New Features in Oracle Fusion/Cloud Applications Release 8

As announced a few days ago, Oracle has published a new release of its Fusion Applications (ERP, HCM, CRM) product line, namely Release 8.

For on-premise deployments, this means that the installers as well as the new documentation set are now available on Oracle servers.

For cloud customers which have signed up for the Oracle-hosted versions of Fusion Applications (aka Cloud Applications) such as Sales Cloud, Oracle is probably rolling out upgrades already.

The new release brings hundreds of features, with the following (personal) list of highlights:

New Skyros Theme

With release 8, Oracle ships a new skin named "Skyros" (probably inspired by the blue sky and white houses on the Greek island of Skyros).

New Skyros skin in Fusion Release 8

The new skin provides a more "flat" look and feel and will also be available for the accompanying middleware products such as Identity Management or Oracle BI.

Oracle has announced a skin editor for release 9 so customers can create custom skins more easily.

Redesigned Global Header

In addition to the new style, the global header has been redesigned. For example, the Navigator menu is now represented by a compass icon and most administrative links have made it to the menu which opens when you click the user name on the top left.

The new Navigator menu in Release 8.

User Interface Text Editor

For developers, there are many new features, including a UI Text Editor (its place in the Navigator is highlighted in the above screenshot) which allows to search and replace user interface text elements such as labels quickly.

Application Composer

As of release 8, the Application Composer for Sales Cloud/Fusion CRM has a lot of new features including a new Record Type field which allows to filter list of values by application role (any similarities with Siebel state model are purely coincidental).

Fellow blogger and author Richard Bingham has published a very nice series on release 8 features and he also has some references to videos in his post about Application Composer.

Other Enhancements

Among other areas that have been enhanced with release 8 are flexfields (used in ERP and HCM but not Sales Cloud/CRM), the BPM Composer, Auditing and the Simplified UI which is quickly becoming the UI of choice for many users. Developers will be pleased to hear that there is now better support for customizing the Simplified UI via Application Composer.

have a nice day

@lex

Get Ready for Oracle Applications Cloud Release 8 (Updated)

As Oracle expands its Cloud business through both acquisitions and new releases of its own Fusion Applications (which are the backbone of Sales, HCM and ERP cloud), a new product line is emerging, nameley Oracle Cloud Applications. This is a combined offer of:

• Sales (formerly Fusion CRM)
• Human Capital Management
• Financials
• Value Chain Execution
• Product Value Chain
• Procurement
• Project Portfolio Management

These applications are based on Oracle Fusion Applications and are hosted in the Oracle Cloud together with other Oracle products such as Marketing Cloud or Service Cloud.

Still from an Oracle video on Sales Cloud.

With Release 8 of Oracle Cloud Applications (and Fusion Applications), Oracle explores new ways in informing customers about enhancements and new features in the form of a release 8 readiness page on cloud.oracle.com.

In addition to checking out the content on that page, the seasoned Fusion Cloud observer may want to peruse the really awesome Oracle Product Features application. After logging in with your oracle.com account, accept the disclaimer and select Oracle Cloud Applications. Then you can review the new features and produce reports.

Update: Richard Bingham at the Fusion Applications Developer Relations blog published a series of articles on the new features that come with Release 8.

have a nice day

@lex

Book Review: Oracle Fusion Applications Development and Extensibility Handbook

As announced in an earlier post, this is a review of the book
Oracle Fusion Applications Development and Extensibility Handbook by Vladimir Ajvaz, Anil Passi and Dhaval Mehta.

Overall, the 500+ page oeuvre is a "must" for the aspiring Fusion Applications developer. Extending and customizing Fusion Applications can be challenging and should not be done without proper education. This book is a perfect companion alongside the training path offered by Oracle University.

The first chapter is dedicated to the architecture of Fusion Applications with a strong focus on Fusion Middleware components such as WebLogic Server, Enterprise Service Scheduler and Enterprise Crawl and Search Framework.

Chapter 2 introduces the various types of customizations such as personalization, run-time customization, application extensions and design-time customizations and extensions and doesn't shy away from Metadata Services (MDS), sandboxes and layers.

A separate chapter on flexfields follows, which is much appreciated by all folks in Fusion ERP or HCM applications.

The fourth chapter talks about security in Fusion Applications, of course introducing the various Oracle Identity Management modules such as Entitlement Server. It also explains the Fusion-style role-based access control (RBAC). It is also the first chapter which provides a step-by-step use case scenario (creating a superuser).

Chapter 5 tackles run-time customizations with Oracle Page Composer which originates from Oracle Web Center and provides browser-based customization capabilities across all Fusion Application families. The chapter is satisfyingly full with examples and screenshots.

The following chapter is on Application Composer and provides a good overview and (code) examples for typical customization scenarios.

Chapters 7 and 8 change the tune and introduce customization with JDeveloper, which extends the book's topic range to on-premise installations of Fusion Applications. Both chapters take the reader on a roller coaster ride through JDeveloper and ADF. Especially useful if you want a closer impression how Fusion ADF applications work, but these two chapters will not make you an ADF developer.

The ninth chapter directs our attention to Business Process Management (BPM) in Fusion Applications and very briefly introduces the BPM Proces Designer and its role in the HCM domain. The authors also position BPM against SOA, the latter being the more prevalent orchestration tool in the current release of Fusion Applications.

Which brings us to chapter 10 which focuses on Oracle SOA Suite and its position in the Fusion Applications architecture. This is a much appreciated chapter as the functionality around SOA such as Approval Management is highly underrated.

Chapter 11 talks about BI Publisher and shows how it can be used for reporting purposes in Fusion Applications.

The 12th chapter goes deeper into the concepts of OBIEE and has a nice introduction to the pre-built .rpd file delivered with Fusion Applications. Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI), a specialty of Fusion Apps is laid out in detail.

The Enterprise Scheduler Service (ESS) is the topic for chapter 13. A nice worked example for a custom job is delivered with this chapter.

In the fourteenth chapter, we learn how to create custom skins using the ADF skinning feature.

The final chapter tackles the big topic of integration. It also introduces the reader to the Fusion Apps Enterprise Repository (OER) where developers find all available interfaces such as web services. A comprehensive example rounds up this chapter.

Summary

As stated above, this book will prove to be a valuable companion for Fusion Applications developers of all kinds, be it for cloud-based, on-premise or hybrid deployments.

have a nice day

@lex

Book Review: Oracle Fusion Applications Administration Essentials

Recently, two books on Oracle Fusion Applications have been released:

Oracle Fusion Applications Administration Essentials (this post)
Oracle Fusion Applications Development and Extensibility Handbook (future post)

 If you happen to be on the "Fusion Path", you might find these worth purchasing (and reading of course). In this and another article to be published soon, I will provide a review of the new publications.

Oracle Fusion Applications Administration Essentials by Faisal Ghadially and Kalpit Parikh.

I found this book to stay true to its own abstract (quote from the book):

"The book provides detailed how-to steps. However, it does this by ensuring that the high-level context and purpose of these activities are clearly understood. Our purpose in writing this book is to give you a jump-start to managing Oracle Fusion Applications from a technical perspective. Readers who have worked with other Oracle ERP products will find this is an insightful introduction to Oracle Fusion Applications."

In fact, step-by-step procedures for example for installing Fusion Applications are laid out, but only from a high-level process perspective which makes it a good reference for those who want to gain an understanding of what it means to install and administer Oracle Fusion Applications.

The first chapter provides an historical and architectural overview. It nicely lays out the middleware-centric fashion in which Fusion Applications are built.

Don't expect too much from chapter 2, Fusion Application Installation. While providing a concise overview of the necessary steps, it doesn't go into detail.

Chapter 3 introduces the Functional Setup Manager, the one-stop-shop for Fusion Applications administrators and doesn't stay away from talking about migrating setup files between environments.

The fourth chapter takes care of the important topic of security, introducing Oracle Identity Management and the concepts of role-based access control in Fusion Applications.

Chapter 5 is dedicated to the Enterprise Scheduler Service (ESS), another important component of the Fusion Applications architecture. Good to see it covered.

The sixth chapter looks at monitoring and troubleshooting options, covering the audit and logging mechanisms of Oracle Fusion Applications as well as an overview of Cloud Control for Fusion Applications.

The final chapter introduces management tasks such as stopping, starting, patching, backup, and recovery of Fusion Applications.

Summary

With a bit more than 100 pages, the book is lightweight in both the amount of paper as well as the content. However the content is presented in a clear and concise manner. If you find yourself in the growing group of technicians with exposure to Oracle Fusion Applications and need a jump-start, this book is for you. It will help you understand the concepts and makes decisions of further education and reading much easier.

have a nice day

@lex