Feed aggregator

Next up in the ‘How I Work’ series is Jiju Vengal of HRoi Consulting. You’ll probably recognise Jiju’s name from his popular PeopleSoft HCM for You blog where he focuses mostly on Time and Labor and Absence Management. He’s probably the most prolific PeopleSoft blogger, averaging almost a post a week in 2012. On top of the blog posts Jiju often experiments with other mediums, most recently podcasts and ERP movies.

Name: Jiju Vengal

Occupation: PeopleSoft HCM Functional Consultant/Chief Consultant at HRoi Consulting
Location: Singapore
Current computer: HP Pavillion (Win7, 8GB RAM)
Current mobile devices: iPhone4, Samsung Galaxy Tab2
I work: better and more productively after regular office hours (when the office is quiet!)

What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
Internet connection is a definite life line for me. Other than the ever dependable google search and e-mail, I use blogger.com, wikipedia and the RSS aggregator on Outlook frequently. Having access to a sandbox PeopleSoft instance will also be high on the must have list!

Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can’t you live without?
I am not a gadget person. Besides work, I read quite a lot, but prefer to have a physical book in hand rather than an e-reader!

What’s your workspace like?
This is a tricky question as I have been primarily working from different customer sites away from Singapore for some time now – so it really depends on where I am working. But, my work desk in Singapore would have my laptop, a fixed line phone, photos of family and the books in my personal library decked up.

What do you listen to while you work?
I do not listen to music when I work. Unfortunately I need a quiet environment when I am working on important things!

What PeopleSoft-related productivity apps do you use?
I find UPK (User Productivity Kit) to be an extremely useful tool for business process documentation and user training (including documentation of customisations). We have also been using Firebug quite a lot these days.

Do you have a 2-line tip that some others might not know?
The Time and Labor rule set provides the functionality to write and execute SQL statements from PIA (including updates and deletes) – without the need to have access to app designer or even a database editor like SQL Navigator or TOAD.  If used judiciously, this can be a powerful tool to implement certain requirements without heavy customisations – a simple example is the need to have a process to create user defaults in T&L for new hires.

What SQL/Code do you find yourself writing most often?
I do not do a lot of dedicated coding these days, but when I have to – they are mostly SQLs on Time and Labor/Absence Management tables for reporting purposes and T&L rule writing.

What would be the one item you’d add to PeopleSoft if you could?
Improvements to the Time and Attendance product line like native mobile apps for T&A (I know companies like Succeed have worked on this!), country extensions for Time and Labor, better self-service experience in Absence Management etc. I have been trying to advocate this in my blog for some time and I hope the Oracle product team get to hear it.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?
There are many consultants who have more experience in PeopleSoft than me, but what has helped me in my career are – a) Ability to see the forest instead of the trees b) Empathise with the customer – provide business oriented solutions rather than purely IT oriented solutions and c) Working harder than the rest.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
It’s foolish competing against others, the only way to move up is to compete against yourself and keep improving yourself.

New Year – New vulnerabilities…yes it’s alert season again, with the main patch out on the 15th, but an out of band alert today for the Java 0 day. It is good to see Oracle taking this well publicised issue so seriously. Here is the alert – http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alerts-086861.html For an excellent advanced analysis please see [...]

Hi, this is Eric Maurice again.

Oracle has just released Security Alert CVE-2012-0422 to address two vulnerabilities affecting Java in web browsers.  These vulnerabilities do not affect Java on servers, Java desktop applications, or embedded Java.  The vulnerabilities addressed with this Security Alert are CVE-2013-0422 and CVE-2012-3174.  These vulnerabilities, which only affect Oracle Java 7 versions, are both remotely exploitable without authentication and have received a CVSS Base Score of 10.0.  Oracle recommends that this Security Alert be applied as soon as possible because these issues may be exploited “in the wild” and some exploits are available in various hacking tools.

The exploit conditions for these vulnerabilities are the same.  To be successfully exploited, an attacker needs to trick an unsuspecting user into browsing a malicious website.  The execution of the malicious applet within the browser of the unsuspecting users then allows the attacker to execute arbitrary code in the vulnerable system.  These vulnerabilities are applicable only to Java in web browsers because they are exploitable through malicious browser applets. 

With this Security Alert, and in addition to the fixes for CVE-2013-0422 and CVE-2012-3174, Oracle is switching Java security settings to “high” by default.  The high security setting requires users to expressly authorize the execution of applets which are either unsigned or are self-signed.  As a result, unsuspecting users visiting malicious web sites will be notified before an applet is run and will gain the ability to deny the execution of the potentially malicious applet.  Note also that Java SE 7 Update 10 introduced the ability for users to easily disable Java in their browsers through the Java Control Panel.

There's a 2 ways to lockdown which applications/URLS are accessible for any APEX installation with the APEX Listener. First, I showed the new javascript method in the 2nd half of this post.  This is very nice as it stops any database communication at all. Now let's talk about the PL/SQL validation function and the part that I forgot to document.  The normal  PL/SQL Validation that has been in

To use the Configuration Migration Assistant facility in Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.2.0.0.0 the are two main sets of step that must be performed:

• Configuration - The Configuration Migration Assistant must be configured at an environment level to determine the locations of data exports and imports as well as definitions of the migration specifications.
• Execution - Registering the intent to export and import data as well as physically exporting and importing the data. Once the data has been imported performing approval of specific changes and then applying the import data set.

These topics will be individually covered in subsequent entries in this blog to target specific settings. The flow diagrams illustrate a summary of the processes used in the Configuration Migration Assistant.

Configuration Flow

To configure the Configuration Migration Assistant the following must be performed:

• Migration Master Configuration - Define the default location for import and export files generated by the Configuration Migration Assistant. Define the default file suffix for the export/import files. This task only has to be done once per environment and must be performed BEFORE the first export or import task is performed.
• Define Migration Plans - Define the Business Object definitions and their relationships to migrate the group of Business Objects as a single unit. The sequence and relationship is defined for the associated child objects. The relationship, known as Traversal Criteria, is expressed as Constraint, SQL expression or XPath statement describing the related data.
• Define Migration Requests - Define the groups of migration plans to migrate as a set including the selection criteria expressed as SQL expression, XPath statement or algorithm.

Execution Flow

Once configuration is complete on the source environment then the execution component of the feature can be used to perform migrations. The following flow summarizes these processes:

• Define Migration Export - Register the intent to export the data with the Migration Request to use for the export and the file name to use for the export. The Migration Master Configuration record for the environment is used to set the location and suffix. This process wont actually export the data, hence the word intent, it simply registers the fact that you want to export the data.
• Export Data - Execute the Migration Monitor batch process to physically export all the active Migration Export requests using the specification on the Migration Export.
• Define Migration Import - Register the intent to import the data file from the import directory. The migration import directory and file prefix are taken from the Migration Master Configuration record for the environment.
• Import Data - Execute the Migration Monitor batch process to physically export all the active Migration Import requests using the specification on the Migration Import. At the is time the use of the Approval/Rejection process can be defaulted by change type. At this time a Migration Data Set is created to hold the changes.
• Approval Process - If there are any manual changes that require approval can be manually approved. Regardless of whether approvals are required, the Migration Data Set must be marked Ready to Apply.
• Apply Changes - Execute the Migration Monitor batch process to physically apply the changes. The Migration Data Set will display the status of each change at application time. Data is re-validated at the time of application to maximize data integrity.

Each of these processes will be expanded on in future blog entries with guidelines. For more information on this facility refer to Configuration Migration Assistant Overview (Doc Id: 1506830.1).

In the Oracle Identity Management Suite Integration with Oracle Utilities Application Framework based products (Doc Id: 1375600.1) whitepaper the Oracle Access Manager integration section mentions a custom landing page that can be used to complete the integration.

A sample landing page is now available from My Oracle Support for customers to use as a basis for their own landing pages. It is located within My Oracle Support under Sample Code oamlanding.jsp - refer to the Instructions in Note 1375600.1 (Doc Id 1518856.1).

This is a sample only and should be tested and modified to suit your individual site needs. Refer to Doc Id 1375600.1 for instructions on how to use the landing page.

One of the main features of Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.2.0.0.0 is the Configuration Migration Assistant. The Configuration Migration Assistant is a new facility to allow customer owned configuration data to be migrated from one environment to another. Customers using Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Oracle Enterprise Taxation and Policy Management will use this new facility instead of Configuration Lab for versions of those products using the Oracle Utilities Application FrameworkOracle Utilities Application Framework V4.2.0.0.0 and above.

The features of this new facility are:

• Meta Data Driven Migration - The Configuration Migration Assistant uses the meta data within the product to understand the data and the relationships. A set of new migration objects have been added to define reuseable data relationships, sequence of migration and groups of data to migrate.
• Reusability - The Configuration Migration Assistant emphasizes resuablility across migrations by providing reuseable migration plans allowing customers and partners to combine base and custom migration plans into reusable migrations.
• Simple design - The Configuration Migration Assistant simplifies the specification and exeuction of migrations. No technical setup outside the product is required.
• Support for different relationship types - Relationships between objects can be expressed using Constraints, SQL statements or XPATH statements. This allows Configuration Migration Assistant to support the wide variety of configuration objects in the products.
• Export Data to a File - The export process now exports data to a file rather than using database links. This allows the export to be checked in to a code respository to match the code components involved in a configuration. This also allows the exports to be reused and imported across many environments and even be used to rollback configuration changes on a global basis within an environment.
• Approval/Rejection of Changes - Individual changes can be forced to be approved before they are applied allowing customers fine levels of control over changes in their target environments.
• Data Manipulation upon Import - Data can be manipulated upon import, using algorithms, to avoid configuration conflicts. For example, when importing Batch Controls the batch run numbers can be manipulated upon import to ensure they are consistent in the target environment.

Over the next few weeks there will be a series of articles on this blog highlighting the Configuration Migration Assistant and its features and configuration. For more details about the facility refer to Configuration Migration Assistant Overview (Doc Id: 1506830.1) available from My Oracle Support.

Today I was asked to support a customer with some urgent issues. To be able to help them quickly I was given access via a VMware View Client (a Citrix alike online desktopsharing solution from VMware).
From that desktop I connected to an internal desktop with a Remote Desktop session, since there were all the necessary tools, like Notepad++, jDeveloper, SoapUI, etc, installed. In the end I neede another RDP session to the server on which SoaSuite was running.

Anyway, during the analasis I kept a report document in Google Docs. At one point I needed to write an email in which I wanted to share some information from logs on the remote desktop. Now I could connect to gmail. But I was already writing the email in Thunderbird on my laptop. Since there were so may layers of RDP-in-RDP sessions, I could not copy and paste from the logs to my laptop anymore.

Then the team-cooperation functionality from Google Docs come in handy! I opened the same document again on my laptop and Google Docs neatly synchronized both sessions. So anything I wrote and copied-and-pasted into the document in the RDP session became visible on my laptop and vice-versa. Now, I know: it's not new, but it enabled me to copy-and-paste from the document into my email.

So, Google Docs turned out the perfect clipboard sharing tool. I found it a nice trick to share.

OTN is putting on a set of labs on Monday before the show that are FREE to anyone.  You can join David Peake from the Application Express team, Jeff Smith from the SQL Dev team, Maria Colgan from the Optimizer, and myself for the labs. There's 2 rooms that will be running with the below agenda.  The first room is performance/optimizer focused.  Starting with Maria and the optimize then showing

I have announced my webinar on Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance for Exadata Backup & Recovery in NYOUG DBA webinar series. You can download webinar slides and voice recod from NYOUG web site

Recently I posted a blog Making an HR Helpdesk Call Center Agents life easier with the use of text trays and received the following questions: What is the difference between quick codes and quick keys?   Text Tray Quick Keys

Continue reading

Related posts:

1. Making an HR Helpdesk Call Center Agents life easier with the use of text trays
2. HR HelpDesk Service Dashboards – real time information for better service
3. PeopleSoft Quick-Tip: Find all objects in a project

Wish every one a very happy new year.

2013 ‘e ışık tutması açısından, 2012 ‘de TROUG ile yaşadığınız deneyim paralelinde sizlerin geri beslemelerini merak ediyorum. Hatırlatma amaçlı 2012 ‘de ne gibi aktiviteler gerçekleşti sitemiz anasayfadaki “Geçmiş Etkinlikler” bölümünü inceleyebilirsiniz: http://troug.org/

It's official: we've shipped Oracle NoSQL Database R2.

Of course there's a press release, but if you want to cut to the chase, the major features this release brings are:

• Elasticity - the ability to dynamically add more storage nodes and have the system rebalance the data onto the nodes without interrupting operations.
• Large Object Support - the ability to store large objects without materializing those objects in the NoSQL Database (there's a stream API to them).
• Avro Schema Support - Data records can be stored using Avro as the schema.
• Oracle Database External Table Support - A NoSQL Database can act as an Oracle Database External Table.
• SNMP and JMX Support
• A C Language API
  

There are both an open-source Community Edition (CE) licensed under aGPLv3, and an Enterprise Edition (EE) licensed under a standard Oracle EE license. This is the first release where the EE has additional features and functionality.

Congratulations to the team for a fine effort.

The Oracle APEX Listener 2.0 is officially out. There's a TON of changes in this release. The first how you get it up and running. For the standalone version, it's very simple to be up and running quickly. Simply type "java -jar apex.war" and follow the prompts. This will get you up and running.  The biggest changes are in the REST services and I'll blog more on that later. The command line

Gerhard a colleague is dealing with postgres databases and was very suprised how many features are very oracle like. For example the same concept of Sequences as in Oracle. But then he detected the postgres enum native type support in postgres and asked me if the same feature would exist in Oracle.

After a successful migration from Oracle 10gR2 to Oracle 11gR2, I observed a very odd behavior executing a query; On first execution the query run fast - means 0.3 s; On second not faster but with tremendous reduced speed - approximate 20 s; Now this behavior is the opposite I experienced with complex queries (lot of joins, lot of predicates) , the first time of execution needs the extra cost of hard parsing and disk reads if the data is not in cache. the second time even the query run initial several seconds it run in a fraction of a second.

Oracle Application Express 4.2.1.00.08 has just been released and is available for download. The patch set can be downloaded from My Oracle Support (search for patch# 14732511) and the full distribution is available on Oracle Technology Network. In the APEX … Continue reading →