Concepts Oracle Applications

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Oracle Applications

Concepts

Release 11i

May 2001

Part No. A90380-01


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Oracle App lications Con cepts, Release 11i

Part No. A90380-01

Copyr ight 2001, Oracle Corp oration. All rights reserved .

Author: Michael Fiore

Contributors: Michael Bernstein, Subash Chadalavad a, Ivo Dujmovic, Carole Eubanks, Ric Ginsberg,

Cliff Godw in, Billy Greene, Jeff Lunn , K.R. N araya nan , Kent Noble, Emily No rdh agen, Lisa Parekh ,

And rew Rist, Joan Ryan, Richard Sears, Greg Seiden , Yun Shaw, Deborah Steffen, Keith M. Swart z, Millie

Wang

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Contents

Preface........................................................................................................................................................... vii

Introducing Release 11i........................................................................................................................ vii

Au dience ................................................................................................................................................ viii

Documentation Accessibility ........................................................................................................ viii

Related Documents................................................................................................................................ ixGett ing Help ............................................................................................................................................ x

1 Internet Computing Architecture

Forms-based Products ........................................................................................................................ 1-2

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Products......................................................................... 1-3

Custom er Relation ship Man agement (CRM) Prod ucts ................................................... 1-3Form s Server and Form s Clien t ........................................................................................... 1-3

HTML-based Products ....................................................................................................................... 1-4

Oracle Self-Serv ice Web Ap plications and Oracle Workflow ................................................ 1-4

Business Intelligence System (BIS) Products ............................................................................ 1-6

2 Release 11iEnhancements

Personal Homepage ............................................................................................................................ 2-1

Customizing the Personal Hom epage ....................................................................................... 2-2

Oracle8i Features ................................................................................................................................. 2-3

Cost-based Op tim ization ............................................................................................................. 2-4

Database Resou rce Manager ....................................................................................................... 2-4

Partitioned Tables......................................................................................................................... 2-5

Oracle Para llel Server ................................................................................................................... 2-5
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Materialized Views....................................................................................................................... 2-6

Tem porary Tab les ......................................................................................................................... 2-6Invoker Righ ts ............................................................................................................................... 2-6

Rapid Install......................................................................................................................................... 2-7

Oracle Enterprise Manager ............................................................................................................... 2-7

Oracle Ap plications Manager ..................................................................................................... 2-8

Oracle Management Pack for Oracle Applications.................................................................. 2-8

3 Internationalization Support

Language Support............................................................................................................................... 3-1

Languages and Character Sets on the Database Tier............................................................... 3-2

Language and Character Sets on the Application Tier ........................................................... 3-3

Character Sets on the Desktop Tier ............................................................................................ 3-4

Externa l Documents ..................................................................................................................... 3-4

Territory and Organization Support ............................................................................................... 3-5Cou ntry-specific Funct ionality ................................................................................................... 3-5

Dates and Numbers ...................................................................................................................... 3-5

Mu ltip le Organ ization Architectu re .......................................................................................... 3-6

Mu ltip le Reportin g Cu rrencies ................................................................................................... 3-6

NLS-independent Application Servers .......................................................................................... 3-7

NLS Settings ........................................................................................................................................ 3-8

4 File System

Environment Settings ......................................................................................................................... 4-1

How Environm ent Settings Are Stored ..................................................................................... 4-2

The DATA Directory ....................................................................................................... 4-2

The APPL Directory ........................................................................................................ 4-3

Core Techn ology Directories....................................................................................................... 4-4Product Directories....................................................................................................................... 4-5

Language Files............................................................................................................................... 4-8

Distr ibu ting the APPL_TOP Across Several Disks .................................................................. 4-9

The ORA D irectory ....................................................................................................... 4-10

The COMMON _TOP D irectory ..................................................................................................... 4-11


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Send Us Your Comments

Oracle Applications Concepts, Release 11i

Part No. A90380_01

We welcome you r comm ents and suggestions on th e qua lity and u sefulness of this publication. Your

inpu t is an imp ortant p art of the information used for revision.s Did you find any errors?

s Is the information clearly presented ?

s Do you n eed m ore information? If so, where?

s Are the examples correct? Do you need more examp les?

s What features did you like most about this man ual?

If you find any errors or have any other su ggestions for improvemen t, please indicate the chapter,section, and p age number. You can send comments to us in the following ways:

s FAX : 650.506.7369 Attn: Oracle Ap plications Release Grou p

s e-mail: apps_relgrp [email protected]

s postal service:

Oracle Corporation

Oracle App lications Release Group

500 Oracle Parkway, M/ S 3op4

Redw ood Shores, CA 94065 U.S.A.

If you w ould like a reply, please provid e your nam e, address, and telephone nu mber.


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Preface

Oracle Applications Concepts provides basic information on how the Oracle

App lications software an d databases are configured, and how you can imp lement

them in a netw ork installation.

Introducing Release 11iRelease 11i is the 100-percent internet Oracle App lications su ite that allows

companies to run their world wid e operations from a single, centrally man aged site.

With the consolidation of data centers, there are fewer servers to maintain and

information is not fragm ented in m ultiple databases. Ideally, a worldw ide operation

could be run with one data center running one database instance, rather than

mu ltiple da ta centers in geograp hically diverse areas. The internet compu ting

architectu re of Release 11i enables and drives the goal of worldw ide operation.

Although Oracle does not require global operation of your O racle App lications,

Release 11i eliminates the technical barriers to achieving the maximu m d egree of

consolidation tha t makes sense in you r business. As world wid e operation

increasingly represents the id eal strategy for cost-effective and high quality

dep loyment of Oracle Applications, this and future releases will expand on these

worldw ide operation featu res. To support w orldw ide operations, Release 11i

provides:

s Internet Computing Architecture

s Release 11i enhancements

s Internationalization support

s Simp lified filesystem

The chapters in this book explain each of these points in detail.


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AudienceOracle Applications Concepts explains the technology, concepts, and terminology

used in InstallingOracle Applications,Maintaining Oracle A pplications, an d Upgrading

Oracle Applications. You should read Concepts along withInstalling if you are

responsible for installing Oracle App lications.Installing provides instru ctions on

using Rapid Install to install Oracle App lications prod ucts.Maintaining explains the

utilities you use for installation and mainten ance. Upgrading provides the

step-by-step instru ctions for upgrading from an earlier release. These people

typically u seInstalling, Maintaining, Upgrading, an d Concepts:s Database Administrator

Installs and configures the Oracle database and maintains database access

controls. The database adm inistrator provides consultation on performan ce,

monitors growth an d fragmentation of the database, and performs d atabase

backup and recovery.

s System Administrator

Ensures that hard ware is correctly configured, and installs and m aintains

system software. The system ad ministrator ensures the system is backed u p

da ily and maintains security, such as by establishing system accoun ts. The

system administrator p rovides first-line sup port for problems.

s Techn ical Specialist

Responsible for d esigning, developing, unit testing, implemen ting, and

maintaining th e custom extensions for Oracle Ap plications. These extensionsinclud e mod ules such as interfaces, automated d ata conversions, reports, forms,

and enhan cements.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle produ cts, services, and sup porting d ocumen tation

accessible, with good usability, to the disabled commu nity. To tha t end , our

docum entation includ es features that m ake information available to users of

assistive technology. This docum entation is available in H TML format, and

contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled comm un ity. Stand ards w ill

continue to evolve over time, and Oracle Corporation is actively engaged with

other m arket-leading technology vendors to ad dress technical obstacles so that

our docum entation can be accessible to all of our customers. For ad ditional

information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program web site at

http:/ / ww w.oracle.com/ accessibility/ .


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Related DocumentsAll the documen tation related to Release 11i is includ ed on the Oracle Applications

Documentation Library CD, which is sup plied w ith Release 11i. You can p urchase

printed d ocumen tation from the Oracle Store at http:/ / oraclestore.oracle.com. You

can also download some d ocum entation from h ttp:/ / docs.oracle.com.

In add ition to Concepts, Installing, Upgrading, an d Maintaining, you may refer to

these documents:

s

Oracle Applications R elease NotesTheRelease Notes provid e up -to-date information on this release and its

comp onents, and may sup ersede the information in other ma nuals.

s Oracle Applications Product Update Notes

Provides information on new product features and enhancements since

Release 11.

s

Oracle Applications Technical Reference manualsList information about d atabase structures and help d etermine what changes

you need to make to customizations after an up grade.

s Oracle Applications System A dministrators Guide

Provides add itional information you need to adm inister the Oracle

App lications d atabase server.

s Oracle Applications Users Guide

The Users Guide provid es an overview of Oracle App lications, including basic

concepts, terminology, and navigation.

s Oracle8i National Support Guide

Provides comp rehensive information abou t Oracle Na tional Langu age Sup port

(NLS) capabilities.

s Oracle Financials Country-Specific User Guides

Contains count ry-specific information about responsibilities and report security

group s, new country-specific featu res, and add itional imp lementation steps.


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Getting HelpOracle Consulting Services and Oracle Sup port Services are the main sou rces of

help for installing Oracle App lications.

Oracle Consulting Services

Oracle Consulting Services can help:

determ ine machine size and da tabase size required by Oracle Applications

install or up grad e Oracle Applications

implement Oracle Applications products

customize Oracle App lications prod ucts

develop custom app lications for use w ith Oracle Applications

change th e character set after installation

train u sers of Oracle App lications

Oracle Support Services

Have this information ready w hen you contact Oracle Sup port Services:

your CSI nu mber

the op erating system an d versions of all Oracle App lications servers

the release of Oracle App lications you are installing the release of Oracle App lications you are u pgrad ing from

a d escription of the p roblem as w ell as specific information abou t any error

messages you received

whether you have d ial-in capability

the num ber and status of the AutoUpgrade parallel workers

the ou tpu t of the AD Configuration Utility, contained in the adu tconf.lst file

Additional Information: Monitoring AutoUp grade,MaintainingOracle Applications

Additional Information: The AD Configuration Utility,

Maintaining Oracle A pplications


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Internet Computing Architecture 1-1

Internet Computing Architecture

Internet Comp uting Architecture is a framework for three-tiered, distributed

comp uting th at sup ports Oracle Applications p roducts. Internet Compu ting

Architecture distributes services among as many nodes on a netw ork as are required

to support th e processing load. Each node is a machine on the netw ork. Services are

processes that ru n in the background , listening for requests and processing these

requ ests. The HTTP service, for examp le, is a process that listens for and p rocesses

HTTP requests, and the Forms service is a process that listens for and processes

requests for Oracle Forms.

The three tiers are the database tier, which m anages Oracle8i database; the

app lication tier, which man ages Oracle App lications and other tools; and the

desktop tier, which p rovides the u ser interface display. With Internet Com pu ting

Architecture, only the presentation layer of Oracle App lications is on the desktop

tier in the form of a plug-in to a standard Internet browser.

Oracle Applications software and oth er tools are dep loyed on a mid dle tier of

servers know n as the app lication tier. This tier eliminates the need to install and

maintain app lication software on each desktop client. The softw are on the

app lication tier also enables Oracle App lications to scale with load an d to keep

network traffic low.


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Figure 11 Internet Computing Architecture

The app lication tier servers operate very effectively over a WAN. The desktop client

and app lication server send a m inimu m am oun t of information, such as field value

compar ison differences, but d o not exchange grap hical information such as screen

painting. In a global operation w ith u sers at d iverse locations, less netw ork trafficalso means less telecomm un ications expense.

Forms-based ProductsRelease 11i includ es two p rincipal product suites: Enterprise Resource Planning

(ERP) prod ucts, and Cu stomer Relationship Managem ent (CRM) produ cts.


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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) ProductsThe ERP p rodu cts are the back office p rodu cts familiar to u sers of earlier Oracle

App lications releases. There are more than 90 ERP prod ucts that h elp your bu siness

manage important operations, includ ing prod uct planning, pu rchasing, inventory

managem ent, interacting with su pp liers, order tracking, hum an resources, finan cial

plann ing, and accoun ting. The ERP prod ucts are divided into several product

families, such as Finan cials, Hu man Resources, Manufacturing and Distribution,

and Process Manufacturing. The Upgrading Oracle Applications manuallists the ERP

produ cts and produ ct families.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Products

Custom er Relationship Managem ent p rodu cts provide the front office functions

such as call center managem ent, e-commerce, and internet sales and m arketing.

CRM prod ucts help your bu siness build lasting custom er relationships and increase

customer satisfaction and loyalty. The Upgrading Oracle Applications manuallists the

CRM products.

Forms Server and Forms Client

The app lication tier softwa re used in m ost ERP and CRM products is the Forms

server. The Forms server m ediates between the Forms client, a Java ap plet ru nn ing

on the desktop, and th e Oracle8i database server on the back end. The Forms server

prod uces the effects a u ser sees on th e desktop screen and causes changes to

da tabase records based on u ser actions. Both the Forms server and Forms client are

compon ents of Oracle Forms. The tw o exchange messages across a stand ardnetw ork connection, wh ich m ay be either TCP/ IP, or HTTP with or withou t SSL

(Secure Sockets Layer).

The Forms client can d isplay any Oracle Applications screen, and provides

field-level valida tion, mu ltiple coordinated w indow s, and da ta entry aids such as

list of values. A Java-enabled Web brow ser man ages the d own loading, start-up, and

execution of the Forms client on the d esktop. Another software component, the

HTTP server, helps start a client session over the internal or external Web. The

HTTP server in Release 11i is the Apache HTTP Server. In installations that have

mu ltiple Forms servers, only one of the Forms servers runs the H TTP server

software. If you u se more th an on e Forms server, Oracle Forms a lso provides a CGI

script tha t distributes the processing load among the servers.


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Figure 12 Forms-based Architecture

HTML-based ProductsIn ad dition to Forms-based p rodu cts, Release 11i includes other p roducts that are

not Form s-based, such as the Oracle Self-Service Web Applications p rod ucts, Oracle

Workflow, and the O racle Business Intelligence System (BIS) prod ucts. These

prod ucts do not u se the Forms server as the app lication tier software or the Forms

client on the d esktop, but rely on HTTP-based servers on the app lication tier and a

Java-enabled Web browser on the d esktop.

Oracle Self-Service Web Applications and Oracle Workflow

Self-Service Web Ap plications p rovid e a fast and cost-effective way to getinformation to and from people within an organization or business. For example,

Self-Service Web Ap plications allow customers to enter their own ord ers w ithout

involving the sales staff, or emp loyees to enter their own change of add ress withou t

involving the H um an Resources staff. The interface is familiar to Web users, easy to

work with, and doesnt require any training.

Many Oracle App lications p rodu cts use Oracle Workflow to au tomatically enforce

business rules and p olicies and to provid e a comm on notification system. The


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Oracle Workflow m onitors bu siness processes, collects process data, an d provid es

an e-mail and w eb page notification system. For example, when an emp loyee usesOracle Internet Procurement (an Oracle Self-Service Web product) to enter a

requisition, Oracle Workflow autom atically valida tes the requ isition and routes it to

the ap prop riate manager for app roval. Release 11i includ es the full Oracle

Workflow p rodu ct and th e license to customize any Oracle App lications embed ded

workflow.

Most Oracle Self-Service Web Applications and Oracle Workflow are designed in

HTML-based tools such as H TML, XML, and JavaScript. They operate by d irect

connection to the Apache HTTP server. Logic is controlled throu gh stored

procedu res executed by th e PL/ SQL cartridge and by Java servlets and JavaServer

Pages (JSP) executed by the Apache JServ m odu le. Apache commu nicates with th e

database using JDBC (Java Data Base Connectivity). The Apache H TTP Server can

be the same machine used by Oracle Forms.

Additional Information: Oracle Workflow Guide


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Figure 13 Self-Service and Workflow Architecture

Business Intelligence System (BIS) ProductsBusiness Intelligence System is a d ecision sup port solution integrated with Oracle

App lications. Using the BIS prod ucts, a manager can qu ery the Oracle App lications

database to mon itor recent business performance across mu ltiple organizations. For

example, a man ager can set a sales goal and th en u se BIS to determine h ow closeactual sales amou nts are to the goal. A manager can set tolerances and h ave the

system inform p eople w hen those tolerances are exceeded . With the BIS

Performance Manager Framework, some corrective actions can be performed

automatically. If, for examp le, sales actual am oun ts are m ore than 10% below goa ls,

BIS can send automatic notifications to regional sales managers.

BIS ERP and CRM produ cts do not use the Forms server or Forms client. Instead,

BIS prod ucts u se the Oracle Discoverer server and Oracle Reports server on theapp lication tier. A Java ap plet run ning on d esktop client comm un icates with th e

HTTP server, which connects to the Discoverer server or Reports server. The

Discoverer server provides ad hoc analysis; the Reports server suppor ts data

analysis and ad hoc queries, often using summary tables such as month ly

aggregates of data , and returns them to the browser. The desktop brow ser initiates

the requ est, the H TML server passes the requ est to the Discoverer or Reports server,


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and the Discoverer or Reports server gathers the data and returns it to the browser

as H TML.

Figure 14 BIS Architecture

To su pp ort BIS ERP p roducts, Release 11i includ es a file that w ill generate an OracleDiscoverer End User Layer (EUL). When the EUL is generated , workbooks and

queries can be saved to the d atabase. You m ust, however, pu rchase the Oracle

Discoverer Admin istrator s Edition, which is not includ ed in Release 11i, to generate

this EUL. With the Adm inistrator s Edition, you can also create add itional EULs,

administer security information, and set responsibilities.

Additional Information: Oracle Business Intelligence System Users

Guide


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Release 11i Enhancements 2-1

Release 11iEnhancements

Release 11i provid es enhancemen ts that improve u sability, increase performance,

and simplify the installation and m aintenance of Oracle Applications. The Personal

Homep age, new in Release 11i, provides u sers with a single point of access to all

Oracle Applications products. Release 11i leverages the pow er of Oracle8i to

substantially increase performan ce speed and red uce network traffic. Rapid Install

au tomates installation an d d rastically redu ces the time to getting Oracle

App lications online. Tools that integrate with the Oracle Enterp rise Manager allow

easier administration of concurrent m anagers and centralized m onitoring of the

entire Oracle App lications environm ent.

Personal HomepageIn Release 11i, each u ser logs in to O racle Applications throu gh th e Personal

Homep age on the desktop client. The Personal Hom epage is the starting point from

which you access all ERP, CRM, Self-Service Web Ap plications, or BIS products.

Once logged into the Personal Hom epage, you need not sign on again to access

other parts of the system. Oracle App lications does not p romp t again for user name

and password, even when the you n avigate to other tools and produ cts. Oracle

Applications also retains p references as you navigate th rough the system. For

example, if you registered in the Personal Homepage that French is your p referred

language, this preference carries over whether you access Forms-based or

HTML-based products.

Note: Not all Release 11i new features are covered in the following

sections. New features are embedded throughou t the p roduct suite,

country-specific functionality, and sup porting technologies. These

new features and enhancements are discussed in the Oracle

Applications Product Update Notes.


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Personal Homepage


Figure 21 The Personal Homepage

Behind the scenes, the Personal Hom epage is commu nicating w ith the application

tier server. For example, wh en you go to an Oracle Self-Service Web Applications

page, the brow ser makes the URL request to an HTTP server web listener. The

listener in turn contacts a PL/ SQL cartridge, which in turn ru ns a stored p rocedu reon the database server. You can customize the Personal H omep age to fit your

individu al needs and responsibilities.

Customizing the Personal HomepageRelease 11i support s worldw ide operations by letting each user choose a preferred

language, date format, and num ber style using th e Personal Homepage. You can set

any installed language as the default language, but can also change to another

installed language for each session. User p references are stored in the Oracle8i

database. When you log on, Application tier servers read your user preferences

from the database and then format information for you based on your p references.

For each Oracle App lications user, the system adm inistrator mu st first define a user

accoun t including a u ser name and default passw ord, and assign the u ser

responsibilities. Before a user can custom ize or set preferences on the Personal


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Oracle8i Features


Hom epage, the system adm inistrator must have d efined Preferences as one of the

user s respon sibilities.

As Figure 21shows, the Personal Homepage can contain one or more tab pages.

Each tab page is laid out in regions, such as Navigate, Favorites, Ask Oracle, and

Notifications. The d efault tab page, the Main Menu page, is au tomatically created

for each user and cannot be deleted. The user can add or delete all other tab pages,

and thereby create an interface that clearly show s the p rodu cts, responsibilities, and

tools needed for daily operations.

The Nav igate region p rovides a list of responsibilities that th e system ad ministrator

assigned to the user. Favorites includ es links to frequently used Self-Service Web

App lication or BIS prod uct features, or to favorite URLs from outside Oracle

Applications. The Ask O racle region allows you to enter search criteria in th e text

box and returns a related set of links. Ask Oracle uses the Oracle8iinterMedia engine

to search for Oracle Self-Service Applications and BIS product functions. TheNotifications region lists Workflow not ifications sent to you. You can custom ize

each region on th e tab page to expand or limit the information it contains, or to

display the information in a d ifferent format.

If Preferences is one of the responsibilities listed in the Navigate region, you can

choose this item to change the session language; or to create an alias user nam e,

specify a default language, and change d ate and n um ber format. Each user can

thereby set his or her own local preferences. Two users m ay have d iffering langu ageand territory-specific sessions, whether th ey are located next to each oth er and

sharing the sam e office, or on different continents.

Oracle8iFeaturesMany improvements in Release 11i performan ce are built on un derlying

enhan cements in Oracle8i. Oracle8i, the database for Internet compu ting, provides

many features that improve transaction processing, data management, and

scalability.

Additional Information: Managing Oracle Applications Security,

Oracle Applications System A dministrators Guide

Additional Information: Append ix B, Customizing the Personal

Homepage, Oracle Applications Users Guide


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Oracle8i Features


Cost-based Optimization

The Oracle optimizer evalua tes man y factors to calculate the most efficient w ay toexecute a SQL statement. It uses either a rule-basedor cost-basedapproach.

Rule-based op timization w as used in earlier releases, but the SQL used in Release

11i is tuned for cost-based op timization, and Release 11i requires the optimizer to

use the cost-based optimization (CBO).

Using CBO, the op timizer considers the available access pa ths an d factors in

statistical information for the tables and indexes that the SQL statement will access.

CBO also considers hints, which are optim ization suggestions placed in a Comm entof the SQL statement. First, the op timizer creates a set of potential execution plans

for the SQL statement based on its available access path s and hints. Then th e

optimizer estimates the costof each execution plan based on statistics in th e data

dictionary for the d ata d istribution and storage characteristics of the tables, indexes,

and part itions. The optimizer comp ares the costs of the execution p lans and chooses

the one w ith the smallest cost.

For some op eration s, such as batch p rocessing, Release 11i uses CBO to achieve the

best through pu t, or the minimal resource use necessary to p rocess all rows accessedby the statem ent. For other op erations, such as accessing forms and commu nication

with the desktop client, Release 11i uses CBO to achieve the best respon se time, or

the m inimal resource use necessary to process the first row accessed by a SQL

statement.

Other Oracle8i performance enhan cemen ts used in Release 11i, such as partitioned

tables, also requ ire CBO.

Database Resource ManagerThe Database Resource Manager in Oracle8i gives the system adm inistrator more

control over processing resources in a world wid e environmen t. A user performing

an inefficient query m ight imp act other more imp ortant p rocesses being performed

by other u sers. With the Database Resource Manager, the system adm inistrator can

distribute server CPU based on business rules, and thereby ensure that th e highest

priority p rocessing always has su fficient CPU.

Using the Database Resource Manager, the system adm inistrator might, for

example, limit ad hoc queries on the d atabase to consume no more tha t 5% of CPU

usage. The system ad ministrator can guar antee OE u sers 60% of CPU resources

Additional Information: The Optimizer, Oracle8i Concepts;Cost-based Optimization, Oracle Applications System A dministrators

Guide


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du ring business hours, regardless of the load or n um ber of users in other group s on

the system, and then give priority to batch p rocessing jobs after business hours.

Partitioned TablesPartitioning helps supp ort very large tables and indexes by dividing them into

smaller and more m anageable pieces, which are called pa rtitions. Once partitions

are defined, SQL statements can access and m anipu late the part itions rather than

entire tables or indexes. Partitioning red uces access time, and par titions are

especially useful in data w arehouse app lications, which often store and analyzelarge amounts of historical da ta.

For example, operations tha t involve copying or d eleting d ata are now improved

because Release 11i prod ucts use part itioned t ables. Creating and d eleting all rows

of a partitioned table is a m uch faster operation th an selectively inserting row s into

and selectively deleting rows from an existing table. Operations in some p rodu cts

that, in earlier releases, could p otentially take hou rs are now redu ced to second s.

Oracle Parallel ServerOracle Parallel Server harnesses the p rocessing power of mu ltiple, interconnected

compu ters all running Oracle8i and all attached to the same ph ysical database.

Servers (called nodes) are clustered an d attached to a disk farm. In an Oracle Parallel

Server environm ent, all nodes concurrently execute tran sactions against the same

database. Oracle Parallel Server coordinates each nod es access to the shared d ata to

provid e consistency and integrity.

By divid ing a large task into sub-tasks and distributing th e sub-tasks among

mu ltiple nod es, the task is completed faster than if only one nod e did th e work.

Oracle Parallel Server also p rovides increased p erformance to p rocess larger

workloads and accommod ate the growing num bers of users of a w orldw ide

operation.

In Oracle8i, Oracle Parallel Server allows an instance to share d ata th at has been

comm itted but not w ritten to disk. Data m ay be in d atabase buffers on one nod e

and shipped over to another nod e to satisfy a qu ery. This new architecture, called

cache fusion, provides copies of blocks directly from the h olding n odes memory

cache to the requesting nod es memory cache. Cache fusion is useful w hen updates

and queries on the same data tend to occur simu ltaneously. Cache fusion,

introdu ced in Oracle8i, provides a scalability break-through for Oracle Parallel

Server. With cache fusion, you can also build redun dan cy into a w orldw ide

operation. If one nod e goes down, there is no need to restore from backup s, and

Oracle App lications will continu e to be available despite the failure.

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Oracle8i Features


Materialized Views

Materialized v iews increase the speed of queries on very large databases.Materialized views are schema objects that can be used to summ arize, precomp ute,

replicate, and distribute d ata. They are used to precompute and store aggregated

data su ch as sums and averages. They provide better performance in Oracle

App lications prod ucts, such as the BIS prod ucts, that p erform many qu eries on

summary data.

Cost-based optim ization can use materialized views to improve query performance

by autom atically recognizing w hen one can and shou ld be used to satisfy a request.The optimizer transp arently rewrites the request to use the materialized view.

Queries are then d irected to th e materialized view and not to the u nd erlying detail

tables or views.

In distributed environments, materialized views are used to replicate data at

distributed sites and synchronize up dates done at several sites with conflict

resolution m ethods. As replicas, they p rovide local access to data w hich otherw ise

wou ld have to be accessed from remote sites.

Temporary TablesIn add ition to perman ent tables, Oracle8i can create temporary tables to hold data

that exists only for the d uration of a transaction or session. Some p rodu cts, such as

General Ledger, now use temp orary tables du ring a session, then d elete the data in

the table at the end of the session.

In earlier releases, data from several users sessions was written to one comm ontable. A column in the tab le stored ind ividual session IDs, so the information

private to each user session could be selected from th is comm on tab le. In Oracle8i,

data in a tem pora ry table is private to each users session. Each session can on ly see

and mod ify its own data. Locks are not acquired on th e temporary table because

each session has its own p rivate data.

Unlike permanent tables, SQL statements on temp orary tables do not generate redo

logs for the da ta changes. The older implemen tation also required ad ditional

hou sekeeping, such as deleting data from the table after a commit, wh ich is not

required w ith temp orary tables. Data from the temp orary table is autom atically

dropp ed w hen the session terminates.

Invoker RightsIn earlier releases, if you had Multiple Reporting Currencies (MRC) or Multiple Sets

of Books Architectu re (MSOBA), several copies of Oracle App lications p ackages

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existed in the d atabase. This took more da tabase space and requ ired extra time to

upgrade and maintain.

Release 11i uses the new Invoker Rights fun ctionality of Oracle 8i to ensure that

most p ackages are only installed in the APPS schema. Other schemas, such as the

MRC schema, have synonyms to the packages in the APPS schema, and the

corresponding packages in the APPS schema have grants to the MRC schema.

PL/ SQL routines use the new Oracle8i Invoker Rights feature to access the package

in the APPS schema. In an MRC database, this can very markedly d ecrease the size

of the database and shorten the time spent by u pgrad e, patch, and m aintenance

tasks.

Rapid InstallRelease 11i introdu ces Rapid Install: a w izard th at helps you install a complete set of

Oracle App lications at the latest available Maintenance Pack level. Rapid Install

installs the requ ired technology stack and creates the Oracle App lications d atabase.You can use Rapid Install to install any of three env ironments: a p rodu ction

installation, a test installation, and an installation of the Vision Demo da tabase. In

addition, Rapid Install lets you license products, country-specific functionality, and

languages.

Rapid Install stores the p aram eters you choose in a configura tion file, and then u ses

that file to perform the installation or u pgrade. You can u se the default valu es (a

default installation) or sup ply other values (a custom installation), which are thenwritten to the configura tion file. After you define a configuration for your Oracle

App lications system, Rapid Install installs all necessary components, and then sets

up your database listeners, web listener, web server, Forms server, and Reports

server.

Oracle Enterprise ManagerIn Release 11i, the concurrent m anager ad ministrative interface is integrated w ith

Oracle Enterp rise Manager. Oracle Enterp rise Manager p rovides a single point of

administration for all available Oracle App lications instances on a system.

Oracle Enterprise Manager combines a central console, agents, comm on services,

and tools to provide an integrated, comprehensive system for managing Oracle

prod ucts. When you install the Oracle Enterprise Manager, you can also install the

Additional Information: PL/SQL Users Guide and Reference

Additional Information: Installing Oracle Applications



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Oracle App lications Man ager. The Oracle Managem ent Pack for Oracle

App lications, also integrated with the Oracle Enterp rise Manager, is a available

separately. These two tools help you centrally manage all aspects of a worldw ide

operation.

Oracle Applications Manager

The Oracle Applications Manager provid es a set of System Ad ministrationfunctions on a n ew Oracle Enterp rise Manager console. These fun ctions include

starting and stopping concurrent managers, adm inistering concurrent m anagers

and requests, and provid ing details on transaction man agers. You can also define

and edit managers and work shifts, and view concurrent request schedu les and

completion op tions, diagnostics, log an d outp ut files, statistics, and available

managers. The Oracle Applications Man ager also provid es access to diagnostic and

status information for Concurrent Processing that cannot be foun d in th e

Forms-based System Administration interface.

Requests submitted w ithin the standard Oracle App lications w indow s can be

viewed from the Oracle App lications Manager console, and concur rent man agers

defined in the console can be accessed from w ithin Forms-based Oracle

Applications.

Oracle Management Pack for Oracle ApplicationsThe Oracle Managemen t Pack for Oracle Applications extends th e Oracle Enterp rise

Manager to include monitoring, diagnosing, and capacity planning of the Oracle

App lications environment. The Managem ent Pack includ es a set of tools that

provide:

s an Oracle App lications-specific library for event m onitoring an d problem

detection.

s

an extensive array of real-time m onitoring charts on all concurrent m anagersand Forms sessions.

s concurrent manager performance consumption analysis and detection of

performance anomalies.

Additional Information: OracleEnterprise Manager Concepts Guide

an d Oracle Enterprise Manager Administrators Guide



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s examination of historical processing information about Oracle Concurrent

Processing requests and concurren t managers.

Additional Information: Gett ing Started with the Oracle

Management Pack for Oracle Applications



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p g



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Internationalization Support 3-1

Internationalization Support

Release 11i provid es the enabling technology to create a single global instance that

can be configured to m eet the international requiremen ts of the various

organizations in your worldwide operation. International features include support

for country-specific functionality, flexible dates and nu mbers, and support for

mu ltiple organizations and m ultiple reporting cur rencies.

Language SupportIn Release 10.7 you could run Oracle App lications in one lang uage, referred to as

th e base language. If you needed to run Oracle App lications in more than one

language, Oracle Consu lting p rovided a customized solution. With Release 11 you

could run Oracle Applications in more than on e language, but the set of languages

you could ru n w as limited to the languages supp orted by your character set.Textua l parts of Oracle Ap plications, such as Forms, Reports, messages, help text,

men u p romp ts, and lists of report names were available in all active langu ages, but

most d ata at th e product level was still available only in the base langu age. This

mean t, for example, you could en ter paym ent terms only in the base language, even

though Forms w ould come u p in a n on-base language. For ad ditional multilingual

support in the products, Oracle Consulting provided a customized solution.

In Release 11i, supp ort for the Un icode UTF8 character set removes the limitation on

the nu mber of supp orted langu ages that can be run in a single instance. TheUnicode character set sup ports all characters in common use in all of the worlds

mod ern langu ages. The majority of Oracle Applications prod ucts (but not all) have

been restructured in Release 11i to provide m ultilingual supp ort at the d ata level.

The add itional mu ltilingual supp ort features available in earlier releases from

Oracle Consulting are incorporated in Release 11i.

Additional Information: Set Up N ational Language Supp ort (NLS)

in Finishing Your Installation , Installing Oracle Applications

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Languages and Character Sets on the Database Tier

The Oracle8i database tier is installed in the US7ASCII character set by default, butcan be converted to run in any other sup ported character set. You choose the

database character set when run ning Rapid Install, and Rapid Install converts the

database to the new character set.

The US7ASCII character set only supports American English. All other character

sets vary in the nu mber of languages they sup port. For example, if you need to run

Oracle Applications in English and French, you m ight choose WE8ISO8859P15 as

the database character set when running Rapid Install. WE8ISO8859P15 is a

superset of US7ASCII, supports both English an d French, and contains the eu ro

symbol. If you need to sup port English, French, Japan ese, and Arabic, you m ust

choose the UTF8 character set, because th is is the only one th at sup port s these four

languages. The Oracle8i National Language Support Guide provides information on

suppor ted character sets, languages supp orted by each character set, and tips on

choosing a d atabase character set.

You cannot change the character set when up grad ing from an earlier release to

Release 11i. You m ust first upgrad e to Release 11i using the existing character set

and , after the upgrad e, change the character set.

The extend ed m ultilingual sup port in the Release 11i data model increases database

storage requirements. For a new installation, consider the database space requiredfor a single language and m ultiply this by the nu mber of languages you will

suppor t. For an u pgrade of an earlier NLS installation, some of the d ata currently in

Warning : Before installing Oracle Applications, you should

careful ly consid er the worldw ide language requirements for your

installation. The character set you choose during installation

determines the languages that you can support. Review the

Oracle 8i National Support Guide for information on all possib le

character sets before choosing the character set for your

installation. Changing character sets after installation is an

involved and expensive process, and is best avoided by initially

choosin g the proper character set that will meet your long term

needs.

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a single langu age structure w ill be converted to a mu ltilingual structure, wh ich w ill

require add itional storage.

Using a m ulti-byte character set such as the Un icode UTF8 or Japanese JA16EUC (as

opposed to a single-byte character set such as WE8ISO8859P15) also affects the

overall space used for language setup and transaction data.

Language and Character Sets on the Application TierThe application tier is installed in the US7ASCII character set by d efault, but can be

converted to ru n in any su pp orted character set. You sp ecify the app lication tier

character set when run ning Rapid Install. To preven t data loss, character sets on all

tiers shou ld either be the same or shou ld be character sets that can be converted

from one to anoth er. Some character sets allow a conversion with no d ata loss

because the character representation in one corresponds to an ap prop riate character

representa tion in the o ther. For examp le, JA16SJIS and JA16EUC are both Japanese

language character sets and allow for conversion w ith no d ata loss. If a target

character set does not contain all characters in th e source data, replacement

characters will be used and da ta is thereby lost.

The HTTP servers on the app lication tier mu st use a character set supp orted by the

browsers on the d esktop tier. Not all character sets available for the HTTP server are

sup ported by the browsers. This is the only compatibility requiremen t between th e

desktop tier and app lication tier. All other ap plication tier servers, such as the

Concurrent Processing server, can be configured with any oth er character set that is

compatible with th e database server.

Additional Information: Tablespace Requirements,Maintaining

Oracle Applications; Overview of an Upgrade, Upgrading Oracle

Applications

Attention: As UTF8 is a superset of all other character sets, there

are no other fully comp atible character sets. If you u se UTF8 on any

tier, you must u se UTF8 on all tiers.

Attention: As noted earlier concerning the d atabase tier character

set, the character set on the app lication tier shou ld also meet your

worldw ide language requirements in the futu re. Changing

character sets for the application tier after installation is a difficult

process.

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By d efault, Rapid Install installs American English on all servers in the app lication

tier. When you later install an N ational Language Sup port (NLS) release on these

servers, you m ust install all other licensed languages on all servers. You cannot, for

example, install French only on the Forms server with the assumption that you w ill

not ru n the Reports or Concurrent Processing server in French. All application tier

servers mu st have the sam e set of languages installed.

Character Sets on the Desktop TierLanguage sup port, which includ es sup port for data input m ethods and required

character sets and fonts, mu st be available in th e desktop clients operating system

If Unicode UTF8 is installed on the ap plications tier, the d esktop client operating

system m ust supp ort Unicode. You m ust th erefore license a UTF8 font and make it

available to each desktop client.

The desktop browser must be configured to input data in the required language and

mu st hand le any langu age-specific capabilities. For instance, Hebrew an d Arabic

require bi-directional sup port for right-to-left d isplay, and Arabic also requires a

browser capable of special character shap ing.

The character set in the brow ser is set by the HTTP server. Users must n ot change

their character set in the browser du ring an Oracle App lications session.

External DocumentsExternal documents are those docum ents intended for customers and trading

part ners, such as bills of lading, commercial invoices, and packing slips. In Release

11i, you can p rodu ce man y external documen ts in any of the active languages,

simultaneously and with a single request. A customer in Italy, for examp le, can

receive invoices printed in Italian, and a custom er in Poland can receive their

invoices printed in Polish. You can a lso print the d ocumen ts to d ifferent p rinters

based on language, and rou te completion notifications to d ifferent people according

to the requ ested langu age. For instance, you can route all French external

docum ents to printer A a nd all others to printer B. You can send completion

notifications for Span ish documen ts to one u ser, and perhaps all notifications,includ ing Spanish, sent to another. See the appendixes the System Administrators

Guide for a list of external d ocuments provided in Release 11i.

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Territory and Organization SupportEach of the organizations within a worldw ide enterpr ise may have its own set oflocal requirements. In a w orldw ide operation, all organizations in the enterprise

mu st have these local requirements integrated in a single instance.

Country-specific FunctionalityOracle Applications has a single common core of functionality, with

country-specific extensions to meet the statu tory, legal, and cultural p ractices of

d ifferent countr ies. Release 11i supports a worldwide enterprise by installing allthese extensions in the same d atabase instance withou t overwriting or conflicting

with each other.

Although all country-specific extensions are installed, you mu st license each

extension before you can use its country-specific functionality. Rap id Insta ll lists all

the coun tries that have extensions and licenses the extensions you choose. The

functionality enabled by the extension is described in the country-specific User

Guide.

Dates and NumbersYou can enter and view dates in any valid format, su ch as 11/ 25/ 01 or 11-25-2001.

Any format for w hich SQL provides a m ask is valid. The only exception to flexible

da te formats is that Reports will always d isplay DD-MON-RRRR.

You can also enter and view num bers with either the period (full stop) character or

comm a as the d ecimal separator. For example, you can enter 1.02 and 100,000.02 or

1,02 and 100.000,02. The only except ion to flexible numeric formats is that Oracle

Self-Service Web Applications always enters an d displays n um bers with the period

as decimal separator and the comma as group separator.

Regardless of the various formats u sers may choose to enter dates and nu mbers, theactual values are stored in the d atabase in uniform canonical formats. This allows

date and num ber values to be entered in a one format and viewed in an alternate

format by another user.

Additional Information: Date Parameters, Numeric Parameters,

Oracle8i National Language Support Guide

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Multiple Organization Architecture

You can d efine m ultiple organizations (Multi-Org) and the relationships amongthem in a single installation of Oracle App lications. The organ ization mod el dictates

how transactions flow throu gh different organizations and how those organizations

interact with each other. Generally, a complex enterprise has several organization

mod els, such as Interna l, Accounting, and Hum an Resources. You can define

different structures to customize Oracle App lications for your worldw ide business

needs. Multi-Org is also the un derlying technology for Multiple Reporting

Currencies.

The types of organizations that can be d efined includ e business group s, sets of

books, legal entities, balancing ent ities, operating un its, inventory organ izations,

HR organ izations, and organizations in O racle Projects and Oracle Fixed Assets.

The set of books organization, for example, is a financial reporting entity that u ses a

part icular chart of accoun ts, fun ctional currency, and accoun ting calendar. A legal

entity represents a legal comp any for w hich you prepare fiscal or tax reports. You

assign tax identifiers and other legal entity information to this type of organization.

With the various organization typ es, you set u p d ifferent organization m odelsdep end ing on your enterpr ise needs. For instance, using the accounting,

distribution and materials managem ent functions in Oracle App lications, you

define the relationships am ong inventory organizations, operating un its, legal

entities, and sets of books to create a m ultilevel comp any stru cture or organization

model.

When you run Oracle Applications prod ucts, you first choose an organization -

either implicitly by choosing a responsibility, or explicitly in a Choose Organizationwind ow. Each w indow and report then displays information for your organization

only.

Multiple Reporting CurrenciesThe Multiple Reporting Cu rrencies (MRC) feature allows you to report and

maintain accoun ting records at the transaction level, in more th an one functional

currency. You d o this by d efining on e or m ore reporting sets of books, in ad dition toyour p rimary set of books.

In your reporting sets of books, you mainta in records in a functional currency other

than yourprimary functional currency. Primary fun ctional currency is the cur rency

you u se to record tran sactions and m aintain your accounting da ta within Oracle

App lications. The p rimary functional curren cy is generally the currency in w hich

you p erform most of your business transactions and the one you u se for legal

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reporting. A reporting fun ctional currency is a curren cy, other than you r pr imary

functional cur rency, that you need for reports.

MRC is based on Mu lti-Org, and requires a primary set of books and a reporting set

of books. In the p rimary set of books, the functional currency is always th e primary

functional currency. The reporting set of books is a financial reporting entity

associated w ith a p rimary set of books. The reporting set of books has the same

chart of accounts and accoun ting calend ar as the p rimary set of books, but u sually

has a different functional currency. The reporting set of books allows you to report

in a d ifferent functional currency than that of your primary set of books.

You mu st define a separate set of books for each of your reporting functional

currencies. For each set of books you use w ith MRC, you need to specify w hich is

the p rimary set of books and which are the reporting sets of books. You th en assign

the reporting sets of books to the p rimary set of books. You must also define a

prim ary responsibility to correspond to your p rimary set of books, and a reporting

responsibility to correspon d to each reporting set of books.

NLS-independent Application ServersIn Release 11, an ap plication tier server was required for each language and

territory configuration a u ser might have. For examp le, to process French and

German Forms requests, you needed to start one Forms server for French and on e

for German. Even if tw o users both ran French, but one set the territory to France

and the other to Switzerland, you wou ld need to install two Forms servers and two

Reports servers to sup port these tw o users. In Release 11i, you no longer need to set

up a server for each user s set of NLS preferences. All app lication tier serv er

processes can start w ith any NLS configuration.

App lication tier processes mu st be started with the same character set that w as

chosen for the server in Rapid Install. All other u ser NLS settings (such as langu age,

territory, date style, and nu mber format) are passed w ith each user request to the

app lication tier servers, and the servers start up sessions configured with those NLSsettings.

Additional Information: Multiple Reporting Currencies in Oracle

Applications

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NLS Settings

Earlier releases relied on op erating system environmen t settings for runtime NLSrequ iremen ts. In Release 11i, user run time N LS settings are stored as profile option

values in the database.

The profile options for language and territory are configured at site level when

run ning Rapid Install. The language you choose for the base langu age is used for

the langu age profile option. The default user territory you choose is used for the

territory profile option. Rapid Install does not set d ate and nu meric formats. Based

on the territory profile setting, default Oracle8i date and nu meric formats are used.

Although the system adm inistrator can reset date and num eric formats after Rapid

Install, we recomm end you accept th e defaults provided by the territory setting.

The site level profile values provide the default N LS settings for all end u sers. Users

inherit these values the first time they log on to Oracle App lications using the

Personal Homepage. A user can continu e to use the default values or change any of

the four N LS settings to alternate valu es. The upda ted valu es are stored in the

database at the profile user level. The u sers current session is reset to u se the

up da ted u ser level profile values and all future sessions will be started w ith thenew v alues.


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File System 4-1

4File System

In Release 11i, no Oracle files are stored on the d esktop client. In Release 11i, the

da tabase server holds only d atabase files. All Oracle App lications prod uct files,

technology stack files, common files, and Oracle Enterprise Manager files are held

in thefile system on the app lication tier servers.Environment settings indicate the

location of files in the file system. This chap ter d iscusses the environm ent settings

and file systems in d etail.

Figure 41 Database Server and Application Tier Server File System

Environment SettingsOracle App lications uses environment settings to control program execution. The

environment settings are defined wh en you install Oracle Applications. Many

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settings are defined by information you provide when ru nning Rapid Install,

though oth er settings have constant valu es for all installations.

In the sections that follow, the value that an environm ent setting contains is

indicated by braces. For examp le, is the da tabase name as contained in

the O RACLE_SID or TWO_TASK environm ent sett ing.

How Environment Settings Are StoredOn UN IX servers, environm ent settings are stored as environm ent variables in

environment files. On Wind ows NT servers, the information is stored in theWindows Registry.

On UNIX servers, environm ent files hold th e environm ent va riable settings for each

Applications Top directory. Each Applications Top directory has a main

environment file, .env, wh ich n amed after the d atabase instance associated

with the installation. For examp le, if you install a test database nam ed APPTEST,

Rapid Install assigns the d efault nam e of the m ain env ironment file to APPTEST.env

in UN IX. On Window s NT, there is an ad ditional m ain environm ent file called

.cmd . You may choose a different name for the main environm ent file

with the AD Ad ministration Utility, but you cannot change the n ame w hen ru nning

Rapid Install.

On Window s NT, environm ent settings are stored in the Window s Registry und er

the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/ORACLE/Applications/11.5.0/

The DATA DirectoryThe DATA file system contains the .dbf files of the Oracle App lications

Oracle8i database. Rapid Install installs all the system, data, and index files in up to

four d ifferent d isks on the d atabase server. You can specify m oun t points for these

different disks and d irectory nam es on the database server du ring installation.

The concurrent m anagers u se temporary files located on the Oracle8i server. Youmay specify up to three separate locations for these files wh en run ning Rapid

Install, AutoUpgrad e, or the ad admin u tility. Most temp orary files are written to the

location specified by the APPLTMP environmen t setting, which is set by Rapid

Install. If you choose, Oracle Reports temp orary files can be directed to a separate

location determ ined by the REPORTS60_TMP setting .

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File System 4-3

App lications also produ ces temp orary PL/ SQL outp ut files used in concurrent

processing. These files are wr itten to the location specified by the APPLPTMP

environment setting. The APPLPTMP directory mu st be the same directory as

specified by the u tl_file_dir para meter in you r d atabase initialization file. Rap id

Install sets both APPLPTMP and the u tl_file_dir parameter to the sam e directory.

During an up grade w ith AutoUpgrad e, you m ust p rovide the u tl_file_dir

para meter valu e for the APPLPTMP environment setting.

The APPL DirectoryOracle App lications files are stored in the APPL directory. Rapid Install

saves the nam e of this APPL directory in the APPL_TOP environmen tsetting.

Figure 42 The APPL_TOP Directory

The main environmen t file, called the .env file, and p rodu ct directories

for all products are in th e APPL_TOP d irectory. Rap id Insta ll creates a d irectory tree

for every Oracle App lications p rodu ct in th is APPL_TOP d irectory.

Attention: Some Oracle Applications ut ilities use you r opera ting

system s default temp orary d irectory even if you d efine the

environment settings listed in the p revious paragraph . Be sure tohave available d isk space for these d efault d irectories as well as

those d enoted by APPLTMP, REPORTS60_TMP, and APPLPTMP.

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Within the APPL_TOP directory, files associated w ith a prod uct are installed un der

the products top-level directory, which is stored in the _TOP environm ent

setting. The portion of this environm ent setting is the prod ucts short name,such as ad , au, fnd, gl, and inv. The correspond ing _TOP environm ent

settin gs are AD_TOP, AU_TOP, FND_TOP, GL_TOP, and INV_TOP.

For compatibility with earlier releases, Rapid Install creates another directory,

named for the version num ber, within the prod ucts short name directory. For

example, the value contained in th e AD_TOP environm ent setting is

APPL_TOP/ ad/ 11.5.0, and the AD_TOP environmen t setting points to the

APPL_TOP/ ad / 11.5.0 d irectory. Similarly, the value of AU_TOP isAPPL_TOP/ au/ 11.5.0, and the AU_TOP environmen t setting points to the

APPL_TOP/ au/ 11.5.0 directory. This is the sam e for all d irectories except for the

adm in d irectory.

Rapid Install creates a new Ap plications top d irectory when you up grade. Rapid

Install does not d elete any existing p rodu ct files from earlier releases, but un loads

new p rodu ct files in a new APPL directory tree.

Each Ap plications top directory is associated w ith a single Oracle Applications

database instance on the Oracle8i Server. If you install both a Vision Dem o

environment and a test environment, you mu st use Rapid Install to lay down two

file systems: one for each environment.

Core Technology DirectoriesThe adm in, ad, au, and fnd d irectories are the core technology directories.

s The adm in directory holds files used for the preliminary install or upgrad e

steps for all Oracle Applications p rodu cts. Subd irectories in this admin

directory hold the log and restart files that record the actions performed byinstallation and u pgrade u tilities and scripts.

s The ad (Ap plications DBA) directory contains the installation and mainten ance

utilities such as AutoUp grad e, Au toPatch, and the ada dm in utility.

s The au (Applications Utilities) directory contains PL/ SQL libraries used by

Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports, Oracle Forms source files, and a copy of all

Java files used to generate the d esktop client.

Additional Information: The Preface ofUpgrading Oracle

Applications lists all Oracle App lications prod ucts and their short

names.

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s The fnd (found ation) directory contains the forms and C object libraries, and

scripts that are u sed to bu ild the Oracle App lications data d ictionary.

Product DirectoriesEach _TOP directory, such as APPL_TOP/ gl/ 11.5.0, contains subd irectories

for prod uct files. Produ ct files includ e forms files, reports files, and some files to

install or up grad e the da tabase (but tables and other d atabase objects are stored

separately on the Oracle8i database server). To d isplay da ta entry forms for Oracle

General Ledger, for examp le, Oracle App lications accesses files in the forms

subdirectory und er the 11.5.0 d irectory.

Figure 43 Location of a Product Directory

Within each _TOP directory, the products files are group ed into

subd irectories according to file type and function. The next figure expand s the inset

to show the full directory structure for gl.

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Figure 44 Basic Product Directory Structure

The following table summ arizes the prod uct subd irectories and the types of files

each one may contain. Not all prod ucts contain all the subd irectories listed in this

table.

Table 41 Applications Directory and File Types

Subdirectory Name Description

admin Contains files used by AutoUpgrade to upgrade each separate

produ ct. Note that this directory (APPL_TOP/ / adm in)

is not the APPL_TOP/ adm in directory. The APPL_TOP/ adm in

directory contains preliminary install and up grad e steps for all

produ cts. This APPL_TOP/ / adm in directory contains

product-specific upgrade information. See AutoUpgrade in

Maintaining Oracle Applications for further information.

s d river Contains .d rv files (d river files). Au toUp grad e p rocesses in

several phases, and each phase is controlled by a d river file.

s import Contains DataMerge files used to upgrade seed data.

s odf Contains object d escrip tion files (.od f files) u sed to create tables

and other d atabase objects.

s sql Contains SQL*Plus scrip ts used to upgrade data, and .pkh, .pkb,

and .pls scripts to create PL/ SQL stored procedures.

bin Contains concurrent programs, other C language programs and

shell scripts for each p rodu ct.

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forms Contains Oracle Forms portable source file (.fmb) files, and

generated run time (.fmx) files (Oracle Forms form files).

help Contains the online help source files. These files are imported to

the database du ring installation. Within th is directory are

subd irectories for each langu age you choose to install.

html HTML, Javascrip t, and Java Server Page files, primarily for

Self-Service Web Applications products. Like help files, HTML

files are in langu age subd irectories.

include Contains C language header (.h) files that my be linked with

files in the lib directory. Not all prod ucts require th is directory.

java Contains .class files (Java class files) and .jar files (Java

ARchives), which are copied to JAVA_TOP during installation.

lib Contains files used to relink concurrent programs with the

Oracle8i

Server. These files includ e:s object files (.o) with compiled code specific to one of the

products programs;

s a library file (.a) with comp iled code common to theproducts programs;

s a makefile (.mk) tha t specifies how to create new Cprograms for the .a file and .o files.

log and out Contains output files for concurrent programs:

s .mgr (master log file for concurrent m anager)

s .req (log file for a concurrent process)

Note: log and out subd irectories und er a produ ct directory are

not used if you set up a common directory for log and outpu t

files except in FND_TOP. See the Log and Outp ut Files section

in this chapter for more information.

media The desktop client d isplays text and graphics from the .gif files

in th is directory.



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Language FilesWhen you install Oracle Applications in a langu age other than Am erican English,

each prod uct tree includ es directories that u se the NLS language code. Thesedirectories hold tr anslated d ata, form, html, message, and report files. The langu age

directory nam ed D d esignates German. The data loader files in the D subd irectory

of adm in contain the Germ an translation of the produ ct seed d ata. The D

subd irectory of reports holds Oracle Reports files translated into Germ an.

mesg Forms display messages at the bottom of the screen and in

pop up boxes. Concurrent program s also print messages in the

log and ou tpu t files. These messages are translated and stored in

message files separate from the forms and concurrent program s.

This directory contains the .msb files (binary m essage files used

at ru ntime), and language-specific message files (such as a

US.msb file for Am erican English an d a D.msb file for German .)

patch Updates to the data or data model use this directory to store thepatch files.

plsql Location where .p ll files (PL/ SQL library files for Oracle

Reports) are un loaded , later in the installation they are moved to

the p lsql subd irectory in th e AU_TOP d irectory.

reports Contains Oracle Reports .rdf files for each product, which are

platform-specific binary rep ort files. Report s for each langu age

are stored in subd irectories of the reports d irectory.

resou rce Contains .pll files (PL/ SQL library files for Oracle Forms),

wh ich, like the p lsql directory files, are later copied to AU_TOP.

sql Contains .sql files (SQL*Plus scrip ts) for concurrent processing.



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Figure 45 Language Directory Structure

The US subd irectory in th e forms d irectory holds Oracle Forms forms in Am erican

English. The D d irectory in the forms d irectory holds the same forms tran slated into

German . The mesg directory holds m essage files in both Am erican English and

German.

Distributing the APPL_TOP Across Several DisksThe Oracle App lications file system on th e ap plication tier requ ires a significant

amoun t of disk space. If you choose mu ltiple moun t points in Rapid Install, you

may d istribute the APPL_TOP files across as man y as four disk d rives. You can also

install the H TML_TOP, JAVA_TOP, and COMMON_TOP on d ifferent m oun t points

from the APPL_TOP. The next figure illustra tes a d istributed APPL_TOP d irectorystructure.

Additional Information: Oracle8i National Language Support Guide

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Figure 46 Distributed Directory Structure

In this examp le, Oracle General Ledger prod uct files are stored in one APPL_TOP,

with Oracle Purchasing (po) and Oracle Payables (ap) files stored in a second

APPL_TOP d irectory on a d ifferent file system. You d efine wh ich file system holds

each p roducts d irectory tree u sing Rapid Install. The .env file lists each ofthe _TOP d irectories, so the system kn ows w hich prod ucts are contained in

wh ich d irectories on w hich disks.

Note, how ever, that w hen distributing the files across disks, all four core technology

directories (adm in, ad, au, and fnd ) must always be on the same d isk and mu st

share the same d irectory structure.

The ORA DirectoryOracle App lications supp orts runn ing with d ata in a database of one version, while

linking Oracle App lications programs u sing the tools from a second or third version

of the database server. This is know n as multiple Oracle Homes. This mod el allows

Oracle to sup port features in later database server versions and still maintain

compat ibility with an earlier release. Release 11i has three Oracle Homes.

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Figure 47 Multiple Oracle Homes in Release 11i

The database home contains the files for creating an d maintaining the O racle8i

database on the d atabase server. The technology stack home contains library an d

object files the AD Relink Utility u ses to link Oracle Ap plications p rograms with

Forms-based tools on the Forms server and Report server. TheHTTP home contains

the object and library files used to link with the HTTP server.

The Release 11i da tabase home and HTTP home contain Oracle8i object and library

files. The Release 11i technology stack home u ses libraries from the Oracle8 servertechnology stack, which includ es Oracle Form s, Oracle Reports, Pro*C, PL/ SQL,

and SQL*Plus.

The COMMON_TOP DirectoryThe COMMON _TOP d irectory contains files tha t are u sed by several d ifferent

Oracle App lications p rodu cts (or all Oracle Applications prod ucts), or that are u sed

with third-party prod ucts.



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Figure 48 The COMMON_TOP Directory

The admin directory in the COMMON_TOP directory contains the log and outp ut

directories for concurren t managers. When the concurren t man agers run Oracle

App lications reports, they write the ou tpu t files, as well as diagnostic log files and

temp orary files, to the log and ou t directories in this adm in directory.

Figure 49 The COMMON_TOP/admin Directory

You can change th e location the concurrent m anagers wr ite these files to, so that, for

example, the log and ou tpu t files are written to d irectories in each _TOP

directory. The d efault, how ever, is to write the files to the log an d out directories inthe COMMON_TOP/ admin/ log and COMMON_TOP/ admin/ out directories.

The admin/ assistants directory (known on Wind ows N T as the "adm in/ assistant"

directory) of the adm in d irectory contains th e License Manager utility. You use th e

Additional Information: Overview of Concurren t Processing,

Oracle Applications System Administrators Guide



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License Manager to license add itional products or langu ages after installing Oracle

Applications.

The adm in/ install directory contains scripts and log files used by Rapid Install

du ring installation. The admin/ scripts directory contains scripts to start and stop

services such as listeners and concurrent managers.

The OA_HTML environment setting points to the h tml d irectory. The Oracle

Applications html sign-on screen and Oracle Self-Service Web Applications html

files are installed here. If you install a language other than American English, the

htm l top directory contains subd irectories, nam ed by language code, for the

translated htm l files. The h tml d irectory also contains other files used by th e

htm l-based prod ucts, such as java server p age files, java scripts, xml files, and style

sheets. Rapid Install copies the htm l-based prod uct files from each _TOP

directory to subd irectories in th e OA_HTML directory.

The JAVA_TOP env ironm ent sett ing p oints to th e java d irectory. Rap id Insta llinstalls all Oracle App lications class files in the O racle nam espace of this JAVA_TOP

directory. The java directory holds third -party java files used by Oracle App lications

as well as other zip files.

Most Java code used by Oracle A

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