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System Administration - Student Guide
System Administration - Student Guide
2 Oracle Applications
System Administrator
Fundamentals
Student Guide Volume I
D87283GC10
Edition 1.0
July 2014
D87414
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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Author
Sagar Garuda
Mildred Wang
Melody Yang
Robert Farrington
Curriculum Manager
Clara Jaeckel
Related Publications
Oracle Publications
Title
Additional Publications
System release bulletins
Installation and users guides
Read-me files
International Oracle Users Group (IOUG) articles
Oracle Magazine
Notations:
(N) = Navigator
(M) = Menu
(T) = Tab
(B) = Button
(I) = Icon
(H) = Hyperlink
(ST) = Sub Tab
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 1
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 2
Introduction
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 3
Course Objectives
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 4
Overview
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 5
Oracle E-Business Suite System Administration
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 6
Oracle E-Business Suite Security
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 7
Concurrent Processing in Oracle E-Business Suite
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 8
Oracle Applications Manager
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 9
Oracle Workflow
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 10
Personalizations in Oracle E-Business Suite
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 11
Summary
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Page 12
Oracle E-Business Suite
System Administrative
Responsibilities
Chapter 2
System Administrator
Oracles Function Security and Data Security mechanisms constitute the base layers, and
contain the traditional system administrative capabilities. Organizations can optionally add
more layers to the system, depending on the degree of flexibility they require.
By themselves, Function Security and Data Security limit the scope of Oracle User
Management to basic system administration by granting access to specific menus and to the
data that can be accessed from within those menus.
Local Administrators
When Role Based Access Control and Delegated Administration are added to the Data
Security and Function Security layers, system administration tasks can be distributed to local
administrators who manage a subset of the organizations users.
Function Security
The base layer of access control within Oracle E-Business Suite is Function Security, which
can be used to control user access to components such as menus, forms, and HTML pages.
Each of these various components many of which are graphical, and known as widgets is
represented in the system as a function (also known as a permission).
Taking the Order Entry page as an example, Function Security could control whether a user
has the ability to create a new order, or even access the page at all.
A key point to remember is that Function Security only restricts access to functions: it does not
restrict access to the data a user can see, or the actions a user can perform on that data. This
is the role of Data Security, discussed on the next slide.
Data Security
The second layer represents Data Security. Working in conjunction with Function Security,
Data Security determines what data a user can see and the actions a user can perform on
that data, by establishing access control to the data that can potentially be shown once a user
has selected a menu or menu option.
For example, you could control access to the set of orders that an order administrator can
update within the Order Management application.
Role Categories
Administrators can create role categories to bundle roles and responsibilities to simplify the
process of searching for roles and responsibilities. For example all sales and marketing
related roles could be included in the Sales & Marketing category.
Delegated Administration
Delegated administration allows an organization to create local administrators and grant them
sufficient privileges to manage a specific subset of the organization's users and roles. This
enables organizations to use a tighter, more granular level of security, and offers a useful
alternative to relying on a central administrator to manage all users.
The ability to scale administrative capabilities enables an organization to designate
administrators at division or department levels, and then delegate administration of external
users to people within those organizations.
The following four sets of privileges are provided for use with Delegated Administration.
Administration Privileges
Administration Privileges determine the users, roles and organization information delegated
administrators (local administrators) can manage. Each privilege is granted separately, yet the
three work in conjunction to provide the complete set of abilities for the delegated
administrator.
Provisioning Services
Provisioning services enable end users to perform some of their own registration tasks, such
as requesting new accounts or additional access to the system. They also provide
administrators with a faster and more efficient method of creating new user accounts, as well
as assigning roles.
Registration processes provided by Oracle User Management include the following:
Example
An organization may enable users to request a particularly sensitive role, however before the
user is granted the role, the organization can specify that two approvers (a manager and a
vice president) must first provide their approval.
Applications
An application is composed of components such as forms, menus, and concurrent programs.
An application serves as a unique context for these components.
You can protect custom functions, forms, reports, and programs from being lost during
upgrades by registering them under a custom application. Follow the instructions in My
Oracle Support Note 1577707.1 to create a custom application using adsplice.
An application's definition includes the following:
Name A user-friendly name that will appear in lists seen by the user.
Short Name Oracle E-Business Suite uses this short name to identify forms, menus,
concurrent programs, and other components of your application.
Basepath The base path where the forms, reports, and program files are located. Your
base path must be unique to prevent other applications from writing to the same
directory.
Note: The Applications window, (N) Application > Register, is deprecated in Release 12.2 and
should NOT be used. Follow the instructions in My Oracle Support Note 1577707.1 instead.
Registering an Oracle ID
You need to register an Oracle ID if you create a custom application using Oracle Application
Object Library. For information on registering Oracle IDs, refer to My Oracle Support Note
1577707.1.
Note that:
Only database administrators can create Oracle accounts.
Only create a new Oracle ID for a custom extension to Oracle E-Business Suite.
The install group designates which data group the application is associated with. For
applications that span all data groups, the install group is 0. Install groups numbered 1 or
greater are associated with one specific data group. Your database administrator can
supply the correct install group number.
Note: The Oracle Users window, (N) Security > ORACLE > Register, is deprecated in
Release 12.2 and should NOT be used.
Application-Oracle ID Pairs
A data group lists the Oracle ID assigned to each Oracle application. An Oracle ID is a
username and password that allows access to application tables in an Oracle database
An application can be listed only once in a data group.
An Oracle ID can be paired with more than one application.
A custom application registered with Oracle E-Business Suite can be included in a data
group and paired with an Oracle ID.
Data Groups and Application Object Library
Components of a Responsibility
A responsibility has two required components and one major optional component.
Required Components
Data group: specifies the Oracle Application database accounts to which a
responsibilitys forms and concurrent programs connect.
Menu: specifies the forms and web pages that a responsibility can display and the
functions it can access.
Optional Component
Request security group: lists the concurrent programs that a responsibility can run.
When a request group is assigned to a responsibility, it is referred to as a request
security group.
Defining a Responsibility
(N) Security > Responsibility > Define
A responsibility determines the type of applications a user accesses, which application
functions a user can use, which reports and concurrent programs the user can run, and which
data those reports and concurrent programs can access. Most responsibilities are available
from Oracle E-Business Suite (the Forms navigator or the HTML-based E-Business Suite
Home page), others may be accessible from Oracle Self-Service Web Applications or Oracle
Mobile Applications.
Modifying a Menu
You can modify existing custom menus to suit specific job functions.
Securing Functions
You can manage security by controlling access to individual functions through menu
definitions.
Use the Functions page or Function window to manage functions.
(N) Core Services > Functions (from the Functional Administrator responsibility)
(N) Application > Function (from the System Administrator responsibility, for Form Functions)
About Functions
A function is a set of code in Oracle E-Business Suite that is executed only if the name
of the function is present in a list maintained within a responsibility.
There are two types of functions: a form function and a nonform function or subfunction.
A subfunction represents a securable subset of a forms functionality.
Query-Only Forms
When you define a form function in the Form Functions window or call an existing form function
using FND_FUNCTION.EXECUTE or APP_NAVIGATE.EXECUTE, you can add the string:
QUERY_ONLY=YES
to the string in the Parameters field or in the arguments string (using the other_params
argument). This argument causes the form to be called in query-only mode. The
FND_FUNCTION.EXECUTE procedure (which is also used by the Oracle Application Object
Library Navigator) sets the QUERY_ONLY flag that sets all database blocks to non-insertable,
non-updatable, and non-deletable.
To dynamically determine when to call a form in query-only mode, add the string to the
other_params argument of the call to FND_FUNCTION.EXECUTE.
Disable or remove all functionality that does not apply when the form is run in Query-Only mode,
such as 'New' buttons in Find Windows. Entries on the menu (other than Special) are handled
automatically. Turn off any logic that defaults values into new records when the form is in
Query-Only mode (this logic is usually called from the WHEN-CREATE-RECORD triggers).
Check for this mode by checking the parameter query_only:
IF name_in('parameter.query_only') != 'YES' THEN
<defaulting logic here> END IF;
Important: Use query-only forms only when the user does not have update privileges on the
form; not when the primary purpose of the form is viewing values.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Complete the Create a User Account, Register Custom Application, Copy a Menu,
and Create a Custom Menu activities which are provided for your reference and
future learning.
Introduction
Working in conjunction with Function Security, Data Security provides additional access
control on the data a user can see and what actions a user can perform on that data.
Data Security Policies restrict the actions or operations that can be performed on a specific
business object (for example, inventory items). Data Security Policies can reflect access to:
All Instances All instances of an object represents all rows in the database table or
view. For example, assume that we have an object inventory item in the database.
Creating a data security policy for all instances of our object would result in providing
access to every single inventory item we have catalogued in the database.
An Instance Set An instance set is a related set of instances of an object. This
corresponds to a set of rows in the database. Using our object example, an instance set
could be constructed to include all inventory items with a shelf life of 7 days.
A Specific Instance A specific instance generally corresponds to a single row in the
database. A specific instance is generally identified by a primary key value for the object.
Using our example, we could enter a unique serial number for the inventory item. This
would return one and only one inventory item from the database.
Objects
(N) Functional Developer > Objects
An object is a system entity on which an operation can be performed. In Oracle E-Business
Suite, an object typically maps to records in relational tables/views, Forms/HTML pages, and
UI widgets. Examples include: a person, a machine, and a file.
Examples of operations include: Create, Update, Escalate, Approve, and Reject. In Oracle E-
Business Suite, operations are implied by a permission definition. Permission has been
defined as an operation on a object; for example, Invoke Service Request Form, Update
Order, Approve Expense Report, and Query Customers.
An object instance is a specific example of an object, such as Project Number 123 or User
JDOE. An object instance generally corresponds to a row in the database, and is identified by
a set of one or more primary key values as defined by the object.
Related object instances can be grouped together into an object instance set, a group of
related object instances within an object. A set can be specified as a predicate on the keys or
other attributes of an object, typically expressed as a SQL WHERE clause.
Grants
(N) Functional Administrator > Grants
Grants authorize a particular user to perform a specified action on a specified object instance
or object instance set. Those grants that deal with business objects are called Data Security
Policies.
Access to an application's functionality can be controlled using grants. Examples include
securing an aspect of a menu, page, or other widget within an application, such as providing
access to a set of administrative menus to a specific group of users.
The grantee defines who is being granted access. The grantee can be one of three types:
A group of users for example, Clerks.
A specific user for example, John Smith.
All users (global) all users of the system, except the Guest account.
Permissions
The Role Based Access Control (RBAC) Model defines permission as "an approval to perform
an operation on one or more RBAC-protected objects." This definition maps to what has been
referred to as functions, so a function may also be referred to as a permission.
Permissions can be grouped into permission sets, which can be granted to users or roles
independently of menus or responsibilities. Permission assignments, or grants, reflect the
access granted to users through roles.
Permissions are discussed further in the User Management lessons.
Complete the (Optional) activity Data Security Policy Example which is provided
for your reference and future learning.
System Administrators
The system administrator is a trusted individual who manages an organizations access
policies and administers its users. The system administrator is sometimes also known as
the security administrator.
The system administrator is responsible for defining the core of the security system,
including permissions, data security policies, responsibilities, and menus. The system
administrator defines setup for all core security administrative features.
Local Administrators
Oracle User Management enables organizations to define local administrators, who are
only granted enough privileges to manage a subset of the organizations users, and with
whom they will generally have a closer relationship than the system administrator does.
End Users
Organizations can configure Oracle User Management to enable end users to perform
some of their own registration tasks such as registration, requesting additional access, or
resetting passwords. End users can be users of any Oracle E-Business Suite products.
Registration Processes and Self Service and Approvals further distribute system
administration, by automating some registration tasks so that end users can perform
them.
Core Security
Core Security includes Oracles Function and Data Security models, as well as a new
Role Based Access Control (RBAC) model.
Administrative Features
Administrative Features build upon Core Security, and include Delegated Administration,
Provisioning Services, and Self-Service and Approvals.
Example
An organization can use Function Security to provide its sales representatives with the
required pages, menus, and menu options for querying customers. This could include
controlling access to specific components of those pages, such as a "Generate Sales
Forecast" button on a sales forecasting page.
Responsibilities
Responsibilities have a menu tree in which available menus are defined with a grant flag. On
being assigned a responsibility, a user gains access to all menus on the menu tree. There is
an exception. In previous versions of Oracle E-Business Suite, there were menu exclusions.
Menu exclusions have been deprecated, and should only be used in cases where backward
compatibility is required. Otherwise, do not use menu exclusions.
Example
Data Security policies can be defined for applications that have been written to utilize the Data
Security Framework. They control the data the user can see in menus or menu options, and
the actions he can perform on the data. For example, Data Security is used to restrict the set
of users that a local administrator can access within Oracle User Management.
Example
Organizations can define roles that reflect their business situation. For example, an
organization can create an Employee role and then assign that role to all of its employees. It
can also create an External role and assign that role to customers and suppliers. Further
examples may include specific roles such as Support Agent, Sales Rep, Sales Manager.
In these examples, each role contains a specific level of access privileges that restricts its
assignees to the scope of their job functions. Some members of the organization will probably
be assigned more than one role. In the above example, the manager is assigned the
Manager role and the Employee role, while the employee is only assigned the Employee
role.
Delegated Administration
Delegated Administration is a privilege model that builds on the RBAC system. With delegated
administration, instead of exclusively relying on a centralized administrator to manage all its
users, an organization can create local administrators and grant them sufficient privileges to
manage a specific subset of the organization's users and roles. This provides organizations
with a tighter, more granular level of security and the ability to easily scale their administration.
Administration Privileges
Administration Privileges determine the users, roles and organization information that
delegated administrators (local administrators) can manage. Each privilege is granted
separately, yet the three work in conjunction to provide the complete set of abilities for the
delegated administrator.
User Administration Privileges: A local administrator must be granted User
Administration Privileges to determine the users and people he can manage. Local
administrators can be granted different privileges for different subsets of users.
Role Administration Privileges: Role Administration Privileges define the roles that
local administrators can directly assign to and revoke from the set of users they manage.
Organization Administration Privileges: Organization Administration Privileges define
the organizations a local administrator can view in the system.
Provisioning Services
Oracle User Management includes the following provisioning services, implemented as
registration processes:
Self-Service Account Requests
Commonly referred to as Self Service Registration, self-service account requests provide a
method for persons to request a new user account. For example, customers may need to
register before they can purchase an item from an online store. After completing the
registration process, the customer obtains both a user account and the necessary roles for
access to the store.
Requests for Additional Access
Users can request additional access through the Oracle User Management Access Request
Tool (ART) available in the global preferences menu. Requests for Additional Access uses the
same Oracle User Management infrastructure and processing logic as Self Service Account
Requests.
Account Creation By Administrators
Administrators can benefit from existing registration processes designed to streamline the
process of creating and maintaining user access. Registration Processes of this type are
geared toward administrators, especially delegated administrators, to ensure consistent
Login Assistance
System administrators often have to reset a user's forgotten password, or even advise a user
of his account's user (login) name. This is unproductive for both the user and the
administrator. In addition, a user may request the password to be reset, when it is actually the
user name that has been forgotten, or vice versa.
The login help mechanism on the Oracle E-Business Suite Login Page helps reduce the time
administrators spend on such activities: a user simply clicks on the "Login Assistance" link
located below the Login and Cancel buttons. On the screen that appears, the user can choose
between the Forgot Password and Forgot Username sections.
Complete the Assign Security Administrator Role, Create Objects for RBAC, and
Create a Help Desk Role activities which are provided for your reference and
future learning.
Introduction to Roles
Traditionally in Oracle E-Business Suite, access to individual functions within an application
could only be defined through responsibilities, menu hierarchies, and menu exclusions. New
responsibilities had to be defined for each set of users (with different job functions) that
needed access to a set of pages within an application. These responsibilities required either:
Completely new menu hierarchies for each responsibility.
A common menu covering the superset of all functions within the application, and menu
exclusion rules defined for each responsibility.
An example is the Human Resources product, which typically has at least two responsibilities
defined, one for employees and one for managers.
This means that responsibilities have increasingly been used not only to define application
navigation menus, but also the privileges and permissions within an application. As the
number and complexity of menu hierarchies and exclusion rules grows, so does the number
of responsibilities and associated management costs.
Oracle User Management provides alternative strategies for defining access to an application,
enabling organizations to separate navigation menus from access control and thereby
simplifying management.
Examples of Roles
In this example, the manager is granted both the employee role and the manager role, since
the manager has to function as both an employee and someone who is responsible for other
employees.
Example
Data security policies determine to which department a manager belongs, and returns only the
correct set of data for that manager. In the above example, the Manager role is assigned to
Managers X and Y. At runtime, data security policies ensure that Manager X can only view
Department X data, and Manager Y can only view Department Y data.
Example
In this example, some roles such as "Employee" or "Manager" are assigned general
permissions for a given function. For example, the Employee role may provide access to
menus generally available to all employees, while the Manager role provides access to menus
that should only be viewed by managers. Because the Employee role is a sub-role of the
Manager role, anyone assigned the Manager role automatically obtains the permissions
associated with the Employee role.
This principle can easily be extended to more specialized job functions such as Sales
Manager or Sales Representative.
Role Categories
Most roles are organized according to role categories. Select the role category that contains
the role. If you do not see the required role, then either you are not eligible for the role or it has
not been set up to for additional access requests.
Steps for Creating Roles: Create a Role within the Role Category
Create a role and include it within the role category. In this scenario, the role is Customer
Administrator. This role is created for an external organization, and is assigned to individuals
who manage the external organizations users.
Oracle User Management ships with three seeded roles: Partner Administrator, Customer
Administrator, and Security Administrator. The business scenarios and practices in this course
assume that the Customer Administrator role must be created and configured to function with
the other two.
Procedure
1. Log in as a user with the Security Administrator role (typically SYSADMIN), select the User
Management responsibility in the navigator, then click the 'Roles & Role Inheritance'
subtab.
2. In the Role Inheritance Hierarchy, access the role to which the permission is to be
assigned, then click the 'Update 'icon.
3. Click the 'Permissions 'subtab and then click the Create Grant button.
4. Define the grant by entering the required information and then clicking Next.
5. If a specific object was defined in the preceding step, choose the object data context for
the object (also referred to as the data scope). Specifying the object data context provides
an additional level of access granularity: choose a suitable option from the Data Context
menu.
6. Choose an option from the LOV to select the required permission set or navigation menu
containing the functions (permissions) that are to be assigned to the role.
7. Review the grant information and click Finish.
Permissions
Permissions determine the actions that the role assignee (the local administrator) can perform
on the people and users selected for that role. These permissions must be granted with a data
security policy on the User Management Person (UMX_PERSON_OBJECT) business object.
Steps
1. Log in as a user with a role granting you access to the User Management responsibility.
2. Select the User Management responsibility in the navigator and click the Users subtab.
3. From the Register dropdown menu, select the administrative account registration process
you wish to invoke.
4. Click the Go button.
5. Enter the information required by the registration process as defined by its registration UI.
6. Click the Submit button.
7. Click the OK button on the resulting page.
Registration Processes
Oracle User Management contains the following registration processes:
Self-Service Account Requests
Commonly referred to as Self-Service Registration, self-service account requests provide a
means for people to request a new user account. For example, customers may need to
register before they can purchase an item from an online store. After completing the
registration process, the customer obtains both a user account and the necessary role or roles
to access the store.
Requests for Additional Access
Users can request additional access through the Oracle User Management Access Request
Tool (ART), available on the global preferences menu. Requests for Additional Access uses
the same Oracle User Management infrastructure and processing logic as Self-Service
Account Requests.
Account Creation By Administrators
Administrators can benefit from existing registration processes designed to streamline the
process of creating and maintaining user access. Registration Processes of this type are
geared toward administrators, especially delegated administrators, to ensure consistent
application of the client's user security policies. Each account creation registration process
can be made available to selected administrators.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Steps
1. Click the Preferences link, then click the Access Requests link (in the sidebar menu).
2. The Access Requests page displays the currently assigned roles. Click the Request
Access button to request one or more additional roles.
3. Select the role category that contains the role to be requested. If it is not shown, either
you are not eligible for the role or it has not been set up to for additional access requests.
4. Select the role or roles require dfor additional access, click the Add to List button, and
repeat for any other roles required.
5. When you have selected all the required roles, click on the Next button.
6. Enter a justification for the request and click on the Next button.
7. Some roles may require additional information to be provided before the request process
can be completed. If so, the system will prompt for it.
Self-Service Features
Organizations can use these registration processes in their existing form, or can use them as
references for developing their own registration processes.
Self-Service Features
Organizations can use these registration processes in their existing form, or can use them as
references for developing their own registration processes.
Login Assistance
System administrators often have to reset a user's forgotten password, or even advise a user
of the account's user (login) name. This is unproductive for both the user and the
administrator. In addition, a user may request the password to be reset, when it is actually the
user name that has been forgotten, or vice versa.
The time spent on such administrative activities can be reduced by using the login help
feature provided on the Oracle E-Business Suite Login Page. The user simply clicks on the
(H) Login Assistance located below the Login and Cancel buttons.
On the login assistance screen that appears, the user can either go to the "Forgot Password"
section and enter the correct user name, or to the "Forgot Username" section and enter the
email address associated with the account. The user will then either be emailed the password
reset details or the user name, as applicable.
For security, the relevant data is stored securely in workflow tables, and the secure URLs
employed by the mechanism have both a single-use limitation and an expiration time.
Concurrent Request
A concurrent request is a request that you submit to run a concurrent program as a concurrent
process. You issue a concurrent request when you submit a report or program to run using
Standard Request Submission (SRS) or when you click an action button in a product-specific
submission window.
Concurrent Manager
A concurrent manager is a component of concurrent processing that monitors and runs
requests without tying up your computer.
Request Set
A request set is a collection of reports or programs that you group together. You submit the
reports or programs in a request set all at once, using one transaction.
Parameter
In SRS, a parameter is a report variable whose value you can change each time you run a
report. For example, you might run an account balance report and change the account
number whenever you run the report. The account number is the parameter for the report.
The responsibility you are using determines the requests that will appear in the list of available
requests.
Submitting Requests
(N) Concurrent > Requests > Submit a New Request > (B) Schedule... (Forms-based UI)
(N) Schedule Requests > Schedule step (HTML-based UI)
Submitting Requests
(N) Concurrent > Requests > Submit a New Request > (B) OK > (B) Options... (Forms-based
UI)
Submitting Requests
(N) Schedule Requests (HTML-based UI)
Language Options
For language options for the Layout, if you selected multiple language outputs earlier, a
separate template entry displays for each language. You can apply a different template for
each language. The Template Language defaults to the language selected for the request. If
the template is not available for a selected language, this field defaults to the session
language.
If you selected multiple language outputs from the Languages window, you can select a
language for each person to notify.
If you selected multiple language outputs from the Languages window, you can select a
language for each printer.
Reprinting a Report
(N) Requests > View (Forms-based UI)
(N) Monitor Requests > (B) Search (HTML-based UI)
Use one of the above navigation paths to find a specific request.
Note: The Profile Option Concurrent:Save Output must be set to Yes.
Additional Tasks
For the Forms-based Requests window, use the buttons provided for these tasks:
Refresh Data - Re-queries the lines in the request table.
Find Requests - Displays the Find Request window to perform a search.
Submit a New Request - Displays the Submit a New Request window.
Hold Request - Puts a request on hold if the request has not started running.
Cancel Request - Cancels a request.
For the HTML-based Requests page, you can access the same functionality:
Refresh Data - Use (B) Refresh on the main page to refresh the data in the Requests
Summary Table. Use (B) Refresh on a single request's Details page to refresh its data.
Find Requests - Use (B) Search.
Submit a New Request - Use (B) Submit Requests.
Hold Request - For a request that has not started running, click on the request's Details
icon to access its Details page, from which you can use (B) Hold Request to place it on
hold.
Cancel Request - Use (B) Cancel Request from the request's Details page.
Pending Phase
A program in the Pending phase can be in one of four statuses:
Normal: The program is waiting for an available manager.
Waiting: A child program is waiting for a parent to mark it ready to run.
Standby: A program is waitiang for another incompatible program in the same logical
database to complete.
Scheduled: A programs scheduled start time has not yet elapsed.
Running Phase
A program in the Running phase can be in one of four statuses:
Normal: Program is in progress.
Paused: A parent program is waiting for one or more child programs to complete.
Resuming: A parent program is continuing after the completion of one or more child
programs.
Terminating: The program is being terminated.
Completed Phase
A program in the Completed phase can be in one of five statuses:
Normal: Program completed successfully.
Warning: Program completed successfully but with warning messages.
Error: Program failed to complete successfully.
Terminated: A running program was terminated.
Canceled: A pending or inactive program was canceled before it started.
Inactive Phase
A program in the Inactive phase can be in one of three statuses:
Disabled: The requested program has not been enabled for execution.
On Hold: The requested program has been placed on hold.
No Manager: There is no manager defined to run this type of request.
Request Groups
A request group is a collection of reports and other concurrent programs. You use request
groups to implement security at the responsibility level. Request groups are normally
associated with a responsibility, in which case they are referred to as request security groups.
Any user of a responsibility has access to the reports in that responsibilitys request security
group.
Additionally, you can define a request group to have an access code. You can then define the
form so that it allows users to select only those reports or concurrent programs belonging to a
request group with an assigned code.
Request Sets
A request set is a collection of concurrent programs set up to run in a specified sequence from
a single transaction. Request sets can also have run and/or print options, which apply to every
member of the set. Programs in a request set can share parameters; therefore a parameter
value needs to be entered only once for multiple programs. Any user can create a request set.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Responsibility-Based Access
This is the typical way a user submits a report. The menu prompt Run does not pass any
arguments to the Submit Requests form when the prompt is chosen.
The list of values includes all the programs in the responsibilitys request security group.
Form-Based Access
This type of access uses a coded request group. In this method, when a modified menu
prompt is chosen, it calls a form function to pass an argument (the code) to the Submit
Requests form.
The only programs displayed in the Submit Requests list of values are those defined to the
coded request group.
Customization Example
The slide shows the values that are used in the following example.
Linking of Stages
There are no restrictions on linking stages within a request set. Any stage can be linked to
any other stage, including itself. Two or more links can point to the same stage. For example,
one stage can link to another if the completion status of the first is Success or Warning, and
link to a third stage if the status is Error.
You determine the end of a request by not specifying a follow-up stage for each completion
status. You can end a request set after any stage in the set. When any stage completes with
a status that does not link to another stage, the request set ends.
You can use the linking of stages to control your request set. By using the Request Set
Wizard button in the Request Set window you can create the request set as follows:
Run in Parallel creates one stage containing all of the requests you wish to run in
parallel.
Run Sequentially creates a separate stage containing the request or requests for each
step in the sequence and link in the appropriate order.
Run Sequentially but abort on Error sets up your sequence the same as it did for Run
Sequentially, but when it links the stages, it does not enter a follow-up stage as a link in
the Error completion status field.
Defining Stages
The value for the Display Sequence field is defaulted in sequence as you enter your stages.
You may change the display order of the stages by modifying the field.
The default value for the Function field is Standard Evaluation that bases its completion status
on the normal completion status of the requests it contains.
If you select the Return Value check box for more than one stage, the completion status of the
request set will equal the completion status of the last of these stages to run.
Select the Allow Incompatibility check box to have the system check for incompatible
programs when the request set is run. If this check box is left unchecked, then incompatibility
rules will be ignored.
Request Parameters
((N) Requests > Set > (B) Define Stages > (B) Requests > (B) Parameters
Overlapping Workshifts
When work shifts overlap, the work shift with the more specific time period takes effect for the
overlapping time period. For example, a work shift for January 1 overrides a work shift from
9:00 am to 5:00 PM every Monday through Friday.
When work shifts with the same hierarchy level overlap, the work shift with the largest number
of target processes takes effect.
Example Rules
The example rules would result in a managers reading requests for all programs assigned to
Oracle Purchasing except programs defined with the request type Month-End Rep.
Action Types
Use action types to specify the actions of a manager. An action type specifies the type of
request to which an action refers.
Programs that connect to a specific Oracle E-Business Suite account (Oracle ID).
For example, you could include for processing all programs that connect to the Oracle
Payables account AP1.
Specific programs by name. For example, you could include for processing the Oracle
General Ledger program Trial Balance-Budget. When using an action type of program,
you specify the application and the program name.
Certain request types. For example, you could include for processing all programs
defined as a request type of Month-End Reports.
Programs requested by certain users. For example, you could include for processing
all programs requested by the user Operations.
Combined rule. A combined rule combines more than one action to generate a single
rule.
Combined Rules
(N) Concurrent > Manager > Rule (System Administrator responsibility)
Nodes
Each node consists of one or more processors (CPUs) and its associated memory.
Each node has its own memory that is not shared with other nodes.
Each node operates independently of other nodes except when sharing resources.
Introduction
Oracle Applications Manager is a system management console. It provides a wide variety of
features related to system management for use by DBAs, System Administrators, and
Technical Support personnel.
Oracle Applications Manager allows you to monitor and control Oracle E-Business Suite
system components. It can help you to understand how the performance and availability of
those components affects your business. When problems arise, Oracle Applications Manager
provides a variety of features to help you diagnose and resolve those problems quickly to
reduce any necessary downtime. Oracle Applications Manager helps you manage your
system configuration by enabling you to make and track configuration changes as well as
identify potential configuration problems. Additionally, Oracle Applications Manager helps you
track periodic maintenance activities and facilitates the patching process.
The pre-defined Oracle Applications Manager Administrator Menu is available from the
System Administration and System Administrator responsibility.
Benefits
Oracle Applications Manager provides features to manage all aspects of the Oracle E-
Business Suite.
During system implementation, Oracle Applications Manager automates configuration tasks
and enables you to tighten security on the system. OAM can also help in keeping the system
up-to-date with the latest Oracle E-Business Suite patches.
Oracle Applications Manager automates system monitoring, facilitates daily administration,
and helps speed problem resolution.
For maintenance or upgrades, OAM helps identify necessary updates, provides an analysis of
the potential impact of those updates, and delivers tools to facilitate and minimize any
required downtime.
Navigation
You can access OAM from the System Administration responsibility or the System
Administrator responsibility. A seeded menu, Oracle Applications Manager Administrator
Menu (OAM_ADMIN_MENU) is available from these responsibilities. In addition, individual
OAM functions can be added to custom menus. Direct links to specific Oracle Applications
Manager features are possible from the Oracle E-Business Suite Home Page.
The OAM console includes:
The Applications Dashboard, which includes tabs and a dropdown list for quick access
to commonly-used features
The Site Map, which contains links to all features within OAM
Global buttons/links for setup, the Support Cart, your home page, and online help
Applications Dashboard
The Applications Dashboard provides a comprehensive summary of the Oracle E-Business
Suite components including:
An overview of configuration changes and the status of infrastructure components
Performanc e information
Required critical maintenance activities
Diagnostic test results
The status of key business flows
Potential security issues
Software updates
In addition, a dropdown list provides quick access to commonly-used pages and features,
including:
Configuration Overview
Forms Sessions
Database Status
Applied Patches and Patch Wizard
Workflow Manager
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
System Overview
(N) Oracle Applications Manager > Dashboard > Overview (T)
The Overview tab of the Applications Dashboard provides an overview of the general status of
your system.
Configuration Changes
This region shows system-level changes that were made in the last 24 hours. Use this data to
help diagnose sudden changes in the functioning of your applications system.
To see the list of Patches Applied, click on the number to drill down to the Patch Summary
page.
To see the list of Site Level Profile Options, click on the number to drill down to the Site Level
Profile Settings page.
To see the list of Applications Context Files Edited, click on the number to drill down to the
Applications Configuration Parameters page. Changes made to context files can impact your
overall processing configuration and the functioning of business processes.
System Alerts
Use the System Alerts region to find out about critical events to your system. Examples of
such events are a halted process or a program that returned an error.
This region lists the number of system alerts in the categories listed below.
If your system is functioning well, there should be no new alerts reported. When an alert of a
particular type first occurs, it is counted as a new alert. It remains new until the status is
manually changed by the administrator. If an alert of the same type occurs again while the
original alert is still in open or new status, it is counted as a new occurrence.
New Alerts - alerts that have not yet been acknowledged by the administrator. An alert is
acknowledged when it is manually moved from a status of "New" to a status of "Open" or
"Closed."
New Occurrences - additional occurrences of alerts that are in new status.
Open Alerts - all alerts that are in an open status. An alert must be manually moved from
the new to open status.
Open Occurrences - all occurrences of alerts that are currently open.
Click on the number for any of these to drill down to the System Alerts and Metrics page.
(Help) Applied Technology > Oracle E-Business Suite System Administration > Maintenance >
Overview of Monitoring Oracle E-Business Suite > System Alerts, Metrics, and Logs
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Alerts
This page shows a summary of the system alerts as well as a list of new alerts.
Alerts are classified by Severity level of Critical (an important business flow is impeded or a
large number of users is affected), Error (a less severe, more isolated issue), or Warning
(there may be a negative impact on users or business processes). Alerts are also marked as
New or Open. "New" indicates that the alert has just been posted in the system. "Open"
indicates the alert is being resolved.
Metrics
Not all exception conditions can be immediately detected directly within an Oracle E-Business
Suite component, but are best detected through external analysis. Some are detected by
measuring certain criteria, such as decreasing transaction throughput for a component or
excessive completion times for a business process. External analysis allows for easier
comparison of current and historical metric values, consideration of metrics from multiple
products and components., and end-user defined exception triggers. These exceptions are
analogous to "events" in Oracle Enterprise Manager where the use specifies the specific
conditions that will trigger an alert.
Logs
System Logs are general log messages that are logged by the various components in an
Applications System. These log messages can be logged by the developer of the components
at the following levels:
Unexpected
Error
Exception
Event
Procedure
Statement
Performance
(N) Applications Dashboard > Performance (T)
Database Instances
Database Sessions - the number of active database sessions. Clicking the value link
returns a page showing all active database sessions.
Running Requests - drills down to the Search for Requests Results page showing
information on all currently running requests.
Forms Sessions - the number of running Forms sessions. Drills down to the Forms
Sessions page.
- The Forms Sessions page shows information including the following: username,
auditing session ID or AUDSID (from which you can drill down for database
session information), CPU usage, and duration.
- The Active Database Sessions includes the following information - AUDSID,
machine, program, and module.
Activity
Services Up - the number of service instances whose target services match the actual
services.
Services Down - the number of service instances whose target services do not match
the actual services.
Unsent Workflow E-mail
Software Updates
Software Updates is a portal from which you can view all the patching-related activities of your
system. From the Software Updates main page, you can access information such as:
patches that have or have not been applied
latest patch recommendation requests from the Patch Wizard page
latest jobs run from the Timing Reports page
links to patching-related pages
Site Map
The Site Map provides links to most pages in OAM, in these categories:
Administration
Monitoring
Maintenance
Diagnostics and Repair
The following pages cover the Site Map category subtabs.
Administration Features
From the Administration tab you can perform system tasks such as view and edit selected
configuration information, create and manage concurrent managers, run concurrent requests,
and manage Oracle Workflow.
Host Management
(N) Site Map > Administration (T) > Hosts (under System Configuration)
Oracle Applications Manager provides a list of host machines that are employed by the
Applications and Database tiers of the Oracle E-Business Suite system. For each host, you
can view the host status, and you can drill down to see the status of the individual Oracle E-
Business Suite processes on that host. You can also view the Oracle E-Business Suite
configuration details for that specific host, including the installed server types, and port
allocations.
Oracle Applications Manager allows you to change the state of a given host to make that host
available or unavailable to Generic Service Management (GSM). Under GSM, the Internal
Concurrent Manager manages the various service processes across multiple hosts. If you
need to take a host down for maintenance, you can first mark that host as offline in OAM,
which will ensure that concurrent mangers and other service processes are migrated to a
secondary node as appropriate. Later, when you set the node back to online, the processes
will be migrated back.
The new host-oriented interfaces allow you to track more easily which service processes are
running on which hosts, and you can more easily identify the services that would be affected
by a planned or unplanned outage for the host. For planned outages, OAM enables you to
prevent Generic Service Management processes such as concurrent managers from running
on an offline host without reconfiguring the service definitions.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Application Services
(N) Site Map > Administration Tab > Application Services > Generic Services
You can configure, monitor, and control application services from the System Activity page for
services. These services are managed under Generic Service Management (GSM). GSM
allows you to manage a variety of services using a fault-tolerant framework. The Application
Services lets you drill down to details for instances of each service and view the instances'
statuses and processes.
Concurrent Requests
(N) Site Map > Administration (T) > Concurrent Requests
You can submit a new concurrent request from this tab.
Also, you can review requests in Pending, Running, and Completed (in the last hour) statuses.
For viewing requests, a table view and a bar chart view are available.
Monitoring
The Monitoring tab provides features to help you monitor technology stack components and
configuration settings. For example, you can:
Monitor availability of system components
Access Fusion Middleware Control console
Access WebLogic Server Administration console
Monitor performance of forms sessions, concurrent processes, and the Oracle Workflow
system
Monitor current activity in Forms sessions and concurrent requests
View system configuration information
Monitor applications usage
Monitoring Forms
The Site Maps Monitoring tab includes links under both Performance and Activity for
monitoring Forms activity in Oracle E-Business Suite. These links are described on the next
pages.
Forms Sessions
(N) Site Map > Monitoring (T) > Forms Sessions (under Performance or Current Activity)
This page shows information on the current forms sessions. Every open form has its own
database session, or "Forms session." The profile option "Sign-On:Audit Level" should be set
to 'Form' to use this feature. If this profile option is not set to 'Form', the Forms Sessions table
will show an empty table even when there are active forms sessions.
The following data is shown for each session:
Form Name
AUDSID - The auditing session ID. Click on the value to drill down to the Database
Session information page.
RTI_PID - The runtime instance process ID. Click on the value to drill down to the
Forms Sessions for Process ID page.
Username
Responsibility
Application
LRs (Session Logical Reads) - Input/output (I/O) is one of the most expensive operations
in a database system. SQL statements that are I/O-intensive can monopolize memory
and disk use and cause other database operations to compete for these resources. To
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
SQL Extensions
(N) Site Map > Monitoring > Custom Reporting Utilities > SQL Extensions
This page displays seeded (and custom) scripts. Expand each group to view the scripts.
Click Run Report to run a script. For a given script, the following might be displayed:
Description
Report Format - HTML or Text
Applications Schema Password - If the report is password-restricted, enter the
password here.
Input Parameters - Enter any required or optional parameters.
For information on setting up custom scripts so they are automatically discovered by Oracle
Applications Manager and available to run from the SQL Extensions page, refer to the Oracle
E-Business Suite Maintenance Guide.
Maintenance Features
Patching utilities are available from the Site Map > Monitoring tab. These are described in the
R12.x Install/Patch/Maintain Oracle E-Business Suite course.
Critical activities are activities that must be run periodically. They are monitored to ensure they
are being run. Examples include refreshing an Employee Directory or purging obsolete data.
Dashboard Setup
(N) Setup > Dashboard Setup > (B) Update
View the current collection and alerting settings here. To update these, click (B) Update.
Metrics Setup
Enable or disable the collection of individual metrics by checking or un-checking the box in the
Enable Collections column.
- If you would like to enable alerts for a given metric, check the appropriate box in
the Enable Alerts column.
- To set the alert condition, you can choose either less than, equal to, or greater
than from the Threshold Operator column, and then enter the desired value in
the Threshold Value column. Click (B) Next to move to the configuration of
monitoring services.
Alert Notification
Alerts flag events that may need your attention.
The OAM Dashboard Overview tab has a System Alerts region, from which you can drill down
to see any new or open alerts (types of alerts) or occurrences of alerts.
Notifications of alerts can be sent out to users via the Notifications Setup button on the
System Alerts page.
For metrics that are displayed in the OAM Dashboard, when metric exceeds a threshold that
you have set, a warning icon will appear next to that metrics value.
Introduction
Oracle Applications Manager provides features to help you diagnose and resolve system
issues.
Oracle Applications Manager integrates with Oracle Diagnostics to provide access to a large
library of diagnostic tests for system technologies, E-Business Suite products, and business
flows.
If you encounter a problem in the system, you can first try to diagnose the problem using
Oracle Diagnostics. Then you can try to correct the problem using the Troubleshooting
Wizards.
Also, if you are unable to diagnose and resolve problems yourself, then Oracle Applications
Manager makes it easier for you to communicate with Support. The Support Cart has been
improved to provide automated collections of the data that Oracle Support requires for
resolving issues.
For more information on Oracle Diagnostics, see the Oracle Diagnostics Framework User's
Guide.
Troubleshooting Wizards
(N) Site Map > Diagnostics (T) > [links under Troubleshooting Wizards region]
Troubleshooting Wizards are available for the following:
Concurrent Manager Recovery - Use this wizard when the Internal Concurrent Manager
fails to start.
Service Infrastructure - Using the Service Infrastructure diagnostic wizard, you can
examine existing Generic Service Management data to determine potential problems,
and update the data to eliminate the issues. An example of a potential problem is an
active node without a service manager.
GCS and Forms Monitoring - The GCS and Forms Monitoring wizard helps you
troubleshoot the OAM Generic Collection Service. The GCS, or Generic Collection
Service, is a service managed by Generic Service Management. It performs file
uploading, signaling, purging, and other management tasks for other service runtime
processes such as the Forms Listener runtime process.
CP Signature - This wizard collects information regarding the current status of
concurrent processing on the system.
Dashboard Collection - The OAM Applications Dashboard Collection program gathers
information on the system that is displayed on the Dashboard under the Overview and
Service Infrastructure
This wizard will list the potential issues with your Generic Service Management setup,
including:
Active nodes without a service manager
Active Concurrent Processing nodes without an Internal Monitor
Service managers without active nodes
Active nodes with inactive service managers
Enabled service instances without workshifts
Nodes that do not have names in uppercase (for service instances)
Nodes that do not have names in uppercase (for processes)
CP Signature Wizard
The CP Signature wizard collects technical information on Concurrent Processing. This
information is what is most commonly requested by Oracle support analysts, and includes
items such as important configuration settings, code levels, and log files.
This wizard collects information on the following:
Configuration status for Parallel Concurrent Processing, Real Application Clusters, and
Generic Service Management
Registered nodes
Concurrent processing package versions
Concurrent processing package errors
Concurrent processing profile options
Service instances that could be managed by concurrent processing
Concurrent processing processes
Request processing manager specialization rules
Request Conflict Resolution
Concurrent request processing statistics
Recent requests to run the Purge Concurrent Request and/or Manager Data program
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Support Cart
The Support Cart feature allows you to save Oracle Applications Manager pages with their
data and then zip them up in a file to send to Oracle Support. Oracle Support can then view
your pages in the Oracle Applications Manager display format.
When you click the Support Cart global button, the page is added to the Support Cart. If you
have filtered or sorted the data, your manipulated view is submitted. To view the contents of
the Support Cart, click the Support Cart global button.
Description
You can enter in an SR number and description of the issue here.
Applications Signature
The Support Cart can collect a standard set of information regarding your E-Business Suite
system. Oracle Support requires this information when logging a service request (SR).
To collect this information, click Collect.
The set of information collected includes:
Database version
Profile Categories
(N) Functional Administrator responsibility > Core Services > Profile Categories
Profile options can be grouped into logical categories based on their functional area. A profile
option can belong to more than one profile category.
You can create new or update existing profile categories.
The following slides describe some of the more commonly-used profile options. They do not
represent all the profile options included in each listed profile category.
Searching for and Updating Profile Options and Profile Option Values
Use the Search capabilities of the Profiles window and Profiles page to find how a profile
option is set for the different levels; for example, find out how different users have different
profile values for the same profile. The search features for these user interfaces are designed
for this type of search.
The HTML-based Profiles page is especially useful for finding and updating profile values for
multiple users, responsibilities, or applications at once.
To find profiles within a profile category, use the Profile Categories page.
AuditTrail: Activate
This option enables auditing of changes to database tables. AuditTrail tracks which rows in a
database table or tables were updated, at what time, and which user was logged in using the
form or forms.
RRA: Enabled
Set this user profile to Yes to use the Report Review Agent to access files on concurrent
processing nodes.
Sign-On:Notification
Setting this option to Yes displays a message at login that indicates:
Concurrent request failures since your last session
How many times someone tried to log on to Oracle E-Business Suite with your
username and an incorrect password
When the default printer identified in your user profile is unregistered or not specified
Complete the Profile Options and Profile Categories activities which are provided
for your reference and future learning.
Traditional Workflow
Traditional applications-based workflow processes are launched from a business application
through APIs hard-coded within the application. These processes model the business rules in
the individual local application and are made up of activities executed by the Workflow Engine
only in that applications system. For example, the modeling of an approval hierarchy is a
common use of Oracle Workflow in this scenario.
Event-Based Workflow
With the Business Event System, Oracle Workflow supports both traditional applications-
based workflows and event-based integration workflows.
For e-business, there is a requirement to integrate with external systems, such as sending a
document to a business-to-business exchange, or other systems external to the local
application. Oracle Workflow supports e-business integration workflows by allowing business
analysts and developers to model business processes spanning different systems using a
graphical drag-and-drop designer - the Workflow Builder - and run those processes using the
Workflow Engine and the Business Event System. This support enables Oracle Workflow
customers to deal with business objects in comprehensive e-business integration flows with
minimal intrusion into the core application.
The Business Event System and the Workflow Engine can function independently of each
other. However, you can achieve the most powerful and flexible processing by using the
Business Event System and the Workflow Engine together to execute cross-system
processes for e-business integration.
Subscription-Based Processing
The Business Event System provides increased flexibility through subscription-based
processing: you raise a business event from an application, but specify the processing to
perform for that event as a subscription in Oracle Workflow. For example, you can launch a
workflow process when an event is raised by specifying that process in a subscription to the
event. You can also define multiple subscriptions to the same event to perform additional
processing for different purposes without intruding any further on the core application.
Complete the optional activity Running the Expense Process which is provided
for your reference and future learning.
Development Client
The development client is a Windows PC. This tier is used to create and modify Oracle
Workflow process definitions, and to save and load flat files containing Oracle Workflow
process definitions and XML definitions for Business Event System objects.
Oracle Database
The server tier is the Oracle Database that hosts the business application integrated with
Oracle Workflow, the Workflow Engine, Business Event System, Notification System, and
directory service. The Business Event System leverages the Advanced Queuing feature within
the Oracle Database.
Application Server
The application server is the middle tier environment outside of the database. This
environment includes ancillary services such as Oracle HTTP Server as the Web server, and
Oracle Workflow service components that run in the middle tier, such as agent listeners and
notification mailers.
End-User Client
The end-user client is the workstation or PC that an end user uses to perform daily tasks. This
client includes browser support for accessing Oracle Workflow Web pages, as well as for
accessing the Oracle Workflow Manager component available through Oracle Applications
Manager (OAM). The end-user client also includes a mail client application for reviewing and
responding to notifications by e-mail.
Workflow Processes
A workflow process definition must be saved to the same database as the Workflow Engine. A
process definition is composed of activities and the transitions between them.
A completed application transaction or event can initiate a workflow process by raising
an event or by calling a series of Workflow Engine APIs.
The Workflow Engine locates the Start activity in the process definition.
The Workflow Engine drives through the process, performing all automated steps such
as function activities and Raise and Send event activities, until an asynchronous activity
such as a notification, Receive event activity, or blocking activity occurs.
- The Workflow Engine calls the Notification System to deliver a notification
message to an appropriate role. Once a user of that role completes the notification
response, the Workflow Engine continues to drive through the remaining activities
in the process.
- If a blocking activity is encountered, the Workflow Engine waits for an external
program to complete and call the appropriate Workflow Engine API before
proceeding to the next activity.
- If a Receive event activity is encountered, the Workflow Engine waits to receive the
event from the Business Event System before proceeding to the next activity.
The process completes when the Workflow Engine encounters an End activity.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Navigator Tree
The navigator provides a tree structure for the workflow definition, with the highest level being
the data store. Next is the item type, which is a grouping of workflow objects into a high-level
category. The lower levels are the workflow objects themselves, such as attributes,
processes, notifications, functions, events, messages, and lookup types. All these objects are
organized into their respective categories within the tree.
Process Diagram
The diagram is made up of icons representing workflow objects. A diagram is built by dragging
the objects from the navigator window and dropping them into the process diagram window.
This method is called bottom-up design. You can also create new objects as you design the
diagram and complete the definitions of those objects later. This method is called top-down
design.
Notification System
The Notification System:
Routes notifications to a role, which can be a single user or group of users
Enables users to receive and respond to notifications using an e-mail application or Web
browser of choice
Sends e-mail notifications and processes e-mail responses using the JavaMail API
Allows any users with access to the Internet to be included in a workflow process
Provides access to the Worklist from Oracle E-Business Suite through the Worklist web
pages
Enables users to drill down from a notification in the Worklist web pages to any URL or
Oracle E-Business Suite form to respond to the notification
Directory Services
Users can be associated with more than one role, and a role may contain more than one user.
The Workflow Engine and Notification System use the directory service to determine who
should receive notifications and in what format. Notifications can be delivered to an individual
user or to all members of a particular role.
Note: Oracle Workflow uses a directory service model in which denormalized information is
maintained in the Workflow local tables for performance gain. You should maintain
synchronization between the user and role information stored in application tables by the
source modules and the information stored in the Workflow local tables.
Workflow Monitor
Oracle Workflow includes both administrator and self-service versions of the Status Monitor in
the Oracle Application Framework user interface format.
Workflow Manager
Administrators can use Workflow Manager to perform the following tasks:
Run Workflow service components, such as notification mailers and agent listeners.
Control other Workflow system services, including background engines, purging
obsolete Workflow data, and cleanup of the Workflow control queue.
Monitor work item processing by viewing the distribution of all work items by status and
drilling down to additional information.
Monitor event message processing for local Business Event System agents by viewing
the distribution of event messages by status and drilling down to additional agent
information and individual event messages, as well as by viewing queue propagation
details.
With this ability to monitor work items and event messages, a system administrator can
identify possible bottlenecks easily.
Service Components
Oracle Workflow uses the Generic Service Component Framework (GSCF) to simplify and
automate the management of background Java services. A service component is an instance
of a Java program that has been defined according to the GSCF standards so that it can be
managed through this framework.
Use Oracle Workflow Manager to configure and run service components.
Note: Oracle Workflow Manager also lets you manage Web services outbound components,
which process outbound Web service messages for Oracle XML Gateway. For more
information, see the Oracle XML Gateway Users Guide.
Administrator Monitor
The administrator version of the Status Monitor lets you view and administer runtime
workflows. You can:
Review the activities performed for a workflow.
Check the status of the workflow by viewing the status diagram.
Examine responses to notifications sent by the workflow.
Review the workflow definition and attributes.
If you have the appropriate workflow administrator privileges, you can also perform
control operations for a workflow or handle an error.
Viewing Workflows
To send e-mail to the owner of a workflow, click the user link in the Owned By column.
For an errored workflow, click the error icon or the error link in the Status column to view
error details.
For a parent workflow, click the icon in the Child Workflows column to view its children.
Viewing Activities
To view details about the definition and current status of an activity, click the activity
name link in the Activity column.
To send e-mail to the performer of a notification, click the user link in the Performer
column.
Process Diagram
An activity can be highlighted with a colored box to indicate a distinctive state:
- Red: The activity is in an error state.
- Green: The activity is active or in progress.
- Yellow: The activity is suspended.
A transition arrow can have a thick green line to indicate that it has been traversed, or it
can have a thin black line to indicate that it has not been traversed.
Click an activity icon to display information about it in the detail tab window.
Click any empty space in the diagram to deselect a selected activity and display
information about the process as a whole in the detail tab window.
Double-click a subprocess activity icon to drill down and display the diagram of the
subprocess and its information in the detail tab window. You can also select the
subprocess activity icon and then choose Zoom In.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Notification Details
You can access the Notification Details page from the Advanced Worklist, from the
Personal Worklist, from e-mail notifications, or from the notification details pop-up
window that appears when you position the cursor over a notification subject in the
Worklist region (to enable the pop-up window, you must set the WF: Notification Pop-up
Enabled profile option to Yes).
In Oracle E-Business Suite, nonstructured data such as images, spreadsheets, or video
can be linked to structured application data, including Oracle Workflow notifications
seeded by other Oracle E-Business Suite applications. If a notification includes such
Oracle E-Business Suite attachments, the notification header displays an Attachment(s)
heading with links to the attachments. Click a link to view the attached data.
The message body may include embedded links to additional information sources
pertinent to the notification. A reference URL link connects to a specified URL, either in
the same Web browser window or in a new window, depending on the notification.
The Related Applications section may include attachment icons. These icons link to
additional information sources for the notification. There are three types of attachment
links:
- A reference URL link that connects to a specified URL.
Reassigning Notifications
Navigate to the Reassign Notifications page by one of the following methods:
In the Advanced Worklist or Personal Worklist, select one or more notifications and
choose the Reassign button.
On the Notification Details page for a single notification, click the Reassign button.
Choose to reassign a notification from the Status Monitor.
Note: If a notification is reassigned, the sent date displayed in the notification of the new
recipient shows the date of the reassignment, i.e., the date when the new recipient first
received the notification, rather than the date the notification was sent to the original recipient.
Similarly, the sent date displayed in the request for more information shows the date when the
request was made, rather than the sent date of the original notification.
The Reassign button may be replaced by the Delegate button or the Transfer button,
depending on the access you have been assigned in the WF: Notification Reassign Mode
profile option.
The assignee types correspond to the originating system partitions in the Oracle Workflow
directory service.
Agent Listeners
Oracle Workflow provides the following seeded PL/SQL agent listeners:
Workflow Deferred Agent Listener: Handles messages on WF_DEFERRED to support
deferred subscription processing.
Workflow Deferred Notification Agent Listener: Handles notification messages on
WF_DEFERRED to support outbound notification processing.
Workflow Error Agent Listener: Handles messages on WF_ERROR to support error
handling for the Business Event System.
Workflow Inbound Notifications Agent Listener: Handles messages on
WF_NOTIFICATION_IN to support inbound e-mail notification processing.
Oracle XML Gateway also provides seeded PL/SQL agent listeners named ECX Inbound
Agent Listener and ECX Transaction Agent Listener. See: Oracle XML Gateway Users Guide.
Oracle Workflow provides the following seeded Java agent listeners:
Workflow Java Deferred Agent Listener: Handles messages on WF_JAVA_DEFERRED
to support deferred subscription processing in the middle tier.
Workflow Java Error Agent Listener: Handles messages on WF_JAVA_ERROR to
support error handling for the Business Event System in the middle tier.
Notification Mailers
For example, you can create a notification mailer that processes only messages that belong to
a particular workflow item type, or create additional mailers that process the same types of
message to increase throughput. The correlation ID for a notification mailer can be set to a
specific item type to determine which messages it can process.
Note: In Oracle E-Business Suite releases prior 12.2, a message that matched the correlation
ID of a dedicated mailer or dedicated listener could be processed by a general mailer or
listener if the general mailer or listener was the first to access the message. From Release
12.2, the service component processing is enhanced to ensure that general mailers do not
process messages that are being handled by a dedicated mailer. Instead, only the appropriate
dedicated mailer will process these messages, as long as the dedicated mailer has a status of
Running, Stopped With Error, or System Deactivated. Similarly, general listeners for the
WF_DEFERRED and WF_JAVA_DEFERRED agents also do not process messages that are
being handled by a dedicated listener, but leave these messages to be processed by the
dedicated listener.
You can also configure any notification mailer service component to process only inbound
messages, or only outbound messages. You associate inbound and outbound mailers with
each other by assigning them the same mailer node name. The mailer node name indicates
which inbound mailer can process incoming responses to outbound messages sent by a
particular outbound mailer.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
SMTP Authentication
You can configure the SMTP server to require authentication for server connections through
the Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL). The Oracle Workflow notification mailer
supports the PLAIN, LOGIN, and DIGEST-MD5 authentication mechanisms.
If you configure your SMTP server to support more than one authentication mechanism, then
the notification mailer uses the mechanism that appears first in the server's list of supported
mechanisms. Consequently, if you want the notification mailer to use a particular mechanism,
ensure that that mechanism appears first in the server's list. At a minimum, you should ensure
that the first authentication mechanism listed for the server is one that the notification mailer
supports.
For more information, See: Setting Up a Notification Mailer, Oracle Workflow Administrators
Guide.
Details Page
ID: The configuration wizard displays the identifier for the service component.
Status: The configuration wizard displays the status of the service component.
Name: The configuration wizard displays the name defined for the service component.
Container: The container to which the service component will belong. The container for
notification mailer service components is a predefined container called Workflow Mailer
Service.
Maximum Idle Time: If you selected the On-Demand startup mode for the service
component, enter the maximum time in minutes that the service component can remain
idle before it is stopped. An on-demand component that is stopped in this way will be
restarted by its container when it is needed again to process new messages.
Max Error Count: The number of consecutive errors the service component can
encounter before its container stops it and changes its status to Stopped with Error. If an
error is resolved and processing can continue, the error count is reset.
Inbound Thread Count: Set the inbound processing thread count to 1 to enable inbound
message processing with this notification mailer. Select 0 to disable inbound message
processing for this notification mailer.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Templates
This region lets you specify the message templates you want to use to generate e-mail
notifications. The template for a particular type of e-mail notification determines the basic
System Status
You can also click the Notification Mailers, Agent Listeners, or Service Components status
icons to manage those components.
Additionally, you can also select an Oracle Workflow feature that runs as a concurrent
program from the Submit Request For pull-down menu and click the Go button. You can
submit requests for background engines, purging, and control queue cleanup.
Workflow Metrics
Work Items: To view the distribution of item types within a status, either select the bar for
that status in the graph, or click the status name link.
Note: A work item can be counted in more than one status. For example, all work items
that do not have an end date are counted as Active work items, including deferred,
Related Links
Configuration
- Click the Service Components link to configure service components, including
notification mailers and agent listeners.
- Click the Queue Propagation link to view a list of propagation schedules for
Business Event System agents.
Throughput
- Click the Work Items link to view the distribution of completed work items across
different item types.
- Click the Notification Mailer link to view the notification mailer throughput.
Diagnostics
Oracle Workflow provides the following diagnostic tests.
Duplicate User Test: Checks the Oracle Workflow directory service to verify that there
are no roles in the WF_LOCAL_ROLES table with the same internal name, originating
system, and originating system ID.
Notification Preference Validation Test: Checks the Oracle Workflow directory service to
ensure that all roles with a notification preference for receiving e-mail notifications have
an e-mail address defined.
Rule Function Validation Test: Checks the rule functions defined for subscriptions and
the generate functions defined for events in the Business Event System.
GSM Setup Test: Checks the Generic Service Management (GSM) setup required for
Oracle Workflow in Oracle Applications Manager.
BES Clone Test: Checks certain standard agents and subscriptions required for internal
Business Event System and notification mailer processing to verify that they are enabled
and that their definitions include the correct local system.
GSC Control Queue Test: Verifies that the Workflow control queue, WF_CONTROL, is
properly accessible.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Logging
Oracle Workflow uses the Oracle Applications Logging framework to standardize and
centralize in the database logging activities related to the Oracle Workflow Business Event
System and Oracle XML Gateway.
Note: The Java middle tier components of Oracle Workflow, including notification mailers and
agent listeners, also use Oracle Applications Logging; however, due to the high volume of
messages that pass through these components, their information is logged to the file system
by default.
Work Items
Review the number of work items in different statuses to monitor Workflow Engine processing
and identify any possible bottlenecks. For example, an abnormal number of activities with a
deferred status may indicate that there are not enough background engines available.
Information about completed work items is available through the Workflow Purge page.
Work Items
To filter the item types displayed in the list, select an item type property and an operator from
the Filter pull-down menus, enter a filter value in the text field, and click the Go button. You
can filter by the following properties:
Work item type display name
Work item type internal name
Number of work items of this type
Note: When you drill down to active work items, all work items that do not have an end date
are counted as active work items in this page, including deferred, suspended, and errored
work items as well as running work items.
Background Engines
You can set up as many background engines as you need, but if you set up only one, then
that background engine must handle both deferred and timed out activities as well as stuck
processes.
Generally, you should run a separate background engine to check for stuck processes at less
frequent intervals than the background engine that you run for deferred or timed out activities,
normally not more often than once a day. Run the background engine to check for stuck
processes when the load on the system is low. Do not run more background engines
concurrently than your server has CPU processors.
When you start a new background engine, you can restrict the engine to handle activities
associated with specific item types, and within specific cost ranges. You can submit the
Workflow Background Process concurrent program several times to schedule different
background engines to run at different times.
Parameters
Item Type: Specify an item type to restrict this engine to activities associated with that
item type. If you do not specify an item type, the engine processes any activity
regardless of its item type.
Parameters
Item Type: Specify the item type to purge. Leave this field blank to purge the run-time
data for all item types.
Item Key: Specify the item key to purge. The item key is a unique identifier for an item
within an item type. Leave this field blank to purge the run-time data for all items of the
specified item type.
Age: Specify the minimum age of data to purge, in days, if you are purging items with a
Temporary persistence type. The default is 0 days.
Persistence Type: Specify the persistence type of the data you want to purge, either
Permanent or Temporary. The default is Temporary.
Queue Propagation
The Oracle DBA should schedule propagation for your local outbound Business Event System
agents to send event messages to their destinations. A propagation schedule is defined for an
outbound queue and a specified destination, which can be either a remote database link or
the local system. If the Oracle DBA wants to use the standard WF_OUT and WF_JMS_OUT
agents or custom agents for event message propagation, the Oracle DBA must schedule
propagation for those agents.
Note: The Oracle DBA does not need to schedule propagation for the WF_CONTROL or
WF_NOTIFICATION_OUT agents, however, because the middle tier processes that use
WF_CONTROL dequeue messages directly from its queue, and a notification mailer sends
messages placed on the WF_NOTIFICATION_OUT queue.
The Queue Propagation page shows information to let the Oracle DBA determine the status of
a propagation schedule, including the job queue process executing the schedule, whether the
schedule is enabled or disabled, and the error date and error message of the last
unsuccessful execution. For example, if no process is allocated to execute the schedule, the
Oracle DBA may need to increase the JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES database initialization
parameter to ensure that processes are available for propagation. If the propagation schedule
is disabled, the Oracle DBA must enable it before it can be executed.
Agent Activity
Review the number of messages in different statuses on your local agents to monitor event
message processing and identify any possible bottlenecks. For example, if an inbound agent
has an abnormally large number of messages with a status of Ready, you may need to check
the status of the agent listener processing message for that agent, or configure a new agent
listener service component for that agent. Similarly, if an outbound agent has an abnormally
large number of messages with a status of Ready, you may need to check the status of the
propagation schedule for that agents queue, or schedule propagation if necessary.
Note: The Agent Activity page displays event messages on the WF_ERROR agent according
to their explicitly assigned status on the WF_ERROR queue, unlike the Agent Activity graph in
the Workflow System page which summarizes all messages on the WF_ERROR agent in an
Error status.
Complete the Assign Workflow Administration Privileges and System Status and
Throughput activities which are provided for your reference and future learning.
Service-Oriented Architecture
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) defines Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) as: a
set of components which can be invoked, and whose interface descriptions can be published
and discovered.
SOA is an architectural style designed to integrate loosely coupled services. Loose coupling is
possible by using standards-based technologies that enable platform independence and
interaction based on the request-response architecture provided by the Internet. Several
standards from the W3C have come together to enable SOA to be realized.
Essentially, an SOA is a collection of services that communicate with each other using
standards-based technology.
The function provided by a service is a unit of work performed by a service provider to achieve
desired end results for a service consumer. The provider and consumer roles are
implemented through software components.
Product Dependencies
Supported interfaces published in Oracle Integration Repository can be transformed into
SOAP and REST Web services.
SOAP-based services are deployed to Oracle SOA Suite 11g running on Oracle WebLogic
Server 11g. Therefore, this type of services depends on Oracle SOA Suite 11g and Oracle
Applications Adapter 11g.
REST-based services are dependent solely on the infrastructure provided by Oracle E-
Business Suite and are deployed to Oracle E-Business Suite. They do not dependent on
Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Applications Adapter.
REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architecture principle in which the Web services
are viewed as resources and can be uniquely identified by their URLs. The key characteristic
of a REST service is the explicit use of HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE) to
denote the invocation of different operations. Please note that only POST method is supported
in the 12.2.3 release.
Unlike SOAP messages completely based on XML format, REST messages can process both
XML and non-XML formats such as JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), a text-based open
standard. Compared to XML, JSON is light weight with faster parsing results and is often used
with REST services to transmit structured data between a server and Web application.
Note: REST services are only available in Oracle E-Business Suite release 12.2.3.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Service Provider
Service Provider is the engine that performs the actual service generation and deployment
behind the scene. It helps expose the following interface types as SOAP-based Web services:
PL/SQL
XML Gateway Map (inbound)
Concurrent Program
Business Service Object (formerly known as Service Beans)
Java APIs for Forms
Business events and XML Gateway outbound messages can be used as services through
subscription.
Users with the Integration Repository Administrator role can perform the administrative tasks
to transform these integration interfaces into Web services.
In release 12.2.3, PL/SQL APIs can also be exposed as REST-based Web services.
Note: Only PL/SQL APIs can be exposed as both REST and SOAP services. Security
services are predefined, predeployed REST and they are pregranted to all users. There is no
need for the administrator to perform any user actions for security services at design time.
Searching for Java APIs for Forms interfaces and Security Services
You must perform a search by clicking the Show More Search Options link to display more
search fields. Enter the following key search values as the search criteria:
Category: Interface Subtype
Category Value: 'Java APIs for Forms' or 'Security Services
Managing Grants in the Methods Region for Interfaces with SOAP Services Only
(N) Integration Repository > (B) Create Grant or (I) Revoke
For interfaces that can be exposed as SOAP services only, security grants are managed in
the Methods region.
To create a security grant, select a desired interface from the Integration Repository, the
interface details page appears. In the Methods region, select a desired method and click
Create Grant to open the Create Grants page where the administrator can grant the selected
method access permissions to a user, user group, or all users.
To view the grant details, click the Show link for a given method in the Methods region. Click
the Revoke icon to revoke a grant for a specific grantee.
For more information about how to manage grants for interfaces with the support for SOAP
services only, refer to Managing Security Grants for SOAP Web Services Only, Oracle E-
Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway Implementation Guide.
Managing Grants for Interfaces with Support of SOAP and REST Services
(N) Integration Repository > (T) Grants > (B) Create Grant or (B) Revoke Grant
To create grants, in the Grants tab select appropriate method name check boxes and click
Create Grant to open the Create Grants page where the administrator can select a grantee
type and grantee name if applicable and click Great Grant.
To revoke grants for a single method, select a method name and then click Revoke
Grant. The Revoke Grants page displays the existing grants created earlier for the
selected method. Select the grants that you want to revoke, and click Revoke Grant.
To remove common grants for more methods, select more than one method name that
have grants created earlier before clicking Revoke Grant. The Revoke Grants page
appears where you can find existing grants that are commonly assigned to the selected
methods. For example, two methods (such as 'Create Credit Request' and 'Get
Application Number') are assigned to the same User (grantee type) 'operations (grantee
name). User 'operations' is considered as the common grant for these methods and is
displayed in the second table of the Revoke Grants page. Select the common grant(s),
such as User 'operations, and click Revoke Grant to remove the common grant(s).
Please note that the grant action applies to both SOAP and REST services. Refer to Oracle E-
Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway Implementation Guide for details.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Service Monitor
Service Monitor, previously known as SOA Monitor, is a centralized, light-weight service
monitoring and management tool. It fetches data and statistics for each instance of a SOAP
message and provides monitoring capability for Oracle E-Business Suite services.
The administrator can view all runtime SOAP request and response data received and sent
from Oracle SOA Suite through the Service Monitor user interface in Oracle E-Business Suite.
If the auditing feature is enabled during log configuration, the administrator can view auditing
records including payloads, faults, and attachments if available for the service execution.
The administrators can perform the following activities through Service Monitor (or the Monitor
Search page):
Searching SOAP requests in the Search region
Viewing SOAP message details by clicking the Details icon from the search result table
Viewing log messages by clicking the Log icon from the search result table
Purging SOAP messages, audits, and logs by clicking the Purge button
Note: Only SOAP services are monitored and audited through Service Monitor. Runtime
REST service monitoring and auditing features are not supported in this release.
Architecture Overview
Oracle Workflow Business Event System is a workflow component that allows events to be
raised from both PL/SQL and Java layers.
Setup Tasks
Web services can be invoked from any one of the following tiers:
OACORE WebLogic Server: Service invocations from OA Framework page using a
synchronous event subscription (phase < 100) is executed from the OACORE WebLogic
Server.
Concurrent Manager (CM) Tier JVM: The following service invocations are executed
from CM tier JVM within Java Deferred Agent Listener that runs within Workflow Agent
Listener Service:
Invocations from PL/SQL either through synchronous or asynchronous event
subscriptions
Invocations from Java/OA Framework through asynchronous event subscriptions
Standalone JVM: Service invocations from a Java process that runs outside OACORE or
CM using a synchronous event subscription are executed from within that JVM.
For more information on proxy setup tasks, see Implementing Service Invocation Framework,
Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway Implementation Guide.
AuditTrail Feature
With the AuditTrail feature you can keep a history of changes to your important data: what
changed, who changed it, and when it changed. With AuditTrail, you can easily determine how
any data row or element obtained its current value. The audit data is stored in database tables
that can be queried by using any standard Oracle SQL tool.
Reports
The Signon Audit feature can generate several reports detailing information gathered by Sign-
On Audit. These reports are shown in the figure.
Signon Audit Forms
Signon Audit Users
Signon Audit Responsibilities
Signon Audit Concurrent Requests Report
Signon Audit Unsuccessful Logins Report
Audit Groups
(N) Security > AuditTrail > Groups
Once you have your tables and columns identified, you should group those tables into an
audit group. In the figure, the three tables mentioned have been placed together in a
Receivables Internal Control audit group.
Complete the Auditing Resources activity and the optional activity AuditTrail
which are provided for your reference and future learning.
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 1
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 2
Managing Printers
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 3
Objectives
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 4
Oracle Print Definition Components
Printer Type
Describes what kind of a printer you have. This is the manufacturer and modelfor example,
a DEC LN03 printer or an HP LaserJet III printer.
Printer Style
Describes how a report should be printed
Determines the number of lines (rows) per page
Determines the width of each line (number of columns)
Controls whether to print a header page
Printer Driver
Contains the set of commands that tell a printer how to print in the print style chosen
Initializes printing orientation
Resets printer drivers instructions for next print job
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 5
Printer Drivers Versus SRW
A printer driver formats the destination printer.
An SRW driver formats text and sets page breaks in an Oracle Reports file.
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 6
Relationships of the Printer Components
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 7
Formatting Information
Formatting Information
For a printer to produce a report, it requires three basic types of formatting instructions: text,
document, and printer.
Text Formatting
Oracle Reports generates reports for the various Oracle E-Business Suite products.
When Oracle Reports formats text as bold or underlined, and sets page breaks,
formatting codes are used.
A SQL*ReportWriter (SRW) driver defines text formatting codes.
Document Formatting
The dimensions for a report output file are predefined as the number of rows and
columns (height and width).
A print style defines the dimensions for a report output file.
Printer Formatting
A printer prints in a certain orientation, portrait or landscape.
A printer can also start printing with a specific font and type size. These instructions are
contained in an initialization string.
A printer driver defines initialization and reset strings.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 8
Defining Printers
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 9
Finding Existing Printer Types
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 10
Registering a New Printer
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 11
Defining a New Printer Type
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 12
Printing with Pasta
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 13
Setup for Basic Printing with Pasta
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 14
The pasta.cfg file
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 15
Example of Setting Margins with pasta.cfg
% [Letter]
; pagewidth=8.5
; pageheight=11
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 16
If you want to use Letter as the default paper size, comment out the A4 settings and
uncomment the Letter settings.
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 17
Modifying an Existing Printer Type to Use Pasta
Steps
1. Query your existing printer type in the Printer Types window.
2. In the Style field, select the style to which you want to assign a Pasta driver. Or, if you are
assigning Pasta to a style already defined for the printer type, delete the driver in the
Driver Name field currently associated with the style.
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 18
3. In the Driver Name field, select the appropriate Pasta driver.
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 19
Generating Other Formats using the Preprocessing Option
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 20
Using Pasta with BI Publisher
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 21
that supports an input file and an output file (a filter program). The third party package can be
an open source solutions such as Ghostscript and XPdf.
Pasta invokes the filter program to preprocess the BI Publisher output before passing it to the
printing command. By using the preprocess option, you can generate output formats other
than the formats currently supported by Pasta.
For more information, see the Pasta 3.0.4.0 User's Guide for Release 12 in My Oracle
Support Note 239196.1.
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 22
Other Customization Materials for Oracle E-Business Suite Printing
Customization Considerations
You can customize Oracle E-Business Suite printer support components to use custom print
styles and custom print programs. For information on how to do customize these
components, use the references below.
Materials Needed
Manual for your specific printer to look up control codes required by a printer type
Oracle E-Business Suite Installation Guide: Using Rapid Install
Oracle E-Business Suite Setup Guide
Pasta 3.0.4.0 User's Guide for Release 12 in My Oracle Support Note 239196.1
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 23
Other Sources of Information for Oracle E-Business Suite Printing
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 24
Summary
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 25
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Managing Printers
Chapter 20 - Page 26
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 1
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 2
Overview of Flexfields
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 3
Objectives
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 4
Benefits of Flexfields
Benefits of Flexfields
You should now have a basic understanding of how flexfields are used by Oracle E-Business
Suite. The ease of configuring flexfields provides many benefits to users. The main benefits
are listed on the slide.
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 5
Modifying Oracle E-Business Suite
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 6
Key and Descriptive Flexfields
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 7
Flexfield Structures and Flexfield Segments
Flexfield Components
A flexfield is composed of segments. The segments of a flexfield contain the flexfield values.
Flexfield segments are combined in a grouping called a structure. The segments that make up
a particular structure are logically or functionally related. A single flexfield can have more than
one structure.
When you implement a flexfield, you decide how many segments you need for a particular
structure and whether you need multiple structures. Being able to define different structures
for the same flexfield allows you to tailor the same flexfield to the needs of different end users.
The example on the slide shows three segments:
Category
Item
Color
These three segments together form a structure.
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 8
Segment Prompts and Value Descriptions
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 9
Validating Input Using Value Sets
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 10
Using Flexfield Value Security
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 11
Differences Among Similarly-Named Features
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 12
Key Flexfields
Key Flexfields
In Oracle E-Business Suite you use key flexfields as identifiers for entities. Generally, the
identifier you create using a key flexfield is required by the application (for example, the
Accounting Flexfield builds the account number used by Oracle General Ledger).
A key flexfield appears as a normal field on a form. Any existing value for the key appears in
the field as a concatenated value having segment separators.
You can use the Flexfields: Open Key Window profile option to specify whether you want the
key flexfield window to be opened automatically when you navigate to the key flexfield on the
base form. This profile option is visible and updatable at the user level.
A key flexfield structure usually consists of multiple segments, each of which contains
meaningful information. The resulting combinations of values from these segments therefore
function as intelligent keys.
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 13
Intelligent Keys
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 14
Intelligent Keys
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 15
Oracle E-Business Suite Key Flexfields (Partial List)
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 16
Descriptive Flexfields
Descriptive Flexfields
You use descriptive flexfields to collect information beyond what is collected by Oracle E-
Business Suite. Using descriptive flexfields allows you to gather additional specialized
information required by your business. The use of descriptive flexfields is optional.
A descriptive flexfield appears on an Oracle Forms-based window as a double-character field
enclosed by brackets. In Oracle Application Framework-based HTML pages, descriptive
flexfields appear as a group of separate fields, often underneath a title such as Additional
Information.
You can use the Flexfields: Open Descr Window profile option to specify whether you want
the descriptive flexfield window to be opened automatically when you navigate to the
bracketed field, if the flexfield is enabled. This profile option is visible and updatable at the
user level.
A descriptive flexfield typically uses multiple structures. You can:
Define a basic structure that gathers additional information for all entities.
Define several different structures that gather specialized information for different types
of the same general entity.
Define a structure that can gather general information about all entities, and then
optionally gather certain information about certain types of entities. (combination)
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 17
The example shows a descriptive flexfield that gathers different payment information based on
the type of payment: check (CK) or credit card (CC).
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 18
Using Descriptive Flexfields
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 19
- Non-essential information resides in a descriptive flexfield that pops up only when
the information becomes necessary.
- If no extra fields are needed, the descriptive flexfield occupies little additional
space on the Form or the OA Framework page.
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 20
Using Reference Fields
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 21
Using Different Contexts: Asset Category Flexfield
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 22
Oracle E-Business Suite Descriptive Flexfields (Partial)
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 23
Standard Request Submission (SRS) and Flexfields
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 24
Storing Flexfield Data Internally
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 25
Implementing a Flexfield - Steps
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 26
Summary
Complete the optional activity Entering an Asset and Discussing Flexfields which
is provided for your reference and future learning.
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 27
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Overview of Flexfields
Chapter 21 - Page 28
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 1
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 2
Overview of Personalizations
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 3
Course Objectives
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 4
Test Access To Personalizations Before Production Deployment
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 5
Concepts: Pages
When terms are used frequently, or overloaded, confusion results. The word page
can have several meanings based upon the underlying tech stack. An HTML page is
constructed with a certain set of technical components. An Oracle Forms-based form,
PL/SQL HTML page, or JSP page are constructed with their own set of technical
components and requirements. Because of the technical components used in various
types of pages, changing how a page is rendered is usually not possible without
complex logic built into the page itself.
In Oracle Applications Framework (OAF), the pages are different. Pages seen within a
browser, start as XML created with JDeveloper. The XML pages are read from the MDS
(Meta Data Service) within an Oracle E-Business Suite instance, and are rendered via
the middle tier so that a browser has a very small overhead in displaying the page.
Because OAF pages are read at run-time, personalizations can be applied to change
how the base page is rendered at run-time. In effect, the base page is read,
personalizations, if any, are applied, and the page is finally rendered.
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 6
Concepts: Items
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 7
Examples of Oracle Forms Personalizations
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 8
Oracle Forms Personalizations
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 9
Examples of OA Framework Personalizations
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 10
User Personalizations
Once you create a user personalization, the page displays a Views button. This allows you to
call up any user-created or administrator-seeded user personalizations. The screen capture
above is only showing what will be seen after a User Personalization has been created and to
display one of the Types of personalizations.
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 11
User Personalizations
Once you click on the Views button, you now have an additional UI where you can call up your
predefined user-level personalizations, including administrator-seeded user-level
personalizations. As a user, your personalizations will appear to you and not to others. If your
personalization could be used by others, then your administrator would then create an
administrator-seeded user-level personalizations for everyone.
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 12
Administrator-seeded Personalizations
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 13
Personalizations vs. Extensions
The choice of making a personalization or an extension depends on factors that you might not
have control over or that will require skills that you are not familiar with. Extensions involve
Oracle Forms or Oracle JDeveloper, and require familiarity with the tools and processes for
extending Oracle Forms or OA Framework pages. In addition, extensions are generally not
supported to Oracle based pages. You would be creating custom pages which may not survive
upgrades. The matrix above can help you decided what is right for you.
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 14
Benefits of Personalizations
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 15
Benefits of Extensions
Limitations of Personalizations
Modifying business logic requires creating an extension to the application.
The ability to change page flows depends on how the page flow was implemented. In
some cases, URLs in functions may be modified, or destination URIs on navigational
elements may be personalized. However, in any case of changing page flows,
transaction flows may be affected, and such changes should be thoroughly tested. Page
flow changes are generally beyond the scope of the system administrator.
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 16
Summary
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 17
Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Overview of Personalizations
Chapter 22 - Page 18
Appendix - Overview of
Folders
Chapter 23
Form Fields
Folder Set: Every folder set is associated with a particular folder block, and a user or
responsibility can have one default folder within each folder set. The folder set name
generally describes the records shown in the block; some blocks may have multiple sets
of folders associated with them.
Form Fields
Source Type: Enter either User or Responsibility. Records entered in this window use
the source type of User. If one of the current users responsibilities has default folders
defined, the default folders are listed with a source type of Responsibility.
User defaults override Responsibility defaults. You cannot delete Responsibility default
folders in this window.
Responsibility: The Responsibility that uses this default folder definition.
Form Fields
(N) Application > Administer Folders
Public: This check box governs the availability of the folder to all users.
Anyones Default: Indicates whether this folder definition is used as a default by a user
or a responsibility. If it is a default definition, use Default Assignments to view the users
and responsibilities for which it is the default folder definition.
Default Assignments: The users and responsibilities that use this folder definition as a
default.
REQUEST_GROUP_APPL_SHORT_NAME = "Application short name" This parameter identifies the short name for
REQUEST_GROUP_APPL_SHORT_NAME = "OE" the application associated with the request
group. (Required)