Update 19D

Revision History

Date	Feature	Notes
20 FEB 2020	Approvals and Notifications: Enable In-App Workflow Notifications Without Email Notifications	Updated document. Delivered feature in update 19D.
20 SEP 2019		Created initial document.

Overview

This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in this update, and describes any tasks you might need to perform for the update. Each section includes a brief description of the feature, the steps you need to take to enable or begin using the feature, any tips or considerations that you should keep in mind, and the resources available to help you.

Give Us Feedback

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at oracle_fusion_applications_help_ww_grp@oracle.com.

Optional Uptake of New Features (Opt In)

Oracle Cloud Applications delivers new updates every quarter. This means every three months you'll receive new functionality to help you efficiently and effectively manage your business.  Some features are delivered Enabled meaning they are immediately available to end users. Other features are delivered Disabled meaning you have to take action to make available. Features delivered Disabled can be activated for end users in a couple of ways:

Access the Opt In page from the New Features Work Area

1. Click the Navigator, and then click New Features (under the My Enterprise heading)
2. On the New Features page, select the offering that includes new features you’d like to review
3. Click Go to Opt In for any feature you want to opt in
4. On the Edit Features page, select the Enable option for the feature, and then click Done

or...  Access the Opt In page from the Setup and Maintenance Work Area

1. Click the Navigator, and then click Setup and Maintenance
2. On the Setup page, select your offering, and then click Change Feature Opt In
3. On the Opt In page, click the Edit Features icon for any area that includes features you want to opt in
4. On the Edit Features page, select the Enable option for any feature you want to opt in to. If the Enable column includes an Edit icon instead of a check box, then click the icon, select your feature options, and click Save and Close. 
5. Click Done.

Opt In Expiration

Occasionally, features delivered Disabled via Opt In may be enabled automatically in a future update. This is known as an Opt In Expiration. If your cloud service has any Opt In Expirations you will see a related tab in this document. Click on that tab to see when the feature was originally delivered Disabled, and when the Opt In will expire, potentially automatically enabling the feature. You can also click here to see features with Opt In Expirations across all Oracle Cloud Applications.

Feature Summary

BI Cloud Connector

Inactive and Unavailable BI View Objects (BIVOs) and BIVO Columns for Exclusion from Extraction in BI Cloud Connector

Beginning with Update 18B, there are BI View Objects and BI View Object columns that are unavailable or marked inactive in Oracle Applications Cloud. The unavailable and inactive objects and columns must be excluded from BICC extracts.

Steps to Enable

Refer to this link for a list of BIVOs and BIVO columns that are unavailable for extraction using BI Cloud Connector (BICC).

OTBI Metadata Independent Mode for Extraction

In update 19C, BI View Objects may now be extracted in OTBI Metadata Independent Mode.

Oracle Development strongly recommends that you switch your BICC extracts to use OTBI Metadata Independent mode by update 20C.

Steps to Enable

USE THE OTBI METADATA INDEPENDENT MODE

New implementations of BICC in 19C use the feature by default. All Data Stores (BIVOs) are in OTBI Independent Mode (OTBI Metadata dependent option is deselected).

NOTE: The mode for all BIVOs in a job can be managed either at the Job or the BIVO level using the Manage Jobs Console in BICC. All BIVOs default to OTBI Independent Mode when using the Manage Jobs feature. It's recommended to use the Manage Jobs functionality instead of using the Manage Offering and Data Stores option to manage the extract mode of the BIVOs.

Existing BICC implementations with BIVOs delivered prior to 19C retain their configuration with OTBI Metadata Dependent mode. Before update 20C, you must switch these BIVOs to use the OTBI Metadata Independent mode and test and validate your integration using the new mode.

Key Resources

• Update 19C: Introducing OTBI Metadata Independent Mode Using BI Cloud Connector (BICC)

Extensibility

Scheduled Batch Processing of Custom Logic Now Available for ERP and SCM Custom Objects

You can now use Scheduled Processes to run a custom object's object function on a set of records at a scheduled time. You can process a set of records on a daily or weekly basis, for example, and you can do it asynchronously, when users don't need to see immediate feedback on the UI.

NOTE: When scheduling and submitting a job, you must have the correct privileges so that the function can update records as part of the job. Refer to the Role section for details.

You can schedule and submit Schedule Custom Groovy Object Functions process for top-level ERP and SCM custom objects only. You can't do this for ERP and SCM standard objects.

Object functions are custom logic written in Groovy. When writing a function, keep the following points in mind:

• You can write a function as complex as needed.
• You can write a function to return values in a text file.
• The function can be long-running (up to 30 minutes without blocking the UI)
  • If the process times out, the transaction is not committed and no records are updated. As a best practice, you can break down a job into manageable chunks by processing only a smaller set of records per job.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

• How to Create and Use Object Functions

Role Information

To schedule and submit the Schedule Custom Groovy Object Functions job, you must have one of the following roles:

• Customer Relationship Management Application Administrator
• Application Implementation Consultant
• Master Data Management Application Administrator

Unified Sandboxes

You can now use the Unified Sandboxes feature, which is the opt-in feature enabled for you by default. Use Unified Sandboxes to enhance your user experience and productivity when working with sandboxes. With Unified Sandboxes, you can refresh and merge sandboxes with changes in the mainline metadata, and do many other new and versatile sandbox activities. In addition to making the sandbox experience more consistent across all configuration tools, this feature also introduces a more robust user interface. You also get a new UI for Configuration Set Migration, and new migration options with this feature.

NOTE: Your classic sandboxes, which existed before the Unified Sandboxes feature was enabled, still exist. If needed, you can opt out of the Unified Sandboxes  feature to use the classic sandboxes. 

Here's what you can do using Unified Sandboxes:

• Select the configuration tools to enable for your sandboxes while creating them.
• Enable all configuration tools in the same way using the Sandboxes UI. So you get a consistent sandbox experience across tools.
• Make changes in data security, lookups, and messages within sandboxes.
• Restrict access to various sandbox activities for users. For example, you can specify these access rights for your sandboxes:
  • Full Access
  • Edit and Preview Access
  • View Only Access
• Preview and test your sandbox changes, without publishing the sandbox.
• Refresh and merge sandboxes with latest changes in mainline metadata from other published sandboxes. After merging all changes, you can publish your sandbox.
• While using Unified Sandboxes, if you register your target environment in your source environment, you can do these additional migration tasks using the Migration UI:
  • Migrate your changes from the test environment to the target environment without manually downloading and uploading the configuration set file.
  • Move only new changes from the source environment to the target environment.
  • While applying your migration set to the target environment, you import the set into a sandbox instance in the target environment.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Here are a few limitations:

• You can't use multiple Unified Sandboxes to edit the same object in Application Composer.
• You can't deploy flexfields in Unified Sandboxes.

Offering: Multiple Offerings                         

Key Resources

• Configuring Offerings
• Unified Sandboxes

Role Information

• Privilege Name and Code:
  • Review Applications Offering (ASM_REVIEW_APPLICATIONS_OFFERINGS_PRIV)
  • Configure Oracle Fusion Applications Offering (ASM_CONFIGURE_OFFERING_PRIV)

User Experience

Applications Help Moves to Oracle Help Center

Instead of accessing help through a separate Applications Help portal, all help and documentation is now available from a single location: Oracle Help Center. As before, Help links in the applications continue to open topics that users need to complete their tasks. But now the topics open in the context of a guide on Oracle Help Center where you can easily see all the related content in a logical sequence. You can still create and manage your company-created help content in the same way as before.

Benefits include:

• Fewer clicks to open help content.
• Help opens in a new browser tab or window so you can keep it open while you work.
• Help opens with a table of contents so it's easier to find additional related content.
• Oracle Help Center supports your mobile devices as well as your desktop.

The Applications Help link in the Settings and Actions menu opens the Oracle Help Center, where you can search and browse for additional content.

If you previously created your own help content, it will still be available in the help windows where you added it. You can continue to create new help content directly in a help window on any application page that has help icons. Or you can use the new Manage Help Content task, which you'll find in the Application Extensions functional area of your offering in the Setup and Maintenance work area.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

If you want to provide a way for your users to search across your company-added help content, you can configure Global Search to use the Help category. See: Overview of Global Search Setup.

Key Resources

• Help chapter
• Help Configuration chapter

Role Information

As before, to create and manage your own help content, you need a role with the Manage Help Content (ATK_CUSTOMIZE_HELP_TOPICS_PRIV) privilege.

Reporting and Analytics

Set Parameters as Mandatory

You can now set a parameter as mandatory during data model design and it appears as mandatory with an asterisk next to the label, as shown below in the Report Viewer and Scheduler pages:

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

1. If you click Apply without entering or selecting a value, mandatory parameters are highlighted for entry or selection before a report can run or a job can be scheduled. Because of this, you need to disable auto run in report properties when mandatory parameters are included in a report.
2. Mandatory parameter validation checks for empty parameters. It doesn’t validate the parameter values, for example data types, data formats, and so on. Value validation can be done at the query level.

Creating New Direct Database Query in BI Answers is Disabled

To protect data security and prevent slow-running reports, the capability to create Direct Database Query in BI Answers is disabled.  BI Administrators will no longer be able to create new BI analyses with Direct Database Query or modify existing ones but they can continue to execute existing ones in 19D.  Customers are advised that in the upcoming 20A update, the capability to execute Direct Database Query in BI Answers will be permanently removed.  This change does not affect the SQL capabilities in BI Publisher.

Steps to Enable

Leverage new subject area(s) by adding to existing reports or using in new reports. For details about creating and editing reports, see the Creating and Administering Analytics and Reports book (available from the Oracle Help Center > your apps service area of interest > Books > Administration).

Customers who have created reports with Direct Database Query in BI Answers must review those reports and if required, migrate those reports to use OTBI subject areas or BI publisher.

Tips And Considerations

In OTBI security administration, the permission for 'Edit Direct Database Analysis' privilege has been changed to 'Denied to Authenticated User'.  BI Administrator can change the permission on the security administration UI but this change does not affect the default 'Denied to Authenticated Users' system setting. 

This feature change affects users with BI Administrator role.

Configure New BI Reporting Duty Roles to Hide the Factory Catalog Folders

Users are provisioned with the BI Consumer role, which allows you to navigate the entire BI catalog folder structure. Analytics and reports are properly secured based on your security profile. You may have a need to hide some or all of the factory BI catalog content. To allow modification of catalog folder access, BI has introduced a new set of BI catalog reporting duty roles to secure catalog root folders. The new feature provides the ability to :

• Hide the entire factory BI catalog
• Selectively display seeded BI family root folders
• Limit users who have access to factory BI catalog

Steps to Enable

Make the feature accessible by assigning or updating privileges and/or job roles. Details are provided in the Role section below.

You can hide top-level catalog folders, for example Financials, Human Capital Management, and so on. As an example, to hide the factory root folders by removing access to non-CRM folders for all CRM users.

1. Open the Security Console.
2. Search for Custom BI Webcat Reporting Duty.
3. Click the Actions button in the Search Result Count area and select Edit Role.
4. Click Next to navigate to the Role Hierarchy step and delete all non-CRM related roles until only CRM reporting duty roles remain.
5. Synchronize security changes. Select Scheduled Processes in the Navigator and submit the Import User and Role Application Security Data process.
6. Refresh BI caches. Navigate to Oracle BI and click Administration. In the Maintenance and troubleshooting section, select Reload Files and Metadata.
7. Log in to Answers. Only CRM root folders are displayed.

Tips And Considerations

• If you do nothing, you will see no change in BI catalog access or running reports.

• You can hide all factory shared folders, which hides all shipped reports from your users, by removing all family folder reporting roles from the newly-provisioned Custom BI Webcat Reporting Role in Security Console.

• You can restrict users to shipped reports in one family and hide all other folders and content. For example, to limiting user access to shipped Financials reports, you can remove all family folder reporting roles except for Financials Folder Reporting Role in Security Console.  

• This new feature has no impact on custom folders or reports.  

• The new Custom BI Webcat Reporting Role and family folder reporting duty roles control access to shipped top-level folders and don't affect or change report security privileges set by existing OTBI duty roles or BIP reporting privileges.

Key Resources

For detailed documentation, please refer to OTBI product help.

Role Information

New BI folder reporting duty roles are:

BI_COMMON_CONTENT_REPORTING_DUTY	Common Content Folder Reporting Duty
CUSTOM_BI_WEBCAT_REPORTING_DUTY	Custom BI Webcat Reporting Role
BI_CDM_REPORTING_DUTY	Customer Data Management Folder Reporting Duty
BI_OKC_REPORTING_DUTY	Enterprise Contracts Folder Reporting Duty
BI_EXT_REPORTING_DUTY	Extension Folder Reporting Duty
BI_FIN_REPORTING_DUTY	Financials Folder Reporting Duty
BI_HED_REPORTING_DUTY	Higher Education Folder Reporting Duty
BI_HCM_REPORTING_DUTY	Human Capital Management Folder Reporting Duty
BI_IC_REPORTING_DUTY	Incentive Compensation Folder Reporting Duty
BI_LOY_REPORTING_DUTY	Loyalty Folder Reporting Duty
BI_MFG_REPORTING_DUTY	Manufacturing Folder Reporting Duty
BI_MKT_REPORTING_DUTY	Marketing Folder Reporting Duty
BI_ZPM_REPORTING_DUTY	Partner Folder Reporting Duty
BI_PRC_REPORTING_DUTY	Procurement Folder Reporting Duty
BI_PRJ_REPORTING_DUTY	Projects Folder Reporting Duty
BI_PSC_REPORTING_DUTY	Public Sector Folder Reporting Duty
BI_GRC_REPORTING_DUTY	Risk Management Folder Reporting Duty
BI_ZBS_REPORTING_DUTY	Sales Folder Reporting Duty
BI_SVC_REPORTING_DUTY	Service Folder Reporting Duty
BI_OSS_REPORTING_DUTY	Subscription Management Folder Reporting Duty
BI_SCM_REPORTING_DUTY	Supply Chain Management Folder Reporting Duty

Support for CLOB Data Without XML Tags

If your SQL data set has a CLOB column, the general behavior of a data model is to wrap the CLOB within wrapper XML tags. In many cases, it's desirable to see the data exactly as it's stored. You can now enable the Exclude Tags for CLOB Columns data model XML Output Options property to remove the wrapper XML tags.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Enable this property only when the Data Model uses SQL Data set with one CLOB column.

Approvals and Notifications

Enable In-App Workflow Notifications Without Email Notifications

In test or stage environments, you might not want email notifications to be sent when you test workflow setup and transactions. In BPM Worklist, select In-app as the notification mode if you want notifications only in the list that you get when you click the Notifications icon in the global header. Or, select None to have no notifications at all. When you're ready to send emails again, you can select Email to send only email notifications, or All to have notifications in both the global header and emails. The same notification mode options are in BPM Worklist in the production environment.

1. Click the Notifications icon on the global header.

2. Click More Details.

3. In BPM Worklist, click your user name and select Administration.

4. On the Application Preferences page that's on the Administration tab, select a value from the Notification Mode list.

5. Click Save.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Disable or Enable Workflow Notifications

Role Information

To use this feature, you need a role that lets you perform administrative tasks in BPM Worklist.