Personalizing Oa Framework Pages

Copyright © 2004, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Personalizing OA Framework Pages

1-2 Copyright © 2004, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to do the following:

• Understand the differences between personalizations and extensions

• Understand the capabilities of personalizations

• Understand Administrator-level personalizations

• Understand User-level personalizations

• Understand the benefits of personalizations

• Complete the OA Framework Personalization lab


Agenda

• Terminology• Concepts

• Administrator-level Personalization• Troubleshooting

• User-level Personalization• Deploying Personalizations

• Translating Personalizations• Hands-on Exercises


Terminology

Personalization

• Declaratively tailoring UI look-and-feel, layout or visibility of built-in content to suit a business need or a user preference

Extension

• Extending the functionality of an application:– Adding new content or business logic

– Extending/overriding existing business logic

• Requires JDeveloper OA Extension


System Personalization Capabilities

• Menus and responsibilities

• Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)

• FND messages, lookups, etc.

• Icons and images• Page Personalization

– Business preferences– End user preferences


Concepts: Personalizations

• Personalizations modify the user interface of a page

• Personalizations are layered on top of the base page at runtime

• Base product pages are not changed

• Two types of personalizations

• Administrator personalizations

• End User personalizations

Base Product

Page Definition

PersonalizationDefinitionPersonalization

DefinitionPersonalizationDefinition


Concepts: Personalization Levels

• Administrator Personalization– Function

– Location– Site

– Organization

– Responsibility

• End User Personalization– User Views

Base Product

Page Definition

PersonalizationDefinitionPersonalization

DefinitionPersonalizationDefinition


Administrator Personalization Features

• Tailor text for labels, prompts, and tip messages.

• Hide/show components.

• Reorder components.

• Restrict query results.• Add new items: fields, buttons, links, pick lists,

images, and so on.

• Tailor graphs and charts.

• Seed end-user views.


What Can Be Personalized by Administrators?

By default, all OA Framework-based pages can be personalized at the administrator level, with the following exceptions:

• Pages or regions where the application developer has disabled administrator personalization

• Personalizations seeded by Oracle development cannot be changed or deleted


When Is Personalization Not Enough?

• Page personalization has some limitations:– Cannot add a new region to an existing page

– Cannot modify business logic such as data validation

– Cannot build new pages– Limited ability to change page flows

• You may need to create an extension– Use Oracle 9i JDeveloper with OA Extension

– Extend business logic

– Build new pages


Admin Personalization: Before and After


Admin-Level: Where Do I Start?

How do I create personalizations?

1. Set profile options for your username

2. Analyze your requirements and options

3. Select the page you want to personalize

4. Select Personalize link to enter personalization UI

5. Choose scope and context

6. Create your specific personalization

7. Return to your application page

8. Test your changes

9. Deploy to production


Profile Options for Personalization

• Enable Diagnostics for analysis– FND: Diagnostics enables About This Page

• Enable or disable personalization capabilities– Personalize Self-service Defn enables Personalize

link at top of pages for creation of personalizations– FND: Personalization Region Link Enabled provides

additional Personalize links for every region on a page (optional)

– Disable Self-service Personal disables ALL personalizations for support purposes


Analysis

• Use the About This Page feature to analyze:– Existing personalizations

– Regions in the page– View objects (underlying data sources) used in the

page– Menu and function structures used for navigation to

the page– Current settings of commonly-used profile options

– Flexfields available in the page– And much more

• Use the personalization UI to analyze existing personalizations.


About This Page

If diagnostics is turned on, the About This Page link appears on the bottom of every page.


About This Page

Subtabs provide different information.


Navigate to Page and Start Personalizing

In the page you want to personalize, select a Personalize link (region-level links are turned on).


Select Page to Personalize

Use the Functional Administrator responsibility to personalize any page in any OA Framework-based application.


Set Administrator Personalization Scope

Scope - How far the personalization reaches through the application• A page: any shared regions are only changed for

that page

• A shared region: personalizations apply for any page using that shared region (assuming the personalization context is valid)


Set Administrator Personalization Context

Context - where and when a personalization applies:

• A particular responsibility, organization, location, site, function (or a combination of these)


Find Object to Personalize

Expand nodes (or Expand All) to find the region or item you want to personalize.


Optional: Search for Item in Page

If you know which object you want, Search makes it easy to find.


Create Your Personalization

Select icons to personalize an object.

• Personalize (item or region)

• Reorder (region)

• Create Item (region)

• Update Item (created items only)

• Delete Item (created items only)

• Seeded User Views (tables in query regions only)


Modify Object Properties

Change one or more properties of an object.• Set values at multiple levels at one time.

• Check inheritance of property values.• Overrride dynamic property settings (SPEL values).

• Properties vary according to object style.

. . .


Common Properties to Personalize

Properties• Rendered - whether the field exists in the page at

all (either hidden or displayed)

• Disabled• Required

• Initial Value• Records Displayed

• Destination URI and/or Destination Function• User Personalization

• Title, Prompt and/or Text


Modify Query Filters

Change query criteria for a region by selecting the icon for the Query property.


Change Sort Order

Change the sort order of table columns where available.


Create a New Item

• Select the Add Item icon for a region.

• Choose an item style.

• Set properties for the new item.


Common Item Styles to Personalize

Item styles• Message Text Input is a text input field

• Message Lov Input is a text input field with list of values

• Message Styled Text is a display-only data field

• Static Styled Text is boilerplate text on the page• Tip is instructional text in the Tip format

• Button links to another page or web site• Image lets you add an image (often used as a link)

• Formatted text lets you add raw HTML content


Connecting a New Item to a Data Source

Use the View Instance and View Attribute properties to bind a new item to an available data source. Find this information using About This Page.

• View Instance is the view object instance name.– <View Object Name>VO<may have a number: 1, 2,

and so on>)

• View Attribute corresponds to the data source column you want.


Return to Your Application Page and Test

Select the Return to Application link to return from the personalization user interface.


Managing Administrator Personalizations

• Deleting personalizations• Enabling or disabling personalizations

• Translating personalizations• Deploying personalizations (moving from one

environment to another)


Manage Personalization Levels

You can easily enable, disable, or delete selected personalizations.


Troubleshooting Administrator Personalizations

Things to check if a personalization does not appear as expected:• Is the personalization overridden by another

personalization at a different level or an end user view?

• Is the current context the same as the personalization context? – For example, are you using the responsibility

specified in the context for a personalization?

• If everything seems correct but personalization does not take effect– Developer has prevented personalization or may be

overriding it.


Troubleshooting Administrator Personalizations

What to do if a personalization causes the page to have an error:• If the page can run:

– return to the page– select the Personalize Page link

– either correct the personalization or delete it using the Manage Personalization Levels page.


Troubleshooting Personalizations

• If the page cannot be run at all, use the Application Catalog page in the Functional Administrator responsibility– find the personalization

– select Manage Levels to go to the Manage Personalization Levels page

– deactivate or delete the personalization.

• Last resort: use the PL/SQL package JDR_UTILS to examine and delete a personalization.


Examine Personalizations Using SQL*Plus

As a last resort, use the JDR_UTILS PL/SQL package in SQL*Plus:• Allows detailed examination of personalization

documents that already exist in MDS Repository– List any personalization documents

– Print out existing personalization documents

– Print out any translations of personalizations


User-level Personalizations

• Inquiry pages using query regions can be personalized to create specific views of data.– Query filters

– Order of columns

– Column prompts

– Hide or show columns

• Access personalization UI from Save View or Personalize button.


User-level Personalization Features

• Create and save a search.

• Tailor table column titles.

• Hide/show columns.

• Reorder columns.• Add a data filter.

• Change sorting order.


User-level Personalizations

Enter the personalization UI using the Save Search button if it is available on a Search region.


User-level Personalizations: Views


User Personalizations: Sort and Filter

Users can change sort orders where available and can add query criteria to the personalized view.


User Personalizations: Column Renaming

Users can rename results table columns and total them if applicable.


User Personalizations: Multiple Views

Users can choose among personalized views and personalize them further.


Users Maintain User Personalizations


Default Personalizations for Users

User personalizations can exist at three levels:• Seeded by Oracle development

• Created by administrator• Created by end user


Deploying Personalizations

Personalizations can be created in a test environment, then deployed to one or more production environments.

• Create and test your personalizations in a test database– Export personalizations as XML files

– Export tool

• Import personalizations to a different database– Import tool


Translating Personalizations

XLIFF (.xlf) files allow translations.

• Always create initial personalizations in the base language of the Applications instance.

• For a small number of translations– Use Export/Upload Translations buttons on the

Manage Personalization Levels page


Translating Personalizations

• Importing or exporting personalization translations in bulk– Use the Export tool to obtain XML files.

– Use the XLIFF Extractor to extract translation information from the page XML files.

– Use the XLIFF Importer to load translations into the database repository.


Demonstration

Common personalizations an administrator might do:

• Make a field required or not

• Hide or show a field

• Add a new tip

• Change a prompt and field order

• Changing the destination of the Privacy link


Benefits of Personalizations

• Personalizations survive upgrades and patches.

• Admin-level personalizations are available on any component.

• User-level personalizations are available on queries.

• Administrators can easily disable personalizations for debugging.

• Personalizations can be translated.

• Personalizations can be implemented on a test system, and they allow for immediate feedback.


Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned how to:

• Understand the differences between personalizations and extensions.

• Understand the capabilities of personalizations.

• Understand Admin-level personalizations.

• Understand User-level personalizations.

• Understand the benefits of personalizations.

• Complete the OA Framework Personalization lab.

Personalizing Oa Framework Pages

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