Enhancement Requests and Bugs for Oracle eBusiness Suite

From time to time I create enhancement requests or bugs, commonly on Oracle eBusiness Suite. Additionally I come across enhancement requests that I think deserve more visibility. This page is dedicated to that cause. If you have an Oracle Enhancement Request (ER) or Bug you would like to raise the visibility on, please feel free to comment or contact me.
If you like the looks of one of the Enhancement Requests noted below, log a Service Request (SR) on My Oracle Support (MOS) and ask for your MOS Customer record to be attached to the ER / Bug.

Created	Logged By	Bug / ER	Status	Product	Description
2015/02/22	See ER	9130428	Open	AR	Need a Standard Way to Export the Aging 7 Buckets By Account Report Output to Excel
2013/10/07	See ER	17069048	Open	BIP	Enable use of recursive with clause
2013/06/05	See ER	12872320	Open	BIP	Request to add autofilter functionality to native Excel template (binary)
2012/01/22	Gareth	13616572	Open	BIP	BI Publisher RTF unable to show a fixed number of lines for a word wrapped cell
2011/05/13	See ER	12423249	Open	BIP	Adding support of SMTP username/password to "XAPI:EMAIL" bursting for E-Business Suite (EBS) 12.1.X
2010/11/09	See ER	8208646	Open	AP/IBY	R12 Unable to send Separate Remittance Advice as email attachment in PDF
2010/08/11	Gareth	10019593	Rejected	AP/IBY	ARXRWMAI - In Receipts Summary form, cannot query by payment server id - PSON (Payment Server Order Number)
2010/07/14	See ER	9908713	Open	BIP	Need the DeliveryManager API to have a trackback variable for bounced emails
2010/07/18	See ER	9918364	Open	BIP	Need email body to be set to UTF-8 charset when using East Asian language emails
2010/07/08	Gareth	9891120	Open	eAM	Need hook to extend EAM Maintenance Work Order Detail Report
2010/06/19	Gareth	9834226	Open	AP	Need to embed email images Payables/Payments "Send Separate Remittance Advices"
2009/01/07	See ER	7694052	Open	AP	Does the Supplier Open Interface API Support Updates to Supplier Information?
2005/03/25	See ER	4262148	Open	AP	Need Public API to manage custom AP Invoice Holds

PS. If you would like to monitor Enhancement Requests, and be notified by Oracle of status updates, create a Favorite in My Oracle Support and ensure Hot Topics (Favorites) emails are on as follows.

Create a Favorite:

1. Login to My Oracle Support
2. Search on the ER / Bug number in the Search box e.g. 4262148
3. Click on the orange star next to the Title in the list view, or click on the article and click on the orange star. You should see "Favorite added" status message.
   

Switch on Hot Topics Emails:

1. Go to the Settings tab
2. Click on Hot-Topics Email under Personal on the left side menu list.
3. Switch On the Hot Topics email, every 1 days (or suitable), and ensure you have checked "Product Bugs Marked as Favorites"
4. Save

To see your Favorites, click on the Knowledge tab, then click Favorite Articles in the Recent Activity tab.

Table of Enhancement Request Statuses

Status Code	Definition
11	Code/Hardware Bug (Response/Resolution)
12	To External (User Group) Review
15	Enhancement Req. Internal(Oracle) Review
19	Approved for User Group Voting
20	To Requestor, Need More Info
22	Approved for Future Release
23	Scheduled for Future Release
50	ER Waiting for Base ER Fix
82	QA/PM to Eval ER, Chg Delivered Internal
97	Closed, Enhancement Rejected
98	Closed, Enhancement Implemented

Catch ya!
Gareth
This is a post from Gareth's blog at http://garethroberts.blogspot.com

Related Posts

• Revisited: Changing the default layout format between RTF/PDF/Excel for BI / XML Publisher 11i Concurrent Requests: Patches 5612820, 7627832 here now!

 

Lessons in Loose Coupling - Special Delivery

I'm generally nervous when I hear people that deal with software throw around the phrase "loosely coupled" with exhuberance. For me, loose coupling is one of the few phrases that resonates a feeling of ambivalence. An abstraction layer is a necessity, especially in proprietory software, to give you the coding hooks you need. Just be careful though to avoid Special Deliveries of Coal. Classic!

Catch ya!
Gareth
This is a post from Gareth's blog at http://garethroberts.blogspot.com

References

• Special Delivery WTF

Related Posts

• Top 8 eBiz Developer Hooks
• Revisited: Changing the default layout format between RTF/PDF/Excel for BI / XML Publisher 11i Concurrent Requests: Patches 5612820, 7627832 here now!

Production Upgrade complete... hack obsolete!

It had to happen. I've moved away from very retro hardware requirements and a couple of hacks to something much simpler, and more applicable to "modern" computers ie. those with USB ;-)

No. 8 wire solution no longer needed ... luckily the wires aren't that thick :-)

Old:

New:

Bonus points to Readers that guess the application of this stuff!

Catch ya!
Gareth
This is a post from Gareth's blog at http://garethroberts.blogspot.com

References

• No. 8 Wire

Related Posts

• Zero-Gee: the ultimate developers or gaming chair, err, throne
• Digital Immigrant or Digital Native?

NZOUG Wellington Regional Meet this week 1-May-09: Public Appearance

NZOUG Regional Events this week and next week!

Yes, I'll be out of the cave for a change on Friday!

If you'd like to discuss anything from my recent bag of tricks:
OBIA/OBIEE with Oracle eBusiness Suite and all things Business Intelligence related, EBS and APEX Integration, advanced BI Publisher techniques, complex EBS auditing and AuditTrail, scanning documents to EBS, EBS and custom JSPs, Discoverer, OAF, Oracle VPD, CPU/Security Updates, EBS R12 on a Laptop, EBS with Firefox/Greasemonkey, hacking adpatch or even MySQL, Drupal, SugarCRM:
come down to the NZOUG Event at the the Oracle Wellington on Friday 3.30pm - make sure you drop through an email to register.

NZOUG Regional Events are happening:

• Friday 1st May: Wellington, Hamilton, Auckland,
• Tuesday 5th May: Christchurch,
• To be confirmed: Dunedin.

Check out the NZOUG website for details.

Photo: Flickr: David

NZOUG Conference 2008: Early Bird Closing extended! Win an iPod Touch

An announcement for those readers on the conference trail to New Zealand in October:

Join me at the NZOUG Conference 2008 October 20/21 in Rotorua and go in the draw for an iPod Touch! Early Bird registrations have been extended and will close on Monday 8 September, so register now and be in the draw to win!

Details at: http://nzoug.org/ipod08

PS. I'm on the NZOUG Committee and will be at the conference hence the shameless plug for this event ;-)

PPS. If you have any sessions/questions/design issues or ideas bring them along or let me know and I can tee up a special slot for you!

NZOUG Conference 20-21 Oct 2008: Registration Open and Call for Papers Closing

The NZOUG Conference 2008 is open for registrations. The event is shaping up well, with some excellent sponsors, high profile speakers, and interesting papers. As well as that the entertainment in Rotorua is not to be missed!

The Call for Papers is closing 25 July, so if you are a potential speaker make the most of the last minute and get those abstracts in!

Watch the NZOUG website for updates on the conference.

PS. If you're sending a group, watch out for the buy 3 get 1 free offer.

NZOUG Call for Papers - Conference 20-21 October 2008

Keen to head down-under? Check out this message from the New Zealand Oracle Users Group.

The New Zealand Oracle Users Group is pleased to announce… Call for Papers and Training for the 2008 Conference We only require your ABSTRACT of not more than 150 words at this stage. We invite all users and suppliers of Oracle technology and applications and related products to submit presentations, including Oracle Users with an interesting story, case study or any useful tips Oracle Partners playing a key role in the Oracle world Third party suppliers of products and services that will assist Oracle technology and application users Presentation topics may include but are not limited to Oracle Aplications such as eBS, JDE, Peoplesoft and Hyperion, and Oracle Development, Middleware and Database technologies. Everything is welcome for submission but delegates are especially interested in hearing case studies of real life scenarios and situations, lessons learnt and best practices. Both Technical and Business streams will run throughout the conference programme with presentations covering the implementation, use and support of the whole range of Oracle and associated third party products and services. If your paper is selected for presentation: You’ll be admitted to the conference free of charge upon submission of your full written paper, and Your paper will be published in the conference proceedings.
SUBMITTING AN ABSTRACT
How do I submit an abstract? Visit our submission website and complete the Call for Papers submission, by 20 June 2008 Also anyone can submit topics you are interested in, and we’ll try to source a presenter for the topic. We’ll post further information about this and for presenters on our website in due course. Remember to visit our website for all up to date information on regional events, the conference, and other news. We look forward to receiving your completed submissions by 20 June 2008
HOW DO I REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE?
We are not quite ready to open registration but watch this space (or keep an eye on our website) in the next few weeks for an announcement.
WHAT DISCOUNTS CAN WE GET?
There will be an early bird discount for all registrations before the 1st September 2008. Watch this space for these great rates.
VENUE AND DATES
Rotorua 20th and 21st October 2008 Novotel Rotorua Lakeside – Rotorua
NEED MORE INFORMATION?
Any questions please contact our conference management company, The Conference Company. By phone on +64 9 360 1240 or by email at nzoug@tcc.co.nz

Top Ten and Favorite Posts

I've been running this blog for a while and I thought it was time for a quick recap to see what has been popular. So without further ado, here are a couple of Top Ten listings, and my favourites!

Top Ten Posts - Last Month:

1. Internet Explorer 7 crash on jvm.dll with Oracle JInitiator - Applications Forms - Windows Live Sign-In Helper
2. Excel file output from Oracle Applications concurrent request using SYLK. aka Look Ma, no BIP!
3. Standard Report to CSV File via BI Publisher
4. Changing the default layout format from PDF to Excel using Profile Option and FNDRSRUN Form Modification - Submitting BI Publisher Report Request
5. Oracle eBusiness Suite R12 Demo on a Laptop
6. Short n Fat vs Tall n Slim: Apps Printer Drivers 66 lines per page A4 printing
7. Beautiful Statements in 1 Easy Step - Automatically submit XML Report Publisher request for Oracle Receivables Statements output
8. Oracle eBusiness Suite Product and Acronym Listing
9. Document Attachments: Private Stuff
10. Fake It - masquerade one BIP concurrent program as another for testing purposes

Top Ten Posts - All Time:

1. Standard Report to CSV File via BI Publisher
2. Internet Explorer 7 crash on jvm.dll with Oracle JInitiator - Applications Forms - Windows Live Sign-In Helper
3. Excel file output from Oracle Applications concurrent request using SYLK. aka Look Ma, no BIP!
4. Oracle eBusiness Suite R12 Demo on a Laptop
5. Document Attachments: Private Stuff
6. Short n Fat vs Tall n Slim: Apps Printer Drivers 66 lines per page A4 printing
7. Changing the default layout format from PDF to Excel using Profile Option and FNDRSRUN Form Modification - Submitting BI Publisher Report Request
8. Setting your Oracle Applications session: fnd_global.apps_initialize (org_id)
9. Oracle eBusiness Suite Product and Acronym Listing
10. Audit Trail Must Do: Bank Accounts

Gareth's Favourite Posts

1. Secure storage of passwords in Oracle Applications via Encryption of Profile Option Values using dbms_obfuscation_toolkit and Forms Personalization
2. Excel file output from Oracle Applications concurrent request using SYLK. aka Look Ma, no BIP!
3. Oracle eBusiness Suite R12 Demo on a Laptop
4. Chronological Tracing/Debugging with minimal intrusion in Oracle
5. Development Standards - who are ya?
6. Time for an Oracle eBusiness Suite Release 12 Upgrade? Eat your own dog food!
7. Best Practices Solutions: choose your moving parts carefully
8. Fake It - masquerade one BIP concurrent program as another for testing purposes
9. Freeview TV via wok without the black bars anyone?
10. I'm IT - I've been OraBlog tagged.

Happy Reading!

I'm IT - I've been OraBlog tagged.

Tim Dexter tagged me in the current round of OraBlog tag, so as per the rules here are the 8 things you might not know about me:

1. Pianist? nope, Computer Science. My career could have been as a musician. When it came to University I auditioned and got accepted into a piano performance spot, so my choice was Computer Science or Musician. Either way I'd be tapping a keyboard so my $$ motivated decision meant Comp Sci was it. Plus my brother is better on the music front ;-)
2. Mmmm, Pork Chops Chocolate. If you leave chocolate near me you won't see it again.
3. First Day Blues. As a graduate intake at Oracle New Zealand back in 1995, on my first day no one expected me there, so my first week was spent with a SQL*Plus and DBA training manual.
4. Pickled. I once worked in a pickle factory in Japan.
5. The Beach. I grew up near, or should that be on, the beach - nothing better than salt water and fresh warm air. It's a shame I'm not a windsurfer in Windy Wellington though.
6. Patchsets. I'm behind the R11i and R12 patchsets blogs that some Oracle Apps folks might find useful.
7. Games. Another influence when I was young was Rally-X. So much so a couple of years back I put together an arcade style MAME machine that included hacking a keyboard and wiring up a custom joystick port.
8. Adrenalin Rocks. Every once in a while I gotta have a bit of a thrill and there ain't much better than in New Zealand. If you're in the "posh part of down under" as Tim says, I'll be more than happy to help you out with the 134m Nevis Bungy, 7m waterfall Kaituna Rafting, Kayaking Aniwhenua Falls or Mountain Biking the Queen Charlotte Walkway.

Now to the tagging, bound to tag someone already tagged, but hey, will try anyway!

1. Anil Passi
2. Atul Kumar
3. Bas Klaassen
4. Fadi Hasweh
5. Jornica
6. Lucas Jellema
7. Patrick Wolf
8. Sam

Best Practices Solutions: choose your moving parts carefully

Working with the Oracle eBusiness beast is a tad challenging given the breadth and complexity of its components. It uses a large majority of Oracle's core technology, both built and bought by Oracle. Integration throughout the technologies is fundamentally good and bound to get better with the whole Fusion soup. If there's something you need to provide a solution for, you have a myriad of options available to you without looking to that latest and greatest 3rd Party shiny thing. Or even that latest and greatest shiny thing within the tech stack.

The biggest workhorse with regards to language is PL/SQL but Java is making its presence felt. The number of Oracle Applications "Products" in use and available is increasing - both from a core technology stack perspective and an End User Application perspective.

This growth of moving parts leads to a necessity of choice:
What tool/language do I use given a custom development requirement?

Given my affinity to the intelligent or "thick" database paradigm, wherever possible I'll try to use the tool closest to the database.

What does this mean for me?
a) use SQL
b) use PL/SQL
c) use something else if you really have to

If you use SQL and PL/SQL wherever you can:

• Identification of performance issues should be easier due to the wealth of excellent tools at this level, e.g. AWR, statspack, dbms_profiler
• Integration issues should be easier to identify as you primarily have one place to look - the database
• The "disconnects" between components can be avoided (your session context is preserved)
• Code should be able to be consolidated to reduce complexity
• The number of product experts needed should be reduced
• Your licensing jigsaw puzzle should be simpler to arrange

Of course I'm over simplifying things here. There are situations where you can and must use another tool. However, the chances are that there will be something available to suit your needs in the Oracle eBusiness Suite Technology Stack. My point is even with additional tools, keep it simple and keep as much as possible in the database.

When you need to choose another tool, use the tool that:

• Is already in use performing a task similar to what you need to do
• Centralizes or consolidates the code and business rules
• Implements a simple rather than a complex solution

Lets take a few rules I use relating to other tools, with a caveat that there will be times when these rules are contradicted. I use these examples as the red flag in front of the eBusiness bull:

1. If you need to write a concurrent program, use PL/SQL
2. If you need to schedule something, use the Concurrent Manager calling your PL/SQL program
3. If you need a user interface, use the existing tech stack with business logic in the database wherever possible (I'll contradict myself upfront and say occasionally use Oracle APEX)
4. If you need to write a report*, use BI Publisher (BIP/XMLP) or Oracle Reports, with the business rules in PL/SQL
5. If you need an adhoc report*, use Discoverer
6. If you need to send an email, use PL/SQL and the Workflow Notification Mailer (Java Mailer) API

* = check existing reporting capabilities before making this decision - standard reports, FSGs, RX reports, etc.

Another point I want to make in this post is a quick reference to hardcoding. In the past I was a very strong advocate on avoiding hardcoding, but a number of recent experiences have softened my view on this. Now I'd recommend avoiding hardcoding only when necessary ... another one of those contentious issues, a read of this is recommended.

I can hear you saying "Alright, guv, where you going with this then, ay?".

Well, I'm writing this both as a point of reference and a point of reflection. Originally I wanted to include a comment on open source, but it just didn't surface.

Keep an eye out though ;-)

PS. I'm not an Oracle employee, so I get no direct benefit from the inherently Oracle bias to this post. I just like keeping my ducks in a row ;-)

Zero-Gee: the ultimate developers or gaming chair, err, throne

A few months back I attended an Unlimited Potential event on design and technology. A prototype of the NASA research based "Zero-Gee" chair - a 135° zero-gravity motorized ergonomic chair - made its appearance and got some interesting reactions from the audience. Well, its gone from design to prototype to reality. I had an email last week from Tom Rynaarts letting me know the first small batch is close to delivery. Talk about a great concept, bound to be a strong following in tech communities for this ultimate piece of hardware. Now, where did I put that spare Xmas money!

PS. Unfortunately they're not generally available yet, but keep an eye out ;-)

Quick Search to Oracle Metalink

If you're a regular Oracle Metalink user, its a must to get Metalink Search in an ideal place in the browser. This page has the instructions and you can find out more about the solution at the OracleAppsLab blog page. Credit to the creators!

Watch out NZ property developers

There are a couple of proposals on the table currently related to property development that any serious property investors/developers should be following closely.

The first is the "Associated Persons" IRD proposal, submissions close tomorrow 11th May, so get your skates on. You can find the discussion paper here.

Basically the associated persons rule related to tainting is proposed to be relaxed and this would seriously affect property developers etc. ability to invest in property without attracting capital gains - something the rest of the New Zealand population can do legitimately. Gilligan Rowe and Associates (GRA) are actively pursuing this one, so if you want more info let them know. Alternatively drop me a line. You might even source a sample submission. I foresee strong opposition to this one.

The second is the Wellington City Council's (WCC) proposal on"Infill Housing". Basically WCC is planning to introduce more stringent requirements on the splitting up and corresponding site coverage/height etc. rules when subdividing an existing property, due to the concern that some developments are going beyond reasonability with height and space. I can see arguments both ways for this one, so make sure to act now to make sure your voice is heard.

Given the current heat in the property market and enormous pressure on property prices, based on my understanding of fundamentals, both of these initiatives will apply more pressure. Moreover why is our taxpayers money being consumed on initiatives to increase the income tax specifically related to property, when we're running a too many billion dollar and growing surplus? Oh well, I guess that surplus has to go somewhere... I'd love the government to take my spare tax dollars and build some decent broadband infrastructure.

Bananas and Requirements Specification

During a stressful week I recently discovered a new way for me to work out what day of the week it is. At the start of each week I bring in 5 bananas to eat for breakfast, one for each day of the week. So I can work out what day it is based on how many bananas there are left on my desk, ie: 4 = Monday 3 = Tuesday 2 = Wednesday 1 = Thursday 0 = Friday So let's call this Gareth's Banana Calendar. That got me thinking about something in some text I was researching at the time. In the text, the author kept commenting in his text about how "the perceptive reader would notice x,y,z" based on details he just wrote. And that got me thinking how there is a very strong relation to this and how Software Developers interpret requirements, that is in order to get the rules right they need to interpret the business rules presented to them. However the perceptive developer will not only take the rules strictly, but also apply considerations to the rules, and if there is something they consider relevant that would brake or change the rules, then they should probe further for more detailed requirements or try it out. So the perceptive developer would realize there are a number of shortcomings to consider about Gareth's Banana Rule and seek answers. E.g. How do you work out what day it is if there is a public holiday during the week? Keen to hear what anyone else thinks about Gareth's Banana Rule ;-)

Context and Relativity

This is a PS blog ... late but better than never ;-) I was having a conversation the other day with someone about how every difference can be measured as based on the components of context and relativity. Large/small, rich/poor and the inevitable intelligent/stupid are all measured by relativity and context. It was interesting thinking about a few instances of this, examples abound in general lifestyle measurements and "opposites", but it was more from a technology front that got me thinking about it. Thinking about it now the general progress in computer technology comes to mind. Back in the days when, say punch cards were used to program computers (yes there were those days - but I personally wasn't there to witness!) that would have been considered "complex", "advanced" and perhaps "smart", but change the context today and "modern" electronics, come up with the idea and bam - you'd probably be laughed at! In this instance the main differentiator of the context was time, and that is one "context" which we can't change for real... yet. And don't hold your breath! But there are plenty of other "contexts" that we can control that affect us hugely. The point I was making to myself was that if you can even slightly change your context, you could take advantage of the change. Be it looking at a computer program from a different perspective, or looking at whether you are truly "busy" or "tired" ... or not. In any case, its something I'll be keepin' in the back of my mind, at least in my current context!

Digital Immigrant or Digital Native?

Given my work and experience in technology, I often find that many people around me very much lack confidence when it comes to technology. I recently attended an event presented by the Unlimited Potential organization www.up.org.nz where Paul Reynolds introduced the question of people being Digital Immigrants or Digital Natives. This was an interesting concept for me to consider, especially given my 2 year old sons interest in any of my "toys" ... any time I bring out the laptop, cellphone, camera, video camera, PS2 it ain't gonna be me that ends up playing with it! Now, present a bunch of new digital gadgets for a group of adults, and I may be wrong but I'm sure you'd find a definite feeling of unease and much less compulsion to grab the stuff and have a play! This translates somewhat to what I see in business; people are very hands off, and will often asks questions and seek confirmation before trying something out. The thing I find about technology in relation to all this is that someone has to jump in and give it a go, someone has to become the expert. At the end of the day digital just means 0's and 1's and either something will work or it won't ... so give it a try! We can help our children be the digital natives by ensuring that they are immersed and confident with digital "stuff" by becoming more experienced Digital Immigrants ourselves. PS. Guys ... especially those with kids, this is an excuse to buy those toys! Just make sure you buy two ;-)

Well, this is my first blog. I thought it was about time I expanded my web presence, given my push into the Company arena and finally looking at product development. My intentions for this blog are to share some tips and tricks I find on my journeys, plus comment on events that I'm involved in that I think deserve to be shared. My company Virtuate Limited www.virtuate.com based in Wellington, New Zealand started trading in April this year, and is already gaining a reputation for delivering high quality, low cost, fast turnaround solutions. We focus on Oracle eBusiness Suite solutions - and are keen to provide best on-site and remote solutions available. If you're involved with any of the Oracle Applications / Oracle eBusiness Suite modules and have any frustrations or questions - keep an eye on our website or send us an email.