Update 23A

Revision History

This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:

Date	Module	Feature	Notes
12 MAY 2023	User Experience	Updated CKEditor for Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications	Updated document. Added link to MOS note.
12 MAY 2023	API and Schema	Notice About Obsolete Tables in Oracle Fusion Applications	Removed from document. No more updates to this notice in update 23A.
15 FEB 2023	IMPORTANT Actions and Considerations	New ODA Platform Features and Their Availability in SaaS Skills	Updated document. Revised section.
07 FEB 2023	User Experience	Updated Oracle ADF Desktop Integration Add-In	Updated document. Revised feature information.
16 DEC 2022			Created initial document.

Overview

HAVE AN IDEA?

We’re here and we’re listening. If you have a suggestion on how to make our cloud services even better then go ahead and tell us. There are several ways to submit your ideas, for example, through the Ideas Lab on Oracle Customer Connect. Wherever you see this icon after the feature name it means we delivered one of your ideas.

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.

DISCLAIMER

The information contained in this document may include statements about Oracle’s product development plans. Many factors can materially affect Oracle’s product development plans and the nature and timing of future product releases. Accordingly, this Information is provided to you solely for information only, is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

This information may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Oracle specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this information. Refer to the Legal Notices and Terms of Use for further information.

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 by stepping through the following instructions using the following privileges:

• Review Applications Offering (ASM_REVIEW_APPLICATIONS_OFFERINGS_PRIV)
• Configure Oracle Fusion Applications Offering (ASM_CONFIGURE_OFFERING_PRIV)

Here’s how you opt in to new features:

1. Click Navigator > My Enterprise > New Features.
2. On the Features Overview page, select your offering to review new features specific to it. Or, you can leave the default selection All Enabled Offerings to review new features for all offerings.
3. On the New Features tab, review the new features and check the opt-in status of the feature in the Enabled column. If a feature has already been enabled, you will see a check mark. Otherwise, you will see an icon to enable the feature.
4. Click the icon in the Enabled column and complete the steps to enable the feature.

For more information and detailed instructions on opting in to new features for your offering, see Offering Configuration.

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 in this update, 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 current Opt In Expirations across all Oracle Cloud Applications. Beyond the current update, the Financials forums on Cloud Customer Connect have details of Opt In Expirations upcoming in future updates.

Feature Summary

Common Technologies and User Experience

User Experience

Changes in the User Image or Name Icon in the Global Header

For saved classic themes, the shape of the user image or name icon in the global header is changed to match the Redwood look and feel of the application.

Before the 23A release, the icon for the user image or name was rounded when any saved classic theme, which you create based on a predefined non-Redwood theme, was applied to the application.

Now the shape of the icon is updated to a rectangle with rounded corners. This change doesn’t apply to Visual Builder pages.

This change is made to have a consistent look and feel across the application.

Steps to Enable

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

View Additional Audit Information About Attachments

You can now use the Audit Reports work area to view audit information about the download, check-in, and checkout actions done on attachments.

While generating an audit report for a business object with attachments, you can select the Include attachment details check box and specify the actions from the Event Type list. Previously, you could only view audit information about the create, update, and delete actions on attachments. But now, you can also select these additional actions from the Event Type list.

• Attachment Check-In
• Attachment Checkout
• Attachment Download
• Attachment Cancel Checkout

This is the Audit Reports screen with the new options for attachments.

You can view details such as who checked in or checked out the attachment, who opened or downloaded the attachment, and the download location.

Steps to Enable

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

Key Resources

• Audit Reports (Available January 6, 2023)

Access Requirements

To view the history or create a report, you must have a role with the View Audit History (FND_VIEW_AUDIT_HISTORY_PRIV) privilege assigned to it.

Get News Feed Suggestions On Your Next Likely Actions

Get suggestions on your next likely actions in your news feed layout. This feature is currently in Controlled Availability and is available in Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, Financials, Project Management, and Procurement. Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms predict and suggest the actions each user is most likely to take during a session. The algorithms use historic navigation behavior and patterns of each user and users like them to determine which navigation target they’re most likely to visit.

Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications have a wide range of functionality and it can sometimes be difficult to know how to navigate to a task. With news feed suggestions, you can get to the tasks that matter faster. For example, if reviewing and approving expense reports is a task commonly performed by managers in your organization, new managers will receive a suggestion in their news feed to perform that task. Or if a few team members are entering performance goals, other members of that team see this task as a suggestion in their news feed.

Business benefits include:

• Receive recommendations in your news feed on your next likely actions during that session
• Discover actions that other users like you have taken within Fusion
• As an administrator, you can pin specific task flow pages as a suggestion to raise the visibility of the task

Suggestions Tab in the News Feed Layout Showing Six Recommendations

Steps to Enable

To enable this feature, you need to log a Service Request (SR) through My Oracle Support and request for a promotion code. This feature is currently in Controlled Availability and requires a promotion code. For specific details on steps to enable:

• For HCM, see Fusion Global HR: How to Apply for News Feed Suggestions Under Controlled Availability (DOC ID 2914373.1).
• For Procurement, see PRC:PO: How to Apply for News Feed Suggestions Under Controlled Availability (Doc ID 2915145.1).
• For Financials and Project Management, see Fusion Global FIN/PPM: How to Apply for News Feed Suggestions Under Controlled Availability (Doc ID 2915308.1)

Updated Oracle ADF Desktop Integration Add-In

You can now download the latest version of the Oracle ADF Desktop Integration add-in, version 5.1.2.24946. In this version, the add-in installer, adfdi-excel-addin-installer.exe is removed. So, instead of that add-in installer, you should now use one of the MSI-based add-in installers to install the Oracle ADF Desktop Integration add-in for Excel. For more information, see How to install the ADF Desktop Integration Add-in for Excel (2681794.1) on My Oracle Support.

If you have created any add-in installation scripts using the command-line interface of adfdi-excel-addin-installer.exe, you must update such scripts to work with the MSI-based installers.

The new version of the Excel add-in addresses known issues.

Steps to Enable

You need to install the new add-in on each desktop. For more information, see How to install the ADF Desktop Integration Add-in for Excel (2681794.1) on My Oracle Support.

Key Resources

• Oracle ADF Desktop Integration Add-In for Excel

Updated CKEditor for Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications

Some product families in Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications have been leveraging CKEditor, an open-source text editor that requires no client-side installation. CKEditor 4 is supported only until mid of 2023. So, instances of CKEditor are now migrated from CKEditor 4 to CKEditor 5. For a list of known issues associated with CKEditor 5, see CKEditor Upgrade Release Notes (2945686.1) on My Oracle Support.

CKEditor in Fusion Applications provides you with a seamless text editing experience.

Steps to Enable

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

Key Resources

• CKEditor Upgrade Release Notes (2945686.1) on My Oracle Support

Extensibility

Simplified Configuration for Oracle Guided Learning Integration

Instead of requiring you to provide details such as the mapping of roles, the Configure Guided Learning page has been simplified. The main thing you need to enter would just be the application ID that was given to you when you first got Oracle Guided Learning. The only other setting is a new OGL Server field, which has a default value and doesn't need to be changed unless you need to point to a test server instead, for example.

If predefined roles change in the future, you no longer need to come back and update the Guided Learning configuration accordingly. Also, to minimize the risk of something breaking, the Advanced Settings section is no longer available for custom Javascript.

Steps to Enable

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

Key Resources

• Manage Guided Learning for Onboarding and Training

Access Requirements

You must have privileges that give you access to the Sandboxes and Setup and Maintenance work areas.

Updated Oracle Visual Builder Studio

Here are some key things you can now do to extend your application pages using Visual Builder Studio:

• Navigate to an App UI from any other App UI after it’s published

When an App UI is published, you can now navigate to it from any other App UI. Previously, you could only navigate to dependent App UIs. Remember that to navigate to a flow or page that’s not the default in the published App UI, the flow or page must still be marked for navigation. For more information, see Navigate Between Pages in Different App UIs.

• Select the pillar your App UI belongs to

The Pillar Theme property in the settings of an App UI, renamed as Pillar, now requires you to select the pillar your App UI belongs to. This way, the App UIs that belong to a particular pillar are automatically assigned with that pillar's color theme, whereas previously you could pick a color. For more information, see Establish App UI Settings.

• Write back the changes in a variable's value to a fragment's parent container

When a fragment variable is marked as an input parameter for a page variable, you can now use the new Write Back to Container property, available on the Properties pane of a fragment variable. You can use this property to automatically write back changes in the fragment variable's value to the page variable used as an input parameter. This option provides a convenient and powerful alternative for raising the custom events that emit to the parent container. For visual apps, see Automatically Write Back a Fragment Variable's Value to Its Container Variable. For extensions, see Automatically Write Back a Fragment Variable's Value to Its Container Variable.

• Create pages with a fragment's content when the fragment is tagged with the page metadata

You can now create pages prepopulated with a fragment's content when the fragment is tagged with the page metadata that surfaces it as page-level content. This way, you can easily create pages with initial content, both from the Create Page dialog as well as the app-level Flow Diagram. For visual apps, see Create a Page With a Fragment and Add a Page in the Flow Diagram. For extensions, see Create a Page With a Fragment and Add a Page in the Flow Diagram.

• Customize the Properties pane of a fragment variable to suit the UI component that’s used to edit the variable in the Page Designer

You can now customize the Properties pane of a fragment variable to suit the UI component that’s used to edit the variable in the Page Designer. Previously, the Properties pane always used text field components for editing the values of the fragment variables. For visual apps, see Customize How a Fragment Variable is Displayed in the Properties Pane. For extensions, see Customize How a Fragment Variable is Displayed in the Properties Pane.

• Suggest a fragment as preferred content for components

You can now suggest a fragment as preferred content for components. For example, if you choose FoldoutPanelElement, users working with a foldout layout see this fragment suggested as content that can be added as a foldout section. For visual apps, see Manage Fragment Settings. For extensions, see Manage Fragment Settings.

With this update, the listItem and foldoutPanel options are no longer available for the Used For setting.

• Create a fragment from the Components Palette

You can now use the Create icon next to the Fragments category to create a fragment directly from the Components Palette. For visual apps, see Create and Add a Fragment to a Page. For extensions, see Create and Add a Fragment to a Page.

• Smart Delete

When you delete items, such as variables, types, event listeners, and action chains, VB Studio now provides a smart delete functionality. It detects if the item is currently used in your application, or if it has related but unused items elsewhere in the application. If you use VB Studio to extend Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, it also checks if the item is exposed to an extension. You then have the option to confirm and delete the item as well as any unused related items.

• Accessibility improvement for the Tab key

When working with code editors, you can now change the default behavior of the code editor for the Tab key. For example, you can change the behavior to add four spaces in the editor when you press the Tab key. For visual apps, see Keyboard Shortcuts for Code Editors. For extensions, see Keyboard Shortcuts for Code Editors.

• Git Improvements

• • The Git panel, which tracks changes in your workspace, is now badged to show a Git summary of your workspace. You can use this badge view without accessing the Git panel to get a count of the files that have changed in the workspace. You can also view a color indicator for the type of changes. For visual apps, see Manage Your Visual Applications With Git. For extensions, see Get Oriented With Git.
  • The file-level diff editor has now been improved to refresh automatically when the contents of the file change. Previously, you had to click the Refresh icon (now removed as an option) to refresh the diff view. For visual apps, see File-Management Operations. For extensions, see File Management Commands.

• Create pages based on Redwood templates and patterns

You can now create pages based on Redwood templates and patterns to leverage high-fidelity interactions and responsive performance for your application pages. While these templates and patterns are useful to create pages that provide a consistent user experience across your application, it's just as easy to customize them to suit your business requirements. For visual apps, see Create Pages From Template Patterns. For extensions, see Create Pages From Template Patterns.

• You can use these improved capabilities to improve your design experience:
  • View page initialization time

A new Timer icon in the Page Designer's canvas now displays a breakdown of how long different tasks, such as bootstrapping and loading a shell page take to display the page. You can use this information to isolate runtime issues that may cause your application to load slowly.

• • Improved tab bar

The tab bar is now redesigned to always show the active tab, even when the window is resized. When you have multiple tabs open, you can use the mouse or keyboard to scroll through them—though moving the focus away will bring the active tab back into focus.  You can also use a new Drop-Down icon to view a drop-down list of overflow tabs.

• • Components in Components palette categories expanded by default

The default view for the Components palette is now changed to always show components in every category. This view is controlled by a new Expanded By Default option in the Components palette's options menu. Note that changing this setting when working in a page editor won't change your current view. The changes take effect when you open a new editor. To change this setting in your current view, you'll need to use the Expand All and Collapse All options.

• • Preferred category of components for use in slots

When you use Insert component in the Structure view to drop a component directly into a slot, a list of recommended components now shows up under a Preferred category. These components are recommended based on the type of component that can be used in the slot.

• • Insert a component in code editors

You can now insert a component before, inside, or after an existing component from a code editor's right-click menu.

The new Visual Builder Studio functionality provides you with a platform to extend your Fusion Applications extensively.

Steps to Enable

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

Key Resources

• Navigate Between Pages in Different App UIs
• Establish App UI Settings
• Automatically Write Back a Fragment Variable's Value to Its Container Variable (For visual apps)
• Automatically Write Back a Fragment Variable's Value to Its Container Variable (For extensions)
• Create a Page With a Fragment (For visual apps)
• Create a Page With a Fragment (For extensions)
• Add a Page in the Flow Diagram (For visual apps)
• Add a Page in the Flow Diagram (For extensions)
• Customize How a Fragment Variable is Displayed in the Properties Pane (For visual apps)
• Customize How a Fragment Variable is Displayed in the Properties Pane (For extensions)
• Manage Fragment Settings (For visual apps)
• Manage Fragment Settings (For extensions)
• Create and Add a Fragment to a Page (For visual apps)
• Create and Add a Fragment to a Page (For extensions)
• Keyboard Shortcuts for Code Editors (For visual apps)
• Keyboard Shortcuts for Code Editors (For extensions)
• Manage Your Visual Applications With Git (For visual apps)
• Get Oriented With Git (For extensions)
• File-Management Operations (For visual apps)
• File Management Commands (For extensions)
• Create Pages From Template Patterns (For visual apps)
• Create Pages From Template Patterns (For extensions)

Approvals and Notifications

Resend Approval Email Notifications

You can now resend approval email notifications for in-progress transactions. You can select one or more transactions in the Transaction Console page or drill-down to the Transaction details page for a transaction and use Resend Email Notification in the Actions menu to notify assignees.

Resend Email Notification in Actions Menu on the Details Page

Confirmation Message Displays for Selected Transactions

When you click Resend Email Notification, if there are multiple tasks and assignees in the transaction then those tasks and assignees display in a dialog box. You can select the assignees to whom you want to send the notification. By default, all the assignees are selected in the dialog box.

After the notification is sent, the appropriate status displays in the Status dialog box.

Status Dialog Box for Submitted Process

This feature provides the ability to resend email notifications in the event of any email deletions or loss of email data.

Steps to Enable

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

Tips And Considerations

• This action is available only to administrators and for in-progress assigned transactions.
• If there’s a change in the email ID after the first notification then on the resend the new email ID is automatically used.

Key Resources

• Manage Workflow Transactions
• Actions for Managing Transactions

Access Requirements

You need to grant administrators the Perform HCM Approval Transaction Actions (PER_PERFORM_APPROVAL_TRANSACTION_ACTIONS_PRIV) privilege.

Archive Reminder in Transaction Console

The Transaction Console work area now displays a yellow banner that reminds users to archive completed transactions. The banner displays when the archive process hasn't been run in the past 3 months.

You can use Archive Now to immediately archive the transactions. When you click Archive Now, a confirmation displays. If you click Dismiss, the notification is snoozed for 24 hours, after which the message displays again.

This feature improves the performance of the Transaction Console work area.

Steps to Enable

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

Key Resources

• Archive and Purge Transactions

Access Requirements

To access the Transaction Console work area, users need the Perform HCM Approval Transaction Actions (PER_PERFORM_APPROVAL_TRANSACTION_ACTIONS_PRIV) privilege.

Diagnostic Log Availability and Attachments in Transaction Console

The Transaction Console work area now lets you do the following:

• Download the diagnostic log for healthy pending transactions.
• View details of all the attachments added at any stage of the transaction in the diagnostic log.

Select an in-progress transaction, open the transaction details page, and use the Download link. This downloads the details of the transaction in .html format.

Any attachments that you add as part of the transaction are listed in the Attachments section in the .html file.

With this feature, you now have the ability to review the diagnostic log for more transactions, with more information in the log.

Steps to Enable

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

Key Resources

• Manage Workflow Transactions

Access Requirements

To access the Transaction Console work area, users need the Perform HCM Approval Transaction Actions (PER_PERFORM_APPROVAL_TRANSACTION_ACTIONS_PRIV) privilege.

Reporting and Analytics

Deprecated and New BI View Objects in Oracle BI Cloud Connector

Business Intelligence View Objects (BIVOs) that are deprecated are no longer available for extraction using BI Cloud Connector (BICC).

If you use BICC to extract data from Oracle Fusion Applications Cloud, review the Deprecated and New BI View Objects spreadsheets to identify deprecated, inactive, and new BIVOs so that you can revise your BICC tasks to omit deprecated BIVOs and include new ones as appropriate.

You can use this information to omit deprecated and inactive BIVOs from your BICC tasks and add new ones as appropriate.

Steps to Enable

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

Key Resources

• R13.x Deprecated and New BI View Objects

IMPORTANT Actions and Considerations

NEW ODA PLATFORM FEATURES AND THEIR AVAILABILITY in SAAS SKILLS

When new features are added to the Oracle Digital Assistant (ODA) platform, product development needs to uptake them to add to the certified skill platform version. For example, the installed FADigitalAssistant 22.07.61 version is certified for the new features added in the 22.02 platform version.

• The features added in the 22.02 platform version won't be available in the FADigitalAssistant 22.04.60 version certified for the 21.12 platform version. That’s because the 21.12 platform version is lower than 22.02, and isn't backward compatible. You must upgrade to the latest FADA skill version and incorporate the new features into the skills while upgrading. For more information, see Upgrade Digital Assistant and Add a Skill to a Digital Assistant.

• See this table for the latest ODA skill platform version and the corresponding FADA skill release version.

  Certified ODA Skill Platform Version	New Feature	Skills Supporting New Feature	Certified FADA Skill Release Version
  22.08	None	N/A	23.01.42

NOTE: In the FADA version number, the first four digits correspond to the application release and the last two digits show the FADigitalAssistant version within the release. For example, in the 22.07.48 version, 22 corresponds to the year 2022, and 07 corresponds to the quarterly release (01 = A, 04 = B, 07 = C, 10 = D) of the application version. The last two digits, 48, show the FADigitalAssistant version within the 22.07 release. The platform version is displayed in a four-digit format, the first two digits show the year, and the next two digits show the month. For example, in the 22.02 platform version, 22 corresponds to the year 2022, and 02 corresponds to February.

DEPRECATION OF OLDER DIGITAL ASSISTANT SKILL VERSIONS

The Digital Assistant and its skills continuously receive updates as they get smarter and provide enhanced conversational experiences. In every release, check for updated versions in the Skill Store. Versions stop working when the underlying platform version becomes inactive, at the longest 2 years after release.

The Expenses skill built using Oracle Digital Assistant platform version 20.08 is deprecated and may become obsolete soon. You can continue using your skill in platform version 20.08. However, no updates or bug fixes for this specific version of the skill will be provided. We encourage you to move to the latest version of the Expenses skill at the earliest opportunity.

• For more information on the lifecycle phases of skill versions, see Lifecycle Phases of Platform Versions.
• For more information on recently-added features and enhancements in the different versions of the ODA platform, see What's New in ODA.