Archive for July, 2009

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An introduction to OA Framework

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 by Barry Goodsell

In case you’ve never heard of OA Framework, here’s a brief marketing-style synopsis:

Oracle Application Framework is the development and deployment platform that Oracle themselves have used for the past few years to develop the Oracle E-Business Suite “Self-Service” or web-based applications. OA Framework embraces the principles of developer and end-user productivity, performance and flexibility through the use of open standards. The Framework, based on the industry-standard Model-View-Controller design pattern, can be used to develop extensions to existing eBusiness Suite functionality or completely bespoke Self-Service applications.

So, what does that mean in real terms? Oracle themselves have been using OA Framework to develop all new E-Business Suite screens for the past few years, eschewing the traditional Oracle Forms 6i development tool. We’ve all seen the wonderful web-based screens that have been released by Oracle. Personally, I’ve been itching to get my hands on the technology used to build them for quite some time. It’s only since Release 11.5.10 that Oracle have let the rest of us have a play with their new toy.

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Posted in E-Business Suite, Technical | 2 Comments »

PRC: Update Project Performance Data – Beware!

Monday, July 13th, 2009 by Andy Coates

Oracle have just released a bulletin on My Oracle Support regarding the update process of Project Performance Data (used by Oracle Daily Business Intelligence for Projects and performance reporting in Oracle Projects). The document ID is 828584.1

The bulletin lists business events (e.g. creating new financial plans), any online processing that is spawned by said events and the impact they have on the performance data update process (PRC: Update Project Performance Data). The document states that the update process should not be run whilst any online processing is active. This is emphasised in the last line of the bulletin:-

By “Until this process completes, user should not run update project performance data process”, the implication of running this process may be that the process may take longer time to complete or the data may get corrupted, because the data is already selected for updating by online processing.

Realistically this means that ‘PRC: Update Project Performance Data’ should never be run during working hours, as online processing will regularly occur with user activity. This is an important thing to bear in mind, as there is nothing systematically stopping users from running the update whilst any online processing is active.

Anything that can be done to avoid data corruption of project performance data should be adhered to; I am sure that anyone who has had to rebuild project performance data will agree.

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Posted in E-Business Suite, Functional, Technical | 1 Comment »

Comparison of PSI, Performance Reporting and Project List

Monday, July 13th, 2009 by Andy Coates

Oracle recently released a rather useful bulletin on My Oracle Support (formerly Metalink) that compares the various reporting mechanisms available in Oracle Projects. This includes Project Status Inquiry (PSI), Performance Reporting and the Project List. The document ID is 828564.1

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Posted in E-Business Suite, Functional | No Comments »

XML Publisher in E-Business Suite

Thursday, July 9th, 2009 by Barry Goodsell

Oracle XML Publisher is Oracle’s tool for the production and delivery of all types of Business Reporting requirements within Oracle E-Business Suite. It can produce a wide variety of business documents, from Invoices and Purchase Orders to Contracts and Tax Forms.

Some key features are:

  • Report layouts can be designed using familiar desktop tools
  • It can accept and process any well-formed XML data file, or even generate the data itself
  • The report output can be delivered to the end recipient via printer, email, fax or it can even be published to your company Portal
  • The output can be created in a wide variety of file formats, including Adobe Acrobat PDF, MS Word, MS Excel and HTML
  • The transformation of XML data to one of the required output format is based on XML Stylesheets Transformations (XSL), an open industry standard

XML Publisher comes in various versions, as well as bundled as part of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, under the new name “BI Publisher”. However, I am going to concentrate on the version that is embedded within E-Business Suite. Up to and including Apps 11.5.9, XML Publisher was not particularly well integrated into the application; since 11.5.10 it has been fully integrated into the underlying infrastructure, closely linked to the Concurrent Manager.

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PA_ADDITION_FLAG not shown in Payables invoice distributions form

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 by Andy Coates

As a Projects user, an annoyance that I continue to encounter with Payables is that the pa_addition_flag is not shown as a column for Payables invoice distributions. The pa_addition_flag shows the status of Projects-coded invoice distributions, and among other things, indicates whether an invoice distribution has interfaced successfully to/from Projects. Therefore, if this flag were shown in the form, it would be immediately useful for functional Projects users trying to reconcile discrepancies with Payables. I was hoping that this flag would appear in R12.1.1, alas it has not.

For more information on the pa_addition_flag and for the meanings of the values it holds please refer to Metalink note 226881.1

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Posted in E-Business Suite, Functional, Technical | 4 Comments »

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