I am going to present 2 sessions in the Oracle OpenWorld next week and am the guest speaker for one of the Oracle’s session. Do catch me if you are going to be there.

More details on Oracle OpenWorld @ http://www.oracle.com/us/openworld/index.html

Session ID: S316625
Schedule: Monday, September 20, 3:30PM | Westin Market Street Hotel
Title: DreamWorks Animation SKG's Oracle Time and Labor Implementation
Speaker(s):

• Shiv Saroj, Senior Consultant
• Daniel Thotha, Dreamworks Animation

• Prakash Pulla, Oracle, Director
• Shiv Saroj, Senior Consultant
• Nichole Lewis, Dreamworks Animation

• Shiv Saroj, Senior Consultant

My abstract on technology direction regarding choice of framework for Oracle E-Business Suite has been selected for presentation. I am looking forward to present my paper at the OAUG Collaborate 10 conference. Below are the details of my session:

Session ID: 4584
Date: Tuesday, April 20
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Location: South Seas F
Speaker: Shiv Saroj
Product Line(s): Fusion Applications (FZAPP); Fusion Middleware (FZMW); Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS)
Track: Application Strategy and Services (AS); Development (DEV)

Abstract: OA Framework is the technology upon which majority of 11i and R12 releases of Oracle Applications is built on and ADF is the sole technology used for the development of pages in Fusion. A major portion of any Oracle Applications project involves the customization of existing pages and development of new modules to meet business requirements. OA framework provides a seamless, patch safe mechanism whereas ADF is capable of providing visually rich, complex logic modifications without much coding effort. Determine where do we stand when it comes to tool of choice for customization of current pages and development of custom modules? Should we start the custom Oracle Applications development on ADF or still stick to OAF? What is the future impact of these technologies on current business?

Collaborate 10
April 18-22, 2010
Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
Check http://oaug.collaborate10.com/reg/#fullpass for registration charges, starting at 1785$. More details here.

If you attend one conference this year, make this the one. COLLABORATE 10 offers practical insights, techniques and answers to your questions — precise, high-impact education and networking to help your company hit its Oracle Applications target.

· Over 400 user-driven sessions featuring tips, techniques and best practices for Oracle Fusion, Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, Agile, Hyperion, Oracle Communications and Siebel product families

· More than 50 Special Interest Group (SIG) and Geographic networking meetings — connect to discuss your specific areas of interest

· A powerful global community of Oracle technology and applications professionals and experts — ask your questions, get your answers — take advantage of valuable free advice

· Interact, face to face, with Oracle executives and product development professionals.

· Unique educational experiences included with your registration: Women in Technology panel discussion, Oracle Fusion “Soup to Nuts” seminar, OAUG/IT Convergence Boot Camp Workshops, presentations by Oracle Support, Oracle Primavera breakout sessions and more.

It has been a long while since I wrote my last article. I have been busy on some large scale Oracle Applications implementations on tight schedule along with my regular client workshops on EBS and Fusion Middleware.

I am going to make this post as the landing page for the Middleware 11g related updates, important announcements.

In last couple of years, I have seen the way Middleware 10g has evolved into Middleware 11g and its integration with recently acquired BEA WebLogic server. FMW 11g is truly amazing in the sense of technology platform, scalability, UI, usability and out of the box functionality. The list just goes on and on, I will leave it to you to read on the Oracle site.

Users of FMW 10g will also notice that almost most of the aspect of the development/ deployment, server configuration etc changed. Now instead of individually managed servers (SOA, WebCenter etc), all the servers get managed inside a WebLogic server. More on this later.

In the coming articles, I will be covering the following aspects:

• Getting started (Where and What to pick up and install)
• Making use of Amazon cloud computing as your FMW 11g server (unless you have 4GB RAM, don't even think of running the server locally)
• A sample application development and deployment process
• A sample integration with Oracle E-Business Suite
• Use of WebCenter Spaces to have an Enterprise Portal up & running in seconds
• More advanced aspect of FMW11g

Two of my papers have been selected for the upcoming OHUG [Oracle HCM Users Group].

• XML Publisher to the rescue of Seeded Reports
• API User Hook's - A hidden strength of Oracle HRMS
  

We had a number of queries and discussions on the OA Framework Forum on OTN regarding OAF, ADF and Oracle Applications. In this article, I am going to cover where OAF and ADF stand with respect to Oracle Applications and what are the expectations out of them.

OAF stands for Oracle Applications Framework and is a MVC architecture based J2EE framework customized for use in Oracle Applications development. It is tailor made for use in the development, customization of Oracle Apps pages and any custom application development to be hosted, integrated in Oracle Apps. It has the inbuilt support for features like session management, AOL/J security, connection pooling etc. OAF provides classes for all the standard web widgets seen on the Self Service pages like Text field, List of Values, Table, HGrid, Buttons etc. I won't go deep into OAF architecture, you can get that detail in the OAF Dev guide.

Only choice of tool to work with OAF is Jdeveloper with OA Extension. There is no OA extension /plugin available for any other IDE. This is another factor where people keep getting confused. Jdeveloper is a generic Java IDE but the one without the OA extension can't be used for OAF development. OA extension is what provides the required OA libraries and enables OA based Workspace, Project creation.

OAF is the only option for any Oracle Apps related development [Here I am not considering PUI Forms interface for the simple reason that Oracle has stopped any new PUI based development a couple of years ago and is trying to convert them to OA pages]. Release 11i and recently launched Release 12 version of Oracle Apps is based on OAF. For look & feel and business logic changes to Oracle provided seeded Self Service pages, one can make use of Extension and Personalization features of OAF. Modifications done following the Extension and Personalization guidelines are upgrade and patch safe. Any direct modification made to seeded code will be overwritten during the patching.

ADF stands for Application Development Framework. Unlike OAF, it is not a vendor or technology specific framework. In fact it supports a number of technologies for each of its Model, View and Controller components and hence has received a good appreciation from the developer, architect community. It has gained popularity as the choice of framework for generic J2EE based applications development.

ADF is going to be used for Fusion release of Oracle Applications. As oracle itself is working on the Fusion release of Applications code and establishing the Applications specific standards, libraries, I don't see the fusion specific ADF development standards being out for customers, vendors anytime before 2009 or 2010 [ Might be even later based on the policy they come up with]. Though you can still create custom applications in ADF and host on a 10gAS server, the integration, maintenance, Apps LAF will be the issues you will have to face. ADF still doesn't have the native support for integration with release 11i or R12 based system and I don't see it coming as ADF is more of meant for fusion product which is still underway. As the path will be to move to fusion, I don't think that there will be any extra effort to provide native support of ADF for 11i or even in R12.

The first looks of the Fusion release Applications are supposed to be out in the Dec, 2008 [ % of functionality covered is not committed] and now with the exit [read firing] of John Wookey, Senior Vice President of Applications Development, who spearheaded the fusion development, I am not sure what's the new milestone dates as per new management [signs of further delays are out]. Well, this definitely means that all the customers will be on 11i or R12 release of code for a couple of more years and the biggest chunk of maintenance/enhancement work will be based on OAF. To stress on this aspect, you should consider the fact that there are no standards, guidelines available for customers, vendors with respect to ADF and Fusion. With the new framework going to take some time to get stabilize along with new fusion Apps code development, its going to take couple of more years.

Only scenario where I see ADF fit into current Apps related development is the kind of project where you have to develop a completely standalone application which just uses the Oracle Apps data but is not required to integrate with the Oracle Apps. For all Oracle Applications related development and customizations, stick to OA Framework.

What does the above mean? Good news for OAF developers as for next 5-6 years, most of the Oracle Applications related work will be on OA framework. Also keep in mind that ADF has many features which are similar to OAF. Hence it will be an easy path to learn ADF if you know OAF properly and want to move over to ADF related development. As the majority of current Oracle Applications code and customizations are OAF based, there should be an easy migration road map for OAF based customizations to fusion technology.

Mukul has put up a nice intro on the comparison of OAF and ADF tech stacks. Check it here.

Change and Late Audit is one of the most important functionalities of Oracle Time & Labor. Change and Late Audit feature known as CLA allows system to identify the time or attribute information on Timecard which should be audited and requires to enter an explanation/comment of why a change was made to the timecard or why the entry is late. It is an optional feature and doesn't fall into the mandatory setups of OTL.

What is a CHANGE entry and what is a LATE entry? Change and late rules are not fixed entities and can be configured through the appropriate OTL preferences and Time Entry Rules. Even the list of reasons for auditing is configurable. Change and Late audit enables you to track all changes to new Timecards, as well as previously saved and submitted Timecards. These changes include modifying a saved or submitted timecard and saving timecards after a defined due date. For example, you may wish to have workers enter a reason why they changed their hours worked on Friday from 4 to 6, or why an hours type was changed to overtime from regular.

CLA feature was added to OTL to comply with the US Defense Contractor Audit Agency [DCAA]. As in a change and audit scenario, you have to track all the changes , a basic building block upon which our tracking attributes are based on can't be deleted. Hence a Timecard once created, can't be deleted. An hour entry made against a day for a particular receiving application attribute can't be deleted. So what's the solution in a scenario where audit is enabled and a Timecard has to be deleted or a wrong hour entry value has to be deleted? Only option, set the hour entries to zero.

Considering the above fact, the very first preference change for CLA setup is to disable the "Delete Timecards". This will disable the delete icon on the Recent Timecard Page.

Next preference to be modified is the "Self Service Process Flow" preference. This preference needs to be set to "Audit" from the default value of "Standard" which will add the CLA logic to the normal timecard processing flow and will prompt for Change & Late reasons if they are required to be entered as per setup.

As CLA functionality will require a new screen to show the change, late entries and prompt user to provide reason/comment, this new screen is provided through the Audit Layout. Hence Audit Layout needs to be added to "Self Service Timecard Layout" preference. This preference will already have the values for the Timecard, Review and Confirmation layouts at a minimum. When CLA is enabled for employees, you definitely would like to show those audit information to approver also. That means you also need to set the CLA Approver layout.

Now to determine which entry is late and which is a change, we need to create time entry rules. Attach these rules to a Time entry rule group and assign the rule group to a person through the preference. Existing seeded rules can be used a starting point for any custom rule development.

CLA feature was initially enabled for Self Service Time Entry only and later on was developed for Timekeeper also.

In the previous post Timecard Layout Modification, we saw the basic setup changes required for the addition of new Context OHUGLOCATION in the OTL Time Store and the further steps to create/add the corresponding mapping component.

Lets see now, how do we modify the timecard layout LDT files.

Step 1. Define the data source for New Location Field

OTL provides 10 custom view objects which save the effort of creating/managing new database object.

Name : CustomXVO
Class Path : oracle.apps.hxc.selfservice.timecard.server.CustomXVO
View : HXC_CUI_CUSTOMX_V where X stands for 1 to 10

We will use Custom1VO for location choice list. Make sure that this view is not already in use.

create or replace view HXC_CUI_CUSTOM1_V as
select 
     STATE_NAME display_value, 
     STATE_CODE value
from 
     PAY_US_STATES

• Timecard : Timecard Entry Screen.
• Review : Timecard Review Screen.
• Confirmation : Timecard Confirmation Screen.
• Notification : Notification screen as seen by the Approver.

• Details : To capture extra details like DFF fields.
• Export : For Disconnected Time Entry.
• Approval Fragment : Used when multiple applications are used in single Timecard like Project and Payroll.

• Change the HXC_LAYOUT field value
  
• Change the DISPLAY_LAYOUT_NAME field value
  
• Do a Search and Replace All for the old DISPLAY_LAYOUT_NAME with the new name
• To add a new Choice List, copy the seeded Cost Center component and paste below Cost Center.
• Comment off the Cost Center field. # sign can be used to comment out the lines from layout files.
  

• Component header name
• Component_Value
• Attribute_Code set to AK Attribute created above
• Sequence : Determines the sequence of components on Timecard
• Parent_Component
• Comp_Qualifier Header
• Attribute1 : Custom1VO
• Attribute10 : Custom1VO class path
• Attribute26 : OTL Information Type DFF Context
• Attribute27 : Corresponding Segment from the Attribute26 context
• Attribute30 : Y for all the layouts except Timecard entry. A value of Y makes this component as Read Only
  

BEGIN HXC_LAYOUT_COMPONENTS "OHUG Payroll Timecard Layout - Locationr"
   OWNER = "ORACLE"
   COMPONENT_VALUE = "OHUGLOCATION"
   REGION_CODE = "HXC_CUI_TIMECARD"
   REGION_CODE_APP_SHORT_NAME = "HXC"
   ATTRIBUTE_CODE = "OHUG_HXC_LOCATION_PROMPT"
   ATTRIBUTE_CODE_APP_SHORT_NAME = "HXC"
   SEQUENCE = "195"
   COMPONENT_DEFINITION = "CHOICE_LIST"
   RENDER_TYPE = "WEB"
   PARENT_COMPONENT =
  "OHUG Payroll Timecard Layout - Day Scope Building blocks for worker timecard matrix"
   LAST_UPDATE_DATE = "2004/05/24"


   BEGIN HXC_LAYOUT_COMP_QUALIFIERS "OHUG Payroll Timecard Layout - Locationr"
     OWNER = "ORACLE"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY = "CHOICE_LIST"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE1 = "Custom1VO"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE4 = "N"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE8 = "DisplayValue"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE9 = "Value#NUMBER"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE10 =
    "oracle.apps.hxc.selfservice.timecard.server.Custom1VO"     
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE17 = "OraTableCellText"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE20 = "N"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE21 = "Y"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE22 = "L"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE25 = "FLEX"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE26 = "OHUGLOCATION"
     QUALIFIER_ATTRIBUTE27 = "Attribute1"
     LAST_UPDATE_DATE = "2004/05/24"
   END HXC_LAYOUT_COMP_QUALIFIERS 

Step 6. Login as the user and verify the modification on each of the layouts.

Timecard Entry Page

Timecard Review Page

Timecard Confirmation Page

Whenever it comes to OTL discussions, the following two questions are always on the top:

1. Why do we need to configure the Timecard Layout?

Well, talking of configuration requirement, every business has different requirements which a seeded layout can't fulfill. The standard attributes provided on the seeded layouts are more of as a way for quick testing of the setup and a template for further modification. As an example, on the Payroll Timecard, your business rule might require you to provide Accounting Group or Supervisor or a day by day comments information apart from the Hours Type, Cost Center attributes and the hours value.

Along with business requirements, there might be scenarios to capture extra information to satisfy the legislative rule. One such rule which comes to my mind is Consultant taxation wherein if a person works in a state away from his home state for a specific number of days, he should be taxed as per the worked state rules also. Hence we will have to capture the Location information also while entering the Time and transfer that location information as the Geocode value in one of the input values of the Hours Element. Rest payroll will take care of :)

There are also business requirements where you would like to show/hide some components on the timecard based on the responsibilty or role. This also calls for layout modifications.

2. Are you crazy, do we need to modify the LDT files manually to add/remove/modify any components like LOV, Choicelist, DFF, Text Field etc? Can't I use OAF personalization and extension?

It really sounds crazy enough but this is the real strength of OTL Timecard Configuration functionality. What OTL offers is a way of adding new components on the Timecard, be able to validate those values, save them in the Time Store and transfer to the Receiving Application and all this without writing any code.

All the changes without writing any code? Now this must be sounding good :)
How do we do that? I will be covering it in a separate article.

You can't use OAF personalization and extensions on OTL Timecard matrix.

And I know the OTL enthusiastics will be asking what about the OTLR questions? Another article sometime later.

This article is going to cover the steps required to make changes to OTL Timecard Layouts.

Goals of this exercise are:

1. Add a new field on Timecard Entry page which will allow users to select State value while entering the time. This location information should be stored as Attribute1 of the OHUGLOCATION context in OTL Time Store.

2. Cost Center field is to be removed.

3. State location information should be available to the Approver on Mass Timecard Approval screen and the Workflow notification page.


To keep the changes simple, In this entry I will cover only the steps required for the addition of new Context OHUGLOCATION in the OTL Time Store and the further steps to create/add the corresponding mapping component which will allow this value to get stored in proper place in Time Store without any code change. As we are talking about cost center attribute, its clear that it is a Payroll Time Card.

Before we start changes related to Time Card, have a look at the below image and understand the basic parts of a Time Card.


Step 1. Define a new Context, Segment in OTL Information Type Descriptive Flexfield

• Navigate to System Administration -> Application -> Flexfield -> Descriptive -> Segments
• Query for “OTL Information Type” in the Title field.
• Unfreeze Flexfield Definition.
• Create a new Context named OHUGLOCATION.
• Create a segment with values

• From OTL Application Developer responsibility, run ‘Generate Flexfield and Mapping Information’ Process with the parameters

• Other parameters are optional.

In this article, I am going to show how to add the Hours Type in the Hours choicelist field on the Self Service Timecard. This process requires only a few setups and involves no code or layout change. I am assuming that the basic preferences setup like Timecard Layout, Approval Style, Approval Period, Timecard Period, Application Set, Retrieval Group etc are done.

It is often one of the most basic requirements to enable a different list of Hours type to employee Self Service Timecard based on some criteria like assignment, people group, etc....

Step 1. Create Elements and make sure that the Earnings Type is defined and one of the input values is "Hours". I am defining a regular and an overtime earning element. Earning type selection will decide a lot of things when we come to Time Management Rules like overtime, shift calculation etc.

In its first year, the HCM and Beyond brought together the audiences of both OHUG and Quest in one event. Attendees benefited from a strong educational and networking agenda that let them expand not only their expertise in Human Capital Management, but learn more about everything from the technical aspects of their ERP systems to tips and techniques for working within the other modules their organizations have employed.

Two of my papers were selected for presentation during the event

33320: Timecard Structure and OTL Data Model

Abstract
OTL, a tool rather than a product, is based on HXC and HXT schema. It is designed on a complex hierarchical data model and displays one of the best usages of DFF. Understanding of timecard structure is essential for OTL implementation & integrati

* Difference between HXC and HXT schema, corresponding usage should be understood.
* Show what is Timecard data structure and how it leverages the DFF to make a generic datastore.
* Show all methods to enter time & flow of time information till it gets into receiving application.


33290: OTL Self Service Timecard Configuration Tips & Tricks

Abstract
Oracle Time & Labor is the single point of entry for requirements of time capture, validation, management and approval. OTL offers time entry via a highly configurable & flexible web interface to meet the varying business needs of diverse industries.

* Demonstrate the configuration capability to add new components on timecard. No code change required.
* Show the setup required to process the added components & transfer to the receiving application.
* How easy it is to meet Day to day requirements to include components like LOV, Choice List, DFF etc.

More details along with the presentations can be seen on

http://www.questdirect.org/QuestDirect/Events/HCM+and+Beyond/
http://ohug.org/index.php/hcm-and-beyond

Oracle Time and Labor is very flexible when it comes to time entry methods. It has a solution for almost all the different scenarios you can think of. Lets go through them one by one:

Employee Self Service: A very straight forward and simple web based interface to enter timecard. Superb example of a custom rendering engine on top of the OA components which renders timecards based on the layout LDT flat files. Adding, modifying a component on the timecard is very simple and can be achieved through the modification of layout LDT file.

Authorized Delegate Self Service: A new feature added recently to imitate the timekeeper functionality in Self Service. It is based on HRMS security profile and provides a mechanism where a person can enter timecard for a set of people assigned to him. It is not an alternate solution to timekeeper functionality and is recommended to be used for scenarios where smaller number of subordinates is required to be handled through an Authorized Delegate.

Time Keeper: The perfect solution for scenarios like shop floor where you need a timekeeper to maintain and enter time for large number of people. It is a PUI form based interface and provides a mechanism for fast mass timecard entry and edit functionality. It is one of the most complex forms in the whole Oracle Apps where each and every component of the form is determined and created at runtime which is completely configurable based on OTL preferences. Literally saying, the static form is empty and the runtime form is having one of the most complex structures among all the Apps forms.

Disconnected Time Entry aka Spreadsheet: One of the features of OTL which allows to create timecard based on the provided spreadsheet (excel file) and a very important one where you get timecard data in the form of spreadsheets from the users who don’t have access to EBiz Application.

PUI Form based Timecard: The only interface where timecard data directly goes to HXT schema i.e. it has to have the OTLR rules enabled and the corresponding time management policies setup properly. This is the interface where you can see the exploded timecard data and corresponding rate values as per the rules setup.

PDA: Oracle Time & Labor also has functionality to let users enter time information with the use of a mobile phone or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

Punch Machine / Time Capture Devices: OTL provides a set of PUBLIC APIs which enables to write interface for any Punching Machine or Time Capture Device. hxctsdp.pkb is the package which contains public API for timecard creation/manipulation. The API provide the functionality to add individual Time Building Blocks off any scope (DAY or DETAIL, including their associated attributes), to an existing timecard, to update existing Time Building Blocks with their associated attributes, to delete a complete timecard or a specific Time Building Block and its attributes from a timecard.

Apart from these time entry methods, a generic data flow and related processes is shown in the above diagram.