My thoughts on Oracle Fusion (Apps and Middleware)

Upload an attachment (file,text,url) to ERP cloud transaction

2019-01-10T11:23:00.000-05:00

Last updated: January 10, 2019

Use case: Automatically upload an attachment to ERP cloud transaction

Upload a transaction attachment (i.e. a supporting document for a Journal or AP invoice, etc..) to ERP cloud without human intervention. Client uses an external system to gather attachments and need to upload them to Oracle ERP cloud for speeding up month end processing.

Solution:

The ERP Object Attachment Service supports the automatic upload of attachments to Oracle ERP Cloud. An attachment can be a file, text, or Internet URL. This is a generic service used to upload attachments to several business transactions. Thus, the parameters to this service vary depending on the transaction context.

In this document, I will walk through an example to upload an attachment to a journal entity. (note you can upload an attachment to a journal batch or journal header. The journal data entity hierarchy is Journal batch has one or more journal headers, which intern has journal lines.

ERP Object Attachment Service is available since Release 11 of cloud apps

https://[ERPCloudEndpoint]/fscmService/ErpObjectAttachmentService?WSDL

Note: I am not discussing security as part of this document. I will be using soap UI WS security with ‘UsernameToken’ to execute these requests.

Parameter	Description
Entity Name & Category Name	Entity Name of the attachment. This represents the transaction type. Ex: Journal Header, AP_INVOICES_ALL Navigate to “Setup & Maintenance UI > Set up Tasks > Manage Attachment Entities or Manage Attachment Categories” to get valid entity names.
Allow Duplicate	Option to allow duplicate attachments Values: Yes or No
Attachment Rows	Multiple attachments are allowed. Each attachment is a repeating entry in the XML. User Keys: 5 user keys are allowed. A key represents a relevant lookup value to which the attachment is linked to. Ie. In journal entry case, its journal name, batch name, period, flexfield context, period set name and type Attachment Type: URL, File, or Text Title: Title of the document Content File - This attachment type represents base64 encoding for file content being uploaded URL - This attachment type represents an Internet URL of your document Text - This attachment type represents actual text such as “Invoice requires further approval”

Response Code

The response code in JSON format

If multiple attachments are uploaded, there will be a single line response with the status of all attachments

References

https://blogs.oracle.com/fmw/oracle-erp-cloud-object-attachment-service
Oracle Support (Doc ID 2369923.1) - User Keys For Oracle ERP Cloud Object Attachment Service For Entity And Category

Prerequisites

User account with appropriate permissions

For this example, the user has ‘Financial Integration Specialist’ role and appropriate data access to the ledgers to which the journals are posted.
Also note that I am using a standalone account on the ERP instance rather than an SSO account. That’s a topic for another post.

Access to run queries in ERP cloud (typically BI administrator role)

This is necessary to determine the required parameters

Example / Step-by-step instructions (Journal entry Header attachment upload)

Setup the SOAP UI project with the ErpObjectAttachmentService and setup the security parameters as shown in screenshot below.

Now let’s figure out the required parameters for uploading and linking an attachment to journal entry

Open BIP > new data model > run the following query

select * from FUN_ERP_ATTACHMENT_CONTEXTS where ERP_FAMILY_CODE='FIN'

if you download and parse the xml, the output will look like this.

<G_1>

<CREATION_DATE>2017-02-18T10:07:29.125+00:00</CREATION_DATE>

<CREATED_BY>SEED_DATA_FROM_APPLICATION</CREATED_BY>

<LAST_UPDATE_DATE>2017-02-18T10:07:29.128+00:00</LAST_UPDATE_DATE>

<LAST_UPDATED_BY>SEED_DATA_FROM_APPLICATION</LAST_UPDATED_BY>

<LAST_UPDATE_LOGIN>-1</LAST_UPDATE_LOGIN>

<ERP_ATTACHMENT_ID>300000001082304</ERP_ATTACHMENT_ID>

<ERP_FAMILY_CODE>FIN</ERP_FAMILY_CODE>

<APPLICATION_ID>435</APPLICATION_ID>

<ENTITY_CODE>GL_JE_BATCHES</ENTITY_CODE>

<ENTITY_NAME>Journal Batch</ENTITY_NAME>

<USER_KEY_CONTEXT1>SELECT JE_BATCH_ID FROM GL_JE_BATCHES WHERE NAME = :1 AND DEFAULT_PERIOD_NAME = :2 AND CHART_OF_ACCOUNTS_ID = (Select STRUCTURE_INSTANCE_NUMBER from FND_KF_STR_INSTANCES_VL WHERE APPLICATION_ID = 101 AND KEY_FLEXFIELD_CODE = 'GL#' AND NAME=:3) AND PERIOD_SET_NAME = (SELECT PERIOD_SET_NAME from GL_CALENDARS where USER_PERIOD_SET_NAME = :4) AND ACCOUNTED_PERIOD_TYPE = (SELECT PERIOD_TYPE from GL_CALENDARS where USER_PERIOD_SET_NAME = :4)</USER_KEY_CONTEXT1>

<OBJECT_ACCESS_TASKFLOW>/WEB-INF/oracle/apps/financials/generalLedger/journals/journalEntries/ui/flow/CreateJournalBatchFlow.xml#CreateJournalBatchFlow</OBJECT_ACCESS_TASKFLOW>

<OBJECT_VERSION_NUMBER>1</OBJECT_VERSION_NUMBER>

<ENABLED_FLAG>Y</ENABLED_FLAG>

<SEED_DATA_SOURCE>SDFFILE</SEED_DATA_SOURCE>

</G_1>

<G_1>

<CREATION_DATE>2017-02-18T10:07:29.135+00:00</CREATION_DATE>

<CREATED_BY>SEED_DATA_FROM_APPLICATION</CREATED_BY>

<LAST_UPDATE_DATE>2017-02-18T10:07:29.137+00:00</LAST_UPDATE_DATE>

<LAST_UPDATED_BY>SEED_DATA_FROM_APPLICATION</LAST_UPDATED_BY>

<LAST_UPDATE_LOGIN>-1</LAST_UPDATE_LOGIN>

<ERP_ATTACHMENT_ID>300000001082305</ERP_ATTACHMENT_ID>

<ERP_FAMILY_CODE>FIN</ERP_FAMILY_CODE>

<APPLICATION_ID>435</APPLICATION_ID>

<ENTITY_CODE>GL_JE_HEADERS</ENTITY_CODE>

<ENTITY_NAME>Journal Header</ENTITY_NAME>

<USER_KEY_CONTEXT1>SELECT JE_HEADER_ID FROM GL_JE_HEADERS WHERE NAME = :1 AND JE_BATCH_ID = ( SELECT JE_BATCH_ID FROM GL_JE_BATCHES WHERE NAME = :2 AND DEFAULT_PERIOD_NAME = :3 AND CHART_OF_ACCOUNTS_ID = (Select STRUCTURE_INSTANCE_NUMBER from FND_KF_STR_INSTANCES_VL WHERE APPLICATION_ID = 101 AND KEY_FLEXFIELD_CODE = 'GL#' AND NAME=:4) AND PERIOD_SET_NAME = (SELECT PERIOD_SET_NAME from GL_CALENDARS where USER_PERIOD_SET_NAME = :5) AND ACCOUNTED_PERIOD_TYPE = (SELECT PERIOD_TYPE from GL_CALENDARS where USER_PERIOD_SET_NAME = :5))</USER_KEY_CONTEXT1>

<OBJECT_ACCESS_TASKFLOW>/WEB-INF/oracle/apps/financials/generalLedger/journals/journalEntries/ui/flow/CreateJournalHeaderFlow.xml#CreateJournalHeaderFlow</OBJECT_ACCESS_TASKFLOW>

<OBJECT_VERSION_NUMBER>1</OBJECT_VERSION_NUMBER>

<ENABLED_FLAG>Y</ENABLED_FLAG>

<SEED_DATA_SOURCE>SDFFILE</SEED_DATA_SOURCE>

</G_1

You identify the transaction entity by the ‘ENTITY_NAME’. In this case its ‘Journal Header’ (not journal batch. I am linking the document to a specific journal).

The 5 parameters required for the webservice are marked with :1, :2, :3, :4, :5

SELECT JE_HEADER_ID

FROM GL_JE_HEADERS

WHERE NAME = :1

AND JE_BATCH_ID =

(

SELECT JE_BATCH_ID

FROM GL_JE_BATCHES

WHERE NAME = :2

AND DEFAULT_PERIOD_NAME = :3

AND CHART_OF_ACCOUNTS_ID =

(

Select STRUCTURE_INSTANCE_NUMBER

from FND_KF_STR_INSTANCES_VL

WHERE APPLICATION_ID = 101

AND KEY_FLEXFIELD_CODE = 'GL#'

AND NAME=:4

)

AND PERIOD_SET_NAME =

(

SELECT PERIOD_SET_NAME

from GL_CALENDARS

where USER_PERIOD_SET_NAME = :5

)

AND ACCOUNTED_PERIOD_TYPE =

(

SELECT PERIOD_TYPE

from GL_CALENDARS

where USER_PERIOD_SET_NAME = :5

)

value1: GL_JE_HEADERS.NAME - User entered journal header name.
value2: GL_JE_BATCHES.NAME - User entered journal batch name.
value3: GL_JE_BATCHES.DEFAULT_PERIOD_NAME - Default accounting period for journal batch.
value4: FND_KF_STR_INSTANCES_VL.NAME - flex field context)
value5: GL_CALENDARS.USER_PERIOD_SET_NAME - Period of time, extending from one date to another, defined by a party to quantify the fiscal position of the business. It can be divided into accounting periods.

Lets pick an existing journal batch / entry or create one. In this case I will create one for demo purposes.

Note there are some functional configurations that impact the parameter values. I ran the sub queries to determine the exact values of the parameters via trial and error (or ask functional team 😊). If the following query successfully returns the journal header, the attachment upload and linkage will be successful.

SELECT JE_HEADER_ID

FROM GL_JE_HEADERS

WHERE NAME = 'TestJournalHeader'

AND JE_BATCH_ID =

(

SELECT JE_BATCH_ID

FROM GL_JE_BATCHES

WHERE NAME = 'TestJournalBatch’

AND DEFAULT_PERIOD_NAME = '13_Dec-18'

AND CHART_OF_ACCOUNTS_ID =

(

Select STRUCTURE_INSTANCE_NUMBER

from FND_KF_STR_INSTANCES_VL

WHERE APPLICATION_ID = 101

AND KEY_FLEXFIELD_CODE = 'GL#'

AND NAME='******' ç config-based value

)

AND PERIOD_SET_NAME =

(

SELECT PERIOD_SET_NAME

from GL_CALENDARS

where USER_PERIOD_SET_NAME = '******' ç config-based value

)

AND ACCOUNTED_PERIOD_TYPE =

(

SELECT PERIOD_TYPE

from GL_CALENDARS

where USER_PERIOD_SET_NAME = '******' ç config-based value

)

Generate the soap request and run.

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:erp="http://xmlns.oracle.com/apps/financials/commonModules/shared/model/erpIntegrationService/" xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:typ="http://xmlns.oracle.com/apps/financials/commonModules/shared/model/erpIntegrationService/types/">

<soapenv:Header xmlns:wsa="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing">

<wsse:Security soapenv:mustUnderstand="1" xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd" xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd">

<wsse:UsernameToken wsu:Id="UsernameToken-D885DCE15E67044129154714955949826">

<wsse:Username>*****</wsse:Username>

<wsse:Password Type="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-username-token-profile-1.0#PasswordText">*****</wsse:Password>

<wsse:Nonce EncodingType="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-soap-message-security-1.0#Base64Binary">cSesHoap6XZwdWwOPPqbaA==</wsse:Nonce>

<wsu:Created>2019-01-10T19:45:59.498Z</wsu:Created>

</wsse:UsernameToken>

<wsu:Timestamp wsu:Id="TS-D885DCE15E67044129154714955949825">

<wsu:Created>2019-01-10T19:45:59.498Z</wsu:Created>

<wsu:Expires>2019-01-10T22:32:39.498Z</wsu:Expires>

</wsu:Timestamp>

</wsse:Security>

</soapenv:Header>

<soapenv:Body>

<typ:uploadAttachment>

<typ:entityName>Journal Header</typ:entityName>

<typ:categoryName>GL_JE_HEADERS</typ:categoryName>

<typ:allowDuplicate>yes</typ:allowDuplicate>

<typ:attachmentRows>

<erp:UserKeyA>TestJournalHeader</erp:UserKeyA>

<erp:UserKeyB>TestJournalBatch</erp:UserKeyB>

<erp:UserKeyC>13_Dec-18</erp:UserKeyC>

<erp:UserKeyD>*****</erp:UserKeyD>

<erp:UserKeyE>*****</erp:UserKeyE>

<erp:AttachmentType>FILE</erp:AttachmentType>

<erp:Title>JournalAttachment.txt</erp:Title>

<erp:Content>VGhpcyBpcyBhIHNhbXBsZSBhdHRhY2htZW50IGZpbGUhDQpJZiB5b3UgZG93bmxvYWRlZCB0aGlzIGZyb20gRVJQIGNsb3VkIGNvbnNvbGUsIHlvdSBoYXZlIHN1Y2Nlc3NmdWxseSBjb21wbGV0ZWQgdGhpcyB0dXRvcmlhbC4=</erp:Content>

</typ:attachmentRows>

</typ:uploadAttachment>

</soapenv:Body>

</soapenv:Envelope>

<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:wsa="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing">

<env:Header>

<wsa:Action>http://xmlns.oracle.com/apps/financials/commonModules/shared/model/erpIntegrationService//ErpObjectAttachmentService/uploadAttachmentResponse</wsa:Action>

<wsa:MessageID>urn:uuid:7d11d866-401d-46fd-9c43-f5c624e81be5</wsa:MessageID>

<wsse:Security env:mustUnderstand="1" xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd">

<wsu:Timestamp wsu:Id="Timestamp-yYC96LrAqM9PWRu6ZhhvhQ22" xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd">

<wsu:Created>2019-01-10T19:47:26Z</wsu:Created>

<wsu:Expires>2019-01-14T07:07:26Z</wsu:Expires>

</wsu:Timestamp>

</wsse:Security>

</env:Header>

<env:Body>

<ns0:uploadAttachmentResponse xmlns:ns0="http://xmlns.oracle.com/apps/financials/commonModules/shared/model/erpIntegrationService/types/">

<result xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/apps/financials/commonModules/shared/model/erpIntegrationService/types/">"Attachment1":"SUCCEEDED"</result>

</ns0:uploadAttachmentResponse>

</env:Body>

</env:Envelope>

Verify

Jdeveloper 12c / SOA 12c - Local MDS storage location change from 11g

2016-07-30T17:28:00.003-04:00

Jdeveloper provides a capability to localize the MDS location through adf-config.xml.

MDS can be of DB or File type. If we use the file type a local directory will be referenced for the shared artifacts.

In 11g, jdeverloper default MDS local store is at

middleware_home\jdeveloper\integration\seed

In 12c this path has been changed to

middleware_home\soa\integration\jdeveloper\seed\

in 12c, Jdev is installed @

middleware_home\jdeveloper\

This observation is done after I installed SOA 12c quick start.

BAM 12c performance tuning

2016-07-01T12:46:00.001-04:00

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bam/learnmore/bam12c-best-practices-v1-2854923.pdf

White paper from Oracle for BAM 12c performance tuning.

BPEL PM 11g Performance Tuning

2014-09-12T00:08:00.000-04:00

Several books / papers have been published regarding SOA 11g performance tuning. Here is one more.

http://www.slideshare.net/tusjain/bpel-pm-11g-performance-tuning-1
http://www.slideshare.net/tusjain/bpel-pm-11g-performance-tuning-2
- Intro

http://www.slideshare.net/tusjain/bpel-pm-11g-performance-tuning-3
- JVM tuning

http://www.slideshare.net/tusjain/bpel-pm-11g-performance-tuning-4
- Weblogic server tuning

http://www.slideshare.net/tusjain/bpel-pm-11g-performance-tuning-5
- BPEL engine tuning

http://www.slideshare.net/tusjain/bpel-pm-11g-performance-tuning-6
- EM Console - settings

Couple of missing chapters.

Find saved DB passwords from Jdeveloper IDE connections

2014-05-27T21:49:00.000-04:00

Find a saved DB password from Jdeveloper IDE connections.

Jdeveloper stores the DB connection details internally. (I am not sure where). To extract the password there are several options.

Export resource (.crx) file from one Jdeveloper and re-import into another.

Sometimes you don't need the password. you can export the connections from one Jdeveloper and import them into another.
http://sharatverma.blogspot.com/2010/11/jdeveloper-importing-database.html

Decrypt the password Option 1

Export resource (.crx) file.
Open it with winzip and extract the cwallet.sso
Extract passwords from the wallet.
http://sharatverma.blogspot.com/2010/11/jdeveloper-importing-database.html
http://todayguesswhat.blogspot.com/2012/06/decrypt-dump-contents-of-cwalletsso.html

Decrypt the password Option 2

Use Jdeveloper extension - 'showmepassword'
http://show-me-password.tomecode.com/

Another noteworthy post - Stackoverflow - Stored connection encryption

Oracle Human Task - Business rules based worker assignment

2013-08-15T00:55:00.002-04:00

In Oracle BPM/SOA 11g, the Human Workflow allows worker assignment based on Oracle business rules.

This tutorial covers the scenario in a step-by-step manner.
http://beatechnologies.wordpress.com/tag/rule-based-routing-in-human-workflow/

The rules engine provides the following functions to facilitate different type of assignments

CreateResourceList
CreateSupervisoryList
CreateManagementChainList
CreateApprovalGroupList
CreateJobLevelList
CreatePositionList

More about it here (Oracle BPM Implementation Guide)

My observation is that each human task has to have a separate business rule component. This is odd considering I can have identical business rule logic for multiple tasks. One solution is to link a generic dictionary across all the BR components. However, each task will still required to have a separate rules component.

SOA/BPM Suite 11g performance tuning whitepaper (11.1.1.6)

2013-07-11T00:27:00.001-04:00

Link to the white paper.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bpm/learnmore/bpm11gperftuning-1912340.pdf

Alternate Link

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3YPeTktcZ_Gdlc3M2lIN3YwcjA

BPM 11g interaction with Events (EDN)

2013-04-29T00:39:00.001-04:00

The 'events' in SOA/BPM 11g suite are represented as 'signals' in a BPMN process.

Here is a tutorial documenting the interaction between BPMN process and events.

http://niallcblogs.blogspot.com/2010/11/bpm-signal-events-and-oracle-edn.html
http://niallcblogs.blogspot.com/2010/11/bpm-signal-events-and-edn-part-2.html

Jdeveloper Memory Usage Tweaks

2013-04-15T00:52:00.000-04:00

Jdeveloper is a memory hog.

Update 1:
I also encountered a strange issue. Jdeveloper 11.1.1.3 64-bit (yes, its 2 yrs old at this point) does not work well with JDK jdk1.6.0_30.

"Unable to launch the Java Virtual Machine" - Discussed here

Tweak Jdev memory settings
http://bexhuff.com/2012/09/jdeveloper-memory-and-performance

Tweak Java for better UI performance
http://themindstorms.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/advanced-jvm-tuning-for-low-pause/

SOA 11g Human Workflow Overview

2012-09-23T16:16:00.001-04:00

Although workflow is already part of other oracle products (EBS, Siebel…), Oracle has redesigned the workflow based on “Open standards” that can provide consistent user experience, ease of customization and many other advantages…

In this post, I am going to discuss about SOA 11g Human workflow.

• Features

• Architecture

• Concepts

• Tutorial

Overview

In SOA 10g, human workflow is an independent component. It had to be deployed and configured separately. In SOA 11g, it’s tightly integrated with other components through the SCA architecture. The main components of SOA 11g human workflow are shown in the following figure. On the left are the workflow initiators (typically BPEL or a mediator). However, the Human Task component is also exposed as a SOAP service that can be invoked independently. In the middle is the core human workflow component that is formed by a combination of workflow services. We will discuss about these services later. On the right, there are the client applications that present the user the necessary web (or another) interfaces to act on the task.

• BPEL invokes human task component when a manual task needs to be performed

• A task is created in the Human Task service component. (The task metadata is used by the component to manage lifecycle of the task)

• The Human task service component identifies the necessary users/roles/groups using an identity service and assigns the task

• These tasks are presented to the user through the client apps. (Oracle BPM worklist is the default app)

(Credit: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/dev.1111/e10224/bp_introhwf_shared.htm)

Human workflow Features

Here is a list of features that are supported by human workflow. (http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/dev.1111/e10224/bp_introhwf_shared.htm#CIHGEFCI).

• Human interactions with processes, including assignment and routing of tasks to the correct users or groups

• Deadlines, escalations, notifications, and other features required for ensuring the timely performance of a task (human activity)

• Presentation of tasks to end users through a variety of mechanisms, including a worklist application (Oracle BPM Worklist)

• Organization, filtering, prioritization, and other features required for end users to productively perform their tasks

• Reports, reassignments, load balancing, and other features required by supervisors and business owners to manage the performance of tasks

These descriptions are at 1000 foot level. The real question is what’s behind the curtain that’s providing these capabilities? Let’s dive into the human workflow architecture to understand the inner workings.

Architecture

At the core, the human workflow is made up of several workflow services that are orchestrated to provide the different capabilities.

Service Name	Description
Task Service	Primary service that manages the lifecycle of a Task. This service is invoked by the BPEL to initiate a Task.
Task Routing Service	Task Routing, Assigning and escalations are taken care by this service
Task Query Service	Queries tasks based on several criteria. (Used by client apps)
Task Metadata Service	Provides metadata of the task
Identity Service	This service is part of security infrastructure of the weblogic server.
Notification Service	Sends notifications through User Messaging services
User Metadata Service	Maintains metadata about workflow users. (Vacations, preferences, delegation rules…)
Runtime Config Service	Manages metadata used by task service
Evidence service	Provides storage services for audit trail. Supports digital signatures.

The following figure shows how the different components of human workflow are tied together with SOA 11g infrastructure components.

(Credit: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/dev.1111/e10224/bp_introhwf_shared.htm)

These services are weaved together to provide the features described above. For example, task service uses identity service to retrieve the user information to assign the tasks. Similarly, worklist application depends on the Task query service to retrieve tasks for a specific user.

(Credit: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/dev.1111/e10224/bp_introhwf_shared.htm)

Many of these services are exposed through SOAP web services or EJB’s. The list is available here. (http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/dev.1111/e10224/bp_workflow.htm#BABFFDDF)

Service name	SOAP WSDL location
Task Service	`http://`host`:`port`/integration/services/TaskService/TaskServicePort?WSDL`
Task Query Service	`http://`host`:`port`/integration/services/TaskQueryService/TaskQueryService?WSDL`
Identity Service	`http://`host`:`port`/integration/services/IdentityService/configuration?WSDL` `http://`host`:`port`/integration/services/IdentityService/identity?WSDL`
Task Metadata Service	`http://`host`:`port`/integration/services/TaskMetadataService/TaskMetadataServicePort?WSDL`
User Metadata Service	`http://`host`:`port`/integration/services/UserMetadataService/UserMetadataService?WSDL`
Task Report Service	`http://`host`:`port`/integration/services/TaskReportService/TaskReportServicePort?WSDL`

Here the Task service and Task Query services are loaded into SOAPUI.

These services enable access for 3^rd party applications to perform actions on the tasks. For example, a custom worklist application can be integrated into a 3^rd party vendor portal.

A tutorial on how to use the Human task web services is available here.

http://biemond.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-use-human-workflow-web-services.html

This is the "behind the scenes" overview of Human workflow...

Here is good tutorial about Human workflow from Oracle development team

http://redstack.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/human-workflow-in-11g/

Fusion Apps - A beginners guide

2012-05-22T20:53:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately there is no guide available...

But this should do a good job of explaining where we stand.

Source:
http://www.oug.org/fusionapps/ypufa_map_13.png
http://www.oug.org/fusionapps/

Oracle SOA/BPM Suite 11g (11.1.1.6) Pre-built Virtual Machine - Now available

2012-05-06T17:32:00.001-04:00

Update1#
www.evita.no/ikbViewer/soa-bloggen/artikkel/77050/new-virtualbox-image-for-soa/bpm-first-impressions

========================================================================
Oracle released the new version of SOA/BPM suite (11.1.1.6.0 - 11g-r1-ps5) pre-built virtual machine image.
This replaces the existing SOA/BPM suite (11.1.1.3.0 - 11g-r1-ps2) on Oracle Linux (32-bit) 5 Update 4.

The new release includes the following components:

Oracle Linux (64-bit) EL 5 Update 5
Oracle Database XE 11.2.0
Oracle SOA Suite 11.1.1.6.0 (includes Service Bus)
Oracle BPM Suite 11.1.1.6.0
Oracle WebCenter Content (Enterprise Content Management) 11.1.1.6.0
Oracle WebCenter 11.1.1.6.0
Oracle JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.0
Oracle JRockit R28.2.0-79-146777-1.6.0_29s
Oracle Java SDK 1.6.0_29-b11

Major changes include:

Upgrading the OS to 64-bit (I love this because I can make full use of system resources. Say 16GB ram, extend with AIA/PIP)
Including OSB, WebCenter out-of-box
Ability to run as a server (No GUI)
Improved GUI tool to manage domains (Restricts one domain per VM instance)

The VM image is available here; http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/soasuite/learnmore/vmsoa-172279.html
Here is the doc; http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/soasuite/learnmore/soabpmvirtualboxreadme-1612068.pdf
You will need to install Oracle Virtual box and import the image.

Things to know before starting:

The pre-built image comes as a 7zip file, that is split into 7 files (~2GB each). Oracle did not include the scripts for combining these files. Here is the script that I used to combine them.

echo combining parts into oel5u5-64bit-soabpm-11gr1-ps5-2-0-M.7z...

copy /B oel5u5-64bit-soabpm-11gr1-ps5-2-0-M.7z.001+oel5u5-64bit-soabpm-11gr1-ps5-2-0-M.7z.002+oel5u5-64bit-soabpm-11gr1-ps5-2-0-M.7z.003+oel5u5-64bit-soabpm-11gr1-ps5-2-0-M.7z.004+oel5u5-64bit-soabpm-11gr1-ps5-2-0-M.7z.005+oel5u5-64bit-soabpm-11gr1-ps5-2-0-M.7z.006+oel5u5-64bit-soabpm-11gr1-ps5-2-0-M.7z.007 oel5u5-64bit-soabpm-11gr1-ps5-2-0-M.7z

Once imported into VirtualBox, the VM consists of 2 files, approximately 15GB each. You will require 30GB of disk space in total. In addition, the image is setup to grow based on extensions (AIA / OER / OSR...)
The VM image only supports one running domain per instance. During initial setup, while importing the image to VM, you will be prompted for domain setup. This is where the domain configuration is done. If more domains are needed, you need to re-import the VM to virtual box (with a different name).

Credentials

Setting up the VM:

Combine the files and extract OVM image. Use the commands provided above to combine the files into one image. Then use extract the OVM image using winrar or other software.
Import the OVM image into VirtualBox. In VirtualBox, goto File > Import Appliance and choose the OVM file extracted in the previous step.
Configure the VM settings - Tune the VM to work with your hardware. All the details are mentioned in the doc provided by oracle (link).
Configuring the domains - Details available in oracle doc.

Thoughts: This pre-built image serves as an excellent platform for learning SOA suite without having to spend hours building your own. Although the machine is limited to running one domain, it can be modified to support multiple domains in a single instance.

I hit a speed bump...

2012-04-11T23:30:00.000-04:00

My Virtual Box image is corrupted and I have lost all my progress on Fusion Application Installation... lets say 40 hrs of it... :(

Why didn't I back up?
- I did, the corruption started there.

I use my old machine as a Storage Server. After a major milestone during the installation, I bring down the virtual machine and take a backup of the VM Image. Now the VM image refuses to start-up...

I believe the culprit is a 6 year old Hard disk.

(Luckily, I took a backup of VM after IDM installation and configuration)

At-least I don't have to start from scratch...

Fusion Applications Topology

2012-03-23T01:04:00.002-04:00

While installing Fusion Applications, I came across this list of Domains/Managed servers.

A total of 9 Domains (Common, CRM, Financial, HCM, SCM, Data Hub, Accounting Hub, Contracts, Incentive Compensation) with 39 Application Managed Servers and 28 Middleware Managed Servers.

The common domain (Figure2, bottom) itself has 1 weblogic domain, 4 application managed servers and 8 Middleware managed servers.

Hefty requirements heh?

Fusion Applications Installation with screenshots

2012-03-18T19:30:00.000-04:00

Here is the blog that has done a good job of illustrating fusion applications installation with screenshots. It covers all the way from installing Oracle Enterprise Linux on a Virtual Box to Provisioning the environment.
http://www.oratraining.com/blog/2012/02/oracle-fusion-applications-installation-step-by-step-guide/

In addition, Oracle provides documentation (surprisingly with screenshots) for enterprise deployment
Oracle Fusion Applications Enterprise Deployment Guide
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E25054_01/fusionapps.1111/e16684/toc.htm

I have personally attempted the installation.
- Installed and configured all Identity management components.
- Everything was successful until provisioning the actual Environment

My setup:
Oracle Virtual Box + Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.7 64x
12GB Ram + 4 Core processor + 350 GB Harddisk + 25GB SSD Swap

Oracle Identity Management vs. Oracle Identity and Access Management

2012-02-07T21:02:00.004-05:00

Oracle naming convention for their products confuses a lot of people. Well, I am one of them. I recently started looking into the Fusion Applications (11.1.1.5.0) and found that the identity management is split into 2 separate installations.

One is the Oracle Identity Management and the other Oracle Identity and Access Management.

As of 11g (11.1.1.5.0)

Oracle Identity Management includes:

Oracle Internet Directory
Oracle Directory Integration Platform
Oracle Virtual Directory
Oracle Directory Services Manager
Oracle Identity Federation
Oracle HTTP Server (hmm...)

Oracle Identity and Access Management includes:

Oracle Access Manager Server (also includes WebGate)
Oracle Adaptive Access Manager
Oracle Identity Manager
Oracle Identity Navigator
Oracle Security Token Service
Oracle Entitlements Server

All of these can be logically divided in to 3 categories.

- Directory Service
- Access Management
- Identity Management

Installing Weblogic (3rd party) Libraries using Maven

2011-05-06T16:22:00.001-04:00

In my scenario, I am interacting with weblogic JMS queues using Apache Camel. I am using Maven to setup the Camel project in Eclipse. The issue here is that the weblogic (3rd party) libraries are not published in the Maven repo. This causes problems with the build.

In this post, I will describe the steps to configure and install weblogic libraries using maven to successfully execute the project.

Step 1:
For weblogic 10.0 and higher, you need to generate the wlfullclient.jar using the following instructions. (Available here - http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11035_01/wls100/client/jarbuilder.html#wp1077742)

• cd WL_HOME/server/lib
• java -jar ../../../modules/com.bea.core.jarbuilder_X.X.X.X.jar
• wlfullclient.jar is generated in WL_HOME/server/lib

Step 2:
Use Maven install plugin to install the jar files.

• mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=wlclient -DartifactId=wlclient -Dversion=10.3.3 -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=C:\bea1\wlserver_10.3\server\lib\wlfullclient.jar

I installed 3 jar files using maven.
wl-j2ee-client.jar
wljmsclient.jar
wlfullclient.jar (or) weblogic.jar

Fixes: If you encounter the following error, you need to generate wlfullclient.jar using step 1.
Exception in thread "Main Thread" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: weblogic/management/WebLogicMBean

Concurrency Control - Transaction Locking

2011-04-26T13:42:00.000-04:00

Transaction isolation can be achieved through locking a resource when it is being accessed.
The two types are Optimistic and pessimistic locking.

Here are few sites with good explanations.
Optimistic vs Pessimistic locking
Strategies for concurrency control

Recover Weblogic Password

2011-04-20T11:47:00.000-04:00

I happened to lose my weblogic password that I setup a few months earlier.

Since I keep forgetting how to reset/obtain the password, I will use the blog to document it.

The instructions to recover the password can be found here and here.

Location of SerializedSystemIni.dat
- %WL_HOME%\user_projects\domains\base_domain\security

Location of encrypted username and password (boot.properties file)
- %WL_HOME%\user_projects\domains\base_domain\servers\AdminServer\security

Note: There could be multiple SerializedSystemIni.dat and boot.properties file. Point to the correct one.

test

2008-04-16T14:53:00.001-04:00

test