FusionApps

An Oracle White Paper March 2012Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Disclaimer The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle. .....Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Executive Overview ......... 9 Flat Files .................................................................... 12 Analyzing Cross System Data Mappings ................................................................. 2 Web Services ..................................................... 12 Identifying Customization Areas for Integration ................................................. 8 Interface Tables and Scheduled Processes ....................................................................................... 10 Other Artifacts ....... 1 Using OER to Discover Integration Assets ....................................................................... 17 Conclusion ...................... 10 Coexistence Scenarios ....................................... 19 ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ... 2 Business Events .................... 12 Using OER in Integration Design .......................... 19 Glossary ................................................................................................................. Figure 1: Integration Patterns The diagram above shows an overview of Oracle Fusion Applications integration assets that can be discovered in the repository. and their message interaction patterns between source and target applications.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Executive Overview Oracle Fusion Applications provides various ways to integrate its functional capabilities with other Oracle applications as well as third party and legacy applications. This paper provides an overview of discovering the artifacts used for such integrations and for use in implementations in general. It focuses on the use of the Oracle Enterprise Repository (OER) for Oracle Fusion Applications as a one-stop shop for discovering and governing Oracle Fusion Applications design time metadata. Introduction The primary focus of this document is to describe how to discover and use artifacts to build custom integrations to Oracle Fusion Applications for on-premise and managed hosted deployments. 1 . Use the search criteria on the left panel to view the assets. The web services can have two types of underlying implementations – Application Development Framework Business Components (ADF-BC services or simply ADF services) and SOA Composites services – both of which are exposed via OER. To view the Oracle hosted version of OER. which helps promote reuse. and eliminates redundancies. as shown below. to provide effective Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) governance for any organization. Any web services development environment that is compliant with these web service standards may be used to invoke the Oracle Fusion Applications web services.com and sign in with your Oracle ID. such as some setup application programming interfaces (APIs). These range from assets that are discoverable but not supported. Each integration asset in OER is marked with the level of compatibility support provided by Oracle. It provides visibility and lifecycle control on the integration assets and their relationships. navigate to http://host:port/oer replacing the host and port with the address where OER was installed. Figure 2: Viewing Oracle Fusion Applications Integration Assets in OER Web Services Oracle Fusion Applications uses standards-based Oracle Fusion Middleware Simple Object Access Protocol/eXtensible Markup Language (SOAP/XML) web services for exposing inbound APIs.oracle. to assets that are supported with assured backward compatibility. Oracle Fusion Applications documents all integration artifacts.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Using OER to Discover Integration Assets This section describes the various types of integration artifacts and how to discover them. navigate to http://fusionappsoer. manages impact of change. also known as assets. OER is the single source of integration information. 2 . in OER. To view OER in an on-premise deployment. The following table clarifies the intended service usage. converting a CRM Lead into an Opportunity.CreateTask). may need to interact with private services from outside the Oracle Fusion Applications domain. You should rely on assets in OER that have the Compatibility equal to Supported . The OER description of these services may also be useful for customization purposes. Examples include changing the hire date of an employee (Worker.findOrganizationByNameAndClassification). however not all services are necessarily suited for integration purposes. as shown below. which indicates visibility of the service end points to external clients. Not supported Not specified These services are only meant to be used within Oracle Fusion Applications. Note that ADF services are not limited to CRUD style operations on locally-persisted objects. query the assets for Type equal to Fusion Apps: ADF Service. To find web services of interest in OER.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Supportability Oracle Fusion Applications are designed using SOA. ADF Services ADF services are based on the Oracle Fusion business objects and expose standard Create. Not supported EXTERNAL These services need to be invoked from external web service clients as part of a predefined business flow but should not be directly invoked by customers or partners as an integration point. even in custom composites deployed in the Oracle Fusion Applications SOA domain. or expose non-CRUD object specific operations. Delete (CRUD) style operations. These services are available in OER and explicitly tagged with the EXTERNAL keyword. Update. they may be available in OER in certain cases for documentation of the customizable artifacts. Read. 3 . Since these services may allow customizations. such as the iPhone or iPad.Backward Compatibility Assured so that uptake of upgrades or patches does not require changes to your integration projects.changeHireDate). These may be documented in OER but are not suitable for integration. act as a wrapper service for batch jobs. Customers and partners should not directly invoke these service endpoints. For example. for example. creating a project task (Project Task. or finding an organization based on certain query criteria (Organization. applications developed for mobile devices. Supported Not specified These services cannot be accessed by external web service clients but can only be accessed by custom composites that are deployed in the Oracle Fusion Applications SOA domain. Compatibility Supported Keyword EXTERNAL Intended Service Usage These services can be used by customers and partners to extend and integrate with Oracle Fusion Applications. They may perform federated queries. These services may not be explicitly tagged with keywords in OER. Note that services in OER are also tagged with the EXTERNAL keyword. Figure 4: Finding Assets in OER 4 . to find an employee enter employee in the search string and browse through the results. which will yield the correct service. Worker. Confirm the intent of the service by reviewing the description.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Note: The Oracle hosted version of OER does not have the Fusion Apps prefix added to the asset types since it is dedicated for use by Oracle Fusion Applications. For example. therefore you can ignore the use of this prefix in this paper. Figure 3: OER Asset Types Use any part of the asset name or a commonly used synonym in the search string. you can use the service WSDL URL in a JDeveloper project to set up a web service invocation with the option to copy all of the dependent schema artifacts into the project. which can then auto-retrieve all of the references to the schema files.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Once you find the desired asset. as shown in the screenshot below. For example. Scroll down to the end of the Detail tab to find the Service WSDL URL. click the Detail tab to browse through the supported operations. including asynchronous operations and callbacks. Figure 6: Using the Service WSDL URL to Set Up a Web Service Invocation in JDeveloper 5 . Note: This is not applicable to the hosted OER instance. Figure 5: Asset Detail in OER Use the Service WSDL URL in a tool such as JDeveloper. To view the schema documents containing customized object definitions replace the ?WSDL URL suffix with ?XSD&xsdlist in the browser window. as in the case of the ADF services. but querying for assets of Type equal to FusionApps: Composite Service. which are subscribed to by the composites. and human workflows. Examples include approving a project status change (Project Status Change Approval. In this pattern. and if the event payload only contains the key of the ADF Service Data Object. they may not even be public web services and may have been documented to assist in integration customization efforts. In fact. These types of composites are exposed as web services using the standard Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and XML Schema Definition (XSD) schemas.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Composite Services Composite services typically represent end-to-end process flows that act on business events produced by the ADF services. navigate to the Taxonomy to find if the composite subscribes to an event. Composite services are typically non-object based services that represent backend processing flows. the business event is raised with a key to an ADF-BC persisted object. use the same approach for ADF services. Such composites do not need to be typically invoked outside of the context of the ADF service. Figure 7: Composite Service WSDL in OER Many Oracle Fusion Applications ADF-BC objects also initiate SOA composites by raising business events. and orchestrate many object based services. where they may be invoked from any web service client. To find the composite services of interest in OER.ScheduleOrders). which is then referred to in the composite services. rules services. Drill down to the Detail tab for the WSDL. Figure 8: Example of a Composite Service in OER 6 . To identify such composites in OER.process) or scheduling an order fulfillment (Schedule Orchestration Order Fulfillment Line Service. For example:  The diagram below shows a pay sheet approval composite service. Figure 10: Navigating to the Composite Taxonomy in OER to Find Business Events Subscribed  Click the Subscribes To link. Figure 11: Business Event Details in OER 7 . as shown below. This shows the details of the event and its payload. as shown below. click the Taxonomy tab to review the composite information.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications  To determine if this composite service can actually be used outside the scope of an ADF-BC object. Figure 9: Example of a Composite in OER  Click the composite name link and check its taxonomy to find out if it subscribes to a business event. Figure 12: Business Events in OER 8 . The customized WSDLs honor the base WSDL interfaces. The loose coupling of publishers and subscribers in EDN makes business events a key extensibility point for integration purposes. the Oracle Fusion Applications extensibility capabilities allow you to create custom objects and trigger business events as well. query the assets for Type equal to FusionApps: Event. and this metadata may be required in integration projects. an Order Fulfilled or Customer Created.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications  As seen above. as shown below. These customizations are reflected in the XSD schema files and web services. or a milestone reached in the business process. To find the business events of interest in OER. which can then invoke any external application. In addition. the event payload only contains the unique identifier. This is explained in the next section as part of the integration design patterns. the pay sheet object needs to be created prior to invoking the composite service since the composite service implementation will need to make a call back into Oracle Fusion Applications to retrieve the details. thus partners can use the base WSDL and XSD to build value-added applications and integration offerings that need to work against any customer implementation. For any outbound notification to external applications business events can be subscribed to by SOA composites. The public OER instance hosted at Oracle only contains the base. non-implementation specific. for example. such as a change that has occurred to a business object. Accessing Customized Web Service Metadata Customer projects typically require extensions to the base objects. For example. an Item Shipped. for example. metadata. Oracle Fusion Applications publishes these business events as a way to notify subscribers of any important changes. for example. adding new attributes to an ADF business component via flexfields. Business Events Oracle Fusion Applications business objects and composites publish business events using the Event Delivery Network (EDN). The customer deployed OER instance provides the base metadata along with links to the concrete WSDL and XSD that are customized for that implementation.    Figure 13: Interface Tables in OER Review the description to understand the processing needed. and so on. To search for ESS processing jobs. any related tables such as error tables. for example. 9 . as it requires custom implementation of the mapping. Using Oracle Enterprise Scheduler (ESS). For example. Interface tables can be populated in a variety of ways:  Using Oracle Data Integrator (ODI). any scheduled jobs that may need to be run for processing or purging the data. the ODI jobs as explained above. Using SQL commands. batch syncing of data to the interface tables should be performed using the ODI or ESS job approach. you can use interface tables to populate salary history for an employee (Salary History) or set up financial chart of accounts (Chart of Accounts). To find the interface tables in OER. Refer to the bulk data patterns in the next section for more details and examples. This is not recommended. search for assets of Type equal to Fusion Apps: Scheduled Process. the interface tables can be populated with data from external databases or files. Note that while this may be viable for a few rows. with a search string of InterfaceTable as shown below.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Interface Tables and Scheduled Processes Interface tables typically provide a batch loading mechanism. query the assets for Type equal to FusionApps: Table. and columns that may indicate the processed state of the rows. can be invoked using the SOA Suite as a scheduled job. the interface table can be exposed as a web service to the SOA Suite. fault handling. Using Database Adapter. useful for initial or bulk data loading use cases. Oracle Fusion CRM calls this the File Based Data Import. For example. and Siebel. is available in OER. To find all artifacts associated with a given coexistence scenario. 10 . allow uploading of comma separated values (CSV) file data from a web based user interface (UI). Oracle E-Business Suite. Figure 14: Flat File Definitions in OER (CRM example shown) Coexistence Scenarios Oracle Fusion Applications are designed for coexistence with other Oracle Applications Unlimited products. an external application may need to populate Oracle Fusion CRM with product (Item) or Opportunity information. such as Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Expand the specific coexistence scenario and click on the specific Oracle Applications Unlimited version to display all of the artifacts used in that scenario by that application. and to find these files of interest in OER. the functional and technical integration scenario documentation as well as the legacy artifacts. as shown below. as shown below.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Flat Files Some Oracle Fusion Applications. Specific coexistence scenarios have been prioritized by Oracle for delivery as prepackaged integrations or with integration-ready interfaces. for example Oracle E-Business Suite PL/SQL. for example. expand the Browse section in the left panel and select FusionApps: Coexistence Scenario Documentation in the list. For these scenarios. PeopleSoft. query the assets for Type equal to FusionApps: File Based Data Import. click the asset of Type equal to FusionApps: Coexistence Scenario Documentation and click the Documentation tab. or if the Browse option is not available. 11 . query the asset types with the prefix of the application suite. for example.  Figure 16: Coexistence Scenario Documentation in OER To look up the legacy artifacts. EBS. Siebel.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Figure 15: Navigating Integration Coexistence Scenarios in OER To select multiple applications in the coexistence scenario. as shown in the EBS:PL/SQL API example below. PeopleSoft. or Primavera. navigate using More Search Options  Filter By Categorization  All Categorization  Coexistence Scenario Documentation. To find the integration documentation for these coexistence scenarios. refer to the native implementations of integration catalogs from those applications. profile options. a recommended best practice is to harvest those web service interfaces in OER for centralized governance. For any other legacy artifacts from third party systems. OER for Oracle Fusion Applications also contains a wealth of technical reference documentation. the Integration Repository (IREP) in the Oracle E-Business Suite. to name a few. business process project templates. that were previously only found in manuals. Other Artifacts Apart from the integration assets detailed in the sections above. data model diagrams.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Figure 17: Applications Unlimited Artifacts in OER (Oracle E-Business Suite example shown) To discover integration artifacts from Oracle Applications Unlimited products that are not used in the Oracle Fusion coexistence scenarios documented in OER. and roles. The analysis phase would lead to identification of needs to customize the Oracle delivered business 12 . These include metadata and documentation for tables. lookups. Using OER in Integration Design Identifying Customization Areas for Integration Integration patterns that affect the overall end-to-end business process likely require some level of customization of Oracle Fusion Applications to utilize the previously mentioned integration assets. for example. flexfields. views. This may require customizing a packaged SOA composite Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) process that performs the order fulfillment process. BPEL scopes. The overall flow is shown in the diagram below. will then be available for editing. SOA integration artifacts are customized in a layer on top of the base artifact delivered by Oracle. The layered customization is performed by importing the SOA project in JDeveloper using a customization context. Consider an example that requires invoking an external web service for validating a credit card for order processing. some examples of integration related customizations are:  Invoking external services to provide data validation or data enrichment. and so on.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications process. The event subscriptions by composites are available in OER in the FusionApps: Composite asset type taxonomy. This establishes one half of the end-to-end relationship. thereby establishing the other half of the end-to-end relationship. Artifacts that have been marked as customizable. by industry. Industry=Communications. for example. performing an address validation using a third-party service or retrieving additional customer account information such as a credit rating.  Figure 18: Taxonomy Relationships for Oracle Fusion Applications in OER 13 . it is important to understand the end-to-end processing flow in OER from the ADF Service to the SOA Composite. for example. Integrating with external applications by publishing messages or raising events. Although there are various types of customizations that may need to be performed. for example. SOA composites subscribe to Business Events. for example. UI task flows. Oracle Fusion applications are designed with customizations and extensibility in mind. These business events are raised by ADF services. To find the SOA artifacts available for integration customizations. The FusionApps: ADF Service asset types use this FusionApps: Logical Business Object as its name. for example. synchronizing a Siebel CRM application with data from Oracle Fusion Applications or vice-versa. The FusionApps: Event asset type defines the FusionApps: Logical Business Object in its taxonomy definition. The layer represents the context for which customizations are needed. In the diagram below. Figure 19: ADF Service in OER  Search using asset Type equal to FusionApps: Event with a search string equal to Order Promising. but may have a Logical Business Area. Let’s look at the steps that you would take to modify a Supply Chain Management order processing flow to add a credit validation step. Note that this service name is important as you will use this to find the Business Events of interest. find the event of Orchestration Order Fulfillment Line Check-Availability Initiated. 14 . In the diagram below. Review the results to find the suitable event. which may be used in the search criteria.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Note that in some cases. and identify the desired service based on the description and taxonomies.  Search with asset Type equal to FusionApps: ADF Service with a search string equal to Order. Order Promising is the service you want to focus on. the event taxonomy may not contain the Logical Business Object (LBO) reference. An example better illustrates the above concept. which you can use for customization. find the Promise Orchestration Order Fulfillment Line composite.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Figure 20: Business Event in OER Corresponding to Logical Business Object  Check the event taxonomy to find which composites subscribe to this event. Figure 21: Finding Composites Subscribing to Business Event  Drill down to the composite to view the Special Administrative Region (SAR) file location. 15 . In the diagram below. click the composite taxonomy of the composite to find the composite services of interest. Click the service definition link to review the description of each and find the service of interest. The example below shows the service selected and its details.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Figure 22: Viewing Composite Details in OER  Note that you still need to find the BPEL flow to customize. For this. Figure 23: Composite Taxonomy in OER 16 . bpel in the example above) to customize the flow using Oracle JDeveloper to introduce the credit validation integration as per your business need. For example. For example. which of the following OER asset types of FusionApps: ADF Service is the right mapping for a Siebel Account entity? Figure 25: OER Query Results for ADF Services matching Account in Oracle Fusion Applications 17 .Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Figure 24: Composite Service Overview in OER  Open the BPEL file indicated by the service (CheckAvailability. Analyzing Cross Application Data Mappings Most of the integration complexity in enterprise application integration projects stem from functional analysis of the data mapping between the applications. the term Account has a different meaning in Siebel and may not directly correspond to the Account entity in Oracle Fusion Applications. Store such a mapping knowledge base in centralized design specifications and mapping spreadsheets.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications The correct answer depends on how the end-to-end business process flow is designed and may also be influenced by the decisions made by existing legacy integrations. Even when the decision is made to map one entity to another. entity relationships (master-detail tables). data structures of the entity (different table structures). For example. This ensures that the regenerated schemas reflect the implementation needs. if an existing Application Integration Architecture (AIA) based integration mapped the Siebel Account to the TCA Organization instead of the TCA Customer Account. For example. and utilize tools such as the OER keywords or the JDeveloper Synonym Dictionary. A good understanding of the underlying semantics of the Oracle Fusion Applications data model as it relates to other applications reduces the cost of integrations. there are more mapping challenges at the row and attribute level. This data mapping exercise should be preceded by the configuration and deployment of any additional ADF attributes needed at your site. then future implementations should continue using the same semantics. 18 . The above example highlights one aspect of the mapping at the coarse-grained entity level. Figure 26: Integration Challenges with Enterprise Application Mappings Oracle Fusion Application data model provides a good starting point for integrators. The following diagram highlights the various integration challenges when mapping two or more enterprise applications. the cardinality of its instances (how primary keys are designed). and list of values for the entity attributes (encoded values for Address State) may all differ from one application to another. review the Developers Guide for Oracle Fusion Applications and Oracle Fusion Middleware SOA Suite. Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) Service Data Object (SDO) Oracle tool that enables bulk data import data.Making the Most of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications Conclusion This paper provides an overview of the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Oracle Fusion Applications. 19 . Glossary ITEM MEANING File-based Import Tool Oracle CRM tool that enables bulk data import data to the Oracle Fusion Applications CRM schema. For more details. It uses ODI technology to load data from its interface tables to Oracle Fusion base tables. Data structure for web services that uses standards based representation of entity data. Opteron. Kris Doherty Oracle Corporation World Headquarters 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores.650. including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Oracle and/or its affiliates.7000 Fax: +1. CA 94065 U. All rights reserved.650. without our prior written permission. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document. and the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. 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