Release 12 is defined as " The Global Business Release "  Global is not just a geographic perspective, but also a comprehensive perspective; release 12 functionality spans across both industries and business functions.

Login as a user with the XML Publisher Administrator responsibility and then navigate to the Home: Templates page.

From the XML Publisher Templage page, query for 'PO_STANDARD_XSLFO' code and click on the 'Standard Purchase Order Stylesheet' in the Create Template section.

On the View Template page Scroll down to the Add File section and click the Download link. This will pop save/Open option for the 'PO_STANDARD_XSLFO.xsl' spreadsheet. Save the file to your local disk.

Scroll up again to the General section and click the Update button.

Apply the end date with history date. Preferably the end date should be (SYSDATE-1) and click Apply button. This will end date the standard template.

Locate the 'PO_STANDARD_XSLFO.xsl' on your local drive. Open the file in Wordpad and press ctl+f to find the 'Logo' string in the file. Uncomment the and strings. This code is used to display the image at top left corner in the first page. The complete block after changes should read as below:

Save the file and make sure that you have taken appropiate backup of the XSL spreadsheet before doing any updates.

Navigate to XML Publisher Template page again. Click the Create Template button link and enter data per the following steps:

1. Enter a unique name in the Name field -- Custom Purchase Order Stylesheet
2. Enter unique code in the Code field -- PO_STANDARD_XSLFO1
3. Enter Purchasing in the Application field
4. Select XSL-FO from the Type drop-down list box
5. Enter Standard Purchase Order Data Source in the Data Definitionbox -- Standard Purchase Order Data Source
6. Click Browse button and navigate to the edited PO_STANDARD_XSLFO.xsl file where it is located on your computer
7. Enter English in the Language box
8. Click Apply button

Login with Purchasing Super User responsibility and then navigate to Setup / Organizations / Purchasing Options / Control TAB / set 'PO Output Format' = 'PDF'

Navigate to setup / purchasing / document types / select "Standard Purchase Order" / Set the Document Type Layout to your new template. 

l_entity_name varchar2(20)                :=  'PO_LINES';   
l_pk1_value varchar2 (20)                  :=  '12345';      
l_delete_document_flag varchar2 (1)   :=  'Y';     

BEGIN

fnd_global.apps_initialize ( user_id          =>  &v_user_id
                                   ,resp_id          =>  &v_resp_id
                                   ,resp_appl_id  =>  &v_resp_appl_id);
fnd_attached_documents2_pkg.delete_attachments
( X_entity_name                 =>  l_entity_name
, X_pk1_value                    =>   l_pk1_value
, X_delete_document_flag    =>   l_delete_document_flag); 
END; 
 
 

--- Below are the main tables involved regarding attachments

fnd_attached_documents 

fnd_documents 

fnd_documents_tl 

fnd_document_categories_tl 

fnd_lobs 

fnd_documents_short_text

fnd_documents_long_text

 

Declare

v_category_id                  NUMBER;

v_attached_doc_id           NUMBER;

v_invoice_id                    NUMBER;

v_invoice_image_url         VARCHAR2(500) := 'http://rafi-oracle.blogspot.com';

v_function_name            VARCHAR2(50)   := 'APXINWKB';

v_category_name            VARCHAR2(100) := 'FromSupplier';

v_description                  VARCHAR2(300) := 'Test script for attaching image url to AP invoice';

v_entity_name                VARCHAR2(100) := 'AP_INVOICES'

v_file_name                    VARCHAR2(100) := NULL;

v_user_id                        NUMBER          := 12345; 

TYPE result_set_type IS    REF CURSOR;

v_result_set_curr             result_set_type;

--Here for example we are using "FromSupplier" as a category

--and AP_INVOICES_ALL.invoice_id as primary key value

CURSOR  cur_cat_id

IS

    SELECT     fdc.category_id

    FROM       fnd_document_categories fdc

    WHERE      fdc.name  =  v_category_name;

FUNCTION set_context( i_user_name   IN  VARCHAR2

                                 ,i_resp_name   IN  VARCHAR2

                                 ,i_org_id         IN  NUMBER)

RETURN VARCHAR2

IS

END set_context; 

  

BEGIN

 -- Setting the context

v_context := set_context('&V_USER_NAME','&V_RESPONSIBILITY',82);

IF v_context = 'F'

    THEN

        DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Error while setting the context');       

    END IF;

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('2');

--- context done

     OPEN cur_cat_id;

     FETCH cur_cat_id INTO v_category_id;

     CLOSE cur_cat_id;

-- Invoke the fnd_webattach api for attaching the URL to the invoice

        fnd_webattch.add_attachment ( seq_num                       => 100

                                                       ,category_id                   => v_category_id

                                                       ,document_description     => v_description

                                                       ,datatype_id                   => 5

                                                       ,text                             => NULL

                                                       ,file_name                      => v_file_name

                                                       ,url                                => v_invoice_image_url

                                                       ,function_name               => v_function_name

                                                       ,entity_name                  => v_entity_name

                                                       ,pk1_value                     => v_invoice_id

                                                       ,pk2_value                     => NULL

                                                       ,pk3_value                     => NULL

                                                       ,pk4_value                     => NULL

                                                       ,pk5_value                     => NULL

                                                       ,media_id                       => x_file_id

                                                       ,user_id                         => v_user_id

                                                       ,usage_type                   => 'O'

                                     );

                                                                                                                                                 

        SELECT    count(fad.attached_document_id)

        INTO      v_attached_doc_id

        FROM      fnd_attached_documents fad

        WHERE     fad.pk1_value = v_invoice_id;

        IF  v_attached_doc_id > 0

          DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Attached sucessfully');

        THEN

          DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Failed to Link the Attacment.');

        END IF;

EXCEPTION

   WHEN OTHERS THEN

         DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Error occured : '||SQLERRM);

   END attach_invoice;

JRE Client Plug-in Download

The JRE Plug-in will not automatically download from the server, if the correct JRE version is not already installed on the client, when using the Firefox browser. This is due to bug 5855986, which is scheduled to be fixed in release 12.1  To workaround this problem, the user can either download and install the JRE Plug-in, before launching the Oracle E-Business Suite, or can still download it from the server as follows.

Clicking on a forms link through Firefox will activate the 'Plug-in Finder Service'. The user will then see the message 'Additional plug-ins are required to display all the media on this page' in the taskbar.

Click on the 'Install Missing Plug-ins' button. (This will open a new window, search for the plug-in but will not find it)

Click on the 'Manual Install' button. This will open another window which will say; Forbidden

You don't have permissions to access /OA_JAVA/ on this server.
In the URL line on this window change http://:/OA_JAVA to http://:/OA_HTML/oaj2se.exe.

When asked if you wish save the oaj2se.exe file. Click the 'Save File' button and install the file onto your desktop

Once it has installed successfully, close down the firefox window and start a new session to access the Oracle E-Business Suite.

Multiple Sessions

You may only access a single Oracle E-Business Suite instance from a single desktop session when using the Firefox browser. Currently 'Internet Explorer' is the only browser that allows you to access multiple instances or multiple Application Responsibilities concurrently from the same desktop session, through the use of multiple browser sessions.

Tab functionality in the Firefox Browser

Firefox 2.0.x uses tabbed browsing by default. This facility can also be enabled in Firefox 1.5.x from the browser menu through Tools > Options > Tabs. Forms in the Oracle E-Business Suite are supported and launched through a separate frame. Therefore, even with tabs enabled, the forms navigator and the forms windows will continue to open in a new window and not in a new tab. This is intended functionality and is not a bug.

Personal Homepage Setting

The ICX 'Personal Homepage' setting is not supported with the Firefox browser.

Rich Text Editing

The Cut, Copy and Paste buttons within the Rich text Editor on Oracle Applications Framework do not work by default when using a Firefox browser. This is due to a security feature within Firefox. We recommend that the keyboard shortcut keys, which do still work by default are used for this functionality. If you still wish to use the buttons, this can be enabled by editing the users Firefox preference file. Further information is available at , http://www.mozilla.org/editor/midasdemo and http://www.mozilla.org/editor/midasdemo/securityprefs.html.

BIDI Language Users

BIDI Languages are not supported with Self Service Applications using the Firefox Browser.

The Cost of Goods Sold Account is used to determine the profit realized from selling a product. For each item in an inventory organization Oracle Applications has the ability to record the type and amount of costs to maintain the item. To view the associated cost for an item use the Item Costs Details form.

Generate Cost of Goods Sold Account

- OM: Generate Cost of Goods Sold Account Both processes are used to derive account for cost of good sold (COGS). The workflow process will kick in when an item is shipped or returned.
- Generate Cost of Goods Sold Account the old process of 10.7 Oracle Shipping owns this process,
- OM: Generate Cost of Goods Sold Account is new and default process for 11i, Order Management owns this process.

Inventory COGS Account Generator

– Item Type = INVFLXWF
– Display Name = ‘Inventory Cost of Goods Sold Account’
– Run by the concurrent program ‘Create Intercompany AP Invoices’, short name INCIAP

OM COGS Account Generator

– Item Type = OECOGS
– Display Name = ‘OM : Generate Cost of Goods Sold Account’
– Run by the concurrent program ‘Interface Trip Stop’, short name WSHINTERFACE

Seeded Account Generators

11i provides the ability to register custom processes for the following account generators:

• OM: Generate Cost of Goods Sold Account (OECOGS) – generates the cost of goods sold account when invoices imported into AR.
  
• PO Account Generator (POWFPOAG) – used by Purchasing to derive the charge, budget,variance, and accrual accounting distributions for each PO line – MUST be customized ifusing Oracle Projects.
  
• PO Requisition Account Generator (POWFRQAG) – used by Purchasing to derive thecharge, budget, variance, and accrual accounting distributions for each requisition line –MUST be customized if using Oracle Projects.
  
• Inventory Cost of Goods Sold Account (INVFLXWF) – called while processingIntercompany Transactions.
  
• Generate Cost of Goods Sold Account (SHPFLXWF) – Pre-11i Cost of Goods Sold AccountGenerator – see Metalink note 260697.1
  
• AR: Substitute Balancing Segment (ARSBALSG) – updates the balancing segment duringvarious accounting activities against transactions and receipts.
  
• PSB Account Generator for OLD Integration (PSBLDMAG) – Public Sector Budgeting – used to derive accounts for positions with POETA charging instructions that are then used to import salary distribution information from LD.
  
• ITR Account Generator (ITRWKFAG) – Account Generator for self-service ITR. This workflow will build creation and receiving accounts for ITR service lines.
  
• IAC account Generator (IGIIACWF) – used in Public Sector Assets.
  
• MHCA Account Generator (IGIAMAWF) – used in Public Sector Assets.
  
• IGC Charge Account Generator (IGCACGNC) – Public Sector Contracts, this workflow is used to generate charge account for contract commitment.
  
• IGC Budget Account Generator (IGCACGNB) – Public Sector Contracts, this workflow is used to generate charge account for contract commitment.
  
• Project Budget Account Generation (PABDACWF) – used by Projects to generate accounting combinations for all budget items in an integrated project budget.
  
• FA Account Generator (FAFLEXWF) – used by Assets to generate the accountingcombinations for each asset transaction.
  
• Project Supplier Invoice Account Generation (PAAPINVW) – used by Payables to derivethe invoice distribution accounting combination if the distribution is Project related –MUST be customized.
  
• Project Web Employees Account Generator (PAAPWEBX)– used by iExpenses to deriveaccounting combinations for expense report lines that reference a project – MUST becustomized.

While performing a fresh installation of the Oracle 12.1.1 E-Business Suite for the Linux platform, found an interesting bug! The Rapid Wizard (rapidwiz) installer confuses the DBA by showing the incorrect version of the Oracle database software to be installed as part of the Oracle 12.1.1 EBS environment. Instead of showing the correct version for the Oracle 11gR1 database tier, it shows a 9i database !

I found this curious as I continued the installation for 12.1.1 EBS as it later on shows the correct database server version (11.1.0.6) that will be installed for the database tier:

It wonders everybody if Oracle EBS team has caught this bug or not?

SRW Package is a collection of PL/SQL constructs that provide developers with a suite of built-in functions, procedures, and exceptions that can be used in any of your libraries or reports. The following lists several of these constructs, and briefly describes how Applications uses them in reports.

SRW.DO_SQL and SRW.DO_SQL_FAILURE
When it is necessary to perform data definition statements (DDL), the SRW.DO_SQL packaged procedure must be used. You cannot perform DDL statements in PL/SQL. In conjunction with this, we use the SRW.DO_SQL_FAILURE exception which raises an error if the statement should fail.

Example
BEGIN
SRW.DO_SQL('Create table Test...');
EXCEPTION 
  when SRW.DO_SQL_FAILURE then
  .....
END;

SRW.MESSAGE
This procedure allows developers to create their own messages and return them at runtime. It takes two arguments, a message number and message text. It can be used for error handling or debugging. Applications uses this feature to standardize and share messages across reports.

Example
SRW.MESSAGE('500','First debug line');

SRW.USER_EXIT and SRW.REFERENCE
Because Applications reports commonly call user exits it is critical that Oracle Reports support such calls. To facilitate this requirement the Package offers  SRW.USER_EXIT and SRW.REFERENCE. User exits may be called from any PL/SQL interface within a report, but it must be called with SRW.USER_EXIT. Furthermore, to ensure that the value of an object passed to the user exit contains the most recently computed or fetched value, SRW.REFERENCE will add the object to the user exit dependency list.

Example
BEGIN
SRW.REFERENCE(:Currency_code);
SRW.REFERENCE(:Currency_value);
SRW.USER_EXIT('FND FORMAT CURRENCY CODE=":Currency_code"                         
               AMOUNT=":Currency_value"                        
               DISPLAY=":Currency_formatted"');
RETURN(:Currency_formatted);
EXCEPTION WHEN
SRW.USER_EXIT_FAILURE THEN
RETURN('FORMAT ERROR');
END:

BPEL
stands for Business Process Execution Language which is utilized to specify behavior of various business process based on Web Services. It is a language based on the XML platform, which enables task sharing with the help of web services among various enterprise solutions. BPEL helps to reduce complexity and cost of business processes by integrating discrete services series into an easy process flow.

Now, Oracle BPEL Process Manager is from the family of Oracle Fusion Middleware. It helps to develop and deliver Service Oriented Architecture or SOA quickly. The main components of BPEL Process Manager are:

• BPEL Server
• BPEL Console
• BPEL Designer (Eclipse or JDeveloper)
• Database

The following diagram represents the architecture of BPEL Process Manager

BPEL Process Manager Features

BPEL Process Manager uses BPEL standards for designing, deployment, monitor and administering processes. It meets up with various web service standards such as WSDL, SOAP and XML like BPEL. You can initiate exception management and fault handling both at the time of designing an application or during runtime. Event timeouts, parallel processing and notifications are some of the important features of BPEL Process Manager. You may also run compensation mechanism for situations that require implementation of lengthy transactions. It automatically maintains states of lengthy processes in the database. BPEL Process Manager undertakes management, administration, version control etc. along with maintaining reliability and scalability of processes.

BPEL Process Manager supports installation on various operating systems and can be easily integrated with different types of application servers such as BEA WebLogic, JBoss, Oracle Application Server etc. It also provides support in sensors, notifications, worklists, transformations, technology adapters, third-party adapters etc. for JDeveloper BPEL Designer. BPEL Process Manager may also be integrated with other applications such as Oracle Workflow, Oracle Business Activity Monitoring, Oracle APEX Integration InterConnect and Business To Business Oracle Application Server Integration.

Designing BPEL Processes with BPEL Process Manager

BPEL Process Manager can be used to design BPEL processes graphically by using two types of designers, namely,

1. Eclipse BPEL Designer and
2. Jdeveloper BPEL Designer environment.

All you need to do to design such processes is to drag and drop some elements or activities. You may have to edit properties for all such dropped elements. All your time that would have been wasted in writing code for the same is saved. You may use external services, wizards etc. to integrate various services with the process. It is very easy to develop and maintian BPEL processes as developed processes can be deployed drectly to BPEL console.

Integration of IDE with Jdeveloper BPEL Designer is very useful for reducing coding tasks and complexities as all the features of Oracle Jdeveloper to design, code, debug, test, profile, tune and deployment are integrated with declarative and visual development approach. This simplifies even the complexiest task. Moreover, the applications or processes of Jdeveloper BPEL Designer are portable and can be used or modified anywhere.

Eclipse BPEL Designer is used to create web sites, Enterprise JavaBeans, C++ Programs etc. and is closely integrated with Eclipse platform. Features of Eclipse such as it’s capability to program enterprise tools and applications is made easy with frameworks and useful building blocks of an Eclipse BPEL Designer.

Again, Processes that are designed with Eclipse BPEL Designer can also be used with various BPEL servers as it uses standard BPEL Designer characteristics.

R12 file system has come up with new model – Code, Data, Configurations are segregated nicely to have easy maintenance, to avert NFS mount issues on shared appl tier configuration systems. Auto-config will not write anything in APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP area in R12. All instance specific configurations, log files are written in INST_TOP area. Instance Home provides the ability to share Applications and technology stack code among multiple instances.

Tech  Stack  Components

DB_TIER

• 10.2.0.2 RDBMS ORACLE_HOME

APPL-TIER

• 10.1.2 C ORACLE_HOME / FORMS ORACLE_HOME (8.0.6 ORACLE HOME equivalence)‏
• 10.1.3 Java ORACLE_HOME/OC4J ORACLE_HOME (iAS ORACLE_HOME equivalence)‏
• INSTANCE_TOP : Each application tier has a unique Instance Home file system associated

R12  e-Biz & Application Server 10g

Application Server Releases and versions

There are two versions of Oracle Application server 10g (oAS10g) used,

• Oracle 10gAS R2: 10.1.2 – 10.1.2.2.0
• Oracle 10gAS R3: 10.1.3.0 – 10.1.3.3

In R12, 10.1.2 AS and 10.1.3 AS Homes are newly introduced in lieu of 8.0.6 and iAS(1.0.2.2) – 11i Architecture.

Why do we have 10.1.2. AS and 10.1.3 AS?

• 10.1.2 AS installation will be supporting forms based applications. It is Standalone 10.1.2 forms/reports server installation. Other components are not included.
• 10.1.3 AS tech-stack will be used by java based applications. 10.1.3 AS instance brings latest OC4J code which is successor of 10.1.2 AS. 10.1.3 AS release doesn’t contain forms/reports products.

Hence to take advantage of latest oc4j code 10.1.3 AS got introduced. But to support ebiz forms applications 10.1.2 AS introduced.

Directory  Structure

Below Image describes the complete directory structure for complete e-biz installation i.e. DB_TOP, APPL_TOP and new INST_TOP. If you dig into the INST_TOP you will find that it only contains all the configuration files, start-stop scripts, log files, certificate files, pid files etc.., so as to make DB_TOP and APPL_TOP untouched for any instance specific changes. So you can also make DB_TOP and APPL_TOP read only.

INSTANCE TOP
Instance home is the top-level directory for an Applications Instance which is known as Instance Home and is denoted the environment variable $INST_TOP. This contains all the config files, log files, SSL certificates etc.

Advantages of new INSTANCE HOME

• The additional Instance Home makes the middle tier more easy to manage and organized since the data is kept separate from the config files.
• The Instance Home also has the ability to share the Applications and Technology stack code across multiple instances.
• Another advantage of the Instance Home is that the Autoconfig writes only in INST_TOP so APPL_TOP and ORACLE_HOME can also be made read only file system if required.
• To create a new instance that shares an existing middle-tier, just create a new instance_top with proper config files and NFS Mount the middle tier

INSTANCE TOP – STRUCTURE

$INST_TOP      : $APPS_BASE/inst/apps/$CONTEXT_NAME/
/admin /scripts :  ADMIN_SCRIPTS_HOME: Find all AD scripts here
/appl              :  APPL_CONFIG_HOME. For standalone envs, this is set to $APPL_TOP
/fnd/12.0.0/secure : FND_SECURE: dbc files here
/admin             : All Env Config files here
/certs               : SSL Certificates go here
/logs                : LOG_HOME: Central log file location. All log files are placed here (except adconfig)
/ora                 : ORA_CONFIG_HOME
/10.1.2             : ‘C’ Oracle home config, Contains tnsnames and forms listener servlet config files
/10.1.3             : Apache & OC4J config home, Apache, OC4J and opmn
                         This is the ‘Java’ oracle home configuration for OPMN, Apache and OC4J
/pids                : Apache/Forms server PID files here
/portal              : Apache’s DocumentRoot folder

Shared Application Tier File System

We can configure multiple application node machines working with a single E-Business Suite database node. This creation of a “multi-node” E-Business Suite instance is frequently done to lower cost of ownership (many small machines are cheaper than one big one), increase fault tolerance (one machine fails, others do not), or scale the instance (support more users and a greater load).

When configuring Oracle E-Business Suite to use a shared application tier file system, the application tier node can be configured to perform any of the standard application tier services, such as Forms, Web, and Concurrent Processing (Batch).
Note the following definitions:

Node

A node/server/instance is a logical set of processes running on one hardware machine. In a single-node installation of Oracle E-Business Suite, all the Applications processes (including the database processes) run on one node, whereas in a multi-node installation, the processes are distributed across multiple nodes.
A multi-node installation of Release 12 supports both shared and non-shared application tier file systems. An application tier file system consists of:

• APPL_TOP file system (APPL_TOP and COMMON_TOP directories).
• Application tier technology stack file system (OracleAS 10.1.2 and 10.1.3 Oracle Homes).
• Instance Home (INST_TOP) file system. Each application tier has a unique Instance Home file system associated with it.

Service

A service is a functional set of Oracle E-Business Suite application processes running on one or more nodes. Where applicable, the term ’service’ is replacing the more traditional term of ’server’.

Application Tier Services

The following are the major application tier services:

• Root services
• Web Entry Point services
• Web Application services
• Batch Processing services
• Other services

So if you have two nodes,one will serve as Primary Node and other will serve as Secondry Node. You can configure both the Application tier node as follows:

Primary Application Tier Node

A primary application tier node is the first application tier node where the APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP, OracleAS 10.1.2 Oracle Home and OracleAS 10.1.3 Oracle Home are installed and configured.

Secondary Application Tier Node

A secondary application tier node is an application tier node where APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP, 10.1.2 Oracle Home and 10.1.3 Oracle Home are visible and configured. The APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP, OracleAS 10.1.2 Oracle Home and OracleAS 10.1.3 Oracle Home file system is mounted to this node from the primary application tier node, or from an NFS server.
Instance Home

Note :  In a shared file system, each application tier will have a unique Instance Home, which should be located on the local file system.

Shared Application Tier File System Architecture
In a shared file system, all application tier files (with the specific exception of the Instance Home file system) are installed on a shared disk resource, which is mounted on each application tier node. Any application tier node can be configured to perform any of the standard application tier services, such as Forms, Web and Concurrent Processing (Batch) services. All changes made to the shared file system are immediately accessible to all application tier nodes.

Shared Application Tier File System Layout
When configuring Oracle E-Business Suite to use a shared application tier file system, an application tier node can be configured to perform any of the standard application tier services, such as Forms, Web, or Concurrent Processing (Batch) services. An application tier will have a unique Instance Home associated with it that cannot be shared with other application tiers. You can configure the services running on an application tier node to match the node’s intended role

Example Shared File System

The following is an example of mount points shared on each application tier node:

• COMMON_TOP: /ebiz/oracle/VIS/apps/apps_st/comn
• APPL_TOP: /ebiz/oracle/VIS/apps/apps_st/appl
• OracleAS 10.1.2 ORACLE_HOME: /ebiz/oracle/VIS/apps/tech_st/10.1.2
• OracleAS 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME: /ebiz/oracle/VIS/apps/tech_st/10.1.3

In the figure shown below, entitled “Shared Application Tier File System”, Server-appl_node1 is the primary application tier node, and uses the file systems “/ebiz/oracle/VIS” and “/ebiz/oracle/inst”. The file system “/ebiz/oracle/inst” contains the Instance Home, and “/ ebiz/oracle/VIS ” contains the APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP, OracleAS 10.1.2 and 10.1.3 Oracle Home.

Server-appl_node2 is the secondary application tier node, and the shared file system “/ebiz/oracle/VIS” is also mounted on this node. The file systems “/ebiz/oracle/inst/apps/VIS_appl_node1″ and “/ebiz/oracle/inst/apps/VIS_appl_node2″ are only visible on the respective nodes.