XML Gateway

It feels good to be back in business that is back to blogging. A huge backlog of mails kept me occupied yesterday, today i will talk briefly about Oracle XML Gateway as component of Oracle Applications. This is only indented to be a conceptual introduction and for the complete details you must refer to the user guide or appropriate metalink note.

XML Gateway is a tool that facilitates the communication between the Oracle E business suite and third party applications or trading partners in the form of well formatted XML messages.

XML Gateway ensures that both business to business (B2B) and Application to Application(A2A) requirements are met. Further XML Gateway ensures that the messages that are generated or consumed are compliant with the standards set by the Open
Applications Group. You can find more information on these standards at http://www.openapplications.org

Oracle XML Gateway works with Oracle Workflow to consume events raised and generate XML messages. These messages are further propagated using Oracle Advanced queuing technology and Oracle Transport agent(OTA).

Inbound and outbound messages are managed in queue table using Oracle Advanced Queuing.

The OTA is used to deliver messages to a trading partner over HTTP or HTTPs. An OTA servlet running with Oracle Applications is also responsible for receiving inbound documents sent by the trading partner.

Oracle XML gateway can be considered as a form of EDI, whereas in a normal EDI transaction the operation happens in a batch in case of XML gateway the message are more real time as they are based of events.

Oracle XML gateway makes use of the uses Web Services Description Language (WSDL) to facilitate trading partners to communicate with Oracle Applications. Trading partners can use third party web service tools to call the web services publish by your Oracle Applications.

It also uses the Java Messaging Service(JMS) to send messages between Oracle Applications and trading partners.

At the core of Oracle XML Gateway lies the execution engine, this is responsible for interacting with other oracle technologies like Oracle Workflow etc to consume and generate messages between trading partners as in the case of a B2B communication.

Oracle XML Gateway supports the SMTP, HTTP, HTTPS, JMS transport protocols for message delivery and consumption.

Oracle XML Gateway uses the Message Designer to define message maps, message maps are required to specify the data source and data target for the document. You can also use Map creation wizards that are provided for this purpose.

The message designer and wizard is a client software which is required to be installed separately on the client PCs.

Message map files have a .xgm extension. Message maps that are created on the loacle /client system have to be loaded to the middle tier APPL_TOP.

The java LoadMap and java DeleteMap are used to load and delet message maps on the middle tier server.

Its important to note that before you crate your message maps for your document you must ensure that the document conforms to the Document Type Definition(DTD).Pre defined DTD are installed and loaded in the $APPLTOP of the middle Tier. You can however load custom DTD that you can define using the Oracle Message Designer to the middle tier as well as modify existing DTD and delete existing DTD.

The DTD files are created with the .dtd extension.

The java DeleteDTDFromClob and java LoadDTDToClob are used for deleting and loading DTDs respectively.For complete syntax and example to load and delet DTDs refer to the Oracle XML Gateway users guide.

You can use the Oracle Applications responsibility 'XML Gateway Responsibility' to define trading partners and transactions.

In releases 11.5.7 onwards XML gateway is distributed as a part of AOL and does not require to be licensed or installed separately. For prior releases XML Gateway can be installed by applying patch 2440710.

The metalink note 152775.1 contains full instructions for installing and configuring Oracle XML Gateway.

You can verify your XML gateway installation byu executing the following sql script

SQL> $ECX_TOP/patch/115/sql/ECXTEST.sql

this will create a OUTnnn.xml if the installation and configuration of XML Gateway is successful.

Oracle Jinitiator

Oracle Applications is based upon a thin client architecture. On the desktop Tier you need almost nothing.. Well almost, it does require a certified web browser and the Oracle Jinitiator.

Oracle Jinitiator is a software that provides the JVM to run oracle form based products which run in the form of a form client applet.The oracle Jinitiator uses its own JVM instead of the browsers JVM.It is isntalled as a plugin ( as in the case of mozilla, Netscape or firefox) or as an Active X component (in case of Internet Explorer).

When Oracle Applications is accessed for the first time from a client PC the Jinitiator is downloaded and installed on the client PC.It is not used for Self Service Web Applications, The JInitiator is invoked only upon clicking a form based application.

After Jinitiator is installed it downloads the form client applet along with the commonly used JAR files, this is done to reduce the network traffic to download JAR files form the server every time.

Jinitiator also performs JAR caching, applet caching and incremental JAR loading to improve applications performance.
These JAR files are commonly stored under the users profile directory with a folder named Oracle Jar Cache.

The Oracle Jinitiator executable is stored on the location $OA_HTML/oajinit.exe

Oracle Jinitiator allows only trusted JAR files to run within its JVM. This trust is established by using digital signatures. In the current version of Oracle Applications the JAR files are automatically signed with the digital signatures during the install of Oracle Applications using rapidwiz. However you can still change your digital signature and repackageyour oajinit.exe for security reasons.

During the installation process rapidwiz automatically creates a file in the applmgr user $HOME directory called identitydb.obj, this file has a reference to the SID of the database instance.

If there is a mismatch between this file on the server and that on the clinet PC it often results in the yellow bar problem.

The folowing files are created automatically by rapidwiz in the current version of Oracle Applications

$APPL_TOP/admin/appltop.cer

$APPL_TOP/admin/adsign.txt

$HOME(applmgr)/identitydb.obj

To create a new digital certificate you can use the adjkey command, while the adjbuild.sh is used to repackage your jinitiator exe.You can also regenerate your JAR files using ADADMIN.

A Jinitiator package should typically contain the certificate and the obj file along with the executable.

In previous versions of Oracle Applications (earlier to 11.5.9) an unsigned JAR file would result in a yellow bar problem, but in the current release of Oracle Application attempting to load a forms with an unsigned JAR file would fail with an a java security exception error.

The latest certified versions of Oracle Jinitiator is 1.3.1.26 to run with Oracle E-business Suite 11.5.10, the least certified version is 1.1.8.16 which is used with release 11, though you can use version 1.1.8.X to access your 11i applications it is recommended that you upgrade your Jinitiator to the latest supported version 1.3.1.X.

You can follow the metalink note id 124606.1 to upgrade your Jinitiator.

An important fact to remember is that any patch applied through adpatch which contains JAR files, these new JAR files are not signed with the digital signature, after the patch is applied adpatch will regenerate all the JAR files and these new JAR files will be signed and trusted to run within the Jinitiator.

To see a list of supported browsers that are certified to access E-Business Suite reffer to metalink Note id 285218.1.

XML Publisher

One of the good things that were introduced in 11.5.10 was XML publisher (XDO).Though you can install XML publisher with any version of 11i after applying the require pre requisite patches, it comes bundled with 11.5.10 version of Oracle Applications onwards.

XML publisher is a java based tool which uses data definitions and templates to generate a output of a report in a desired format such as in PDF. It is based on the W3C Extensible Style sheet Language (XSL) and uses XSLFO to convert data into a formatting object. A strong feature of the XML publisher is that it allows extensive customization of Oracle Applications reports by making use of templates without requiring high level of technical skills.

You can install XML publisher during the Oracle Applications (11.5.10) installation or register the product later on using license manager through Oracle Applications Manager (OAM).

In case your oracle Applications release is 11.5.9 or earlier you must follow the steps stated in metalink note id 278727.1 to install XML Publisher.

The XML publisher also comes with a desktop component. Two main components of the XML publisher desktop component are template builder and template viewer.

The template builder can be integrated with desktop tools like word. Once installed, you get additional features to automate the process of template creation like generation of SQL etc.

The XML publisher essentially comprises of the following modules

Data Definition-The XML engine acts as a single point to fulfill all reporting needs for an organization.

Data Layout/Templates-Templates and the final layout are managed within the XML publisher using a Template Manager, these can be customized using desktop tools like MS Word, excel or Adobe Acrobat. The template manager is also responsible for registering your new templates before they can be used with XML publisher.

Translation - The XML publisher uses the translation handler to do the required translation at runtime. It can also convert the output into a XLIFF format which can be used by 3rd party translation companies.

Delivery - The delivery manager is responsible to deliver the output to different destinations like printers,EDI,email etc. The delivery manager also provides flexibility by delivering the same output to different destinations like HTML format can be sent to email while a PDF format sent to the printer.

XML publisher allows conditional formatting of the output by using XSL or XSL:FO code. Additionally XML publisher can also be used to perform b2b communication by using the XML Data Engine.

As i stated before the XML publisher can also be used to generate output that can be used for EDI or EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer).To use this feature you must use a eText template. These templates are comprised of a series of tables which contain commands and data field definitions.

If you have applied the consolidated update 1 or above you can generate the output using XML publisher through the concurrent request directly by selecting the appropriate template in the concurrent program definition. Incase you have not applied the CU 1 you must first run the concurrent request to generate the XML report and then run a concurrent request to publish the request.

The behavior of XML publisher can be controlled through a set f properties, these properties can be set through the XML publisher administrator interface or you can use the XML publisher properties file xdo.cfg. This file can be located at /resource or alternately at JRE_TOP>/jre/lib.

To check weather XML publisher is installed or not you can query the FND_PRODUCT_INSTALLATIONS table or you can lookup the reports in Oracle Applications Manager. You can find out the version for your XML publisher from the output of your report or from MetaInfo.class file.

$OA_JAVA/oracle/apps/xdo/common/MetaInfo.class.

Oracle Applications Manager.

The Oracle Applications Manager(OAM) provides a console to effectively manage, monitor, configure and troubleshoot an Oracle Applications environment.
The console is HTML based and as such does not require any additional software excpet the browser.
One of the key features of OAM is the Applications Dashboard which provides information on E-Business Suite installation,including summaries of current status, performance, critical activities, diagnostics, business flows, and security.

In Oracle Applications Manager 2.1.1, there are three System Administrator type responsibilities to use when accessing Oracle Applications Manager.
These Oracle Applications responsibilities are:
System Administrator - this responsibility has access to all functionality in OAM.
OAM Read Only Mode - this responsibility provides administrators with view-only access to most of the data in OAM. This responsibility does not provide access to critical actions such as Stop Services and Edit Configuration Parameters.
OAM Patch History - administrators with this responsibility can view the Applications Dashboard and Patch History pages.

The OAM is also used in conjunction with autoconfig for making changes to the application and DB tier context files.

OAM also provides advanced configuration wizards that allow you to perform advanced configurations to your E-Business Suite like SSL /SSL Accelerator conversion, Forms Listener servlet configuration and Apache Jserv load balancing.

OAM provides for a in depth monitoring of your Oracle Applications environment.OAM can also be used to monitor your forms listener servlet if you have configured your forms listener to run as a servlet.

You can also get detailed view of the Oracle Applications technology stack components like jserv memory usage, database connection pool details etc.

Additionally OAM can also be used to monitor your concurrent manager and concurrent requests.

In my first post i had talked about Generic Service Management(GSM), in case you have implemented generic service management you can monitor and control your different Oracle Applications services through OAM.

OAM also provides various features that aid in patch management process. There are various patch reports like applied patches which give details of the patches applied along with the timing reports and the changes they have made to the file system. This is a feature that i am sure DBAs who have worked on releases prior to 11i would surely appreciate.

Also included in the latest version of OAM after features like patch wizard and support cart which can be used with metalink services and aid in resolving service requests.

Cloning is also supported from OAM, currently though you cannot perform merging APPL_TOPS(Multi Node to single node cloning) from OAM.

Oracle Diagnostics can also be run from OAM. Oracle Diagnostics enables testing, identifying and reporting functional problems through a web-interface. This tool allows invoking test cases interactively using custom input values or through batch modeusing pre-registered input values.

For more details on Oracle Diagnostics, please see Metalink Note: 262006.1

You can also extend the functionality of OAM by using your custom SQL scripts to run with Oracle Applications Manager.

You can use OAM with any version of Oracle Applications 11i starting form 11.5.1. The latest version of OAM is 2.1.1 whichcan be obtained by applying Oracle Applications Manager Mini-pack 11i.OAM.H.However if you have already applied 11i.ATG_PF.H,11i.FND.H or on Oracle Applications 11.5.10 or higher you do not need to explicitly apply the 11i.OAM.H mini pack.

The metalink note 258330.1 contains details on this pack.

If you are installing OAM from the patch you can either configure it manually by editing the zone.properties and jserv.properties or by using autoconfig.

The metalink note 201703.1 contains details on installing and configuring OAM.

After you have configured OAM it is important that you set your DISPLAY environment variable correctly in your jserv.properties file to enable all the graphs within OAM to be displayed correctly.

Example: wrapper.env=DISPLAY=myacme:0.0

Once OAM has been installed you can acees it from either the Oracle Applications sign on page, from any user with the system administration responsibility or from the following URL http://host:port/servlets/weboam/oam/oamLogin