Sneak Preview Release 12

Much speculation about the release dates of Oracle Applications next major release which is Release 12 has been around, However there is still no conformation on the official dates for its release to the users. The beta code version though has been out for some time now.

The post takes a sneak preview at Release 12 (Beta).
The post is just meant to share the new look and feel in Release 12.

As expected Release 12 will be real big in terms of disk space.

This is how it ate up disk space on a server being used to set up a demo environment within Oracle.

Application Tier Files - 20GB
Database Binaries - 4.5 GB
Vision Demo Data Files - 81GB

The login screen is the one perhaps that has undergone most of the changes. It comes with a fresh cool blue look. Something which you will have to get used with this Release.

The Self Service Home Page does not seem to have changed much expect for the new color scheme and link to Oracle Diagnostics on it.

The Oracle Application Manager console also looked pretty much similar with almost the same links as with 11.5.10.2

Invoking the forms based applications, it prompts you to install the Java 2 Standard Edition on your PC. Yes the Jinitiator is now gone. The installation is quick and over in a few clicks.



The forms interface is almost undistinguishable from 11.5.10.2, maybe just the fonts and color again.



Though the User Interface did not undergo any major changes, the Oracle Applications File system has changed quite a bit.

APPSORA.env -> APPS.env

The APPSORA.env used to setup your E-Business environment has now been replaced by the APPS.env which in trun calls the
$ORA_CONFIG_HOME/10.1.2/$TWO_TASK.env
$APPL_CONFIG_HOME/$TWO_TASK.env

Instance Top
A new Instance Top has been introduced
INT_TOP=$HOME/inst/apps/
One of the main advantages of having this is to get a clear distinction between the shared file system and the file system unique to an instance.

Other Newly Introduced Variables

AF_JLIB - This points to your $COMMON_TOP/java/lib

JAVA_BASE - This points at $COMMON_TOP/java/

Other Environment Variable Changes

JAVA_TOP- The JAVA_TOP now points to $COMMON_TOP/java/classes instead of $COMMON_TOP/java

OA_HTML - The OA_HTML now points to $COMMOM_TOP/oacore/html instead of $COMMON_TOP/html

FND_SECURE - FND_SECURE now points at $INST_TOP/apps/fnd/12.0.0/secure/ as opposed to $FND_TOP/secure//

Apart from this the machine admin scripts are now located at
$INST_TOP/admin/scripts/

Fusion Applications - The More You Know, The Better You'll Feel

Every morning, I check my favorite Oracle-related news sources and blogs for the latest buzz. Although it takes longer these days as my IT colleague has blocked my ability to use Firefox. Today, I stumbled across a great piece of research at The Register. The article, "Oracle's Fusion Applications Strategy: What The Customers Think", is based on 321 responses to a survey of Oracle Applications Users who are members of The Register's Technology Panel. This is pretty similar to the Fusion Applications Customer Profiling initiative recently completed by the International Oracle User Council (IOUC), but The Register's sample size is much larger.

The IOUC survey results were recently presented during Oracle OpenWorld (OOW). You can find the presentation and review the results for yourself at the OOW presentation download site.

The Register survey results indicated that Oracle Application customers were concerned about:

1. Oracle's lack of clarity and consistency in dealing with the future management of its multiple product lines.

2. The possibility that Oracle will delivery an immature and inelegantly integrated set of applications in order to meet self-imposed schedule milestones.

3. Fear about costs, disruption and protection of investments, mostly rooted in a concern that a migration to Oracle Fusion Applications will be forced upon them at some time in the future.

After sharing these concerns and concluding that only 15% of customers were completely sold on the Oracle Fusion Application strategy, The Register survey disclosed another very interesting result: there is a clear correlation between the level of customer confidence and the customer's depth of Fusion knowledge. For example, customers stating that the Fusion story is well understood in their organizations are also very confident of their investment being protected. These same customers are also very confident that they will obtain benefits in application flexibility through Oracle Fusion Applications. In other words, the more customers understand about Fusion Applications, the more confident they become in Oracle's Fusion Applications strategy...the more you know, the better you'll feel.

I share this timely information from The Register survey because the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) is teaming with Solution Beacon to provide Oracle Applications customers with a wonderful opportunity to feel better with The Road To Las Vegas workshops. The overriding theme of the workshops is "Demystifying Fusion - OAUG's Three Step Fusion Program". The presentations will include some recommendations on getting your organization to Fusion Applications, as well as some hands-on workshops (BPEL and RAC are just a few of the workshop subjects). The overall intent of The Road to Las Vegas is to educate Oracle Applications customers about Fusion Applications - including Release 12, which is an interation on the way to Fusion Applications.

The Fusion Applications User Interface = Oracle WebCenter

WebCenter is a combination of JavaServer Faces development, the best features from various portal products, and a collection of horizontal web services. However, one needs to dig a bit deeper to really obtain a feel for the power of WebCenter.

According to Oracle, the WebCenter Suite architecture looks something like the following:

Keep in mind that this could change before the product release, which is scheduled for late 2006. Nevertheless, this should be fairly close to the delivered product.

So...why should we care about WebCenter? First, it is a progressive step in fulfilling the promise of using a single user interface to access business applications, enterprise content, business intelligence, web-centric applications, and your digital pictures of Uncle Fredo's dog. Second, because WebCenter will be the default user environment for Fusion Applications; we now have an idea of how Oracle expects users to interface with the next generation of apps...and it's very different from what any of us are doing today. In fact, if you've seen John Wookey's keynote address from OpenWorld 2006, you have some flavor of WebCenter and the change it will mean to the way we use applications.

You can learn more about the Oracle WebCenter Suite here.