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Web ADI: Extending The E-Business Suite With Desktop Applications
Web ADI: Extending The E-Business Suite With Desktop Applications
Desktop Integration
The leveraging of Desktop Application functionality to perform E-business Suite tasks
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Contents
Preface
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Introduction to WebADI
Overview
Web Applications Desktop Integrator is a tool that leverages the standard desktop
applications to perform some of the Oracle E-Business Suite task.
The Web ADI brings Oracle E-Business suite to the desktop where familiar desktop tool
like Excel can be used to create spreadsheet, enter and modify data in the spreadsheet and
finally upload the data into the Oracle Applications.
Web ADI can be very useful for the users who are experienced with Excel and will like
to use Excel to enter the data related to Oracle Applications.
These users can use the special features of excel i.e. copy, paste, drag cells to increment
and various arithmetic functions to optimize their business task and increase their
productivity.
Data that is entered into the spreadsheet can then be finally be uploaded in to the Oracle
Applications with or without validation.
Key Features
Web ADI uses the Internet Computing Architecture that lowers the total cost of
ownership by having the product installed centrally at one place. This feature is very
much unlike client ADI where the product needs to be installed at all the client machines.
Only Internet browser and Microsoft Excel is required at client machine to access Web
ADI.
Validates Data
The data entered in the spreadsheet can be uploaded into the Oracle Applications. The
data during upload can be validated against the segment security rules and cross
validation rules defined in Oracle Applications. If any errors are found, messages are
returned directly to the spreadsheet, enabling you to correct the errors and successfully
upload the data.
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Enables Customizations
The Layout functionality can be used to modify the user interface of the spreadsheet. The
appearance, the position of the fields in the spreadsheet can be changed as per the end
users requirement. The field can be positioned in a sequence that is comfortable to the
end user and expedites the data entry process. The fields in the spreadsheet can also be
specified to contain default values. These definitions can be saved, reused, and modified
as needed.
The data in the spreadsheet can either be manually entered or can be imported
automatically from the text file. This feature can be useful when migrating data from a
legacy system to the Oracle E-Business Suite. Imported information can be quickly
modified in Excel, validated, and uploaded to the Oracle E-Business Suite.
Web ADI is an auto configurable product and would require the access to Desktop
Integration responsibility for Release 12 and Oracle Web ADI responsibility for Release
11i. The System Administrator can assign this responsibility.
For Web ADI to work with Microsoft Excel 2002/2003, you must change the macro
settings for Excel as follows
1. In Excel, from the Tools menu, select Macro, then Security, and then Security Level.
2. Select the Medium option.
3. Select the Trusted Sources tab.
4. Select the Trust access to Visual Basic Project option.
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Available Functions In Web ADI
The Desktop Integration responsibility, gives a user access to the following functions:
Create Document
Define Layout
Define Mapping
Setup Options
Define Style Sheet (Available in R12)
Integrators
The Integrators in Web ADI defines the E-Business Suite task to be performed on the
desktop.
The Integrators are the business components that are associated with specific business
functions of a product.
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The Integrators uses customized layouts to provide a user-friendly interface for the
import of data into the Oracle Application via a familiar desktop tool, Excel.
For e.g. The integrator associated for uploading the journals in to the Oracle Applications
is General Ledger Journals.
There are over 150 Integrators in Web ADI that is related to different products of E-
Business Suite.
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Administering WebADI
Defining Layouts
Layouts enable you to customize the user interface presented in your spreadsheet. Use the
layout functionality to determine the fields in a spreadsheet, set their positions, and
specify default values for the fields.
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Screenshot of Define Layout Page
Please see the Required Fields, Placement, Default Value and Default Type.
Defining Mappings
Use this procedure to define mapping between source data in text file and columns of a
spreadsheet.
Using these mappings, you can then automatically import data into the spreadsheet
created by Web ADI.
Steps
Select Define Mapping from Desktop Integration responsibility
Select an Integrator
Define the mapping
Map Source Columns to Target Columns
Save the mapping definition
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The following screenshot 1 defines the mapping of the source column to the target
columns. Whereas the screenshot 2 defines the source data delimited by comma. The
value i.e. Vision Operations (USA) in the column 1 of source file is mapped to ledger
field in target column.
1.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2.
The above columns in the text file are mapped to the following columns in the spreadsheet
Ledger, Category, Source, Currency, Accounting Date, Segment 1, Segment 2, Segment 3, Segment 4 Segment 5,Debit, Credit
The Style Sheet allows you to define the visual attributes that will be applied to the
layout.
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You can define the following properties for the Sheet, the Prompts, the Hints, and the
Data fields:
Background Color
Font Color
Font Family
Font Style
Font Size
The value sets of character data type associated with the key flexfields will consider 1
and 01 as two different values. Hence to prevent users from entering the 1 value, the
Setup Options can be used to set the right justification and zero padding for every
segment of a key flexfied. This overrides the values specified in the value set definition.
This formatting can be applied for all the structures of the key flexfields or a specific
structure of the key flexfield.
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Steps
Select Setup Options from Desktop Integration Responsibility.
Choose Select Key Flexfields to apply the format to every structure of a key
flexfield.
To apply the format mask to specific structures of the key flexfield, choose Select
Structure, and then select the appropriate structures.
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Creating a Document
Creating a Spreadsheet
Use this procedure to create a spreadsheet on your desktop to which you can import data
from a text file or manually enter the data.
Steps
Select Create Document from Desktop Integration Responsibility
Select an Integrator
Select the viewer (example: Excel, Word) that will be used to view the document
Select the Reporting check box to prevent the users from uploading the data
entered into the spreadsheet.
Select a Layout.
Select the Content text file from which data will import into your spreadsheet.
In the Review window, click Save to create a Shortcut for the entire process
above.
Create the spreadsheet by clicking button Create Document.
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Screenshot of final document created.
After creating and modifying data into the spreadsheet, the data can then be uploaded to
Oracle Applications
Steps
In the spreadsheet, select Upload from Oracle Menu
Select the desired parameters in the Upload Parameters page. Some common
parameters are
Rows to Upload
All Rows
Select to upload all rows in your spreadsheet, regardless of whether changes have been
made.
Flagged Rows
Select to upload only those rows that are marked with a flag character in the Upl column
of your spreadsheet. Web ADI displays a flag character against a row that has changed.
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Validate Before Upload
Validating prevents invalid data from being uploaded to Oracle Applications
The upload window then shows the confirmation page about the upload process. The
happy face in the following screenshot indicates the record in the spreadsheet that is
successfully uploaded.
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Such concurrent request can be monitored from the spreadsheet. The end user can then
notify the status of the concurrent request to the system administrator.
Steps
To monitor concurrent requests from the spreadsheet, select the Oracle menu,
then Monitor.
The Monitor Requests window displays the last 10 concurrent requests submitted
by the current user.
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Implementing WebADI
This topic covers the available profile options and functions in Web ADI that can be set
to modify/enhance the standard behavior of Web ADI.
Web ADI doesnt require any mandatory profile to be set as all the required profile has
the default values. However the profile values can be changed to modify the standard
behavior of Web ADI.
BNE Disable
Valid values are Yes and No. If the value is set to Yes, all Web ADI functionality
is disabled. This profile can be set for a user for which the Web ADI functionality
is to be disabled.
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Menu
The menu Desktop Integration Menu is assigned to Desktop Integration Responsibility.
You can save your selections to a shortcut that will appear at the beginning of the Create
Document Page Flow. Steps in the page flow containing these selections will be skipped
when the shortcut is used.
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Screenshot of Create Shortcut page.
Navigation: Desktop Integration>Create Document> Document Creation Review>Save
The shortcut location can be saved to a shortcut list that appears on the first page of the
Create Document Page Flow.
The next screenshot displays the name in the shortcut list.
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Shortcut appearing at the beginning of the Create Document Page Flow
Navigation: Desktop Integration>Create Document
Form Functions
The shortcut location can also be saved to a form function. The system administrator can
then assign form function a Self Service menu. The name of the function is prefixed with
BNE and also contains the partial string of shortcut name.
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Screenshot of the Form Functions. Function: BNE_WEBCAST UPLOAD JOURNALS
Navigation: System Administrator>Application>Function
The parameters of the form function created by shortcut can be further modified to limit
the name of integrators, layout etc.
In the Parameters field of form function, the parameter name can be appended and
desired value can be specified. The value can be a comma-separated list of valid values,
or a partial value that includes a wild card.
Lets say a business requirement is to limit the integrators i.e. integrator name starting
with General. Following value in the parameters field can fulfill this requirement
Parameters:
bne:page=BneCreateDoc&bne:viewer=BNE:EXCEL2000&bne:reporting=Y&bne:integr
ator=USER_NAME:General%25
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Screenshot of the secured values for Integrator
Similarly the layouts can have a secured values i.e. layout name starting with Functional
Actuals. Following value in the parameters field can fulfill this requirement
Parameters:
bne:page=BneCreateDoc&bne:viewer=BNE:EXCEL2000&bne:reporting=Y&bne:integr
ator=USER_NAME:General Ledger%25Journals&bne:layout=USER_NAME:Functional
Actuals%25
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Screenshot of the secured values for Layouts
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is the ADI client server version still supported?
Version 7.2 will be supported for release 11 and 11i only; not for Release 12 and
10g DB.
Why can I not see any Upload Parameters at the time of Uploading data from
Spreadsheet?
System Administrator must have set the value of profile BNE Allow Set
Parameters to No.
Why can I not see the Upload function in the spreadsheet and cannot upload the data?
The Reporting checkbox must have checked during the document creation.
What are the recommended browsers for Web ADI on the client PC?
Web ADI supports a Web browser that is supported by E-Business Suite. Please
refer Note 389422.1, "Recommended Browsers for Oracle Applications"
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White Paper Title
[July] 2008
Author: Vishaal K Sharma, ISC.
Contributing Authors:
Oracle Corporation
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Copyright 2001 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.
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