The map component provided by the ADF Faces DVT set of components is one that we are always ending up using in key demos - simply because it is so nice looking, but also because it is quite simple to use.

So in case you need to show some geographical data, or if you just want to impress your manager, here is a little video that shows you how to create two types of maps.

The first one is a color themed map - where you show different states with different colors based on the value of some data point there. The other is a point theme - basically showing specific locations on the map. For both cases I'm using the Oracle provided mapviewer instance at http://elocation.oracle.com/mapviewer.

You can find more information about using the map component in the Web User Interface Developer's Guide here and in the tag doc and components demo.

For the first map the query I'm using (on the HR demo schema in the Oracle DB) is:

SELECT
    COUNT(EMPLOYEES.EMPLOYEE_ID) , Department_name , STATE_PROVINCE
FROM
    EMPLOYEES,     DEPARTMENTS,     LOCATIONS
WHERE employees.department_id=departments.department_id
and Departments.location_id=locations.location_id
GROUP BY Department_name,    LOCATIONS.STATE_PROVINCE