This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:
| Date | Product | Feature | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 DEC 2020 | Extensibility | Roles Excluded from Migration Set While Importing Are Automatically Excluded from Subsequent Imports | Updated document. Delivered feature in update 20D. |
| 28 OCT 2020 | User Experience | Enhanced Global Search | Updated document. Revised Tips and Considerations. |
| 30 SEP 2020 | User Experience | Enhanced Global Search | Updated document. Revised feature information. |
| 18 SEP 2020 | Created initial document. |
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.
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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
- Click the Navigator, and then click New Features (under the My Enterprise heading)
- On the New Features page, select the offering that includes new features you’d like to review
- Click Go to Opt In for any feature you want to opt in
- 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
- Click the Navigator, and then click Setup and Maintenance
- On the Setup page, select your offering, and then click Change Feature Opt In
- On the Opt In page, click the Edit Features icon for any area that includes features you want to opt in
- 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.
- Click Done.
Opt In Expiration
Occasionally, features delivered Disabled via Opt In may auto enable 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 auto enabling the feature. You can also click here to see features with Opt In Expirations across all Oracle Cloud Applications.
Column Definitions:
Report = New or modified, Oracle-delivered, ready to run reports.
UI or Process-Based: Small Scale = These UI or process-based features are typically comprised of minor field, validation, or program changes. Therefore, the potential impact to users is minimal.
UI or Process-Based: Larger Scale* = These UI or process-based features have more complex designs. Therefore, the potential impact to users is higher.
Features Delivered Disabled = Action is needed BEFORE these features can be used by END USERS. These features are delivered disabled and you choose if and when to enable them. For example, a) new or expanded BI subject areas need to first be incorporated into reports, b) Integration is required to utilize new web services, or c) features must be assigned to user roles before they can be accessed.
| Ready for Use by End Users Reports plus Small Scale UI or Process-Based new features will have minimal user impact after an update. Therefore, customer acceptance testing should focus on the Larger Scale UI or Process-Based* new features. |
Customer Must Take Action before Use by End Users Not disruptive as action is required to make these features ready to use. As you selectively choose to leverage, you set your test and roll out timing. |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature |
Report |
UI or |
UI or |
|
||
Roles Excluded from Migration Set While Importing Are Automatically Excluded from Subsequent Imports |
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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).
Deploy Descriptive Flexfields to Unified Sandboxes
Besides deploying flexfields directly to the mainline environment, you can now also deploy your descriptive flexfield changes to a unified sandbox.
To deploy your descriptive flexfield to a sandbox:
- Create or activate a sandbox, and select Flexfields from the list of tools.
- In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the Manage Descriptive Flexfields task.
- Open the flexfield you want to edit, and make your changes.
- On the Actions menu, select Deploy Flexfield to Sandbox.
By deploying to a sandbox, you can test your changes and then publish your sandbox to make your changes available in the mainline environment.
Steps to Enable
You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.
Tips And Considerations
- For value sets, key flexfields, and extensible flexfields, you must deploy changes directly to the mainline environment, not to a unified sandbox.
- If you make changes to any descriptive flexfield in your unified sandbox, you must deploy your flexfield to the sandbox and test your changes before publishing the sandbox.
Key Resources
- Create and Activate Unified Sandboxes
- Update Existing Setup Data
- Oracle Applications Cloud Configuring and Extending Applications
Create Automated Regression Tests
You can create automated regression tests against your staging pod by following the set of instructions for Oracle ADF - Runtime Automation Sample Library.
Using this tool you can make better use of the limited testing time before you use your production pod.
Steps to Enable
- Please download the Oracle ADF - Runtime Automation Sample Library
- Once downloaded, review the requirements, installation instructions and test automation development steps in the user guide: Test Automation Oracle JDeveloper Java SE Development Kit Selenium WebDriver
Changes Made to ISO Currency Data
As per ISO standards, some ISO currency codes are desupported and are replaced by other currency codes.
| Currency Name | Desupported Currency Code | Replacement Currency Code |
|---|---|---|
| Ouguiya |
MRO |
MRU |
| Dobra |
STD |
STN |
| Manat |
TMM |
TMT |
| Zimbabwe Dollar |
ZWD |
ZWL |
| Zimbabwe Dollar |
ZWR |
ZWL |
List of Desupported Currency Codes and Replacement Currency Codes
These currency codes are desupported and replaced by new ones as per ISO standards.
Steps to Enable
If you’re still using any of these deprecated currency codes in your existing transactions, temporarily remove the end dates of these currencies and close the transactions or wait for the transaction life cycle to complete. You can then add the end dates for the currencies again so that you use new codes for any new transactions.
In General Ledger, you can't change the currency for existing ledgers. So if you're using any desupported currency codes as ledger currencies in primary, secondary, or reporting currency ledgers, then remove the end dates of these currencies to continue using them.
Here's how you update the end date for a currency code:
- In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the Manage Currencies task in the Application Extensions functional area.
- Search for the obsolete currency code, for example STD.
- Remove the end date of the currency code.
- Save your changes.
Key Resources
Roles Excluded from Migration Set While Importing Are Automatically Excluded from Subsequent Imports
Now you don't have to manually remove the same excluded roles from your migration set every time you import data from your source to target environments. That’s because while importing, if you exclude any roles from your migration set, those roles are automatically excluded from subsequent imports. If required, you can always find the excluded roles in the Missing Roles section of the Details dialog box, and manually create them in the target environment.
Excluding roles from a migration sets helps in expediting the migration process.
Steps to Enable
You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.
Key Resources
Role Information
You need to have the Application Administrator (ORA_FND_APPLICATION_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB) role, which gives you access to the Configuration Set Migration work area.
BI Platform Author Role Renamed to BI Author Role
The display name for the BI Platform Author Role is changed to BI Author Role.
This change is reflected in Security Console and the Manage Privileges page, and doesn't affect user security roles and privileges.
Steps to Enable
You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.
New OTBI Usage and Performance Subject Areas
Two new subject areas are provided to monitor OTBI usage and performance:
- OTBI Usage Real Time: Monitors OTBI usage, including user, analysis and dashboard, and subject area usage trends.
- OTBI Performance Real Time: Monitors usage trends and OTBI analysis execution time, execution errors, and database physical SQL execution statistics.
The OTBI Usage Real Time subject area answers the following business questions:
- How many users run OTBI analyses?
- Who are the top N OTBI users?
- How many analyses and dashboards have users run in the past month?
- What is the weekly analysis usage trend?
- What are the top N most frequently run OTBI analyses?
- How many predefined OTBI analyses have been run in the past month?
- How many custom OTBI analyses have been run in the past month?
- How many ad-hoc OTBI analyses have been run in the past month?
- What’s the execution history of a given dashboard in the past month?
- Which analyses have low usage in the past three months?
- How many OTBI SOAP web services have been run in the past month?
- What is the SOAP API data load?
The OTBI Performance Real Time subject area answers the following business questions:
- What are the long-running analyses in the past month?
- What is the OTBI execution time histogram for the past month?
- Which analyses have the longest response time?
- Which analyses have a high row count?
- Which analyses reached the OTBI maximum row limit?
- What are the common execution errors in the past month?
- How many analyses and dashboards failed in the past month?
- What are the most commonly used subject areas?
- What are the least used subject areas?
- Which subject areas have slow performance?
- Which analyses have low usage because of poor performance?
- How many database SQLs are executed by an analysis?
- What is the database SQL execution time and row count?
The new OTBI Usage Real Time and Performance Real Time subject areas provide report authors and administrators real-time insight into usage and performance.
- User pattern
- Analysis and dashboard usage pattern
- Subject area usage pattern
- Common errors
- Reporting data load
- Reporting performance
In addition to descriptive usage statistics, OTBI Performance Real Time subject area also provides detailed run-time execution statistics in query compilation time, database SQL execution time and row counts to proactively manage reporting performance, diagnose performance bottlenecks, and design better-performing analyses and dashboards.
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).
Tips And Considerations
OTBI usage subject areas capture each OTBI query execution and related database SQL execution details for six months. To ensure better performance, add proper filters to ensure optimal reporting performance.
Key Resources
A sample OTBI Usage Dashboard that demonstrates how to use the two new subject areas is posted in Customer Connect.
Role Information
The OTBI usage subject areas are provisioned for two job roles:
- IT Security Manager and
- Application Implementation Consultant.
To use them for other job roles, grant OTBI Usage Transactional Analysis Duty and OTBI Performance Transactional Analysis Duty to custom job roles in Security Console.
You can now enable the search extension framework to enjoy the enhanced experience of real-time global search. With this new framework, you get highly responsive, index-based, and full-text search capabilities. Here are some of the things you can view using this framework.
- List of attributes and their associated set of available values in the search results.
- Action links associated with the searchable objects.
- Recent searches for all the objects enabled in the search.
You can also manage and configure the indexes after they’re created. You can view them as categories in the global search settings. Currently, only the following categories are predefined:
- Purchase Agreements
- Purchase Orders
- Purchase Requisitions
- Suppliers
This framework enhances search performance, and so it increases your productivity and gives you an enhanced user experience across various devices, such as desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
Steps to Enable
Enable the search extension framework to create indexes, ingest predefined indexes, and manage search capabilities.
- Set the Enable/Disable Search Ext Framework (ORA_FND_SEARCH_EXT_ENABLED) profile option to Yes. This profile option is set to No by default.
- Submit the ESS job to create index definition and perform initial ingest to OSCS process for creating indexes and ingesting predefined indexes.
NOTE: The Index Name to Reingest is an optional parameter. If you don’t specify any index names while submitting the process, the process will run for all predefined indexes. We recommend you to create indexes related to your product family only.
Tips And Considerations
- The predefined categories are always available in the global search settings even if the indexes the categories represent are not created.
- Make sure to submit the process for creating indexes and ingesting predefined indexes for each index before you use it. You can also submit the process if the index is already created and you want to ingest it again. Use the following index names when submitting the process:
- Purchase Agreements: fa-prc-pa
- Purchase Orders: fa-prc-po
- Purchase Requisitions: fa-prc-por
- Suppliers: fa-prc-suppliers
Key Resources
Role Information
You must have the Manage Scheduled Job Definition (FND_MANAGE_SCHEDULED_JOB_DEFINITION_PRIV) privilege to run scheduled processes for enabling the search extension framework.
Updated Oracle ADF Desktop Integration Add-In
You can now download the latest version of the Oracle ADF Desktop Integration add-in, version 5.0.5.21469. With this version, you get Croatian as another language for translation.
This version of Oracle ADF Desktop Integration add-in gives you Croatian as another language for translation.
Steps to Enable
You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.
Key Resources