Service Instances tab, click Add Instance.
  4. Locate and add your Visual Builder instance:
    • With Instance Type set to Visual Builder and Oracle Integration and Add Instance Using set to Instance List, select your Visual Builder instance and click Add. This is the preferred approach.
    • If you don't see the instance you want to add (because it's connected to a different OCI account), select Visual Builder Credentials under Add Instance Using. In Base URL, enter the Visual Builder instance's URL; update the Instance Name if needed; enter the credentials of a user who can access the Visual Builder instance in Username and Password; and click Add.

    If your target instance uses a different identity domain than your VB Studio instance, OAuth tokens (via three-legged OAuth flows) are used to secure programmatic access to the instance. Before any OAuth tokens can be created, you must authorize IDCS to acquire OAuth tokens for accessing the instance. Click Authorize when prompted, then sign in to IDCS with credentials to connect and deploy to the target instance.

3. When users are ready, they can create this workspace in the project.
  1. In the navigation menu, click Workspaces Designer.
  2. Click New and select New Visual Application.
  3. In Workspace Name, add a name for your workspace.
  4. In Development Environment, select the environment you created in the previous step.
  5. In Visual Application Template, don't change the default (Default VBCS Application).
  6. In Git Repository, select Create new repository, and enter a repository name and working branch name.
4. The user that created the visual application will need to configure their deployment job.
  1. In your Visual Builder Studio navigation menu, click Builds Builds.
  2. In the Jobs tab, click the deployment job.
  3. Click Configure, then click the Steps tab.
  4. In Target Instance, make sure that the environment you created in Step 2 is selected.
  5. In Username and Password, enter the credentials of a user who can connect and deploy to the Visual Builder development instance. The credentials will be used when the package and deploy build pipeline runs.
  6. (Optional) Choose Use custom file names and add custom file name details.
  7. (Optional) To overwrite the application's default version, specify the new version in Application Version. Leave it empty to use the version defined in the application's visual-application.json file.

    Don't deselect the Include the application version in the URL checkbox.

  8. (Optional) In Application Profile, specify the development application profile. Leave it empty to use the application's default profile.

    Using application profiles, you can define different combinations of servers and security settings for each of your environments, and use them when deploying the application to an environment. To learn more, see What Are Application Profiles?

  9. (Optional) To use the existing application's database, in Data Management, select Keep existing environment data. To use a clean database for the application, in Data Management, select Use clean database.
  10. Click Save.
5. Add users to the project. To allow your team members to access the visual application project, invite them to join the project. See Add Users to the Project.