11i Extend Oracle Applications: Customizing OA Framework Applications

Introduction

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Course Objectives

After completing this course, you should be able to do the following: Personalize an existing OA Framework page Deploy an OA Framework page, personalization, and BC4J Substitution Extend an existing OA Framework page Use the basic capabilities of JDeveloper with OA Extension Understand the basic architecture of OA Framework

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Concepts: Pages

A page is a location a user can navigate to from a menu, tab, or another page. A page provides a specific piece of functionality. A page is also called a form. An administrator can create personalizations at page level.

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Concepts: Regions

A region is a specific part of a page. Arranged hierarchically (regions within a region, within a region, and so on). An administrator can create personalizations at the region level. An end user can create personalizations for specific regions (for inquiry pages if enabled).

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Concepts: Region Hierarchy

Region

Region

Region

Item Item

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Concepts: Items

An item is a field, button, poplist, or other user interface widget. Items must be contained in a region. An administrator can personalize almost all items. An end user can personalize items in specific regions (for inquiry pages if enabled).

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Concepts: View Object (VO)

A View Object (VO) can be thought of as a SELECT statement. It is the means by which OA Framework pages query data. It should not be confused with a database view.

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Concepts: Entity Object (EO)

An Entity Object (EO) can be thought of as the representation of a Table. But, it is more that just the table. It is also all the operations, INSERTS, UPDATES, DELETES, and VALIDATIONS that can be done against the data in the table. It is the business logic.

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Concepts: Application Module (AM)

An Application Module can be thought of as the transaction. For OA Framework pages, it holds the database connection along with the transaction state.

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User Personalizations (Before)

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User Personalizations (After)

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User Personalizations (After)

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Profile Options (Before)

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Profile Options (After)

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Administrator-seeded Personalizations (Before)

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Administrator-seeded Personalizations (After)

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Administrator Personalization (Before)

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Administrator Personalization (After)

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2&3 4

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Configurable Pages (Before)

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Configurable Pages (After)

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Extension Adding Attributes (Before)

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Extension Adding Attributes (After)

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Extension Default Value (Before)

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Extension Default Value (After)

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Extension Business Logic (Before)

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Extension Business Logic (After)

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Important Terminology

Installation
The process of moving Oracle Applications from the distribution media (i.e., CD or DVD) to the host system. The complexity of the process and the tasks to complete the move are based on the operating system (i.e., Windows, Linux, etc.) of the host system. After installation, the host system is running, but it is not a fully-functional Oracle Applications instance. Supportability = Supported

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Important Terminology

Configuration
The process of setting the proper parameters and customer-specific information for a fully-functional Oracle Applications instance. Because of the flexibility of Oracle Applications and the complexity of mandated government accounting rules and corporate requirements, this process is lengthy. The requirements of configuration are set by each of the product teams. Supportability = Supported

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Important Terminology

Personalization
The process of making changes to the User Interface (UI) from within an Oracle Applications form/page. It is possible to make personalizations to both Forms-based and OA Framework-based pages. This course only deals with the specifics of OA Framework-based personalizations. Supportability = Supported.

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Important Terminology

Extension
The process of making changes to the programmatic (i.e., PL/SQL or Java) elements of an Oracle Applications form/page. It is possible to extend both Forms-based and OA Frameworkbased pages. This course only deals with the specifics of OA Framework-based extensions. Supportability = Supported

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Important Terminology

Customization
The process of creating new forms/pages. While Oracle does provide tools to do this (i.e., Oracle Forms and JDeveloper with OA Extension), this is the least supported option. Supportability = Supported

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Personalizations vs. Extensions

Personalization Done in Page? Special Tool? Programming? Likely to Survive? YES NO NO YES

Extension NO YES YES NO

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Benefits of Personalizations

Personalizations survive upgrades and patches. Administrator-level personalizations are available on any component. User-level personalizations are available on queries. Administrators can easily disable personalizations for debugging. Personalizations can be translated. Personalizations can be implemented on a test system, and they allow for immediate feedback.

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Benefits of Extensions

Much more powerful that personalizations. Allows changes to business logic. Performed in Java. Easily deployed to existing servers. Capable of changes not possible with mere personalizations.

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Summary

You should now be able to understand the following: The objectives of this course The kinds of labs you will be accomplishing throughout this course. The basics of Personalizations vs. Extensions. The basic architecture of OA Framework.

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