March 1998 Volume 2.2
Want to Be a Member?
Joining Atl-OAUG is a simple procedure.
You will be issued a password allowing you entry
to our membership roster. More importantly, you will be added
to our e-mail list server provided by CSA. From there you will
receive e-mail notifications of upcoming meetings plus, you can
use the server to pose questions to our membership to find a solution
to your application questions.
ATL-OAUG Hits 1 Year Mark!
It's been a fun year seeing an idea come to fruition.
Being your coordinator has been a rewarding experience. It was
Jan. '97 at the SEOUAG when I suggested Atlanta could support
a functional users group. Thanks to David Rincon of Computer
Systems Authority we were provided a web site and list server.
Thanks to many volunteers we've held eight meetings with attendance
of 40-60 members. We've registered 210 members on our web site.
Thanks to Jim Crum of BOSS Corp. we have this fabulous bi-monthly
newsletter.
To keep our membership growing we need your help. Spread the word about Atl-OAUG. If you're a consultant, get your clients involved. If you're a user, bring your co-workers. If you're a vendor, come network with potential customers. Forward this newsletter to other users. How about hosting a meeting, presenting a topic or contributing to the newsletter? We meet on the 3rd Friday for eight months of the year 2:00 - 5:00 with networking afterwards. Check us out!
Brenda Carlton, bcarlton@kpmg.com
New!!
Check our web site for the PowerPoint presentations
from previous meetings.
??Changed Jobs? New e-mail address??
Remember to update your profile in the "members
only" section of www.atloaug.org.
Tired of getting tons of e-mail from numerous list servers? ORAAPPS can now be viewed via web site at: http://www.cpa.qc.ca/Lists/OraApps-L/
Messages are archived by each digest and can be sorted and viewed by either date, author or subject. Plus, a standard naming convention is to now be used by all members submitting questions or answers to the list in order to ease your search.
Brenda Carlton, bcarlton@kpmg.com
To search the archives of the ORAAPPS-L list server….
the tool to do full text searches through the archives is email based. For more info, send the following mail:
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Q. Does anyone know if there is an option at runtime or a profile that will maximize the 10SC applications. We are currently on 10.6.1 prod 15 and would like to eliminate having to maximize the windows every time the app is opened.
From: kevin_gillins@compuserve.com
Build a shortcut if you are using win 95 or win NT 4.0. then there is an option for the shortcut to run the program in maximized window, minimized window, or normal window. Choose maximize window. This works great for me. Also you can define multiple icons for each database access by adding parameters to the program name in the shortcut.
I have added window_state=MAXIMIZE at the end of the executable statement. It works fine for me. Now I get all the form screens maximized. Here is the statement where gamunt01 is the instance name.
C:\ORAWIN\BIN\AIAP45.EXE C:\apps10\fnd75\forms\us\fndscsgn appssyspub\pub@gamunt01 FNDNAM=apps window_state=MAXIMIZE
Q. Can I truncate the table GL_INTERFACE_HISTORY from SQL? Is this the normal way this table is deleted?
From: Jones, Randy <Randy.Jones@HBC.honeywell.com>
A. Yes you can truncate this table. There is no other standard way to purge this information. The purge only handles the batches, headers, lines, and import references tables.
From: <prince@vcomser.vcominc.com>
In oracle apps 10.7 there is a profile option FSG: Enforce Segment Value Security. You can set that profile option to enforce segment value security in FSG.
From: Stephen Eller Tactics, Inc.
As of release 10.7, Oracle allows you to limit the segment values you can access for report generation. Additionally, you can further restrict viewing by setting your report viewing access level profile option = 'Responsibility'.
From: JCOTTEN@HEALTHDYNE.com
The Citrix Winframe server is an applications server which allows Windows applications to be run on a central server. The clients run a small program which is not resource intensive to connect to the server. This make the client act like a "dumb" terminal. The software can be run on a Winframe terminal, DOS based machines, or windows 3.x/95/NT machines. The server runs a highly modified version of NT 3.51 only on Intel processors. I have heard rumors that the next version will run as a shell on 4.0 which may make it possible to run on Alpha processors but this is a rumor. Over a WAN, we have much superior performance with the Winframe versus the bloated client ranging from 33% to 10 times the performance depending on the length of the query. From a management perspective, there is only on location to manage the client software versus 45+. Depending on whether the user is a "power" user or not, it appears that you can run 40-50 clients on a server with 4 processors and plenty of memory. It also allows dialup connections running Oracle GUI apps. It's worth a look if you are running remote users unless you have time to wait on the Web based apps.
From: chitti <chitti@concordnc.com>
It is not recommended to turn archive log on while installing or applying patches. In these cases the archive log files may fill up the file systems and installation or application of patches stalls. Once everything is complete, then you can turn archive log on.
From: Chris Taylor <chris.taylor@chick-fil-a.com>
I was able to develop in 32-bit and run in 16-bit. For posterity, here are the steps:
1. Create a new directory to contain 32-bit versions of the necessary OraApps libraries. (e.g. C:\APPS10\32bit)
2. Using REGEDIT.EXE, edit the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE key ORACLE_PATH to include the directory you created. (I added it to the FORMS45_PATH as well for good measure.)
3. Copy the following files from C:\APPS10\AU10\RES\PLSQL to the new 32-bit directory: APPCORE.PLL, APPDAYPK.PLL, CUSTOM.PLL, FNDSQF.PLL, GLOBE.PLL, JA.PLL, JE.PLL, JL.PLL
3. Open the 32-bit Forms Designer. Open all the .PLL files in the 32-bit directory. Then compile them in this order: FNDSQF, JE, JL, JA, GLOBE, CUSTOM, APPCORE, APPDAYPK
4. Save all the libraries.
5. Open an existing custom form or create a new one using TEMPLATE.fmb in the 32-bit designer. No error messages should appear. You will be able to modify and compile the form. Then save it.
6. Generate the .FMX executable form using the 16-bit Forms Generator. The command line interface is most transparent: f45gen.exe MYFORM.fmb apps/apps@mydb window_state=minimize
7. Copy the .FMX to the appropriate directory and test through the SC menus.
Steps 6 and 7 need not occur on the developer's workstation, by the way. A central workstation can manage generation of 16-bit .FMX files upon demand using network file transfer. Or you can run steps 6 & 7 locally in a batch file accepting the form name as a parameter. CAVEATS: No guarantees accompany these instructions. As many have duly noted, Oracle does not support 32-bit execution of SC forms and is distinctly uncomfortable with 32-bit development of SmartClient forms.
The GUI version of the apps have keystroke equivalents for many functions. The enter query key (on my system it is F7, and I think that is the Oracle default) has some extra capabilities. If you enter a query and it turns out to be too general or not quite what you want, try pressing the enter query key twice and your previous query will be entered into the form for you. Then you can modify this query or make it more restrictive to suit your purpose without manually re-entering the whole query condition. - Jim Crum
From: "Brett Hooker" <BHOOKER@us.oracle.com>
The FSG Publishing features that are included with the ADI 2.1 release of GL Desktop Integrator (which came out on the 1st of August) are just the trick for breathing new life into your FSG output. You can publish your existing FSG's in either Excel Spreadsheet or Web HTML Format using Themes. Themes include colors, fonts, backgrounds and images, and you define them right in Excel.
Here's what you'll need to do this:
1) a 10.5, 10.6 or 10.7 Applications Server
2) Excel 5, Excel7 or Excel97
3) ADI 2.1 Release of GL Desktop Integrator Model#: A25151 Model Desc : Windows #: A51765-01 Description: Oracle Applications Desktop Integration Products Release 2.1
From Jim Crum at BOSS Corporation
Transferring FSG's between databases is a new feature of R10.7 of GL and is accomplished with database links. Recently I transferred 5 FSG reports from a test database to a production instance. The transfer was painfully slow but it did finish.
We defined about 1000 rows, and we used the standard Oracle columns. Since the test and production instances were on separate machines, the transfer was made across a wide area network (1/2 of a T1 line).
When the job had not finished in 5 minutes (more than enough time for 1000 rows), I became concerned. After an hour, I called the DBA to see if there was a lock or some permission problem with one of the databases. Fortunately, the DBA couldn't respond immediately, and the job finished as we were discussing the problem 2.5 hours after starting.
FYI If all JE data is for one company but out of balance due to [currency] rates, Oracle corrects at JE posting time by adjusting largest JE line.
From: "Mark Zahour" <zahourm@hestacorp.com>
In case you don't have the OAUG proceedings, I have posted the GLDI 'Quickstart' paper on our website 'www.hestacorp.com'.
From: MVENKATE@aol.com
The "Year-end close" process in Oracle works very well and basically zero's out all the P/L account balances and posts the difference to Retained Earnings account. This all happens automatically once you open the first period in the New Year. When you do open the first period in the New year, you will notice that there is zero balance in your P/L account and the Retained Earnings account should have changed by your profit/loss.
We have 5 sets of books, all sharing the same chart of accounts structure and segment values. Is it necessary to run the Optimizer for each set of books, or only once for all 5 sets?
From: stanw@magmacom.com
You only have to run the Optimizer once. What it does is build any indexes that may be required (but we all know that there are some concatenated indexes that you should create manually that REALLY improve posting and FSG performance!), as well as gather statistics about the selectivity of the segment values in your various charts of accounts. In a nutshell, the optimizer gathers statistics on the data in tables like GL_CODE_COMBINATIONS as well as the FND_FLEX tables, so if you have many sets of books contained in a single installation of GL, you only have to run it once.
From: Ed Schmerling <scscorp@ix.netcom.com>
However, after my experience with Release 10.5, Oracle's System Performance Group, and direct conversations with the manager of GL development in 1996 is as follows:
If you do NOT run the GL optimizer every month and gather statistics, then you will do a full table scan of the GL_BALANCES table and then go to the GL_CODE_COMBINATIONS table. However, if you first gather statistics, then the GL_CODE_COMBINATIONS table will be the driving table and the FSG will run faster.
If you don't believe me, run trace on for the FSGs (or entire DB) run a few FSGs, then run the Optimizer to gather statistics about the frequency of each segment of your accounting Flexfield and then run the same FSGs. Compare the trace files after using tkprof on the .trc files. You should see much faster run times.
The bottom line is, be sure to run the GL Optimizer monthly. Yes, you can set it up to run monthly automatically.
1. Change your profile option to place all concurrent processes on hold.
2. Submit the GL Optimizer process to gather statistics.
3. Go to the View Concurrent Request form, query up the request, and change the run interval time. I like to set it up to run weekly and to resubmit itself from the start time. It runs very quickly.
4. Release the "Hold" on the concurrent process.
5. Change your profile option.
See, It's automatic...
Q. We have some FSG reports which we need to run weekly. The submit FSG report request form does not have any resubmission options. Is there a way of automating this?
From: "Subramanian, Thiru" <SubramT@mps.bellhowell.com>
There is an alternate way of running FSGs. You can run FSGs through the Standard Report Screen. The concurrent program name is 'Program - Run Financial Statement Generator' under 'Oracle General Ledger' application. You can add this report to your Report Security Group, and then run your FSGs through SRS, where you have the facility of resubmission.
How do you populate the RA_CUSTOMERS.PRIMARY_SALESREP_ID column via interface tables? I can not find the corresponding column in RA_CUSTOMERS_INTERFACE_ALL.
From: Cathy Cakebread cathyc@compuserve.com
DO NOT USE RA_INTERFACE_LINES this is for invoices and credit memos - not customers there a several fields that are missing from the customer interface tables, what I generally do is to:
Q. Say your company issues a credit, resulting in an on-account customer balance, since the invoice had already been paid in full. The customer wants the on-account balance refunded. How is the refund issued through Oracle, and how is everything booked to zero out the on-account balance, or refund amount, in A/R? Right now, we cut a check through Payables, but I'm not sure how to the resolve A/R credit balance.
From: Markie Farrell Markie_Farrell@zd.com
A. If it is an on-account credit we adjust the invoice to a balance sheet account we call A/R-clearing. The impact is to clear the A/R customer account and correctly state the A/R balance. The payable is also posted to the A/R-clearing account with net impact on the A/R clearing account of zero.
From Alicia Hoekstra
I have implemented a similar process, except that we use a DEBIT MEMO that hits an AR/AP Clearing Account and to which the Credit in AR can be applied. The DEBIT MEMO is printed out and becomes part of the check request to AP. We also created a transaction type that clearly indicates by name the "reason" for the DEBIT MEMO. This provides a very nice audit trail for the Payables Dept. The printed DEBIT MEMO with a transaction type that says it's a customer refund made it easy for the AP Department to know what the distribution for the "invoice" should be -- the AR/AP Clearing Account, so we never had any trouble with the appropriate entries being made.
The ability to copy old requisitions into new reqs IS a standard feature with version 1.4 of Web Employees product which requires 10.7/10SC P16 of PO. This feature did not release on the CD but is available as a patch from Oracle.
If Smart Client version of Oracle Order Entry is going to be used at your company, then Order Entry Transaction Manager has to be defined and configured properly. Defining and configuring Order Entry Transaction Manager has been a difficult task. The following tips will be helpful in configuring the Order Entry Transaction Manager.
From Ken Conway of BOSS Corporation
The use of Pay Scales is a common need when addressing
union contracts. It is common to have a Human Resource policy
where various jobs have pre-negotiated rates of pay based on duration
of employee service. For example, after 6 months, the employee
is paid $X, after 12 months, $Y, etc.
There are two main obstacles to overcome in solving
this problem via Oracle HR. First, Pay Scales are not tied to
Salary Administration. Second, Oracle's implementation of automatic
progression (how an employee's rate of pay is advanced from one
step of the pay scale to the next) is not flexible. Automatic
progression is not based on each individual employee's hire date
nor is it based on the amount of time an employee has occupied
a specific step on a pay scale.
Let's address the second issue, automatic progression,
first. You will need to create a custom solution that solves
two issues. One part of the solution must solve the issue when
an employee becomes eligible, based on years of service, to advance
to the next step on a pay scale. The second part of the solution
must address the issue when there is an annual step increase for
each step of a given pay scale. In essence, even if the employee
is not eligible to advance to the next step of a pay scale, the
employee is eligible for a raise because the rate of pay for his
current step has increased.
Since Pay Scales are not tied to Salary Administration, prepare to have your custom process generate a salary proposal using the Salary Admin API. The Payroll Manager can then approve the proposed salary changes through the Oracle HR/Payroll application.
Oracle provided the following answer in the Applications Q&A:
Q. When and how will Oracle provide a supported migration path from multiple product installs (such as multiple sets of books) to the single install multiple organization architecture? When will customers be required to migrate to the multiple organization architecture?
A. Oracle plans to provide utilities to help customers with multiple installs merge data into a single installation. These utilities are currently under development, and they will be available sometime after Release 11 is shipped. Customers with multiple installs will need to merge their data into one multi-org install before migrating to Release 12.
Q. Can anyone tell me what the link (in the Database) is between ORG_ID and ORGANIZATION_ID?
From: "Bolden,Rick" <Rick_Bolden@xn.xerox.com>
ORG_ID is equivalent to the Operating Unit in a Multi-Org setup. ORGANIZATION_ID represents the Locations you define during setup of your ship-to locations. There is no link between these two - they are unrelated.
From: Calvin Pan <calvin_p@rocketmail.com>
Org_id is used to identify your multiple operating units and organization_id is used to identify your inventory organizations (warehouses) within an operating unit.
From: chitti <chitti@concordnc.com>
ORG_ID is for Operating Unit where as ORGANIZATION_ID is for inventory organizations. Absolutely there is no link between these two. We can configure any number of inventory organizations under one operating unit. In that way they can be linked together. You my refer Multi-Org reference book which explains operating units well.
From: Paul Lin
ORG_ID is the Operating Unit (for Multi-Org) and ORGANIZATION_ID is the Inventory Organization and each Inventory Org belongs to an Operating Unit (ORG_ID). However, this is not a one to one relationship. There can be more than one Inventory Organization (ORGANIZATION_ID) associated to one Operating Unit so you might have to be careful. You can find the link between these two in the ORG_ORGANIZATION_DEFINITIONS (which contains ORGANIZATION_ID, BUSINESS_GROUP_ID, and OPERATING_UNIT which is ORG_ID)
Q. Does anyone know how to make Standard Oracle Forms Query or Inquiry only?
From: Dennis Chan <CCDCHAN@cityu.edu.hk>
A. You can logon to Oracle Financials under the responsibility application developer, then run the form called "Form Functions" (accessible via Application-Function from the menu). Then update the record with the field Parameters as 'QUERY_ONLY=YES' (quotation mark is not required). Save the record. It then works immediately.
However, according to the Oracle recommended standard of customization, this is not a good practice. They think it may confuse the user with same form layout, same form title, one can update where one cannot.
We need your contributions to keep the content of this news letter fresh and topical. Please, send me an e-mail to jcrum@sprynet.com or FAX to BOSS Corporation at 770-622-5400. Thanks!
Since this news letter is a cooperative and joint effort, no one has tried to own (or be responsible for) the material contained in these newsletters. Therefore, the reader is granted a right to copy and distribute these materials for educational use. We ask only that you attribute the Atlanta OAUG as the source. Use these materials at your own risk, and ATLOAUG or the authors make no representation about the suitability of this material at your site.
The next conference of the national OAUG is scheduled in San Diego for May 17 - 20. But, conference fees for early registration start to rise in March. Get your reservation to Meeting Expectations (404-240-0999) before March 18 to get the low rates.
Coordinator-Brenda Carlton - bcarlton@kpmg.com
Web & E-mail list server provider - David Rincon
- drincon@csac.com
Newsletter Editor-Jim Crum - jcrum@sprynet.com
Below are some tips exchanged at the Feb Atl-OAUG meeting during a "how do I…?" session where members brought questions from their sites.
Brenda Carlton, bcarlton@kpmg.com