Checking Request Set Parameter

For example you have a request set which will process a set of custom processes for a particular inventory organization as a parameter. You scheduled it for 5 different inventory organizations, and yet sometimes in the future, one inventory organization is no longer used. How to tell which request set is used for which inventory orgs ?

The problem is if we submit a scheduled request set several times with different parameters, normally when you see them in the Find – Requests Window, you wouldn’t be able to see the child concurrent requests parameter in it. 

Here’s one script to let you see them :

SELECT  
a.request_id,
b.user_concurrent_program_name,
c.argument1 parameter1,
a.request_date,
a.requested_start_date,
a.actual_start_date,
a.actual_completion_date,
         (SELECT meaning
            FROM apps.fnd_lookups
           WHERE lookup_type = ‘CP_STATUS_CODE’
             AND a.status_code = lookup_code) status,
         (SELECT meaning
            FROM apps.fnd_lookups
           WHERE lookup_type = ‘CP_PHASE_CODE’
             AND a.phase_code = lookup_code) phase
FROM
fnd_concurrent_requests a,
fnd_concurrent_programs_tl b,
fnd_run_requests c
WHERE a.concurrent_program_id = b.concurrent_program_id
AND a.request_id = c.parent_request_id
AND c.argument1 = <your organization id>
ORDER BY actual_start_date, user_concurrent_program_name

SCM, ERP, CRM

Recently I just changed job to become Supply Chain Analyst from a lousy developer before. I considered this a big jump since it is my wish to learn more about the business process rather than just simply writing codes.

Currently I am learning a lot about supply chain process from end to end which I only know bits and pieces before. It’s interesting also because 7 years back I was still working as CRM analyst, and after that I spent 5 years working as developer for Oracle ERP and now I am learning SCM.

IMHO from a company point a view, CRM is more on how to manage relationship between company and their customers, whether as operational (Customer Service, Sales Force Automation or Call Center) or analytical (BI/Datawarehousing).  Oracle modules that is related to this is : Oracle Support, Oracle Field Service, Depot Repair, Oracle Marketing, Oracle Sales Online, as well Oracle BI. Siebel is also very good in CRM.

 ERP is more towards how the company manage their own resources in terms of financial, human resources, fixed assets , purchasing and sales. Oracle Financials and Human Resource are definitely in this scope. Oracle Purchasing and Order Management I believe is still in the gray area between ERP and SCM.

Supply Chain Management I believe is related with how the company manage their supply and demand, it means more towards relationship with the suppliers, planning on customer demand and suppliers supply to balance on their inventory. Oracle ASCP, Inventory, WMS,MRP, Purchasing is on this.

This is only a simple answer from my side, I am still learning more.. will update again once I learn something new.

Customizing OA Framework Applications vs Building OA Framework Applications

I am planning to take OAF course in Oracle Singapore, currently there are 2 courses available, it’s a rare opportunity having OAF courses here !

However these two courses are a bit confusing, I don’t know which one I should take :

1. 11i Extend Oracle Applications: Customizing OA Framework Applications
http://education.oracle.co.uk/html/oracle/15946US/D18280GC10.htm

2. 11i Extend Oracle Applications: Building OA Framework Applications
http://education.oracle.co.uk/html/oracle/15946US/D18994GC11.htm

I asked the question in OTN OAF Forum and here are their advices below, one is from Shiv Saroj

“The decision depends on your assignment requirement and your knowledge level of OAF. If you don’t know anything about OAF, then the customization course might be something very difficult to understand for you. But if your assignment involves customization, you need to specialize in that.So my suggestion will be go for Building OAF apps in case you don’t customization specific assignment. If your OAF basics are clear, you won’t have much issues with customization. Dev guide has some chapters on customization and many business specific threads on this forum.”

Another one from Sara Woodhull (Principal Product Analyst in the Oracle Applications Technology Group (ATG). ) :

“The Building class is meant for developers building pages and applications from scratch. We send our E-Business Suite Applications Division developers to this one to learn the basics of using OAF to build our E-Business Suite applications. This is also good for anyone else building pages and applications with OAF.The Customizing class is meant for consultants and customers who will be doing personalizations and extensions (our internal developers typically don’t). It covers lots of types of personalizations, extending BC4J objects, deployment of customizations, and so on. There is some overlap with the Building class for extensions (in both classes you need to learn to set up a project in JDeveloper, for example). Personalizations are not covered at all in the Building class, but we spend about two days on them in the Customizing class.Yes, you can certainly take one without the other. Yes, it’s good to take both, especially if you are a consultant and need all those skills in your mental toolbox.”

There are others opinions as well but I can’t post all of them here, you can check out from this link below :

http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=568052&tstart=0

Based on that , I came to a conclusion that I should take Building Courses first to built on the basics of OA Framework, once done I can take a look at the customization part from the developer’s guide or personalization guide.

Hope this can helps other who wants to begin into OA Framework technologies.

Oracle Applications Job Roles

Most beginners that want to jump in the oracle applications bandwagon are quite confused on what role they should choose.

IMHO, there are 3 main types of job roles in Oracle Applications :

1. Applications DBA (Database Administrator) : The job title speaks for itself, normally the main duties of Applications DBA are :

• Installing Oracle Applications (could be under unix/windows/linux/etc)
• Regular Database Maintenance (Disk Space monitoring, performance monitoring, backup and recovery,database tuning,main contact/support for database issues etc)
• Regular Applications Maintenance (creation of new users, new responsibility, monitoring concurrent managers etc)
• Applying Patches/doing upgrades.
• Act as production controller to move new application setups , new customizations objects/programs etc.
• Application Cloning, normally DBA will refresh development instance or test instance regularly with backup from live/production instance.
• etc

2. Oracle Applications Developer : The job titles may vary (such as Technical Consultants, E-business technical specialist, Software Engineer, Oracle Programmer Analyst and so on), but main duties basically is the same  :

• Responsible for Development of New or Customizations of Reports, Forms, PL/SQL programs, Workflows, Custom PLLs, Form Personalizations, OA Framework Pages, unix scripts, alerts, SQL*Loader and many more.
• Creating technical documentations and installation documents for the customizations they made.
• Act as second level of support for Oracle Applications troubleshooting, such as interfaces problems, reports problems etc.
• Custom applications tuning for performance problem.
• Thinking of technical solutions for requirements given by the users or functional analysts.
• etc

3. Functional Analysts : As the job title says, the main duties are the following :

• Application Setups (depends on which modules they support/implemented)
• Act as first level of support for Oracle Applications troubleshooting with users.
• Gather . define and analyze the detailed functional requirements his/her respective modules.
• Creating Functional Requirements Document (MD-50 document in Oracle AIM) which will be read by Applications Developer
• Create/develop test scripts (with testing software) or testing documents.
• Develop user manuals/documentation for the respective modules.
• Develop and/or conduct trainings to business users.
• Etc

From these 3 job roles , there are “hybrid” job roles which combine multiple job roles such as :

Oracle Technical Consultant : Some technical consultants in consulting group that I know can do both dba tasks as well as developer tasks.

Techno-Functional Analyst : For this role the respective person should be able to act as functional analyst as well as developers, so he/she should have deep knowledge on the functional flows of the respective modules he/she supports as well as equipped with the developer skills.

 

Above lists are not a complete lists of the job duties, but these served only as a global overview for those who wants to start a career in Oracle Applications sector. Based on your qualifications, experience and interest you can choose the best role that suits you. Good luck.