Descriptive Flex Field Multi Context

DFF s are simply used for storing additional info which does not have standard location in Oracle. Context structure is frequently used for storing different data depending on another variable. For any DFF a need for conditional use may appear; for example for different organizations different attributes can exist. In this case setting attribute context (a column in the table) as organization id and for organization1 using "attribute2" as "x", "attribute3" as "y" for "organization2" using "attribute2" as "z" is possible.

And think that one of these organizations prefers asking two additional questions for a purchasing category and three different questions for another purchasing category. In this case questions should change depending on two different variables. Multi context structure provides the differentiation of these information depending on more than one variable. It' s usage is mostly needed if the EBS environment has a multiorg structure. Because companies usually keep different information depending on different variables even though they are under the same rack. To use this structure in Forms a global attribute should be defined via personalization and DFF context should reference to this global attribute. For OAF it may use a Table typed Value Set which has a dynamic query.

Reaching application attachments, concurrent outputs via database

For different kind of processes, in various screens users attach files to the Oracle EBS (Purchasing orders screen etc). And Oracle EBS keeps these attachments as binary files in database, because keeping them in their original format requires keeping them in file server and this means these files should exist in every file server and causes massive file storage (Probably there are much more reasons and debates about the subject).
These attachments and concurrent outputs are kept in "fnd_lobs" table, furthermore they are accessible via database. Attached documents can be in various formats like text, image etc. and any of these can be downloaded from the database.
This information was exciting for me though i think this feature also creates a security risk.

EBS forms screen opening problem

While starting a new project consultants usually suffer from not being able to open Forms screens of eBusines Suite though they can open OAF screens. Installed Java version of server which the EBS instance operates varies most of the time and requires different configuration of Jinitiator or Java with browswers and operation system.

Special case of this problem; if Internet Explorer8 is used as browser and gets closed while entering forms screens of EBS R11 then jinitiator directory's jvm.dll file can be replaced with Java directory's jvm.dll file (This solution may work for other configurations).

I had witnessed another annoying case; I have installed java7 and R12 forms screens started to give "frm-92095 oracle jinitiator version too low. please install version 1.1.8.2 or higher" error. Seemingly forms is not supporting java7 yet so i have uninstalled it and turned back to 6, then it worked. Thinking that Oracle owns both situation seems more absurd!

Project documentation versioning

In major projects with more than a few people, documentation gets a complicated structure. Documentation structure is all important but some lack of tracking document versions may turn all of it into a mess. To avoid this kind of chaos documentation versioning standards should be decided and shared with all project team.
Real life example from my last project; creating document versions while updating them internally before sending to customer is also important though sending the first customer version as v5. or v7.2 is not appropriate. So internal versions may be tracked as v0.1, v0.2 etc and then customer version may start with v1.0.

EBS Startup Setups

It has been a while since i wrote a text here; it is mostly because of being busy and not finding the information interesting-valuable enough to write here. Still i think writing here is a useful idea for me and the readers so i will continue...

While setting up the environment for a fresh eBusiness Suite basic module setup steps should be implemented for multiorg structure etc. These setups take some days for every one of them and consultants need to implement basically with the following order HR > Finance > Logistics > Others (EAM, Asset tracking, incentive).
Though some modules can be used independently and modules required setups are described in their implementation guides.