Forms Personalisation

Forms Personalisation

So, it's all about J2EE, right?

Well, it will be - and I am all excited by the move to the Fusion Applications platform, and its early form, Oracle Applications Framework.

But we still live in a world with Oracle Forms, and we will continue to do so for Release 12.

It's a feature that's been out just under 2 years, but this is a great venue to highlight it to make sure you're taking maximum advantage of it.

What now?

Forms Personalisation takes the Custom Library (CUSTOM.PLL) concepts and makes them much easier to implement. It is like going from a VCR to a Tivo.

CUSTOM.PLL coding is all hand-tooled PL/SQL which is controlled in a single source file, by default. It allows implementers to trap various Forms triggers and take actions based on them.

All Forms Personalisations, on the other hand, are stored as metadata, and so they are all seamlessly upgraded without needing to be re-applied or addressed - just like Flexfields or Folder definitions! Forms Personalisation provides tools to perform the same configurations, in the form of a Form. (Say that fast, huh?)

Open any Form in 11i10, and go to Help->Diagnostics->Custom Code-> Personalize. This brings up the Personalisation Form in the context of the Form and Function that you were in. This is where you build the Personalisations specific to that Form or Function.

The page has two major tabs: Conditions and Actions. Forms Personalisation is basically a big set of if-then statements that can execute because of various events that take place on that Form.

If...

Conditions determine IF a personalisation executes after a specific event or Forms trigger (including MENU or SPECIAL triggers). Triggers (WHEN-NEW-ITEM-INSTANCE, WHEN-VALIDATE, etc.) can be attached to objects, such as this example - when the user tabs out of the Purchase Order Type field into the Supplier Name field. Note that Conditions include conditional logic (only if the PO Type is 'Planned Purchase Order', e.g.), and scopes (only for Purchasing Superuser responsibility or Vision Operations organization or Joe the useless intern).

Then...

Actions are the list of specific things that you want to have happen. The major actions are:

• Builtin: Form or PL/SQL built-ins like executing a procedure, mimicking a key stroke, navigating to another function, opening a URL, etc. Very powerful indeed.

• Property: Set the Forms property value of a form item (If it's a Planned Purchase Order, set the Required property of the Description item in the PO_Header block to TRUE, e.g.)

• Message: put up a prompt warning like an OK box (cool because you can populate the message with data from screen variables, lookups, or calculations)

• Menu: Enables a special menu entry, defining its label, icon name and blocks to which it applies.

How now? (.... 'brown cow?')

Those are the basics, and I think you can see how much more accessible this power is now. It's easily managed, as well. For example, there are delivered FNDLOAD scripts for migrating these personalisations between instances (DEV > TEST > PROD), as well as entering them in version control systems.

Also, there is a central form for identifying the personalisations and turning them off! Pretty good if you completely hose up the WHEN-NEW-FORM-INSTANCE event...

Couple of last notes

Forms Personalisation receives events before CUSTOM.PLL does but then passes them normally to CUSTOM.PLL... Your existing CUSTOM.PLL logic will continue to work, but you can introduce these Personalisations first.

Forms Personalisation was tested for performance and has been found to have very low impact.

You need FND 11.5.10 minipack (FND.H), patch 3262159; alternately, it's included in ATG Family Pack H with additional niceties.

References

• Customisation and Development for the E-Business Suite
  

• Oracle Forms Personalisation: Change without Coding (James Nurthen, OpenWorld 2006, 628K PDF)

• Forms Personalisation in Oracle Applications Users Guide (Metalink Note 279034.1)

How to Customize Oracle iExpenses Workflows

Here is a couple of examples of how to customize Oracle Internet Expenses workflows. You may need to change the seeded expense report notification routing or expense report approval method.

Changing Receivers of Certain Notifications

We wanted to re-route some notifications from the seeded performers (users, responsibilities, people) to a new performer (group of users). We created a new Oracle user with a new email distribution list as follows:

• Define a new OIEADMIN Role. As System Administrator, complete the following steps, create a new Oracle user
• Assign desired responsibilities to user OIEADMIN
• Run the Synchronize Local WF tables process every time you make changes to user setup.

Define Workflow Notification Performers

Perform these steps in Oracle Workflow Builder to set up/change expense report performers. These steps include recommendations for which item attribute to use for each notification.

• Load OIEADMIN Role. From the Files menu, select Load Roles from Database.
• In the Role Selection window, query the OIEADMIN role.
• From the Query Results region, select the required roles and click the Add button to add the role to the Loaded Roles region. Click OK to save the loaded role to the database. Save your work.
• Assign Role to the attribute: From the Navigator window, open the attribute. In the Navigator Control Properties, under the Attribute tab the Type in the main region should be set to Role. In the Default region, select the proper Value (role) and click Apply. Save your work. Assign a role for each of the attributes listed in the Performer Definitions table below.

Define Notification Performers. For each notification outlined in the Performer Definitions table below:

• Open the appropriate workflow process.
• In the workflow process, open the notification.
• In the Navigator Control Properties window, click the Node tab.
• Set Performer Type as Constant instead of Attribute.
• Choose OIEADMIN as Value.
• Click Apply and save your work.

Note: To directly link a role to a notification, Set Performer Type as Constant instead of Attribute. Then, select the role OIEADMIN. By using the Constant type, you have more flexibility. The table below lists the notifications, the seeded performer for each workflow process, and new performer

Change the Find Approver Method

Perform these steps in Oracle Workflow Builder to change the Find Approver method.

• Open the ‘Expenses’ item type from the database
• In the Navigator window, expend Expenses and Processes folders.
• Open (double-click) the manager (Spending) Approval Process
• Open the Find Approver function
• In the Navigator Control Properties window, click the Node Attributes tab.
• In the Value field, select your approval method (e.g. One Stop Then Go Directly)
• Click Apply and save your work. Click OK to save the workflow file to the database.