Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Daniel Benhur
BV Solutions Group, Overland Park, KS
Introduction
The Oracle Applications (OA) Framework is the tool that comes with the Oracle e-
Business Suite Application and through which personalizations and extensions can be
created very easily in its self-service web applications. Using the OA Framework,
personalizations such as changing the font size or name, hiding a column, or changing
sort order can be accomplished by the click of a button, similar to setting Internet options
in the Internet Explorer. With OA Framework personalizations, customizations are no
longer needed for personalizing Web pages. This paper provides an overview of the
capabilities for personalization and extensibility available in the OA Framework.
What is OA Framework?
Oracle Self-Service Web Applications are built using the technology of the OA
Framework. The OA Framework consists of several components, one of which is the AK
Developer, which is part of the OA Framework architecture in Version 5.6 and earlier.
The OA Framework in Version 5.7 and above includes the OA Personalization
Framework, which provides the capability to personalize the User Interface (UI) without
modifying underlying code. The OA Framework provides the technology foundation for
all self-service Web applications in the Oracle E-Business Suite. The OA Personalization
Framework is the only recommended means for customizing self-service OA
Framework-based applications, such as iProcurement. Personalizations and extensions
performed within the scope of the OA Personalization Framework are fully supported by
Oracle. With the OA Framework, Oracle E-Business self-service Web pages can be
modified to comply with specific business processes.
Extensibility is the ability to extend the functionality of an application beyond what can
be done through personalization, for example, adding new content or business logic and
extending or overriding existing business logic.
This paper covers only the personalization aspect of the OA Framework. Personalization
that is created through the OA Framework will not require reimplementation during
upgrades, which is a major advantage of this software application.
System administrators can create personalizations that will overwrite any other
personalizations applicable to a specific function, localization, site, responsibility, or
user. The end user can create personalizations to his/her UI interface pertaining to his or
her specific needs.
Personalizations that can be created through the OA Framework are shown in Table 1:
Table 1
OA Framework Personalizations
Localization Level
For instances in which multiple localizations are installed, personalizations can be created
specific to the individual localization. For example, if a company has implemented both
US and Canada localization, and if the users in Canada should not see certain fields that
the US users can see, this can be accomplished by creating localization level
personalizations. Only one set of personalizations per region per localization can be
created.
Site Level
The site refers to the OA installation where the Self-Service Application is implemented.
Personalizations created at the site level will affect all users. For example, if the system
administrator creates a personalization at the site level to display a company logo instead
of the branding logo, all of the users who access the Self-Service Web Applications will
see the company logo rather than the product branding logo.
Organization Level
An org can be an organization or a business unit. Depending on the context, an org can
be a plant, warehouse, department, division within a company, or even an entire
company. Personalizations that are created at the org level will affect all users in that
organization. For example, instead of displaying the product branding logo at each Self-
Service Web Application page, each company (org) should have its company logo
available at a specific site, then a personalization could be performed at the organization
level for each individual organization so that the product branding logo can be replaced
with the company logo.
Responsibility Level
System administrators can create personalizations that are available to all users, which
allow the users to choose whether they want to use those personalizations. For example,
the system administrator can create two personalized views of the Oracle Workflow
Work list: one view to show open workflow notifications and the other view to show
FYI notifications. The user will have access to both views.
Portlet Level
The Oracle Portal provides users with corporate and customized personal home pages
accessible via Web browsers. These home pages may contain corporate announcements,
news headlines, and links to other Web-based services. Oracle Portal may also connect
to other applications that share its user authorization with Oracle Portal. Oracle Self-
Service Web Applications is a partner application to Oracle Portal. Oracle Portal users
may add links to their home pages to access Oracle Self-Service Web Applications
modules, and may display some Applications information, such as Oracle Workflow
notifications, directly on their home pages. These links are called portlets. Users can
personalize these portlets similar to how they personalize the tables of a query region in
an application. Any personalizations made at the portlet level affect only the portlet used
to display the region.
User Level
End users can personalize only certain tables in query regions, and these personalizations
will not affect any other user. For example, a user can personalize the Requisitions
History page to display only requisitions prepared by him/her. Each user can save
multiple sets of personalizations per page per region. A saved set of personalizations is
also known as a personalized “view” and can be selected and applied from the “View
Personalization” list.
This profile option should be set to Yes or No at the user level for an administrator, or at
the responsibility level for the system administrator. When this profile option is set to
Yes, the following occurs:
Either the Personalize button or the Personalize Region links can be used to create
personalizations.
This profile option can be set to Yes or No at the site or application level. If this system
profile option is set to Yes, no created personalizations, regardless of the level at which
they are created, will be applied. Only the original base definition of each Self-Service
Web Application page will be displayed. This option can be helpful when logging a TAR
related to OA Framework issues so that Oracle support can trouble-shoot the issue.
Even though there are some restrictions on the type and extent of the personalization, the
capacity of the OA Framework is powerful and can accommodate many of the
customization requirements without requiring technical staff to do these personalizations.
Conclusion
The OA Personalization Framework has many features that allow the end user to easily
customize the view of UI pages specific to his or her needs. These customizations can be
performed in the Self-Service Web pages by setting up personalization preferences in a
similar fashion to those that are set for Internet preferences. No technical knowledge is
required to create Self-Service Web Application UI customizations using the OA
Framework. In addition, these customizations are supported by Oracle, and this is the
only recommended means to customize Self-Service Web Application pages. Since this
data is stored in the Meta data, it is not overwritten during an upgrade and will always be
2. After the Personalize Self-Service Defn profile option is enabled, Personalization tabs
displayed at various regions:
Disabling the Standard Checkout and Express Checkout from the Shopping Lists page: