Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service Reviews

We have two primary use cases across multiple vendors and organizations, mainly in the medical sector.

First, we created a unified worklist for a large medical company in Saudi Arabia. This worklist serves over 17,000 employees daily, handling business processes like vacation requests, leave requests, business trips, and more. 

We used Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service as the presentation layer, the Oracle Process Cloud Service as the workflow engine, and Oracle Integration Cloud Service as the middleware. We developed over 200 business processes with this configuration. It's the first use case; it is called Employee self-services. 

Our second main use case is extending Oracle SaaS (Oracle Fusion Applications) using Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service. This allows us to improve and modify the user experience of the SaaS applications through integration. We primarily focus on creating pages that streamline tasks for employees.

One of our customers wanted to upload a huge amount of data using Excel sheets. They needed to upload thousands of records for analysis and do complex calculations on those Excel sheets. Oracle Visual Builder helped us achieve that. 

Using the FileMaker component, we allowed them to upload Excel sheets and perform all the necessary calculations. We now have more than a hundred processes doing that – uploading Excel sheets and handling their calculations very effectively.

I like the low-code/no-code concept makes development much easier and faster. 

Moreover, if you want to achieve more complex scenarios, you can write custom code using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It's very easy to learn, and there are many ready-made or built-in components that you can simply drag and drop to build your own screen in Oracle within hours. That's the most efficient thing.

Secondly, you don't need a dedicated IDE to develop. You can work from any browser, which is very convenient. And, with the cloud concept, your code is stored in the cloud, so you can modify it from anywhere, at any time.

Also, the critical point is scalability. If you have many concurrent users at the same time, you don't need to worry about it. Oracle will handle it. So, you can develop faster, ensure good quality, have good audits and logs, and you don't need an IDE at all. What could be better than that?

As someone with 10+ years of experience, I'm kind of old school, so I don't use drag-and-drop much. I work directly with the source code. But for new developers or fresh grads, it's very helpful. They can just drag and drop components without needing to write lots of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. 

For me, as an old-school guy, I prefer the source code. But the good thing about Visual Builder is that it serves both the old and the new way of doing things.

There are very minor things, like the feature called "action chains," that could use a bit of enhancement. But the team is perfect; they're working on it. 

An action chain is a sequence of actions triggered by a button or an event. It executes code in order, from top to bottom. For example, it could call a code, call a REST service, and then insert data into a database. 

It needs enhancement because it can be a bit complex for fresh grads or new developers to understand. It would be better if it was made more readable. That's the main point. But if you have experience, you'll understand it easily.

One more thing I want to add about Visual Builder: up until two years ago, it supported native mobile development. That's not available anymore. They replaced native mobile development with progressive web apps, and most customers are complaining about that. 

We need native mobile development back – the ability to put apps on stores like Google Play or the App Store. That feature is not available right now, and they deprecated it starting in 2024. It's very important. 

Otherwise, clients go with Flutter or other mobile development tools. It would be good for Oracle to regain that capability. We need the native mobile development feature back.

I've been using Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service for the past four years.

It is a very stable solution.

Over the past four years, working with multiple Oracle clients, we haven't faced any major issues. There was one time we had a problem with caching, and once we opened a ticket, they solved it within an hour. It's a very stable platform. If I'm going to rate it, it's a nine out of ten.

I have 15 developers, and it's mandatory for all of them to learn it. It's foundational. If you're working on the presentation layer, you should use Oracle Visual Builder or Oracle APEX. 

All of our developers learn it. You can learn Oracle Visual Builder in a few weeks, maximum three weeks, and then you'll be ready to start development.

I'm actually part of the Oracle Cloud community, so I have good contacts with the product manager and the director, Shay Shmeltzer. He's very helpful and answers most of the questions on the community. 

Most of the times, you don't even need to open a ticket because you'll find your answer in the community. That's one of the best things about Oracle Visual Builder – they have a strong community. 

We all go and answer questions there. Oracle Visual Builder development team actively answers questions on the community every day.

We're an Oracle partner, so our focus is on using Oracle products. When we started using Oracle Visual Builder, it met our expectations. We're able to develop very fast with good quality, the platform is stable and auto-scalable, and we get great support from the Oracle team. 

So, given all that, why wouldn't we choose it? It's a perfect fit for us.

The initial setup is very easy; anyone can do it. The installation is cloud-based. You simply provision an instance of Oracle Visual Builder – a few clicks of 'next, next, next', and you'll immediately have the platform ready. 

It takes a maximum of five minutes in Oracle, and then you can start development. 

Regarding deployment, that's also a couple of clicks. Once you have the application, you click 'preview' to check if everything is fine, then click 'stage,' and finally, 'publish.' It's very easy; anyone can do it.

Preview < Stage < Publish 

It's not expensive when you consider what it provides: low-code/no-code development, faster development time, good quality, and good stability. And you pay per message, so you're charged based on your consumption. 

It's a fair model. So, I recommend it to everyone. It is 100% worth my money at the end of the day.

Overall, it's an excellent tool. If I'm going to rate it from zero to ten, I'd give it a nine and a half. They're constantly enhancing it every quarter, so they're doing a great job.

However, your requirements will determine if it's the right fit. If you need something very complex, you can definitely achieve it with Oracle Visual Builder. It can also handle very simple use cases. But it depends on how many users will be using it and your detailed business requirements. Ultimately, you have to consider the financial aspect – is it worth the cost?

There was a requirement to build a custom form to raise AI invoices, using Oracle Fusion. We created a form, and another use case was that users wanted to create and update customers.

The action chains are really helpful, and the trigger event, along with those action chains, has been very helpful. The connectivity with other systems is really easy in VBCS. You just need to configure a connection, and you can use APIs.

There are some bugs in VBCS. For example, when building an editable table, there is not enough support provided. It is available, however, a lot of custom work is required.

I have been working with VBCS for one and a half years.

There were a lot of issues,  however, those were mostly connectivity-related with third-party systems. For VBCS itself, we faced much difficulty.

Oracle Support is good. Mostly, we need to escalate it to get a proper solution or response. They need to improve a little bit on that. Otherwise, it's good. Most of the time, we get the solution we desire.

Neutral

I actually don't have much experience with pricing, so I can't comment on it right now.

VBCS is very flexible. If there is a custom solution or requirement that requires doing something out of the box with Oracle Fusion, you can easily achieve it using VBCS.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We are handling a complex project that utilizes the functionality offered by Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service. It enables us to work with an application even without an Internet connection.

VBS is another tool that allows users to create enterprise applications without needing to store their projects in traditional databases like SQL. VBS facilitates collaboration on projects and tasks by providing separate branches and workspaces for users to work in. This enables seamless migration of projects and tasks within the EPS.

I have been using Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service for four years.

I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.

The initial setup of Oracle VBCS can be challenging for those unfamiliar with DBS. It's important to distinguish between VBCS and other Oracle services like Oracle EBS and OIC. While VBCS can integrate with EBS, the setup process for each service is distinct. Accessing EBS through VBCS involves a separate conversation and configuration process. Configuring high-level settings and credentials requires proper authorization, which may limit access to certain individuals.

Once we initialize the OVBCS, we can handle it with PWAs. The service provides a builder functionality known as PWE. We can manage various tasks efficiently with the OVBCS controller integrated with PWE. When utilizing OVBCS, data can be stored in a local storage solution called OETB. This storage lets us maintain data locally, ensuring operation continuity without internet connectivity. This feature resembles a Cloud version, enabling seamless creation, updating, and daily operations.

OVBCS utilizes an industrial database. This setup enables data storage locally within the browser, regardless of the platform. It is not just limited to Chrome but is available across all major browsers. The data stored locally can be synchronized with the cloud service once an internet connection is established, ensuring data consistency and integrity.

OVBCS supports dynamic forms. These forms adjust based on responses received, particularly from CRM systems like Oracle Fusion Engagement Cloud. They dynamically populate fields and pages based on the received responses, enhancing user experience and streamlining processes.

For Oracle VBCS, understanding JavaScript is beneficial for handling high-level tasks efficiently. JavaScript is integral for managing dynamic aspects, calculations, and functionalities of VBCS applications. By grasping JavaScript concepts, one can easily navigate the development process, tackling both low-level and high-level projects effectively. It's highly recommended for those aspiring to learn VBCS to prioritize learning JavaScript as a foundational skill. With a solid understanding of JavaScript, one can approach VBCS development confidently, regardless of the project's complexity or level.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I use it as part of the Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP. I’m integrating Visual Builder with Oracle Fusion. Sometimes, customers want more from an application if the functionalities don't meet their requirements. So, we build a service that fits their needs.

My organization chose the tool because it is a simple provisioning service. We use Oracle applications, and the tool is compatible with them. It is easy to use within the scope of the Oracle applications. It can be used as a standalone product to develop applications that are not linked to other Oracle applications.

The synergy with other Oracle products is valuable. The tool is very easy to use. It is compatible with the other Oracle products. It works well when used with other Oracle solutions. The solution is quite useful. It is based on the Oracle JET packages. However, we can use other elements. It is a nice drag-and-drop feature. Sometimes, we have to go into the code. It's necessary in some situations.

There are some additional components. We can import them. They are useful. It is easy for a beginner to learn to use the tool. The vendor provides documentation about the components. They have a learning path on their Oracle University page. The drag-and-drop feature is quite easy. We will not have the best extensions and applications, but it is easy for beginners.

The tool has minor bugs. It freezes, and we have to restart it. It occurs rarely.

I have been using the solution for three years.

The product is quite stable.

The product is scalable. We have five to six users.

A bug in the application was causing issues with my project. The project wasn't working because of the bug. I had to raise an SR with Oracle. The support is not great. Sometimes, we have to deal with things ourselves. We have the documentation, and we can do our research. As a last resort, we contact the support team. Sometimes, the support team takes some time to handle the issues. It's not awful support, but it's not the greatest.

Neutral

The product is part of the services within Oracle Integration Cloud. Oracle provisions the tool in our infrastructure account. It's a cloud service.

I will recommend the tool if someone plans to do a project linked to another Oracle service. It's very compatible with the other services. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

You can do a lot of stuff with its UI and UX. It's pretty convenient. It's much better than just doing with Angular or React as they don't provide this robust capability for working with lots of stuff regarding UI/UX.

You can do a lot of plumbing code. As it has these JET codebooks, basically a lot of features are already in place. 

You can use plugins on it for Eclipse and you can connect many features within the development environment. You can use GitLab to export almost all in-line path source code. There are no vendor locks in terms of your host's publishing code. You can basically have your entire code on-prem and you can use advanced capabilities to develop your UI/UX and your code and connect to the REST services. You can avoid costly React developers that are required for building advanced UI.

If companies are involved in a lot of UI/UX and developing backend and cloud enablement it is a good option.

In terms of master builder forms, pop-up forms, this kind of stuff, it's amazing.

The initial setup is easy.

I would improve the license structure as, for some companies, it may seem a little bit expensive, depending on what they're doing. You have to be pretty smart about how you're using it. If you do a benchmark with operational costs, for big development departments, it's pretty good. However, it depends on how you're doing it. 

If you're using, if you develop an application such as like ERP applications or core backend applications, there's a lot of forms and more dependencies. If you're doing some, for example, extremely responsive applications for the web, it's not as good. it's better to use it for enterprise IT, enterprise for backend development, or middle and back-office development types of things such as Internal intranet and DMZ-level types of applications with heavy load and security.

It's the only enterprise-level solution offered right now on the market, out of the big five, which can be used for advanced development capabilities. It's not for department-level applications. It's just for full-blown enterprise applications.

There are some limitations in terms of building business objects, for example, business objects on VBS - basically, in the runtime environment. Right now I know how to access the data, and can use the REST API, and be able to communicate to the backend. However, if these business objects would be on-prem as well that would be ideal. It's not a limitation, it's just kind of good to have. 

I've been using the solution for roughly two and a half years or so at this point. 

We have about 20 people actively engaged with the solution at our organization.

We don't have a lot of need for technical support as we have a lot of people on staff who are actively engaged with Oracle and are quite knowledgeable.

The initial setup is pretty easy to do. You can easily start it and you can easily use it. If you compare it to Amazon or GCP, they don't have anything like this. They have very high-level stuff. 

We're Oracle partners and we are customers. We are using Oracle rapid tools for our development activities. We are just doing some benchmarking and comparing stuff.

There is actually only one version; there's no standard for an enterprise. It's just the Visual Builder Studio that you can implement for your DevOps operational pipeline. 

We're using a JavaScript framework that Oracle provided, Oracle JET. It's version Basically, due to the fact that not everything is done in Visual Builder itself, we're using Oracle JET and some of the solutions that we're doing in Visual Builder and some of the stuff we're doing in Oracle JET. What we are using is a mix of versions.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've been pretty happy with it overall. 

It's a legal software; we used it for case management.

I was developing it. Nobody else was using it.

The most valuable feature was the visual drag and drop on the components.

I used this solution for a few months.

I never really scaled it while I was using it, but It was stable; I never experienced any bugs.

I never had the chance to contact technical support so I cannot comment on that.

This program is running on-premise using Oracle ADF. My goal over the last year has been to move it to the cloud, using some kind of front-end APIs for the net — kind of a microprogram technique. I wanted a visual builder to program the front-end. It was too complicated, too expensive.

It was very complicated to program, but overall, the initial set up was not that complicated; after all, I did it by myself.

Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service is much too expensive.

I tried it for a while and gave up on it. I'm onto other things now. I'm in a completely different area now.

My honest opinion is: do not use this solution — there are plenty of free options out there that will do the trick.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of five.

There was an attempt to enable front-end development, it did what it intended to do, but the side effects were too bad.