Enterprises using Oracle Cloud Applications often want to tailor the delivered functionality for their unique processes without compromising upgradeability. Oracle’s Visual Builder Studio (VBS) makes this possible. VBS is a low‑code development environment built into the Oracle Cloud platform that lets you create, manage and extend applications while taking advantage of continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. This article explains what VBS is, outlines the prerequisites, and walks through the process of building your own extension. We also share best practices and resources to help you succeed.

Why Use Visual Builder Studio?

Visual Builder Studio is more than a page designer. It is a project workspace management platform provided by Oracle Cloud. Here are some of its key benefits:

• Free to start – you can launch a VBS instance at no additional cost, and Oracle provides 20 GB of free storage.
• Built‑in Git repository – VBS includes version control with branching, merging and cloning capabilities. You can also integrate with external Git or Bitbucket repositories.
• Configurable CI/CD pipelines – VBS has pre‑built jobs that automate building and deploying Visual Builder Cloud Service (VBCS) applications as well as Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC) and APEX apps.
• Workspace organization – Projects, OCI account configuration, build executor templates and build executors help you manage resources and deployments.
• Centralised collaboration – a single platform where developers share workspaces, track issues, manage tasks and deploy code.

These capabilities make VBS ideal for extending Oracle SaaS and Fusion applications.

Prerequisites

1. Oracle Cloud Account – You need access to an Oracle Cloud tenancy with Visual Builder Studio enabled. If you don’t have VBS, you can provision it from the Oracle Cloud console.
2. Appropriate Roles – Assign roles such as Developer or VBS Admin to the users who will create and deploy extensions.
3. Target Application – Identify the Oracle Cloud Application (HCM, ERP, etc.) you want to extend. Ensure that extensions are supported for that module.
4. Familiarity with Redwood Design – Oracle’s Redwood UX provides modern, accessible UI components. Using Redwood keeps your extension consistent with Oracle’s look and feel.

Step‑by‑Step Guide to Building an Extension

1. Access Visual Builder Studio

Log in to Oracle Cloud and navigate to Developer Services → Visual Builder Studio. Create or select a project in VBS. Projects act as containers for your code, pipelines and deployment configuration.

2. Create a New Application Extension

From the project’s App UI section, choose New Application Extension. Provide a name and description, then select the target Oracle Cloud Application you want to extend. VBS will create a scaffolded extension project with a default branch in the Git repository.

3. Design the User Interface

Use the App UI editor to build pages with Redwood components. You can:

• Create new pages that include forms, tables and charts. Drag‑and‑drop components onto the canvas.
• Customize existing pages by adding new regions or fields to Oracle’s delivered pages. VBS exposes the underlying view model so you can bind fields to data sources.
• Add service connections to REST endpoints or external APIs if your extension needs to read or write data outside of Oracle Cloud.

4. Implement Business Logic

For simple logic, use action chains and event handlers in the App UI editor. For more advanced requirements, write JavaScript functions in your project’s script.js files. VBS also supports server‑side logic via Oracle Functions or OIC integrations.

5. Configure CI/CD Pipeline

Within the Build section of your VBS project, configure a build job that packages your extension. You can add steps to run unit tests or code quality scans. Then set up a deployment job that pushes your extension to the appropriate environment (test, staging or production). VBS’s CI/CD pipeline automates these steps.

6. Test Your Extension

Use VBS’s preview feature to test your extension in a sandbox environment. Validate that UI changes display correctly and that any integrations return expected results. Collaborate with users and stakeholders to refine the extension.

7. Deploy to Production

When you’re satisfied with testing, merge your changes into the main branch and trigger the deployment pipeline. Follow your organization’s change‑control processes. After deployment, monitor the extension and gather feedback for future improvements.

Best Practices for Successful Extensions

• Follow Redwood guidelines for spacing, typography and colours to ensure a consistent user experience.
• Use branching strategies in Git to isolate features and bug fixes. Perform code reviews before merging to the main branch.
• Leverage issue tracking in VBS to manage tasks, defects and enhancement requests.
• Keep extensions modular. Avoid hard‑coding logic that depends on specific release versions of Oracle Cloud Applications. This reduces the risk of breaking changes during upgrades.
• Document your work. Include comments in code and maintain README files in your repository explaining how to deploy and maintain the extension.

Conclusion

This step-by-step guide covers prerequisites, UI design with Redwood, CI/CD pipelines and best practices for building powerful extensions using Oracle Visual Builder Studio.

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Need help? If you have any questions about extending Oracle Cloud Applications or would like assistance implementing your own extensions, please contact us at hello@cloudare.in. Our team would be happy to help.