Search Engine Plugins for Firefox to get directly to specific Oracle Patches, Metalink Notes, Bugs

Revisited again 30-NOV-2010: Following the ARU change I've updated the Patch search engine (file orapatch.xml)

Update: The Note and Bug search engines (files oranote.xml and orabug.xml) have been updated post upgrade to My Oracle Support (MOS).

Navigating directly to a specific Oracle Patch, Metalink Note or Bug is a bit of a chore. Not to mention Metalink / My Oracle Support (MOS) could do with a mobile interface to speed things up & sidestep that Flash! Cut'n'pasting from my text file with the URL templates was getting tedious. So with inspiration from Eddie Awad's posts, I've put together three custom Firefox Search Engines, well, not really Search Engines, but "I'm Feeling Lucky" engines. You gotta know the Patch/Note/Bug number you wanna get to:

• OraPatch: Javascript Install or grab the XML file.
• OraNote: Javascript Install or grab the XML file.
• OraBug: Javascript Install or grab the XML file.

Once you've installed them, hit Control-K, choose the Patch, Note or Bug "search engine" (Control-Down Arrow), enter or paste the exact Patch, Note or Bug number, hit enter and voila, you're there ... if you're logged into the target site!

Give it a try: e.g. Patch 5612820, Note 444524.1, Bug 6074498.

If you get the XML files, put them in your C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins folder (or similar), restart your browser and you'll be up and running!

If you need a generic Metalink search engine in the same vain look here.

PS. You will need your Metalink (MOS) username/password to get to the target pages.

PPS. Hoping Oracle doesn't change the URL structures 2 minutes after I post this ;-) Let me know if I don't notice when that happens!

References

• Firefox Add-ons Search Engines
• Base64 Online for converting search engine icon images (16x16pixel png) to base64 and back.

    Eddie's posts:

• AskTom Search Engine Plugin Revived
• See How Easily You Can Search Oracle
• Oracle Firefox search plugin
• Oracle Metalink Firefox search plugin

Related Posts

• Firefox with eBusiness Suite: Oracle JInitiator Plugin does not start - always get "must install plugin", Vista, Patch 5397653
• Enhancing the Oracle eBusiness Suite 11i/12 Homepage Menu via Firefox, Greasemonkey, XPath, Javascript & DOM: aka Foxiness Menus

 

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

Some good news for eBusiness Suite 11i "bippers" to kick off the year of the Ox. In a previous post I provided a temporary solution for the issue where the default value of the Output Format for a BI Publisher based concurrent request was hardcoded to PDF. Many people have requirements to default the output type to Excel (xls).

Happily, my custom solution is now obsolete.

I'm pleased to advise that on 9-Jan-2009 Oracle provided Patch 5612820 for Oracle eBusiness Suite Release 11i. This patch has a co-requisite, Patch 7627832 released 11-Dec-2008 that took me a while to track down! Now both major current install levels of R11i and R12 are catered for:

• R11i and R12 Patch 5612820 DEFAULT OUTPUT FORMAT ATTRIBUTE AT TEMPLATE LEVEL IS REQUIRED
• R11i Patch 7627832 1OFF:7017250:ATG RUP6:11.5.10.2:5612820 : BI PUBLISHER LAYOUT DEFAULTS TO 'RTF'

For R11i prerequisites, you'll need to be on ATG RUP 6 Patch 5903765 see Note:444524.1, which I previously wrote about here. Both patch 7627832 and ATG RUP 6 have a number of other prerequisites and postrequisites so you may have some patching to do to get your 11i environment up to the required patch level.

For R12, Patch 5612820 is included in Release Update Pack 12.0.6, otherwise you'll need R12.AD.A.delta.4 and R12.ATG_PF.A.delta.4 before it can be applied.

Here are some screenshots of the new Default Output Type field on the Templates page.

Release 11i:

Release 12:

And the new Profile Option FND: Default Template Output Type, which takes effect if there is no default output type on the XMLP Template setup.

Release 11i:

And verification that the default output format is indeed working...

Release 11i:

Release 12:

Nice, get patching!

Related Posts

• Changing the default layout format from PDF to Excel using Profile Option and FNDRSRUN Form Modification - Submitting BI Publisher Report Request
• R12 Patch 5612820 Available: Changing the default layout format between RTF/PDF/Excel when submitting XML / BI Publisher Concurrent Request
• Must have: ATG RUP 6 Patch 5972626 Security Update

A Look Ahead to 2009 - Oracle eBusiness Suite and Happy New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai
Happy Chinese New Year - for January the 26th!

2008 has been and gone, and we're well into 2009. Let's look at some of potential up and coming tidbits for the Oracle eBusiness Suite.

1. Release 12.1: I was expecting this late last year, but we saw 12.0.6 instead. Release 12.1 promises to deliver a number of things, the main one for me will be a whole swag of XML / BI Publisher layouts for standard reports. A couple of Metalink oops My Oracle Support Notes indicate R12.1 is in controlled release. Haven't had a chance to track down the patch number .. anyone have it? For documentation on R12.1 see the Release Content Documentation.

2. Patch 5612820 for EBS Release 11i: This minor piece of functionality to default the Layout Format for BI Publisher based concurrent requests has been nagging me. Its out for R12, and actually its already out for R11i (9-Jan-2009) however ... the Default Layout on the XMLP side is there but the critical concurrent processing portion to default the layout on a concurrent request was missing so its back with Development. I'll keep you posted.

3. Native Excel Templates for XML / BI Publisher: This one may be subtle but for me its a biggie. Release 12 FSGs with native Excel Templates I believe are in controlled release. RTF templates have their moments, but I know a number people are looking for Excel templates. Excel and Accounting live together, and its high time they were standard for XML Publisher with eBusiness Suite. Here's hoping for more than just FSG native Excel templates.

4. Further emergence of OBIA with EBS: I've spent quite a bit of time with the Business Intelligence products lately, and the Oracle Business Intelligence Applications (OBIA) stack is a formidible beast. Albeit complex, there is plenty of sense and underlying power. I think only a handful of people have tapped into this and I'm keen to see how it plays out this year.

5. Change Management Pack for the eBusiness Suite: I'll be watching this closely too - the important parts from my perspective will be automated patching, and the ability to cut your own custom patches for applying using adpatch - nice, but of course I'm assuming you'll need front up with a few $$ too. Watch this space.

6. New Oracle Application Express (APEX) listener: Apparently due in APEX v4, the new listener will hopefully once again push APEX squarely back into the realm of the EBS after mod_plsql's support was tragically cast aside, only to resurface after clarification from Oracle :-) Any update on this David?

7. Oracle Fusion Applications: I wasn't sure whether to put this in, but I think its worth a mention. Perhaps shouldn't include it here with the emphasis on 2009 as my gut feel is that we'll be waiting a tad longer than that. However, if you've heard anything let us know!

8. What's happening for me in 2009? Well, fingers crossed I'll get stuck into a couple of projects that should have seen the light in 2008!

Do you have any hopes/requests/tidbits for Oracle eBusiness Suite action in 2009? Post a comment.

What happened in 2008?

In my neck of the woods a whole lot went on in 2008 including Website launches, Virtuate contract wins, Product demos, a GreaseMonkey Script release, attending OpenWorld for the first time, joining the NZOUG committee and helping to organize the NZOUG Conference, a new phone (Nokia E71 - nice), a new laptop (Toshiba A300 Y01 running Vista 64 ouch) and a ton more. Despite the gloomy economic outlook I'm hugely looking forward to 2009, the year of the Ox.

Disclaimer: The words, ideas and opinions here are my own. Please don't assume they represent the opinion of any other person or organization.

Related Posts

• OpenWorld 2008 Final Post: Fusion Applications, X, R12 - Change Pack & Payment Manager plus SES
• Openworld Update: XML/BI Publisher & R12, 11g PL/SQL, ADFdi and more
• R12 Patch 5612820 Available: Changing the default layout format between RTF/PDF/Excel when submitting XML / BI Publisher Concurrent Request
• Changing the default layout format from PDF to Excel using Profile Option and FNDRSRUN Form Modification - Submitting BI Publisher Report Request
• Revisited: Why is mod_plsql not supported with the Oracle eBusiness Suite Release 12? Fusion Crossroads #1
• Would the REAL Excel please stand up?!
• Enhancing the Oracle eBusiness Suite 11i/12 Homepage Menu via Firefox, Greasemonkey, XPath, Javascript & DOM: aka Foxiness Menus
• Photo Credit: Flickr: tanakawho

Email Address validation by Forms Personalization, Profile Options and Regular Expressions (regex) in the Oracle eBusiness Suite

In prior posts I've dealt with Forms Personalizations, and played with email e.g. via BI (XML) Publisher Bursting. In this post we'll come up with a simple Forms Personalization to ensure that data entry of email addresses results in well-formed email addresses. We'll use regular expressions: an underutilized feature in Oracle since 10g. Initially we'll look at the Remittance Email address on Supplier Sites. But the implementation will allow easy re-use for other email address fields in the EBS by storing the regular expression in a Profile Option.

The Regular Expression

Lets take a look at the regular expression I'll use for email address validation. This regular expression is a consolidation from a variety of sources, considers IPv4 and IPv6 addressing, and includes specific formatting to get around an Oracle Regex bug. Note it isn't the "full official" regex for email address validation - I wanted a one-liner! What does the regular expression below mean? Basically allow a bunch of characters before the @ and a bunch of characters after the @ considering IPv4 or IPv6 addressing. If anyone has any suggestions/issues/changes, please feel free to comment!

Update 27-JUL-2010: Changed regex to allow multiple hypens as it was only accepting one hyphen in hostname.

Update 09-MAY-2012: Changed regex to disallow leading/trailing periods in username and disallow leading periods in server/domain.

^[-a-zA-Z0-9_\+\^!#\$%&*+\/\=\?\`\|\{\}~\']+(\.([-a-zA-Z0-9_\+\^!#\$%&*+\/\=\?\`\|\{\}~\'])+)*@((([0-9a-zA-Z]*[-\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z])+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,9})|(\[([0-9]{1,3}(\.[0-9]{1,3}){3})|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}(\:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){7})\])$

Profile Option

We'll store the regular express as a profile option. This allows a single source of truth for our email address validation logic. We could equally put it in a PL/SQL package, but then updates would require coding ... and no-one wants to code these days ;-)

Navigate to Application Developer, Profile
    Name: XXV8_REGEX_EMAIL
    Application: Virtuate (or your chosen modifications application)
    User Profile Option Name: Virtuate Regular Expression: Email Address
    Set to Site level visible/updatable only
    Save
Navigate to System Administrator, Profile, System
    Query "Virtuate Regular Expression: Email Address"
    Set site level value to the regular expression above
    Save

Forms Personalization

Okay, moving onto the good stuff. Now we'll setup the Forms Personalization to validate the Remittance Email address on the Supplier Sites, Payment tab.

Navigate to Payables Manager, Suppliers, Entry
    Query up an existing supplier and navigate to Sites
    Click Help, Diagnostics, Custom Code, Personalization from the menu.
    Enter the APPS password
Enter the Forms Personalization Header and Condition
    Seq: 10
    Description: Remittance Email Validation
    Trigger Event: WHEN-VALIDATE-RECORD
    Trigger Object: SITE
    Condition: nvl(:SITE.REMITTANCE_EMAIL,'X') != nvl(regexp_substr(:SITE.REMITTANCE_EMAIL,fnd_profile.value('XXV8_REGEX_EMAIL')),'X')
    Save
Enter the Forms Personalization Action
    Seq: 10
    Type: Message
    Description: Remittance Email Invalid
    Message Type: Error
    Message Text: Remittance Email is invalid. Please enter a well-formed email address. Ensure there are no spaces and check that periods are in the correct position. For example: firstname.lastname@gmail.com

Test it out!

Enter junk in the Remittance Email address on the Payment tab and save.

Code Reuse

To implement the same email address validation on other forms, run through the Forms Personalization steps above, identifying the new block and field, replacing SITE.REMITTANCE_EMAIL as required, and update the Error Message action message description / text with the field name.

If you identify a problem with the regular expression, you have one place to change it and it flows through to all the places you implemented the forms personalization the next time your Users log in!

Requirements/Restrictions

• Regular Expression functionality (regexp_substr) requires that you are on Oracle Database 10g or higher.
• The solution presented doesn't test email account validity via SMTP query for address verification.

References

• Regular-Expressions.info - How to Find or Validate an Email Address
• Regular Expressions in Oracle Database 10g on OTN
• Using Regular Expressions With Oracle Database 10g Documentation
• Thanks to email address checks in Drupal, Wordpress and various other Oracle specific sources.

Related Posts

• BI Publisher EBS Bursting 101: A tutorial/case study including Bursting Control File to email Suppliers Remittance Advice in 1 easy step
• Top Ten and Favorite Posts
• Top 8 Uses for Help Diagnostics Examine in eBiz
• Top 8 eBiz Developer Hooks

 

R12 Patch 5612820 Available: Changing the default layout format between RTF/PDF/Excel when submitting XML / BI Publisher Concurrent Request

In a previous post I provided a temporary solution for the issue where the default value for the Output Format of a BI Publisher based concurrent request was hardcoded to PDF.

• Changing the default layout format from PDF to Excel using Profile Option and FNDRSRUN Form Modification - Submitting BI Publisher Report Request

For those those customers lucky enough to be on Release 12 I'm glad to say Oracle has provided a patch for this enhancement, the base issue documented in Metalink Note 401328.1 or Bug 5612820 or Bug 5036916:

• R12 Patch 5612820 DEFAULT OUTPUT FORMAT ATTRIBUTE AT TEMPLATE LEVEL IS REQUIRED

This patch is included in R12 Release Update Pack 12.0.6, but as a note at the time of writing 5612820 is available on controlled release ... not sure of the reason since its in 12.0.6. The code base required for applying 5612820 is:

• R12.AD.A.delta.4
• R12.ATG_PF.A.delta.4

For those people on Release 11i, unfortunately you'll have to wait a little longer ... still awaiting the 11i version of the patch.

Here's a screenshot of the new Default Output Format field on the Templates page.

And verification that the default output format is indeed working...

Nice!

Discoverer Plus 10g: contact with Server lost: DiscoApplet Error DiscoNetworkException CORBA.COMM_FAILURE. ICX Territory!

An interesting one today; a Discoverer Plus Workbook called via an eBusiness Suite Menu errored out with:

OracleBI Discoverer: "Contact with the Discoverer Server has been lost. To continue your work, please restart Discoverer Plus. If this problem persists, please contact your Oracle Application Server administrator."

Doh! Who's that Application Server administrator ... oh! me :-(

Attempting to expand the workbook, after going directly into Discoverer Plus errors with:

"This workbook cannot be expanded".

 

Hmm, okay, let's look at the Java Console:

Reading bytes from input stream
   Unmarshalling response
   Session ID:2008111408252618857
   BI Beans Graph version [3.2.3.0.37]
   DiscoApplet[0]: Error received by GlobalStatusListener.workerFailed() in SessionUI.java
   DiscoNetworkException  - Nested exception: org.omg.CORBA.COMM_FAILURE:   vmcid: SUN  minor code: 208 completed: Maybe
   DiscoNetworkException  - Nested exception: org.omg.CORBA.COMM_FAILURE:   vmcid: SUN  minor code: 208 completed: Maybe
   org.omg.CORBA.COMM_FAILURE:   vmcid: SUN  minor code: 208 completed: Maybe
 at com.sun.corba.se.internal.iiop.IIOPConnection.purge_calls(IIOPConnection.java:438)
 at com.sun.corba.se.internal.iiop.ReaderThread.run(ReaderThread.java:70)
 at sun.rmi.transport.StreamRemoteCall.exceptionReceivedFromServer(Unknown Source)
 at sun.rmi.transport.StreamRemoteCall.executeCall(Unknown Source)
 at sun.rmi.server.UnicastRef.invoke(Unknown Source)
 at oracle.disco.remote.rmi.serverbase.RMISessionBase_Stub.sendRecieveData(Unknown Source)
 at oracle.disco.model.corbaserver.ModelInterface.sendRecieveData(Unknown Source)
 at oracle.disco.model.corbaserver.ModelInterface.SendReceiveData(Unknown Source)
 at oracle.disco.model.corbaserver.serverrequest.DsrOpenWorkbook.xmlUpdateServer(Unknown Source)
 at oracle.disco.model.corbaserver.serverrequest.DsrCorbaXML.corbaUpdateServer(Unknown Source)
 at oracle.disco.model.corbaserver.serverrequest.DsrGeneralCorbaXML.updateServer(Unknown Source)
 

Ouch! Sounds like it hurts!

A quick blast through Metalink (oops MOS - My Oracle Support) and a bunch of old bugs later, not looking promising, however there's one major clue - the problem is only occurring for some Users. Okay, lets do a side by side comparison of Profile Options as a first guess:

User Level Profile Option Value Comparison Side by Side

select *
   from (
 with
 prof_di as
 ( select 'USER' level_name, 
 fu.user_name level_value, 
 fpo.profile_option_id,
 fpot.user_profile_option_name,
 fpo.profile_option_name,
 fpov.profile_option_value
 from   fnd_user fu, 
 fnd_profile_options fpo,
 fnd_profile_option_values fpov,
 fnd_profile_options_tl fpot
 where  fu.user_id = fpov.level_value
 and    fpo.profile_option_id = fpov.profile_option_id
 and    fpo.profile_option_name = fpot.profile_option_name
 and    fpot.language = 'US'
 and    fpov.level_id = 10004
 and    fu.user_name = 'SYSADMIN'
 ),
 prof_gr as
 (
 select 'USER' level_name, 
 fu.user_name level_value, 
 fpo.profile_option_id,
 fpot.user_profile_option_name,
 fpo.profile_option_name,
 fpov.profile_option_value
 from   fnd_user fu, 
 fnd_profile_options fpo,
 fnd_profile_option_values fpov,
 fnd_profile_options_tl fpot
 where  fu.user_id = fpov.level_value
 and    fpo.profile_option_id = fpov.profile_option_id
 and    fpo.profile_option_name = fpot.profile_option_name
 and    fpot.language = 'US'
 and    fpov.level_id = 10004
 and    fu.user_name = 'ROBERTSG'
 )
 select pd.profile_option_id
 ,      pd.user_profile_option_name
 ,      pd.profile_option_name
 ,      pd.profile_option_value d_value
 ,      pg.profile_option_value g_value
 ,      decode(pd.profile_option_value,pg.profile_option_value,'EQUAL','DIFF') status
 from   prof_di pd
 ,      prof_gr pg
 where  pd.profile_option_name = pg.profile_option_name (+)
 union
 select pg.profile_option_id
 ,      pg.user_profile_option_name
 ,      pg.profile_option_name
 ,      pd.profile_option_value d_value
 ,      pg.profile_option_value g_value
 ,      decode(pg.profile_option_value,pd.profile_option_value,'EQUAL','DIFF') status
 from   prof_di pd
 ,      prof_gr pg
 where  pg.profile_option_name = pd.profile_option_name (+)
 )
 where status != 'EQUAL';  

The query gets output that includes the following:

USER_PROFILE_OPTION_NAME PROFILE_OPTION_NAME D_VALUE     G_VALUE STATUS
------------------------ ------------------- ----------- ------- ------
ICX: Territory           ICX_TERRITORY       NEW ZEALAND AMERICA DIFF
 

Whenever I see anything related to "NLS_LANG" or "Territory" the alarm bells start ringing, and sure enough - for the problem User, just a quick navigate to the "Preferences" responsibility, General Preferences and change the Territory from New Zealand to United States and we're off and laughing again! Alternatively could have looked at the ICX: Territory profile option.

 

What was the real underlying problem? My guess is a clash on date formats for default parameter values ... but that's left for another day.

 

Enhancing the Oracle eBusiness Suite 11i/12 Homepage Menu via Firefox, Greasemonkey, XPath, Javascript & DOM: aka Foxiness Menus

Update: 12-Nov-08 Extended script for Release 12

The Background

One of the most user-unfriendly and neglected aspects of the eBusiness Suite in my opinion is the homepage. No sooner than you arrive there you really just wanna get out, and get out fast! The majority of people I know, including myself, do one of the following:

• Save one function from each of your primary responsibilities as a "Favorite" and thereafter only use the "Favorites" area of the homepage
• After choosing the responsibility just blinding pick the first "Forms" based menu entry so that you get into the forms navigator menu. At least for any responsibility that still has a majority of forms.

One of the aspects that I've desired for a while is a tree based Responsibility menu structure. Now Oracle does provide this, but when I last checked, admitedly a few years ago, it required Oracle Portal integration. As a bit of a refresher, there is a profile option called "Self Service Personal Home Page mode" which used to be able to be set to "Personal Home Page" and then clicking on the responsibility went straight into forms for a Forms based application.

But from 11.5.10, "Self Service Personal Home Page mode" must be set to "Framework Only" and hence you now have an extra couple of mouse clicks to get to where you want to go. At least EBS Release 11i/12 has show/hide responsibilities.

Where is all this going you ask? Well, for a bit of late night entertainment ... sad I know ;-) plus a bit of experimentation, considering Firefox's 4th Birthday was just a couple of days ago, and since I'm now comfortable using Firefox with EBS, I've created a Greasemonkey script to give a smidgen of intelligence to the Framework homepage Responsibility menu.

Introducing the Virtuate Oracle EBS Homepage Menu enhancement Greasemonkey Script!

So, what does this do? Well it turns this:

Into this:

With a quick video here ... apologies if its a bit big:

How do I install it?

Assuming you have Firefox and Greasemonkey, just click on this UserScripts.org link and then click the install button! If you have any hassles, you're more than welcome to fix the code on UserScripts.org (or let me know)! Open Source rocks!

Requirements

• Firefox
• Greasemonkey
• EBS Release 11i or Release 12
• Will be very grateful if someone turns this into an IE7Pro User Script in order to get it working with Internet Explorer!

References

• Is The 'Personal Home Page' Mode Supported In Oracle 11i Applications?

Related Posts

• Firefox with eBusiness Suite: Oracle JInitiator Plugin does not start - always get "must install plugin", Vista, Patch 5397653

 

Firefox with eBusiness Suite: Oracle JInitiator Plugin does not start - always get "must install plugin", Vista, Patch 5397653

This problem has bothered me for a while in a couple of scenarios, so time for another post ... after quite an absence I must admit. I'm well over my post Conference 1 & 2 catchup now. On with the enthusiasm!

Update: Firefox 3.x is now certified with EBS. See Steven's post for details.

So you're working with your favourite Firefox 2.x, because Firefox 3 hasn't quite been certified yet. You try to fire up Oracle Applications Forms via JInitiator 1.3.x (or even 1.1.8.x) and get the dreaded "you must install the Oracle JInitiator Plugin" box.

Well, chances are one of the following quick fixes will solve your problem:

1. If you have multiple JVM's installed or multiple versions of JInitiator

In this case you'll need to apply Patch 5397653: Firefox does not work with multiple java plugin versions. Its just a quick patch, no prereqs, go for it!

2. If you are using Microsoft Windows Vista

In this case I'll feel very sorry for as well as suggesting you copy jvm.dll from a Sun JRE 6.0 Update 1 (or higher) installation. This is as per Bug 6074498.

3. If you still have problems after the above.

Make sure you have switched off the Enable Java option in Firefox, per Note 285218.1.

• Tools -> Options -> Content
• Uncheck the 'Enable Java' option so that the Sun JRE plug-in is not enabled (this ensures that the Jinitiator plug-in is used instead).

If you have any other scenarios or issues with Firefox and JInitiator / Sun JRE Plugin, please post a comment here!

Reference

• Patch 5397653: Firefox does not work with multiple java plugin versions
• Note 285218.1: Recommended Browsers for Oracle E-Business Suite 11i
• Bug 6074498: Unable To Connect To E-Business Suite On Vista

Related Posts

• Internet Explorer 7 crash on jvm.dll with Oracle JInitiator - Applications Forms - Windows Live Sign-In Helper

 

 

OpenWorld 2008 Final Post: Fusion Applications, X, R12 - Change Pack & Payment Manager plus SES

A bit of a delay on my final post on OpenWorld - Wednesday, the Appreciation Event and Thursday went past in a blur, then on to enjoying the final moments in the Valley, lastly the long haul home & back to reality.

Fusion Applications came to the fore at Steve Miranda's presentation on Wednesday the highlights for me were as follows - let me know if my scrawls have been translated to something incorrect!

• Built on ADF stack - I went to a few hands on sessions prior so familiar with the look n feel. Nice.
• WebCenter Integration
• Document Management (Stellant?) Integration
• Secure Enterprise Search (SES) standard (top and center in the UI)
• BI Publisher in the technology stack
• Prebuilt Dashboards and Embedded BI
• Tagging / Categories
• RSS
• Instant Collaboration built in - Chat / IM / Voice / Email
• Help includes User Ratings, Audio/Video
• Configuration comparison and loading tools across instances
• Upgrades as per provided today - ie. If you can upgrade your eBusiness Suite, then the same will apply to upgrade to Fusion. Note upgrade paths do not including merging instances, splitting instances. Supports Pillars.

But when are Fusion Applications going to be available? Let me know! Although given the fullness of the demo screens and a couple of mumbles I'd bet there are business trialling it now.

Following on from that the next interesting item was Larry's speech from the blogger's area and that box with the X and Oracle/HP badges; the HP Oracle Database Machine. Unfortunately my sentiment on this is similar to Tim Hall's - in New Zealand there might be 2 perhaps 3 companies with the kind of dosh needed to shell out and buy one... sigh ... but hey, prove me wrong someone in NZ and get me in to have a little play ;-)

After a highly enjoyable and entertaining night at the Appreciation Event, amusements, Seal and UB40 (thanks Greg, Michael & co) Thursday came around all to quick for me and my new Unicorn friend ;-) so skipped a few sessions, and headed to the demo grounds, notes follow.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Change Pack for Release 12.x

The "Change Pack" was very briefly mentioned during the R12 and 12.1 update without details. So I got down to the demo pod to check it out. Had a succinct demo from one of the On Demand team who are currently using it. With my Apps DBA hat on the the Change Pack looks really, really good and here's a rundown of the features:

• Automation of Patch Application, including automatic downloads, unzip and merge of designated patches. Basically you specify the patches you want applied and it comes up with a task list based on the patches where you can add/reorder etc. the steps.
• Creation of custom steps to integrate into a given patch run
• Patch run scheduling, including viewing status of other patch runs
• Automated notification of patch failures
• Post install tasks like Generate Messages, Compile etc just a checkbox
• Creation of Custom Patches that can be applied by adpatch

Note that unfortunately the features don't include patch analysis or automated dependency checking based on the underlying patch Metalink Notes... or should I call them Knowledge Base Notes now? It would be great if the Metalink Notes for Patches were in a strict format so the Change Pack could datamine them and work out patch dependencies etc. Hoping for too much ;-) Of course all features mentioned here are not official yet as Change Pack is due for release sometime in 2009 I think. Bring it on!

Release 12 Payment Manager was the next demo pod, the updates to Payment Batch process from Release 11i and earlier is something I've been looking forward to for a loooong time ... even though parts of it such as easy payment document changes via BI Publisher Templates and built in FTP/SFTP etc delivery are going to negate the need for some of my development time! Good stuff.

The Secure Enterprise Search (SES) for Release 12 demo pod also caught my attention, so took a brief flight through that - seems like it would take quite a bit of configuration to get it working, and more than a few $$ as well, with the need of the SES server and the eBusiness Suite "adaptors". But worth a look all the same ... now where did I put that Google Desktop Search for eBusiness Suite functionality ;-)

Eye Scanning: One of the more fun pods was focussed on UI design by tracking and recording eye movements - so I sat down and after a quick callibration exercise and intro, I went through an eye tracking session. Very very interesting to see where I looked when reading and searching for something on screen. Worth the time - glad the 50K price of the hardware isn't coming out of my budget though!

Well, that wraps up my first OpenWorld. The highlight for me was meeting all the people face to face that I've interacted with or heard about online - the stars from Oracle Forums, Bloggers, Oracle Staff (especially those Product Managers ;-), various NZers/Australians and a bunch of other great people. Good to hang out and catch up at the OTN Lounge, and events like the Bloggers Meetup, OTN Night and APEX Meetup. Hope to hear from you all soon!

Openworld Update: XML/BI Publisher & R12, 11g PL/SQL, ADFdi and more

A few updates on BI Publisher and a couple of interesting notes through the OpenWorld sessions that I attended over the last day or so.

BI Publisher:

• eBusiness Suite Release 12.1 - All standard reports to have Templates (Data still generated in Reports)
• Excel Templates for FSGs from EBS Release 12.0 (currently controlled release)
• DataTemplate Builder coming... still.
• ... did I miss anything? I was hoping for a little more, but beggars can't be choosers, even in San Francisco ;-)

Other Interesting Stuff:

Attended a couple of top sessions today, first was Steven Feuerstein's 11g PL/SQL session on making the most of the Function Result Cache - an important feature in my mind similar in nature to prior PL/SQL performance enhancing features like bulk binding that developers neglect somewhat. Although with its conflict with authid current_user and my focus on the EBS I'm going to have to do some digging to see if its usable with the EBS (apparently not at first glance).

Second was Juan Ruiz's MS Office Front Ends for ADF, where he demo'd upcoming (Q1 2009?) Desktop Integration components for ADF - very sexy stuff, ADF components built into Microsoft Excel 2007 with http/https communication through to backend ADF based model. In the world I live in the solution will definitely gain some traction. A bit of a shame its not here today although there are people/products achieving the same via varying means - a few of them in the audience including a couple of Kiwis (a.k.a. New Zealanders) - nice to see.

The Fusion Applications scene is very hush hush, some rumours around but unfortunately nothing of public attention - Oracle people keeping everything under wraps.

PS. Trying to keep these posts short and to the point given the heap of posts on OpenWorld around.