Fusion Apps - HCM File Based Loader (FBL) - Part I

File Based Loader is the inbound integration tool. Oracle has also HR2HR but that is for integration between EBS/PSFT and Fusion. Let's see what are these two.

HR2HR:
HR2HR is designed to allow a source system of record (typically one of the applications unlimited products) to co-exist alongside a target Fusion system, allowing data to be iteratively transferred from the source to the target ensuring that Fusion is synchronized with the system of record. Typically this is used by customers who want to take advantage of new functionality provided in the Fusion Talent, Compensation, Core HR offerings, whilst maintaining their source system as the system of record for reference and employee data.
In HR2HR there are predefined extract mechanisms that are built for EBS and PSFT. These generate a snapshot of the data that exists in the system of record. This is then moved onto an SFTP server and Fusion is notified via a webservice call that such a file is ready for processing. Fusion then retrieves the file from the SFTP server, unzips it and initiates processing. In the 1st stage of processing it is passed through an ODI layer where the data is compared against the existing Fusion data and a series of records is written to the staging tables that represent the specific actions that need to be taken on particular data objects in order to synchronize them with the system of record. These changes might be creates, updates, deletes or data effective changes.

File Based Loader:
File Based Loader is designed to support the same set of objects as HR2HR but where there is not a predefined source system of record. The intention is that this will be used by customers who are only performing an initial data load and who want to bulk load a large volume of data including history. Unlike HR2HR, File Loader simply takes the data from the zip files and loads it directly into the data loading stage tables rather than going through an ODI layer. It then processes the staging data to resolve the primary and foreign key references.
Because File Loader does not have a dependency on ODI it has been possible to extend the number of attributes that are supported within each object, and so for example descriptive flexfield columns are supported in File Loader whereas they are not available in HR2HR.
However, as File Based Loader does not have any pre-defined extracts to populate the data files it is necessary for implementation teams to develop their own extract mechanisms and to ensure that the data is in a form that will satisfy the Fusion business rules.
File Loader supports both data creation and updates. It also supports the full creation of history as well as processing terminated work relationships.

So in short 

• Use FBL to Load HR Data from your legacy system to Fusion HCM
• It is a flat file based data upload utility
• It validates and loads data into Fusion
• It supports error correction
• It loads complex data objects with full date effective history
• You can use multiple data sources to prepare the data file
• Can be used as Application to Application Integration
• Can be used as Conversion Tool
• Can be used for on going data sync
• It is mainly used for Bulk data loading
• Can be used to update business objects provided they were created using FBL. At the end of this series I will show that data created in Fusion through UI can not be updated using FBL.

How File-Based Loader Works
File-Based Loader uses the Oracle Fusion HCM Load Batch Data process to load your source data to the Oracle Fusion application tables. Load Batch Data is a generic utility for loading data to Oracle Fusion from external sources; for example, it is used by Oracle Fusion Coexistence for HCM, the Oracle Fusion Enterprise Structures Configurator (ESC), and the Oracle Fusion HCM Spreadsheet Data Loader. A key feature of Load Batch Data is that data is imported initially in object-specific batches to stage tables. Data is prepared for load in the stage tables and then loaded from the stage tables to the Oracle Fusion application tables.

For this process to succeed, you need to deliver your data to File-Based Loader in a format that satisfies Oracle Fusion business rules. The Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management File-Based Loader V1.1 User’s Guide explains how to meet this requirement. The MOS note is Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management File-Based Loader V1.1 [ID 1533860.1]

What are other tools available

Oracle has a documented these under HCM SaaS Integrations. Here is the slide which talks about that

What is the latest version of FBL

The latest FBL version is FBL1.1 and is available from 11.1.5.0.0.

End to End Picture

This picture shows the full flow of FBL data loading process. The process starts from Fusion HCM. In order to successfully load data you need to perform the following steps.

1.User Performs Steups in Fusion HCM - Select and Configure Offerings like Workforce Deployment, Workforce Compensation depending on your requirements and business process flow. Create Implementation Projects and complete all the configuration tasks.

2. Generate Mapping File and Send to Source System - Once the configuration steps are completed you need to create reference mapping file which will be used while creating actual data files. In order to do that you need to first specify the configuration parameters. Go to Administration --> Setup and Maintainace.
Click on All task tab and search for task Manage HCM Configuration for Coexistence as shown

Click on Go to Task. Which will open the screen like the next picture

Click on Detach to see the full table. Specify the values of all the parameters. Below are the details of the parameters. Depending on your version you will see some extra parameters. For me it is 11.1.4.0.0 and FBL 1.0

PARAMETER NAME	PARAMETER VALUE
Environment Properties File	/u01/APPLTOP/instance/ess/config/environment.properties
HRC Product Top	/u01/APPLTOP/fusionapps/applications/hcm/hrc
Load HCM Data Files Automatically	N
Loader Cache Clear Limit	99
Loader Chunk Size	200
Loader Maximum Errors	100
Loader Number of Processes	1
Loader Save Size	1
ODI Context	DEVELOPMENT
ODI Log Level	2
ODI Language	AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8ISO8859P1
ODI Password	(As supplied by Oracle)
ODI Root Directory	/u01/oracle/ODI_FILE_ROOT_HCM
ODI User	FUSION_APPS_HCM_ODI_SUPERVISOR_APPID
ODI Work Repository	FUSIONAPPS_WREP
On Demand FTP Root Directory	/u01/oracle/ODI_FILE_ROOT_HCM/ftp_inbox
Use Python Loader	Y
User Name Expression	Optionally, you can specify one of:
	loaderCtx.getPersonAttr(“PersonNumber”)
	loaderCtx.getAssignmentAttr(“AssignmentNumber”)

Note: If you have on-premise customer then replace APPLTOP with the actual path. Specify ODI password. All of these will be provided by your DBA who installed Fusion Apps.

Your parameters should look like this

Click on Submit as shown in the next picture to save this Configuration in the system.

Once you click you submit it will give you Confirmation and click on OK.

Now that configuration parameters are set and also Offering configurations are complete we need to generate the mapping file. From the same screen click on Submit from within Generate Mapping File for HCM Business Objects as shown

It will submit an Enterprise Schedular Job. Note down the job number. We may need this to debug and find your corresponding zip file name.

Click on refresh to check the status. If the process status is 12 that means your file has been successfully created. Any other status means you have some problems. To find out exact cause you have to check the ESS log from Navigator --> Tools --> Scheduled Process. If you don't find meaningful error detail then you have to check in Fusion HCM Domain EM console. I will explain in a separate post about how to check log files from EM. Once completed note the zip file name and log into unix box and go to ODI Root Directory/E_1

For Example the process ended in status 12 as shown.

For me the ODI root/E_1 is
/u01/ODI_FILE_ROOT_HCM/E_1. For SaaS customer this will done by Oracle or they can give you access where all these files will be copied.
Now use any FTP tool to copy the file. As shown in the picture it creates a separate folder for each run. The name is same as the numeric part of the zip file.

I used WinSCP to copy the file from unix server to my local machine.

You can now see the file in your local machine.

Unzip the file and you can see list of cross reference files generated by Fusion.

In my example I will show how to upload Location in fusion. And all the locations which I will upload will be associated with Common Set ID so that the locations are available for all Legal Entities.

You can upload all these files and store them in mapping tables using SQL*Loader. While writing extraction script you can dynamically get the information from there and create data files.

So till now I have explained

• What is HR2HR?
• What is FBL and how does it work?
• How to configure Fusion to start using FBL?
• How to generate Cross Reference Files?
• How to get that from Unix and save it to Local machine?

In the following two series I have explained how to create data file for Location Business Object and how to register the file in Fusion for processing:

1. Fusion Apps - File Based Loader Part -II
2. Fusion Apps - File Based Loader - Part III

----------Updated on 7th July 2013  with link of the remaining two series...

Cheers.....................................

Fusion Apps SaaS Service Scenarios

Hosting Service scenarios for Oracle Cloud Fusion Applications services

Oracle has documented different service scenarios which customer may ask for if they want to use SaaS. While creating service requests for cloud apps you will be presented with a list of services that Oracle will support.

Following are the services that are provided:

Email Notifications - Enable or disable email notifications

IP Address Whitelist - Allow access to Oracle Fusion Cloud Services to a list or range of specific client IP addresses for their services from corporate network.

Language Pack installation - Ask for additional language pack.

Personalize Logo - Personalize Fusion Applications with your company logo.

Production to Test (P2T) copy - Copy the Production environment database into a Test environment on a one-off basis.

Enabling Flexfields for OTBI analysis - You can configure DFF and create analysis/dashboard based on that. To enable the DFF for OTBI analysis you can create service requests.

FA Admin Password reset  - Request to reset password provisioned with IT Security Manager Job Role, Configure SSO -  Configure Single Sign-On (SSO) access to Oracle Fusion Cloud Services based on Identity Federation.

Environment Resizing - By default, test environments are sized to support enough concurrent users for basic use of the environment. In order to assure that your use of the test environment will not be limited on a go-forward basis, you should request the pod resizing service option for your test environment(s) early on in your implementation. Production environments are sized to support the number of users you have purchased

All of these are well documented in MOS note Hosting Service scenarios for Oracle Cloud Fusion Applications services [ID 1529174.1]

Fusion Apps - Synchronizing Customized Flexfields in the MDS Repository for SOA

In my previous post I explained  How to Configure Extensible Flexfield.  When you customize and deploy Oracle Fusion Applications flexfields a new XSD file is generated in the MDS repository for Oracle Fusion Applications. SOA composite applications in Oracle Fusion Applications reference copies of the original XSD schema files included in the MDS repository for SOA. So the updated XSD files must be synchronized in the MDS repository for SOA for use in the fact models in business rules. 

To perform this synchronization, a special SOA composite application named UpdateSOAMDS is included with Oracle Fusion Applications. By default, UpdateSOAMDS is automatically deployed. When a synchronization is required, you manually invoke an instance of this SOA composite application to synchronize the updated XSD files in the MDS repository for SOA. You can view the results of this synchronization in the audit trail in Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Applications Control.

Let's see how to do that. In this example I had modified Location Information EFF in Fusion HCM Workforce Structure. So I should log  into HCM Domain and run the UpdateSOAMDS  from there.

Click on the UpdateSOAMDS composite. On the right hand side click on Test button. Once you click on Test, you will see a screen like the next picture.

Select Operation - updateDuring  and payload as P1D. It means last 1 day. If you want to run it for last 1 Month and 15 days and  3 Hour then it should be P1M15DT3H. After entering the values click on Test Web Service.

You can trace the result.

Click on Instances

Click on the latest instance id which has been submitted by you. It will open a new screen which looks like the next picture.

Click on the composite to trace.

As marked in the picture, after running the composite the system has synchronized the XSD schema of the modified Location Information EFF extensible flexfield to SOA metadata repository.

This will make the new context sensitive segments to be available for use in SOA.

Cheers...........................

Fusion Apps - Customizing and Extending BPMN Processes

The Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management (HCM) product families of Oracle Fusion Apps use Business Process Management Notation (BPMN) processes to define some of the process flows used within their applications.

Business Process Composer enables you to customize these processes. In Fusion Apps BPMN Processes has been deployed using BPM Projects which in turn has used Project Templates specifically provided for Fusion Apps. 

The technical components inside PBM projects are called the business catalog. The business catalog contains various reusable services that a BPMN process can use to connect to other components of the application, including other processes, systems, and databases.

The business catalog contains the following reusable components:

Business Catalog Components Available in Business Process Composer

Business Catalog Component	Description
Services	Services are used to connect a BPMN process with other processes, systems, and services, including BPEL processes, databases.
Human tasks	Human tasks enable you to define how end users interact with your BPMN processes. Human tasks are implemented in a BPMN process using the user task.
Business rules	Oracle business rules are statements that describe business policies or describe key business decisions.

Oracle Fusion Apps provide multiple tools for customizing and extending BPMN processes. These tools are 

This tool...	Enables you to...
Business Process Composer	Customize BPMN processes by creating and deploying BPM projects based on project templates.
Oracle BPM Studio (JDeveloper)	Customize project templates.
Oracle SOA Composer	Customize business rules, domain value maps, and approval configuration and assignment rules at runtime
Oracle BPM Worklist	Customize approval configuration and assignment rules.

As with many ERPs, there are mainly two types of customization - Design Time(DT) and Run Time(RT)

Now if you go by the present Fusion Apps implementation model then it is the SaaS model which most the customers are going for. In SaaS there are multiple access constraints and one of them is that you can not do DT Customization. So you are left with RT customization. Logically next question will be "What can we do with BPMN Processes at RT?"

You can use SOA Composer and BPM Worklist to customize

• Oracle business rules
• Domain value maps
• Approval assignment rules in human workflows such as customizing the approval flow for a specific customer.

These customizations can be made directly to a running Oracle Fusion application without having to redeploy the BPM project.

Using Business Process Composer

you can make the following customizations to a BPM project created from a project template:

• Customize an existing BPMN process.
• Create new BPMN processes.
• Create simple data objects.
• Create and modify some business catalog components.

List of Business Catalog Components

Business Catalog Component	Can be created using Business Process Composer?	Can be customized using Business Process Composer?
Business rules	No	Yes
Human tasks	Yes You can create human tasks using Business Process Composer, however not all functionality of a human task can be customized.	Yes
Services	Yes	Yes

If you want to customize anything other than those mentioned above, then you have to use JDeveloper using Customization Role. There are three blog posts by Fusion Applications Developer Relations Team about how to setup JDeveloper environment for Fusion Appplications Development. 

• JDeveloper and Fusion Applications Explained (Part 1)
• JDeveloper and Fusion Applications Explained (Part 2)
• JDeveloper and Fusion Applications Explained (Part 3)

You can also refer John Brock's blog post on Setting Up A Fusion Development Environment. Here in this blog I will cover RT customizations.

Now you know what can be done with what Tools. So the next logical step will be how to access these tools in Fusion Apps environment.

Let's start with SOA Suite(SOA Composer & BPM Worklist)

Starting the Customization Tool

For Customizing...	Start...	By Entering...
Business rules
Approval configuration and assignment rules	Oracle BPM Worklist (recommended) Oracle SOA Composer Note: If you use Oracle SOA Composer to customize approval configuration and assignment rules during runtime, changes in subsequent revision patches are not applied successfully.	http://host:port/integration/worklistapp http://host:port/soa/composer
Nonapproval business rules	Oracle SOA Composer	http://host:port/soa/composer
Domain value maps	Oracle SOA Composer	http://host:port/soa/composer
SOA composite application endpoint properties such as Oracle WSM security policies and binding component properties	Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Applications Control	http://host:port/em

Let's say your HCM Product Family has been deployed on host yourserver.com and port 10619 then SOA Composer can be accessed http://yourserver.com:10619/soa/composer. Once you open the link it may ask you login credentials depending on whether you are already logged on to Fusion Apps or opening a new session. After successful login you would see a screen like this

SOA Composer

BPM Worklist

Alternatively if you have HCM Domain EM access then you can use that to get the SOA Composer and BPM Worklist urls for modifying HCM Approval rules and notifications. You can get the host and port details of HCM Domain using this post. Using this post you can get the roles needed to access EM.

This is the way you get url for BPM Worklist. Similarly you can get the url for SOA Composer and BPM Composer.

There is also FSM task to configure BPM Worklist

Now lets see what are the roles you need to access SOA Composer/BPM Worklist/BPM Composer. The duty role that is needed is BPM Workflow System Admin Role. So let's see what is there in this duty role. As this is a duty/application role, you need to use APM to see the details. So Log on to APM. Here is the post which describes how to navigate to APM. Once you log in then search the role and click on Open as shown

This shows the Application Role Hierarchy

As you can see that this duty has been mapped to External Role/Job Role Application Implementation Consultant and Human Capital Management Application Administrator. SO if you have either of them then you access SOA Composer/BPM Composer/BPM Worklist.

Summary

So you now know

• What are BPMN Processes??
• How they are implemented??
• What Business Catalog Components are available??
• What Tools are available to Customize them??
• How to access those tools??
• What Duty Roles do you need??
• What Job roles d you need??

In the next post I will show how to customize tasks and it's rules using either SOA Composer or BPM Worklist or FSM Task for HCM Approval Configuration.

Cheers....................

How to Create HCM Geography & Geography Structure using File Import??

One of the activities while Implementing Fusion HCM Workforce Deployment is to create Geography and Geography Structure. This is done through FSM Task Manage Geographies. The navigation is as shown in the picture

From FSM(Setup and Maintenance  Manage Implementation Projects, Open the project which you have created and then expand and select as shown.





Once you click on Go to Task it displays the following screen

There are 3 MOS documents which explains how to load your Geography Structure and Geography Hierarchy from CSV files. You can there is task called Address Cleansing Defined. This is where you enable Verify Address button for real time address verification if you have licensed Oracle Fusion Data Quality Address Cleansing Module.

Following are the MOS documents
Sample Geography Data (1341174.1) - This document explains how to use FSM and CSV File to upload data using File Import Utilities provided by Fusion. It has sample data for following countries which you use as reference to create your own data file for import.
GeoPlanet AU geographies.csv - sample geography data for Australia
GeoPlanet AU structures.csv - sample country structure for Australia
GeoPlanet BE geographies.csv - sample geography data for Belgium
GeoPlanet BE structures.csv - sample country structure for Belgium
GeoPlanet BR geographies.csv - sample geography data for Brazil
GeoPlanet BR structures.csv - sample country structure for Brazil
GeoPlanet CA geographies.csv - sample geography data for Canada
GeoPlanet CA structures.csv - sample country structure for Canada
GeoPlanet CH geographies.csv - sample geography data for Switzerland
GeoPlanet CH structures.csv - sample country structure for Switzerland
GeoPlanet CL geographies.csv - sample geography data for Chile
GeoPlanet CL structures.csv - sample country structure for Chile
GeoPlanet CO geographies.csv - sample geography data for Colombia
GeoPlanet CO structures.csv - sample country structure for Colombia
GeoPlanet DE geographies.csv - sample geography data for Germany
GeoPlanet DE structures.csv - sample country structure for Germany
GeoPlanet ES geographies.csv - sample geography data for Spain
GeoPlanet ES structures.csv - sample country structure for Spain
GeoPlanet FR geographies.csv - sample geography data for France
GeoPlanet FR structures.csv - sample country structure for France
GeoPlanet GB geographies.csv - sample geography data for United Kingdom
GeoPlanet GB structures.csv - sample country structure for United Kingdom
GeoPlanet HK geographies.csv - sample geography data for Hong Kong
GeoPlanet HK structures.csv - sample country structure for Hong Kong
GeoPlanet ID geographies.csv - sample geography data for Indonesia
GeoPlanet ID structures.csv - sample country structure for Indonesia
GeoPlanet IE geographies.csv - sample geography data for Ireland
GeoPlanet IE structures.csv - sample country structure for Ireland
GeoPlanet IL geographies.csv - sample geography data for Israel
GeoPlanet IL structures.csv - sample country structure for Israel
GeoPlanet IN geographies.csv - sample geography data for India
GeoPlanet IN structures.csv - sample country structure for India
GeoPlanet IT geographies.csv - sample geography data for Italy
GeoPlanet IT structures.csv - sample country structure for Italy
GeoPlanet JP geographies.csv - sample geography data for Japan
GeoPlanet JP structures.csv - sample country structure for Japan
GeoPlanet KR geographies.csv - sample geography data for Korea, Republic of
GeoPlanet KR structures.csv - sample country structure for Korea, Republic of
GeoPlanet MX geographies.csv - sample geography data for Mexico
GeoPlanet MX structures.csv - sample country structure for Mexico
GeoPlanet MY geographies.csv - sample geography data for Malaysia
GeoPlanet MY structures.csv - sample country structure for Malaysia
GeoPlanet NG geographies.csv - sample geography data for Nigeria
GeoPlanet NG structures.csv - sample country structure for Nigeria
GeoPlanet NL geographies.csv - sample geography data for Netherlands
GeoPlanet NL structures.csv - sample country structure for Netherlands
GeoPlanet RU geographies.csv - sample geography data for Russian Federation
GeoPlanet RU structures.csv - sample country structure for Russian Federation
GeoPlanet SA geographies.csv - sample geography data for Saudi Arabia
GeoPlanet SA structures.csv - sample country structure for Saudi Arabia
GeoPlanet SG geographies.csv - sample geography data for Singapore
GeoPlanet SG structures.csv - sample country structure for Singapore
GeoPlanet TH geographies.csv - sample geography data for Thailand
GeoPlanet TH structures.csv - sample country structure for Thailand
GeoPlanet TW geographies.csv - sample geography data for Taiwan
GeoPlanet TW structures.csv - sample country structure for Taiwan
GeoPlanet US geographies.csv - sample geography data for United States
GeoPlanet US structures - seeded out of box, sample file is not provided 
GeoPlanet VE geographies.csv - sample geography data for Venezuela
GeoPlanet VE structures.csv - sample country structure for Venezuela
GeoPlanet VN geographies.csv - sample geography data for Viet Nam
GeoPlanet VN structures.csv - sample country structure for Viet Nam

It has also an attached document which explains step by step process to use these data files.
How to Import Geography? (1334798.1)
How to Import Country Structure? (1334789.1)

Cheers....

Fusion Apps New Flexfield -Extensible Flexfields

An Extensible Flexfield (EFF) is similar to a descriptive flexfield(DFF), but with the added ability for customers to add as many context-sensitive segments to a flexfield as they need.

Another feature of extensible flexfields is that you can have more than one context associated with any particular row of data, and a row can have multiple occurrences of the same context. That is, extensible flexfields support a one-to-many relationship between the entity and its extended attribute rows.

Now let's go through this process of configuring an EFF. In order to do that you need to first find whether EFF exists in a Page. Below are the steps to find that. We can not use Administration -> Highlight Flexfield to mark an EFF. Here we have to use Page Composer to do that.

I have taken example for Managing Locations in HCM.
So Navigate to Nagigator -> Workforce Management -> Workforce Structure. Select Manage Locations from Locations Task Pane and search a Location e.g. Sample Location EFF

This is what you will see. This Page has an EFF and that can be seen from the next figure

The area marked in RED is where EFF has been plugged in (as delivered by Oracle).
Now we need to know the details of this EFF. So open the page through page composer (Administration --> Customize Workforece Structure Pages). When prompted select Site as the layer. We are not going to modify anything in the page. We will just be checking the details of the EFF

This will open the page in Source view. If it has not then select View -> Source from the top left corner.

Select View-> Source Position -> Left from the top left corner. This will give you larger space to go through the source structure.


Now in the page, if you select the area where EFF exists then the corresponding node in the structure will be automatically highlighted. Check the region names (take the mouse pointer on the region and it will display the Task Flow name). Find names which has EFF in it as shown.

Once you click on that it will take you to another view. Next figure shows that.When Prompted for Edit confirmation accept that.

Now in the new view you will again see some regions. Check the region which has name EFFContextsPageContainerFrag.jsff. This is the region which display the EFF in the page.

Click on Edit from the menu bar. That will open a Pop up as shown in the next picture.

Click on Flexfield Properties.

This displays the EFF Name and code. Here the EFF name is Location Information EFF. Copy the name and code and close this pop up by clicking Cancel button.
Then click on Close located at the top right corner.





Now at this point we have EFF name and code details. We will configure this EFF and add custom Contexts and context sensitive segments to it.
To configure the EFF we have to use FSM (Setup and Maintenance) task Manage Extensible Flexfields and search that.

Click on Go to Task and search the Location Information EFF.

Click on Action -> Edit.

In this screen you see EFF details along with a section named Category.
Extensible flexfields also enable implementers to combine the contexts into groups known as pages, which serve to connect the contexts so they will always be presented together in the application user interface. Hierarchical categories for can be defined for extensible flexfields, and implementers associate any combination of contexts with a given category. For example, the Electronics and Computers category hierarchy might include a Home Entertainment category, which in turn might include an Audio category and a TV category, and so on. The Home Entertainment product might have contexts that specify voltage, dimensions, inputs and outputs. Contexts are reusable within a given extensible flexfield. For example, the dimensions context could be assigned to any category that needs to include dimensional information.

As can bee seen from the above it has a Single category. Most Fusion Apps EFF are supplied with a single category. Some EFFs (e.g CRM Application) have Multiple categories and they have category hierarchy. As it has one, let's create a Context and associate it with the category. To create context click on Manage Context button

Select any existing context and then click Actions -> Edit  to see the details of the segments.

For our exercise we will create a custom Multi Row Context as shown in the next figure.

Give it a name and code. Specify Behavior is Multiple Rows. This will allow user to enter multiple rows into a Context inside a category.

Select Usage of the context as Location Information EFF. Basically a context may be reusable which means it can be used in multiple EFFs.

Select View Privilege and Edit Privilege. Then in the Context Sensitive Segments section select Actions --> Create to create segments in the given context

Enter all the Name, Code, Data Type, Table Column, Value Set, Required Display Prompt etc and then Click Save and Close.

You can click Detach the table to float the table and get extra display area.

Now for Multiple Rows Context if you do not specify an Unique Segment, then you try to save the values you will get this error. So go back and mark one segment as Unique.

You can set the Unique Segment as shown.

Now after creating all the segments and associating Table Columns and Value Sets with each of the them, you Save and Close the Context and then go back to the EFF screen. You now need to associate these custom Contexts with the EFF Category. So select HcmLocationsCategory in the Category Panel and then scroll down

Now select on Associated Contexts Tab and Click on Actions->Select and Add

This is what you will see. Search the contexts and click on Apply and Ok sequentially. In this case I have created a multi row and another as single row.

So you have now associated Custom Contexts with the Category. Click on Save. Now we want to club all the contexts and display them together. To do that we need to associate these two contexts with the existing Page which is displaying others. You can create a new Page by grouping your own custom contexts. But here we will put our contexts inside the existing Page. So click on Page Tab.

As you can see that it has one page and five contexts associated with that sequentially. You can change the sequence.

Select Actions --> Select and Add from Location Information: Associated Context Details. Search the Custom contexts and add them. You can also specify the sequences as shown.

Click on Save and Close.
From Actions select Validate Flexfield. This validate the Flexfield and displays errors if the EFF has any. You can deploy it to the instance itself by selecting Deploy Flexfield or you can deploy it to Sandbox. Sandbox is a container where you can put all your customization and then migrate the same to other instances. Also if you want to test the EFF before publishing it to the user community then you can do this by deploying it to Sandbox. 

Normally we create Sandbox first then we active it and do all customizations inside that. You create Sandboxes using Administration --> Manage Sandboxes and after creating it you can make it Active.


But here in case of EFF, if you select Deploy Flexfield to Sandbox

From the pop up box you can see that it is going to create a Sanbox, deploy the flexfield to it and then make it current active session sandbox. Click on Ok and then it displays the deployment details as shown in the next picture.

As can be seen that it has failed during deployment. Expand the Deployment Details to see the error. As it errored out I will not be able to show the EFF on the locations Page. 




I did check HCM Domain EM and found the error message that states oracle.jbo.NoDefException: JBO-25058 error. Then the MOS document Fusion PIM: Item Extensible Flexfields Deployment Ends In Error [ID 1536436.1] provided me the hint -'Attributes that were defined as Text Box and Text Area do not have height or width defined'. 

I checked my attributes and found that attributes were not having Height specified. After fixing that I redeployed the EFF and this time it was successful.
Let's go to Manage Locations task in FSM and search Sample Location EFF location. Below are the pictures which shows both Multi Row and Single Row Contexts

Multi Row Context

Single Row Context











This covers how to

• Find Extensible Flexfield in a page ??
• Configure the EFF through FSM ??
• Deploy the EFF ??
• Verify the results ??

Similarly you can follow the same process for Category Hierarchy having multiple categories.

Do let me know if you face any issue.

Cheers........