Required checks before going live

Going live is a critical phase for IT projects, if it is not managed carefully all efforts until then can be wasted. Here is some objects need to be controlled for Oracle projects while transferring developments from test environment to production environment

Application Objects:
Form,
function,
menu,
responsibility,
role,
grant,
lookup,
value set,
descriptive flex field (segments),
key flex field (segments),
concurrent,
program,
executable,
request group,
profile option,
personalization,
folder,
report (xml, discoverer)

Database Objects:
Function,
workflow,
procedure,
package,
view

Also while airing upgrade projects; workflows should be tested if past flows are still working fine though workflow has versioning system

Clearing Cache via Functional Administrator

Sometimes changes seem to be not applied to EBS, reason for this is cache. Clearing cache solves the problem most of the time (such as adding a responsibility and not seeing it);
Functional Administrator>Core Services>Caching Framework>Global Configuration>Clear All Cache

Running XML Report in Local Environment

Oracle Report Builder is used for creating XML reports, after creation of the report sometimes changes need to be done while there is no connection to the environment. In such cases .rtf file can be downloaded via XML Publisher Administrator and .xml file can be downloaded via view>requests>diagnostics>xml (after running the report) to change and see the result in local environment. To be able to do this BI Publisher Desktop needs to be installed as an add-in to the MSWord. First .rtf file is
opened then Add-Ins>Data>Load XML Data>Preview>report type steps should be followed to see the report result

Useful tables for database management and patches

When you wonder where a column or code is used you can use the following query!

select * from all_source
where upper(TEXT) like '%%',

Also a few useful tables are listed below:

-dba_db_links
-dba_tables
-v$database

Useful tables for patch information whether it is installed or not:
ad_bugs, ad_applied_patches

From ETRM:
"AD_BUGS holds information about the various Oracle Applications bugs whose fixes have been applied (ie. patched) in the Oracle Applications installation

AD_APPLIED_PATCHES holds information about the "distinct" Oracle Applications patches that have been applied. If 2 patches happen to have the same name but are different in content (eg. "merged" patches), then they are considered distinct and this table will therefore hold 2 records."

DFF Column Register

Table Attribute columns can be used in Descriptive Flex Fields (DFF) via Application Developer> Flexfield> Descriptive> Segments and searching related DFF title. Though related table's other columns too can be used in descriptive flex fields via registering (Usually global attributes). To register a column required steps are: Application Developer> Flexfield> Descriptive> Register, querying the DFF and Columns> flagging the column. This form can be used to find the DFF Title by using the table name.

Different types of columns may exist if you query the Flexfields with a database table; one of them is the one which we normally use, the other one is the one which reserved for global use. If a column exist in the table but not shown in normal flexfield record screen it means that the attribute is probably reserved for global use. If you want to use it you should uncheck it in the localization record.

Note1: When a user click on the flexfields they may open otomatically or user need to press "CTRL+L", this option is provided with "Flexfields:Open Descr Window" and "Flexfields:Open Key Window" profiles.

Note2: Serial Attributes definition is a special case; it is done within Warehouse Manager responsibility> Serial attributes screen.

Alert History

I have learned that alerts which are runned by Oracle Applications Alert Manager are being logged, alerts' running times and outputs can be seen via following query

select * from ALR_ALERTS al, ALR_ALERT_CHECKS alc, ALR_ALERT_OUTPUTS alo
where al.alert_id=alc.alert_id
and al.alert_id=alo.alert_id
and al.alert_name like '%'
order by alc.last_update_date desc