OracleAppsBlog

A day in the life of an Oracle Applications Consultant

Profile Options

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Enabling the Cancel Query option

This post discusses the profile option which controls access to concurrent requests used to view reports.

In organisations where there are a large number of transactions or where for some reason the system tends to run slowly, entering and executing an inappropriate query within your Oracle Application can be rather annoying and time consuming. This simple trick provides you with the ability to cancel a query after you have executed it.

By setting the FND: Enable Cancel Query profile option to yes, you will cause the button displayed below to appear every time you execute a query.

To cancel a query (in instances where it is taking too long to run or where you entered the wrong query) simply press the button.

Friday, February 25, 2005

Controlling Access to Concurrent Requests

This post discusses the profile option which controls access to concurrent requests used to view reports.

An important security consideration when implementing Oracle E-Business Suite is determining report access privileges. Control over reports generated in Oracle Apps via concurrent requests launched by the concurrent manager can be set via a profile option in System Administration.

According to the Oracle System Administrators User Guide: -

The profile option Concurrent:Report Access Level determines report output file and log file access privileges for your end users. As System Administrator, you can set this profile option to either “User” or “Responsibility.” All users can can review the log and report output files from requests that they submitted.

Setting the Concurrent:Report Access Level option to “Responsibility” at the User level allows that user to review the log and report output files from all requests submitted from the current responsibility. If you set the Concurrent:Report Access Level option to “Responsibility” at the Responsibility level, any user of that responsibility can also view the log and report output files from all requests submitted by any other user of that responsibility. Of course, if you want all users to see each other’s requests (i.e. no security) you can choose “User” at the Site level.

Standard Reports - Using Concurrent Manager

To review an online Oracle Tutor process flow diagram describing how to run and manage concurrent requests as well as secure the viewing of related output, visit this page at the University of Virginia’s site.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Journal AutoReverse Profile Option

This post highlights a profile option you need to be aware of when setting up AutoReversing journals.

Oracle Apps gives you the ability to manually or automatically reverse posted journals into subsequent accounting periods. We set up AutoReversing journals at a client site the other day so that the journal would automatically reverse in the next non adjusting accounting period i.e. if you were in period 12 of a year it would not reverse the entry in period 13 (an adjustment period) but rather into the first period of the next year. A typical example of where you might want to do this is in the case of an accrual that you raise at the end of month which you now want to reverse in a subsequent month - see the diagram below.

Having completed the setup our expectation was that the journal would reverse when opening the next month (which is the trigger that runs the Automatic Reversal Programme). To our surprise the journals didn’t automatically reverse in the next month, however, the solution was a simple one. By setting the Profile option GL: Launch AutoReverse After Open Period to Yes we now found that when opening the next accounting period two concurrent requests were spawned, one to reverse the journal and another to post it (as enabled by selecting the AutoReverse and AutoPost Reversal options shown in the above diagram) . If you do forget to turn on this profile option as we did, you can still go and manually reverse the journal by choosing the following navigation path in General Ledger: Journals > Generate > Reversal. The result will be a list of journals which you can manually choose to reverse as shown in diagram below.

Further Information

Also refer to these two processes documented using Oracle Tutor at the Enterprise Services Center Helpdesk

• Defining AutoReversal Criteria
• Monthly AutoReverse Journals

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Tracking user activity with the Sign-On: Audit Level Profile Option

This post provides tips on how to monitor user activity online and via reports available in the system administration responsibility.

The online monitoring of user activity within Oracle Applications is achieved via the Monitor Users form (Form Name: FNDSCMON.fmx). The navigation path within the Sysadmin responsibility is Security > User > Monitor. In order to activate the capability of this form one has to select an appropriate option for the profile option Sign-On: Audit Level Profile Option. The available options are: -

• NONE - No monitoring.
• USER - Will only show you a list of logged in users.
• RESPONSIBILITY - Will show you the user logged in and the responsibility they are using.
• FORM - Will go down to the lowest level of detail and show you the User, Responsibility and Form being accessed.

The screen shot below indicates what you would see if you had chosen the FORM option for the profile option in question.

I like this feature since one look at this screen tells me exactly who is doing any work in the system at a particular point in time. If you are a DBA it’s quite useful to take a look at before you bounce or shutdown the system just to make sure everyone is logged out. My personal preference is to use the form option since this gives you more information than all the other options. Obviously there will be an impact on system performance if you use this option which you may have to consider. Depending on what audit level you have selected for the profile option under discussion you may also generate various reports as indicated below: -

• Signon Audit Concurrent Requests Report - used to view information about who is requesting what concurrent requests and from which responsibilities and forms.
• Signon Audit Forms Report - used to view who is navigating to what form and when they do it.
• Signon Audit Responsibilities Report - used to view who is selecting what responsibility and when they are doing it.
• Signon Audit Users Report - used to view who signs on and for how long.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Utilising the Customer Alternate Name Field

I had a problem at a client the other day where they weren’t able to capture data in to the Customers Alternate Name Field, here’s the quick and simple solution.

In order to allow data entry in to the Alternate Name field of the Customer as indicated in the diagram below, the profile option AR: Customers - Enter Alternate Fields should be set to Yes. An alternate name would most likely be used where the customer is trading using a different name to the one shown on your records. Apparently certain reports within AR will display this alternate name if you are using it.