Oracle ADF provides a commercial Java framework for building enterprise applications. It provides visual and declarative approaches to Java EE development.

Oracle ADF is based on Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern.

The Business Services layer manages interaction with a data persistence layer. It provides such services as data persistence, object/relational mapping, transaction management, and business logic execution.

The Business Services layer in Oracle ADF can be implemented in any of the following options: As simple Java classes, EJB, Web services, JPA objects, and Oracle ADF Business Components. In addition, data can be consumed directly from files (XML or CSV) as well as REST.

The controller layer manages the applications flow and handles user input.

For example, when you click a Search button on a page, the controller determines what action to perform (do a search) and where to navigate to (the results page).

There are two controller options for web-based applications in JDeveloper: the standard JSF controller or the ADF Controller which extends the JSF controller functionality. Whichever controller you use, you will typically design your application flow by laying out pages and navigation rules on a diagram. With the ADF controller you can break your application's flow into smaller, reusable task flows; include non-visual components such as method calls and decision points in your flow; and create "page fragment" flows that run inside a region of a single containing page. This approach encourages maximum reusability for user interface fragments and simplified integration into portals and mashup applications.

The View layer represents the user interface of the application.

Oracle ADF support multi-channel access to your business services allowing you to reuse your business services and access them from a Web client, a client-server swing desktop based application, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, or a mobile devices such as a smart-phone.

For Web based interface Oracle ADF offers a rich set of over a 150 Ajax enabled JSF components that simplified the creation of dynamic and appealing user interfaces.

The model layer connects the business services to the objects that use them in the other layers.

Oracle ADF provides a model layer implementation that sits on top of business services, providing a single interface that can be used to access any type of business service.

The model layer consists of two components, data controls and data bindings, which utilize metadata files to define the interface.