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Oracle Applications

Concepts

Release 11i (11.5.7)

May 2002

Part No. A97323-01


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Oracle Ap plications, Concep ts, Release 11i (11.5.7)

Part No. A97323-01

Copyr ight 2000, 2002, Oracle Corpora tion. All rights reserv ed.

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

Ric Ginsberg Cliff Godw in, Billy Green e, Jeff Lun n, K.R. Nara yana n, Kent N oble, Emily Nord hag en, Lisa

Parekh , And rew Rist, Joan Ryan, Richard Sears, Greg Seiden , Yun Shaw, Keith M . Swa rtz, Millie Wang

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documen t is error-free. Except as may be expressly p ermitted in your license agreement for these

Programs, no pa rt of these Programs may be reprodu ced or transmitted in any form or by any mean s,

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Contents

Send Us Your Comments .................................................................................................................... v

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

Documen tation Accessibility .............................................................................................................. vii

Structu re ................................................................................................................................................. viiiRelated Documents............................................................................................................................... viii

Training and Sup port ............................................................................................................................ ix

Conventions............................................................................................................................................. x

1 Internet Computing Architecture

Forms Server and Forms Client........................................................................................................ 1-2HTML-based Products ....................................................................................................................... 1-3

Oracle Self-Serv ice Web Applications and Oracle Workflow ................................................ 1-3

Business Intelligence System (BIS) Products ............................................................................ 1-4

2 Release 11iEnhancements

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

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

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

Database Resou rce Manager ....................................................................................................... 2-3

Partitioned Tables......................................................................................................................... 2-3

Materialized Views....................................................................................................................... 2-4

Temporary Tables......................................................................................................................... 2-4

Invoker Rights............................................................................................................................... 2-5
http://comments_template.pdf/http://comments_template.pdf/


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Rapid Install......................................................................................................................................... 2-5

Oracle Enterprise Manager ............................................................................................................... 2-6Oracle Ap plications Manager ..................................................................................................... 2-6

Oracle Management Pack for Oracle Applications.................................................................. 2-6

3 Internationalization Support

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

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

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

External Documen ts ..................................................................................................................... 3-4

Territory and Organization Support ............................................................................................... 3-4

Cou ntry-specific Funct ionality ................................................................................................... 3-5

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

Mu ltip le Organ ization Architectu re .......................................................................................... 3-5Mu ltip le Reportin g Cu rrencies ................................................................................................... 3-6

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

NLS Settings ........................................................................................................................................ 3-7

4 File System

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

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

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

Core Techn ology Directories....................................................................................................... 4-4

Product Directories....................................................................................................................... 4-4

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

Distributing the APPL_TOP Across Several Disks .................................................................. 4-8

Technology Stack ................................................................................................................................ 4-8The COMMON _TOP D irectory ....................................................................................................... 4-9


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v

Send Us Your Comments

Oracle Applications, Concepts, Release 11i(11.5.7)

Part No. A97323-01

We welcome your comments 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 suggestions for improvemen t, please ind icate the docum ent title

and part n um ber and the chapter, section, and page num ber, if available. Send comm ents to us by

email at app [email protected]. If you w ould like a reply, please give your nam e, add ress, and

telephone num ber.


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Preface

Oracle Applications Concepts provides basic information on how the Oracle

App lications software and da tabases are configured , and how you can implemen t

them in a netw ork installation.

Documentation AccessibilityOur goal is to make Oracle prod ucts, 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 d ocumen tation is ava ilable in H TML format, and contains

markup to facilitate access by the d isabled comm un ity. Stand ards w ill continue to

evolve over time, and Oracle Corporation is actively engaged w ith other

market-leading technology vendors to ad dress technical obstacles so that ou rdocum entation can be accessible to all of our customers.

For add itional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/.

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

JAWS, a Window s screen read er, may not always correctly read the cod e examp les

in this docum ent. The conventions for writing code require that closing bracesapp ear on an otherw ise emp ty line. JAWS may n ot always read a line of text that

consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documen tation m ay contain links to Web sites of other compan ies or

organizations that Or acle Corporation d oes not own or control. Oracle Corporation


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neither evaluates nor m akes any rep resentations regarding th e accessibility of these

Web sites.

StructureThis book contains the following chap ters:

s Chap ter 1 provid es and explanation of the internet compu ting architecture.

s Chap ter 2 describes enhan cements in Release 11i.

s Chap ter 3 describes aspects of interna tionalization sup port.

s Chap ter 4 describes the filesystem that th e Rapid Install wizard creates du ring

installation.

s The Glossary provides definitions to terms you m ay encounter when installing.

Related DocumentsAll Release 11i documentation is includ ed on th e Oracle Applications Document

Library CD, which is supplied in the Release 11i CD Pack. You can dow nload some

soft-copy d ocumenta tion from http :/ / docs.oracle.com. You can also pu rchase

hard -copy documen tation from the Oracle Store at http :/ / oraclestore.oracle.com.

If you are looking for... See these documents...

Add itional information Upgrading O racle Applications

Installing Oracle Applications

Maintaining O racle Applications Docum entation Set:

Oracle A pplications AD Procedures Guide

Oracle Applications A D Ut ilities Reference Guide

Oracle A pplications Installation Update N otes*

Oracle A pplications Release Notes*

Oracle A pplications N LS Release Notes*

Oracle Applications Sy stem A dministrators Guide

Oracle Self-Service Web Applications Implementation M anual

Oracle Workflow Guide

Oracle A pplications Character Mode to GUI M enu Path Changes

Oracle Application Object Library/W orkflow Technical Reference Manual

Application-specific

features

Oracle Applications u sers guides

Oracle Applications implementation manu alsMult iple Organizations in Oracle Applications

Mult iple Reporting Currencies in O racle Applications

Oracle Applications Supplemental CRM Installation Steps

Information abou t custom

development

Oracle Applications U ser Interface St andards for Forms-based Products

Oracle A pplications Developers Guide


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Upd ate or patch readm e files may contain information about new documentation

that you can dow nload.

Training and SupportOracle offers a complete set of training courses and mu lti-level sup port services.

Training

You can attend training courses at an y Oracle Edu cation Center, arrange for trainers

to teach at you r facility, or use Oracle Learning N etwork (OLN) Oracle

Universitys online ed ucation u tility. Oracle training p rofessionals can also d evelop

custom courses using you r organization structure, terminology, and d ata asexamples.

Support

The Oracle sup port team includ es your Technical Representative and Accoun t

Manager. It also includ es Oracle consultants and sup port sp ecialists who have

expertise in your bu siness area, and in man aging an Oracle8i server and you r

hardw are and software environment.

OracleMetaLinkis a self-service, web-based su pp ort connection, wh ich is

ma intained by Oracle Sup port Services 24 hou rs a d ay, 7 days a w eek. Use it to

obtain information and advice from technical libraries and forum s, dow nload

patches, look at bug d etails, and create or u pd ate TARs. Register at

http:/ / metalink.oracle.com, and check for up dates and information before you

install or upgrade your Oracle App lications. The Start Here CD also contains links to

the various resources on OracleMetaLink.

Database information Oracle8i ConceptsOracle8i Backup and Recovery Guide

Oracle8i Reference

Oracle8i Designing and Tuning for Performance

Oracle8i N ational Language Support Guide

*Available only on OracleMetaLink

Note: Documen tation associated w ith this release was current as

of the time it w as released. OracleMetaLinkcontains the most

up-to-date information.

If you are looking for... See these documents...


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x

ConventionsThe following conventions are u sed in this book:

Special notes alert you abou t par ticular information w ithin the body of the book.

They include Add itional Information, Attention, Note, and Warning.

Convention Meaning

UNIX:Windows:

Indicates platform-specific information. This guide containsinformation for both UNIX and Windows platforms.

$ or C:\ > Represents the platform-specific command prom pt. Yourpromp t m ay d iffer.

Monospace text Represents command line text. Type this text exactly as shown.

< > Text enclosed in angle brackets represents a variable. Substitutea value for the var iable text. Do not type the brackets.

[ ] Encloses optional items or indicate a function key. Do not typethe brackets.

| Represents an oroption am ong several options. You m ust enter

only one of the op tions. Do not type the vertical bar.\ In examples of com mands you type on line, a backslash at the

end of a line signifies that you mu st type the entire comm and onone line.Do not type the backslash.


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Internet Computing Architecture 1-1

1Internet Computing Architecture

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

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

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

to support the processing load. Each nod e is a machine on the network . Services are

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

requests. The H TTP service, for examp le, is a p rocess that listens for an d processes

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

requests for Oracle Forms.

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

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

desktop tier, which provid es the user interface disp lay. With Internet Comp uting

Architecture, only the p resentation layer of Oracle App lications is on the d esktop

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

Oracle Applications software and other tools are deployed on a m idd le tier of

servers know n as th e 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 Applications to scale with load and to keep

network traffic low.


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Forms Server and Forms Client

1-2 Oracle Applications Concepts

Figure 11 Internet Computing Architecture

The app lication tier servers op erate very effectively over a WAN. The d esktop an d

app lications tiers 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 su ch as screen

painting. In a global operation w ith u sers at d iverse locations, less network tr affic

also means less telecomm un ications expense.

Forms Server and Forms ClientThe forms server m ediates between th e forms client, a Java applet run ning on the

desktop, and the Oracle8i da tabase server on the back end. The forms server

prod uces the effects a user sees on the desktop screen and causes changes to

database records based on u ser actions. Both the forms server an d forms client are

compon ents of Oracle Forms. The two exchange messages across a standard

network connection.

The forms client can disp lay any O racle App lications screen, and provid es

field-level validat ion, mu ltiple coordinated w indow s, and data entry aids such as

list of values. A Java-enabled web browser manages the downloading, start-up, and

execution of the forms client on the desktop . Another software component, the iAS

server, helps start a client session over the internal or external Web. In insta llations

that have mu ltiple forms servers, only one of the forms servers runs the iAS server


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HTML-based Products


software. If you use more than one forms server, Oracle Forms also provides a CGI

script that distributes the p rocessing load amon g the servers.

Figure 12 Forms-based Architecture

HTML-based ProductsIn addition to Forms-based p rodu cts, Release 11i includ es other produ cts, such

Oracle Workflow and the Oracle Busin ess Intelligence System (BIS) prod ucts. These

prod ucts do not u se the forms server as the application tier software or the forms

client on the d esktop, but rely on HTTP-based servers on the ap plication tier and a

Java-enabled web brow ser on the desktop.

Oracle Self-Service Web Applications and Oracle WorkflowSelf-Service Web Applications p rovid e a fast and cost-effective way to get

information to and from peop le within an organization or business. For examp le,

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

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

involving the H um an Resources staff. The interface is fam iliar to Web users, easy towork w ith, and d oesnt require any training.

Many Oracle App lications p rodu cts use Oracle Workflow to autom atically enforce

business ru les and p olicies and to provide a common notification system. The

Oracle Workflow monitors business processes, collects process da ta, and provid es

an e-mail and w eb page notification system. For examp le, when an em ployee uses

Oracle Internet Procurement to enter a requisition, Oracle Workflow autom atically


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HTML-based Products


validates the requisition and routes it to the app ropriate man ager for approval.

Release 11i includ es the full Oracle Workflow prod uct and the license to customizeany Oracle Applications embedded workflow.

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

App lications. Using the BIS produ cts, a manager can query the Oracle App lications

database to mon itor recent bus iness performance across multiple organizations. Forexample, a manager can set a sales goal and then u se BIS to determ ine how close

actual sales amou nts are to the goal. A manager can set tolerances and h ave the

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

Performance Manager Framew ork, some corrective actions can be p erformed

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 prod ucts d o not use th e forms server or forms client. Instead, BIS prod ucts u sethe Oracle Discoverer server an d Oracle Reports server on the ap plication tier. A

Java applet run ning on d esktop client commun icates with the HTTP server, which

connects to the Oracle Discoverer server or Oracle Reports server. The d iscoverer

server provides ad h oc analysis; the reports server supp orts data analysis and ad

hoc queries, often using sum mary tables such as monthly aggregates of data, and

return s them to the browser. The desktop brow ser initiates the request, the HTML

server passes the request to th e Discoverer or Reports server, and the Discoverer or

Report s server gathers the data and return s it to the browser as HTML.

Additional Information: Oracle Workflow Guide


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HTML-based Products


Figure 13 BIS Architecture

To su pp ort BIS prod ucts, Release 11i includ es a file that w ill generate an Oracle

Discoverer End User Layer (EUL). When th e EUL is generated , workbooks and

queries can be saved to the d atabase. You m ust, how ever, use th e Oracle Discoverer

Administrators Edition, wh ich is n ot included in Release 11i, to generate this EUL.

With the Administrator s Edition, you can a lso create add itional EULs, administer

security information, and set responsibilities.Additional Information: Oracle Business Intelligence System Users

Guide


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HTML-based Products



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Release 11i Enhancements 2-1

2Release 11iEnhancements

Release 11i provid es enhancemen ts that imp rove usability, increase performance,

and simp lify the installation and ma intenance 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

substan tially increase performan ce speed and redu ce netw ork traffic. Rapid Install

au tomates installation and d rastically reduces the time to getting Oracle

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

easier administration of concurrent man agers and centralized monitoring of the

entire Oracle App lications environm ent.

Personal HomepageIn Release 11i, each u ser logs in to Oracle App lications throu gh the Personal

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

which you access Form s-based , Self-Service Web Ap plications, or BIS products.Once logged into the Personal Homepage, you need not sign on again to access

other par ts of the system. Oracle App lications does not p romp t again for user nam e

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

Applications also retains p references as you n avigate through the system. For

example, if you registered in th e Personal Hom epage 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 prod uct suite,

country-specific fun ctionality, and sup porting technologies.

Add itional features and enhancements are discussed in the Oracle

Applications Product Update Notes.


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Personal Homepage


Figure 21 The Personal Homepage

Behind th e scenes, the Personal Hom epage is comm unicating with one of the

application tier servers. For example, when you go to an Oracle Self-Service Web

App lications page, the brow ser makes the URL request to an H TTP server web

listener. The listener in tu rn contacts a PL/ SQL cartridge, wh ich in tu rn ru ns a

stored procedu re on the database server. You can custom ize the Personal Hom epage

to fit your ind ividual need s and resp onsibilities.

Oracle8iFeaturesMany improvements in Release 11i performance are built on u nderlying

enhan cements in Oracle8i. Oracle8i, the database for Internet comp uting, provid es

many features that improve transaction processing, data management, and

scalability.

Cost-based OptimizationThe Oracle optimizer evalua tes many factors to calculate the most efficient w ay to

execute 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 tun ed for cost-based optim ization, and Release 11i requires the optimizer to

use the cost-based op timization (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 w ill access.

CBO also considers h ints, which are optimization suggestions placed in a Comm ent


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Personal Homepage


of the SQL statemen t. First, the optimizer creates a set of potential execution p lans

for the SQL statement based on its available access path s and hints. Then theoptimizer estimates the costof each execution plan based on statistics in the d ata

dictionary for the data distribu tion and storage characteristics of the tables, ind exes,

and pa rtitions. The optimizer compares the costs of the execu tion plans and chooses

the one w ith the smallest cost.

For some operations, su ch as batch p rocessing, Release 11i uses CBO to achieve the

best throughp ut, or the m inimal resource use necessary to p rocess all rows accessed

by the statem ent. For other operations, such as accessing forms an d commu nication

with the desktop client, Release 11i uses CBO to achieve the best response t ime, orthe m inimal resource use necessary to p rocess the first row accessed by a SQL

statement.

Other Oracle8i performan ce enhancements u sed 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 w orldw ide environm ent. A user performing

an inefficient query might impact other more important p rocesses being p erformed

by other u sers. With the Database Resource Manager, the system ad ministrator can

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

priority p rocessing always has sufficient CPU.

Using the Database Resource Manager, the system ad ministrator m ight, for

example, limit ad hoc queries on the database to consu me no more tha t 5% of CPU

usage. The system ad ministrator can guarantee OE users 60% of CPU resources

du ring business hours, regardless of the load or nu mber of users in other groups on

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

Partitioned TablesPartitioning helps sup port very large tables and ind exes by dividing them into

smaller and more m anageable pieces, wh ich are called p artitions. Once par titions

are defined, SQL statements can access and m anipu late them rath er than ent ire

tables or ind exes. Partitioning red uces access time, and partitions are esp ecially

Additional Information: The Op timizer, Oracle8i Concepts;

Cost-based Optimization, Oracle Applications System Administrators

Guide


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Personal Homepage


useful in data warehouse applications, which often store and analyze large amou nts

of historical data.

For examp le, operations that involve copying or d eleting d ata are now im proved

because Release 11i prod ucts use partitioned tables. Creating and d eleting all rows

of a partitioned table is a mu ch faster operat ion than selectively inserting row s into

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

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

Materialized ViewsMaterialized view s are schem a objects that can be used to su mm arize, precomp ute,

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

data su ch as sum s and averages, and they increase the speed of queries on very

large databases. They p rovide better performance in Oracle App lications prod ucts,

such as the BIS produ cts, that perform many queries on summ ary d ata.

Cost-based op timization can use materialized views to imp rove 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 directed to the materialized view and not to the u nd erlying detail

tables or view s.

In distributed env ironmen ts, materialized views are used to replicate da ta at

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

resolution meth ods. As replicas, they p rovide local access to data wh ich otherwise

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 delete the data in

the table at the end of the session.

In earlier releases, data from several u sers sessions was written to one comm ontable. A column in the table stored ind ividual session IDs, so informat ion about

each user session could be selected from this comm on table. In Oracle8i, data in a

temp orary table is private to each user s session. Each session can only see and

mod ify its own d ata. Locks are not acqu ired on the tem pora ry table because each

session h as its own private data.

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

logs for the data changes or requ ire deleting d ata from the table after a comm it.


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Rapid Install


Data from the temp orary table is autom atically d ropped wh en the session

terminates.

Invoker RightsIn earlier releases, if you h ad Multiple Reporting Currencies (MRC) or Mu ltiple Sets

of Books Architecture (MSOBA), several copies of Oracle Ap plications p ackages

existed in the d atabase. This took more database space and required extra time to

upgrade and maintain.

Release 11i uses the new Invoker Rights fun ctionality of Oracle 8i to ensure thatmost p ackages are installed only in the APPS schema. Other schemas, such as the

MRC schema, have synonym s to the packages in the APPS schema, and the

correspond ing packages in the APPS schema have grants to the MRC schema.

PL/ SQL routines use Oracle8i Invoker Rights to access the package in the APPS

schema. In an MRC database, this can very m arked ly decrease 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 wizard that helps you install a comp lete set of

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

installs the required technology stack and creates the Oracle Applications da tabase.

You can use Rap id 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. Inaddition, Rapid Install lets you license p rodu cts, coun try-specific functionality, and

languages.

Rapid Install stores the param eters you choose in a configuration file, and then u ses

that file to perform the insta llation or u pgrade. You can u se the d efault valu es (a

default installation) or sup ply other values (a custom installation), which are then

written to the configura tion file. After you define a configuration for you r Oracle

App lications system, Rapid Install installs all necessary components, and then setsup your database listeners, web listener, web server, Forms server, and reports

server.

Additional Information: PL/SQL Users Guide and Reference

Additional Information: Installing Oracle Applications


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Oracle Enterprise Manager


Oracle Enterprise ManagerIn Release 11i, the concurrent m anager ad ministrative interface is integrated w ithOracle Enterp rise Manager. Oracle Enterp rise Manager p rovides a single point of

adm inistration for all available Oracle App lications instances on a system.

Oracle Enterp rise Manager combines a central console, agents, common services,

and tools to provide an integrated , comprehen sive system for managing Oracle

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

Oracle App lications Manager. The Oracle Managemen t Pack for Oracle

App lications, also integrated with the Oracle Enterp rise Manager, is a availableseparately. These two tools help you centrally manage all aspects of a worldw ide

operation.

Oracle Applications ManagerThe Oracle App lications Manager p rovides a set of System Ad ministration

functions on a new Oracle Enterp rise Manager console. These fun ctions include

starting and stopping concurrent managers, adm inistering concurrent ma nagers

and requests, and p roviding d etails on transaction m anagers. You can also define

and edit managers and work shifts, and view concurrent request schedules and

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

managers. The Oracle App lications Manager also provides access to diagnostic and

status information for Concurrent Processing that cannot be found in the

Forms-based System Ad ministration 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 th e console can be accessed from w ithin Forms-based Oracle

Applications.

Oracle Management Pack for Oracle ApplicationsThe Oracle Managemen t Pack for Oracle App lications extends the Oracle Enterp rise

Manager to include m onitoring, diagnosing, and capacity plann ing 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 mon itoring and problem

detection.

Additional Information: OracleEnterprise Manager Concepts Guide

an d Oracle Enterprise Manager Administrators Guide


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Oracle Enterprise Manager


s an extensive array of real-time m onitoring charts on all concurrent m anagers

and forms sessions.s concurrent m anager p erformance consump tion analysis and detection of

performance anomalies.

s examination of historical processing inform ation abou t Oracle Concurrent

Processing requests and concurrent managers.

Additional Information: Gett ing Started with the Oracle

Management Pack for Oracle Applications


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Language Support


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Language Support


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 sup port s Am erican English. All other character

sets vary in the number of languages they supp ort. For example, if you need to run

Oracle Applications in English and French, you might choose WE8ISO8859P15 as

the d atabase character set w hen run ning Rapid Install. WE8ISO8859P15 is a

sup erset of US7ASCII, supports both English an d French, and contains the euro

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 that sup port s these four

languages. The Oracle8i National Language Support Guide provides information on

sup por ted character sets, languages supported by each character set, and tips on

choosing a database character set.

You cannot change the character set when upgrading from an earlier release to

Release 11i. You m ust first u pgrad 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 mod el increases database

storage requirements. For a new installation, consider the database space requiredfor a single language and mu ltiply this by the nu mber of languages you w ill

sup por t. For an u pgrade of an earlier NLS installation, some of the data current ly in

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

require add itional storage.

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 termneeds.

Additional Information: Overview of an Up grade, Upgrading

Oracle Applications

Language Support


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Language Support

Internationalization Support 3-3

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

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

overall space used for language setup an d transaction d ata.

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 an y sup ported character set. You sp ecify the app lication tier

character set when ru nn ing Rapid Install. To preven t data loss, character sets on all

tiers should 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 w ith no d ata loss

because the character representation in one correspond s to an app ropriate character

representa tion in the other. For exam ple, JA16SJIS and JA16EUC are both Japan ese

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

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

characters will be used an d d ata is thereby lost.

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

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

sup ported by the browsers. This is the only comp atibility requ irement between the

desktop tier and app lication tier. All other ap plication tier servers, such as theConcurrent Processing server, can be configured w ith any oth er character set that is

compa tible with th e database server.

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

tier. When you later install an Na tional Language Support (NLS) release on these

servers, you m ust install all other licensed langu ages on a ll servers. You cann ot, for

example, install French only on the forms server with the assu mp tion that you w ill

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

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

tier, you m ust u se UTF8 on all tiers.

Attention: As noted earlier concerning th e database tier character

set, the character set on the application tier should also meet your

worldw ide language requirements in th e future. Changing

character sets for the application tier after installation is a difficult

process.

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y g pp


not ru n the reports or concurren t processing server in French. All application tier

servers mu st have the same set of languages installed.

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

character sets and fonts, must be available in the desktop clients operating system

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

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

available to each d esktop client.

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

mu st handle any language-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 browser is set by the HTTP server. Users must not change

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

External DocumentsExternal documents are those documents intended for customers and trading

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

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

simultan eously 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 docum ents 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 a ll French external

docum ents to pr inter A and all others to printer B. You can send completion

notifications for Span ish documen ts to one u ser, and p erhaps a ll notifications,

includ ing Spanish, sent to another. See the app end ixes the System Administrators

Guide for a list of external docum ents p rovided in Release 11i.

Territory and Organization SupportEach of the organizations within a worldw ide enterprise may have its own set of

local requirements. In a world wid e operation, all organizations in the enterp rise

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



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Country-specific Functionality

Oracle App lications has a single common core of fun ctionality, withcountry-specific extensions to meet the statu tory, legal, and cultural p ractices of

d ifferent countr ies. Release 11i supp orts a w orldwide enterprise by installing all

these extensions in the sam e database instance withou t overwr iting or conflicting

with each other.

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

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

the count ries that have extensions and licenses the extensions you choose. Thefunctionality enabled by th e extension is d escribed in the coun try-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

date formats is that Oracle Reports w ill always disp lay DD-MON-RRRR.You can also enter and view num bers with either th e period (full stop) character or

comm a as the decimal sepa rator. 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 tha t Oracle

Self-Service Web App lications always enters and disp lays numbers w ith the p eriod

as decimal separator and the comm a as group separator.

Regardless of the various formats u sers may choose to enter da tes and nu mbers, the

actual values are stored in the database in u niform 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.

Multiple Organization ArchitectureYou can d efine m ultiple organizations (Multi-Org) and the relationships am ong

them 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 comp lex enterprise has several organization

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

different structures to customize Oracle App lications for your w orldw ide business

Additional Information: Date Parameters, Num eric Parameters,

Oracle8i National Language Support Guide



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needs. Multi-Org is also the und erlying technology for Mu ltiple Reporting

Currencies.

The types of organizations that can be defined include bu siness groups, sets of

books, legal entities, balancing entities, operating u nits, inventory organizations,

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

The set of books organization, for examp le, is a finan cial reporting en tity that uses 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 typ e of organization.

With the various organization types, you set up different organization mod els

dep end ing on your enterp rise needs. For instance, using the accounting,

distribution and ma terials managem ent functions in Oracle App lications, you

define the relationships am ong inventory organ izations, operating u nits, legal

entities, and sets of books to create a mu ltilevel comp any stru cture or organization

model.

When you run Oracle App lications 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 Currencies (MRC) feature allows you to report and

maintain accoun ting records at th e transaction level, in m ore than 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 functional currency is the currency

you u se to record transactions and maintain your accounting d ata w ithin Oracle

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

you p erform most of your bu siness transactions and th e one you use for legal

reporting. A reporting fun ctional currency is a currency, other than you r pr imaryfunctional curren cy, that you need for reports.

MRC is based on Multi-Org, and requ ires a primary set of books and a reporting set

of books. In the p rimary set of books, the functional currency is always the prim ary

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

associated w ith a prim ary 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

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

in a different functional curr ency than that of your p rimary set of books.

You m ust d efine a sep arate 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 w hich are the reporting sets of books. You th en assign

the repor ting sets of books to the primary set of books. You m ust also define a

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

responsibility to correspond to each reporting set of books.

NLS-independent Application ServersIn Release 11, an ap plication tier server was requ ired for each langu age and

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

German forms requests, you needed to start one forms server for French and one for

German . Even if two users both ran French, but one set the territory to France andthe other to Switzerland , you w ould need to install two forms servers and two

reports servers to su pp ort 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 server

processes can star t w ith any N LS configuration.

App lication tier processes mus t be started w ith the same character set that was

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 w ith those NLS

settings.

NLS SettingsEarlier releases relied on op erating system environmen t settings for runtime N LS

requ iremen ts. In Release 11i, user run time N LS settings are stored as p rofile 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 language 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 date and nu meric formats . Based

on th e territory p rofile setting, default O racle8i date and num eric formats are used.

Additional Information: Mult iple Reporting Currencies in Oracle

Applications

NLS Settings


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Although the system adm inistrator can reset d ate 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 provid e the d efault NLS settings for all end u sers. Users

inherit these values the first time they log on to Oracle Applications using th e

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

the four NLS settings to alternate values. The upd ated valu es are stored in the

database at the p rofile user level. The user s current session is reset to use the

up da ted u ser level profile values and all future sessions will be started w ith the

new values.


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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 on ly database files. All Oracle App lications p rodu ct files,

technology stack files, comm on files, and Oracle Enterprise Man ager files are held

in thefile system on the ap plication tier servers. Environm ent settings ind icate the

location of files in th e file system. This chapter discusses the environm ent settings

and file systems in detail.

Environment SettingsOracle App lications u ses environmen t settings to control program execution. The

environment settings are defined wh en you install Oracle App lications. Many

settings are defined by information you provid e when running Rapid Install,

thou gh other settings have constant values for all installations.

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

indicated by braces. For example, is the database nam e as contained in

the O RACLE_SID or TWO_TASK environm ent sett ing.

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 database 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. Most

temp orary files are wr itten to the location specified by the APPLTMP environm ent

setting, wh ich is set by Rapid Install. If you choose, Oracle Reports tem porary files

can be d irected to a separate location d etermined by th e REPORTS60_TMP setting.

App lications also prod uces temporary PL/ SQL outpu t files used in concurrent

processing. These files are w ritten to the location sp ecified by th e APPLPTMP

environment setting. The APPLPTMP d irectory must be the same d irectory asspecified by the u tl_file_dir parameter in you r d atabase initialization file. Rapid

Install sets both APPLPTMP an d the u tl_file_dir p aram eter to the same directory.

During an u pgrad e with Au toUpgrade, you m ust p rovide the u tl_file_dir

parameter value for the APPLPTMP environm ent setting.

Attention: Some Oracle Applications ut ilities use your operating

systems default temp orary d irectory even if you d efine the

environment settings listed in the p revious paragraph . Be sure tohave ava ilable disk sp ace for these d efault directories as well as

those denoted by APPLTMP, REPORTS60_TMP, and APPLPTMP.

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File System 4-3

The APPL Directory

Oracle App lications files are stored in the APPL directory, known as theAPPL_TOP directory.

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

for all prod ucts are in th e APPL_TOP d irectory. Rapid Install creates a d irectory tree

for every Oracle Applications p rodu ct in this APPL_TOP d irectory.

Within th e APPL_TOP directory, files associated with a p rodu ct are installed un der

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

setting. The portion of this environment setting is the prod ucts short name,

such as ad , au, fnd , gl, and inv. The correspond ing _TOP environm ent

sett ings are AD_TOP, AU_TOP, FND_TOP, GL_TOP, and INV_TOP.

Rapid Install creates another directory, named for the version nu mber, within the

products short n ame d irectory. For examp le, the value contained in th e AD_TOP

environment setting is APPL_TOP/ ad / 11.5.0, and th e AD_TOP environment

setting po ints to the APPL_TOP/ ad / 11.5.0 directory. Similarly, the value of

AU_TOP is APPL_TOP/ au / 11.5.0, and the AU_TOP environm ent setting points to

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

admin d irectory.Rapid Install creates a new Ap plications top d irectory wh en you u pgrade. Rapid

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

new prod uct files in a new APPL d irectory tree.

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

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

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

file systems: one for each environmen t.

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

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

steps for all Oracle App lications prod ucts. Subd irectories in th is adm in

directory hold the log and restart files that record the actions performed by

installation and upgrade utilities and scripts.s The ad (Ap plications DBA) directory contains the installation and mainten ance

utilities such as Au toUpgrade, Au toPatch, and the ada dm in utility.

s The au (App lications 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 desktop client.

s The fnd (foundation) directory contains the scripts that are u sed as the

found ation for all App lications prod ucts to build da ta dictionaries, forms and C

object libra ries.

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

for product files. Product files include forms files, reports files, and other files, such

as to install or up grad e the database. To display d ata entry forms for Oracle General

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File System 4-5

Ledger, for example, Oracle Applications accesses files in the forms subdirectory

und er th e 11.5.0 directory.

Within each _TOP directory, the products files are grouped into

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

to show the full directory structure for gl.

The following table summar izes the product subd irectories and th e types of files

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

The APPL Directory


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table.

Table 41 Applications Directory and File Types

Subdirectory Name Description

admin APPL_TOP/ / admin contains files used by AutoUpgrade

to up grade each separate prod uct. Note that this directory 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..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 .p ls scripts to create PL/ SQL stored p rocedures.

bin Contains concurrent programs, other C language programs and

shell scripts for each p rodu ct.

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 this directory are

subd irectories for each language you choose to install.

html HTML, Javascript, 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 p roducts require th is directory.

java Contain s .class files (Java class files) and .jar files (Java

ARchives), which are copied to JAVA_TOP during installation.

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File System 4-7

lib Contains files used to relink concurrent programs with the

Oracle8i server. These files include:

s object files (.o) with compiled code specific to one of theproducts programs;

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

s a makefile (.mk) th at specifies how to link executables.

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 Output 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.

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

pop up boxes. Concurrent p rograms also print messages in th e

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

message files separate from the forms and concurrent p rogram s.

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

at ru ntime), and language-specific message files (such as aUS.msb file for American English and a D.msb file for German .)

patch Updates to the data or data model use this directory to store the

patch files.

p lsql Location where .pll 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 areplatform-specific binary rep ort files. Report s for each langu age

are stored in subd irectories of the reports d irectory.

resource Contains .p ll 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 scripts) for concurrent processing.

Table 41 Applications Directory and File Types

Subdirectory Name Description

Technology Stack


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Language Files

When you install Oracle Applications in a language other than Am erican English,each product tree includ es directories that u se the NLS langu age code. These

directories hold translated da ta, form, htm l, message, and report files. For example,

the language directory named D designates German. The da ta loader files in the D

subd irectory of admin contain the German tran slation of the produ ct seed d ata. The

D subd irectory of reports h olds Oracle Reports files translated into Germ an.

The US subd irectory in the forms d irectory hold s Oracle Forms forms in Am erican

English. The D d irectory in the forms d irectory holds the sam e forms translated into

German . The mesg d irectory hold s message files in both Am erican English andGerman.

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, youmay distribute the APPL_TOP files across as m any as four d isk drives. You can also

insta ll the HTML_TOP, JAVA_TOP, and COMMON _TOP on d ifferent m oun t points

from the APPL_TOP. The next figure illustrates a distributed APPL_TOP 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 hold s

each p roducts d irectory tree u sing Rapid Install. The .env file lists each of

the _TOP d irectories, so the system kn ows w hich products 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 sam e disk and mu st

share the same directory structure.

Technology StackOracle App lications supports runn ing with d ata in a database of one version, while

linking Oracle App lications p rograms using 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.

Additional Information: Oracle8i National Language Support Guide

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File System 4-9

The database home, named DB, contains the files for run ning and

maintaining the Oracle8i database on the d atabase server. The applications technology

stack home, named ORA, contains library and object files the AD RelinkUtility u ses to link Oracle Applications p rograms with Form s-based tools on th e

forms server and report server. The iAS home contains the object and library files

used to link w ith the H TTP server.

The Release 11i database home and iAS home contain Oracle8i object and library

files. The app lications t echnology stack hom e uses libraries from th e Oracle8 server

technology stack, which includ es Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports, and Oracle

Graphics.

The COMMON_TOP DirectoryThe COMMON _TOP d irectory contains files that are used by several d ifferent

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

with third-party produ cts.

The admin directory in the COMMON _TOP directory contains the log and ou tpu t

directories for concurrent m anagers. When the concurrent m anagers ru n Oracle



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App lications reports, they wr ite the outp ut files, as well as diagnostic log files and

temp orary files, to the log and out directories in this 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 directories in each _TOP

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

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

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

License Manager to license ad ditional prod ucts or langu ages after installing OracleApplications.

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 concur rent man agers.

The OA_HTML environm ent setting p oints to the h tml d irectory. The Oracle

App lications h tml sign-on screen and Oracle Self-Service Web Ap plications htm l

files are installed here. The h tml d irectory also contains other files used by the

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

sheets. Rapid Install and th e AD u tilities copy th e htm l-based p rodu ct files from

each _TOP directory to subdirectories in the OA_HTML directory.

Additional Information: Overview of Concurren t Processing,

Oracle Applications System Administrators Guide

Additional Information: License Manager, Oracle Applications AD

Utilities Reference Guide



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File System 4-11

The JAVA_TOP environmen t setting points to th e java d irectory. Rap id Install

insta lls all Oracle App lications class files in the Oracle nam espace of this JAVA_TOP

directory. The java d irectory h olds th ird-party java files u sed by Oracle Applicationsas w ell as other zip files.

Most Java code u sed by O racle Applications is version-controlled in the ap ps.zip

file contained in the AU_TOP d irectory. Patches, for examp le, upd ate ind ividual

classes in apps.zip u nd er the AU_TOP d irectory, and from this ap ps.zip file JAR

files are generated both in the JAVA_TOP an d th e _TOP d irectories. The sam e

apps.zip file exists in both the AU_TOP and JAVA_TOP directories.

The portal directory contains the Rapid Install Portal files. The Rapid Install Portalis a web page tha t includ es the post-install tasks that may be necessary for your

installation, Server Ad ministration scripts, installation d ocumen tation, and online

help. Using a browser, you can view the Rapid Install Portal after you ru n Rapid

Install.

The temp directory is used for caching by some p rocesses such as Oracle Reports.

The util directory contains the third-party utilities licensed to ship w ith Oracle

Applications. These include, for example, JRE, JDK, and the unzip u tility.

Additional Information: Accessing the Rapid Install Portal,

Installing Oracle Applications



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Glossary-1

Glossary

administration server

The server from w hich the system ad ministrator runs p rograms that maintain and

up date an Oracle App lications database. For example, AutoUpgrade an d

AutoPatch are both run on this m achine to install, up grade, or up date the d atabase,

which resides on the d atabase server.

applet

A Java prog ram th at is downloaded to a desktop client from an H TTP server, and

run with in a Java-enabled web brow ser.

application servers

Servers that reside in a m idd le tier, between the d esktop clients and da tabase tier.

Desktop clients send their requests to ap plication servers, which p rocess the requestby send ing it to another server, such as th e database server. The d esktop clients

never connect d irectly to the d atabase server. The Forms server and HTTP server

are typ es of app lication servers. See also tier.

applmgr

The login used to install and up grad e Oracle App lications. This accoun t own s the

Oracle App lications p rodu ct files.

APPS schema

An ORACLE schem a that has access to the comp lete Oracle App lications data

model.

AutoUpgrade

The Oracle Ap plications u pgrad e program .


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Glossary-2

background process

A non-interactive process that ru ns in an operating system env ironment and

performs a task.

bandwidth

The amount of data that can be sent through a netw ork connection, measured in bits

per second (bps). The speed and capacity of a network d epend on both band wid th

and latency. See also latency.

base language

The language u sed for seed data and setup d ata for tables that are not structured for

mu litlingual sup port.

browser

See web browser.

certificate file

Contains the identity of a "trusted source" that th e desktop client uses to guaranteethe au then ticity of a JAR file. Informa tion conta ined within th e certificate file allows

the d esktop client to decrypt the d igital signatu re of a JAR file. If the identity can be

confirmed , the desktop client assum es the JAR file is safe to down load an d execute.

See also digital signature.

character set

A set of encoded binary values that rep resents the letters, nu merals, and

pu nctuation m arks of a language, or of a group of langua ges that use similar

written symbols. For example, the WE8ISO8859P1 character set can be used by

English an d many other languages that u se a Latin-based alphabet an d Arabic

numerals. Terminals and printers hand le text data by converting these encoded

values to characters. A character set m ay also be called a codeset.

client/server architecture

A configuration in w hich one or several servers perform database processing orother functions for app lications that a re run on clients. Software must be installed

on each client before the client can interact with the servers. Client/ server

architecture is supersed ed by Internet Compu ting Architecture in Release 11i.

codeset

See character set.


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Glossary-3

command

An instru ction or request for the system to p erform a particular action. An entire

command can consist of the command name, parameters, and qualifiers.

command file

A file containing a p redefined sequen ce of command s to be executed by th e

operating system.

concurrency

The simu ltaneous access of the same d ata by mu ltiple users.

concurrent manager

A process manager that coordinates the processes generated by users requests to

run various data-intensive programs. An Oracle Applications product group can

have several concurrent managers.

concurrent process

A task run by a concurrent m anager. A concurren t process runs simu ltaneouslywith interactive functions and other concurrent p rocesses.

concurrent processing server

An Oracle App lications server tha t run s time-consuming, non -interactive tasks in

the background .

concurrent queue

A list of concurr ent requests aw aiting completion. Each concurrent m anager h as its

own queue of pending requests.

concurrent request

A request issued to the concurrent processing server w hen you submit a

non-interactive task, such as running a rep ort.

customizationEnhancemen ts to an Oracle App lications system m ade to fit the needs of a specific

user community.

data dictionary

A set of data base tables and views that contains adm inistrative information about

users, data storage, and p rivileges. It is created an d m aintained autom atically.


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Glossary-4

database

A collection of da ta, stored in tables, and objects, such as stored procedu res and

triggers. The term can also refer to the software used to create, store, and man agethis datafor example, the Oracle8i server.

database administrator (DBA)

The person wh o prepares the Oracle8i server and Oracle tools for an installation or

up grad e of Oracle App lications, and performs m aintenance on them after the

installation . The DBA has access to the ORACLE SYSTEM and SYS accounts.

database instance

A runn ing ORACLE system. There is always a one-to-one correspond ence between

an ORACLE instance and a system global area (SGA).

database object

A logical entity created and stored in a d atabase. Tables, views, synonyms, ind exes,

sequences, stored p rocedures, materialized views, and triggers are all examples of

database objects.

database server

A machine on w hich the database holding Oracle Applications data resides. The

database server p rocesses SQL and Java requests from oth er machines, such as

Forms servers, HTTP servers, and concurren t processing servers.

database space

The amou nt of disk space used by a set of database objects.

demonstration product group

A prod uct group th at includ es predefined transaction data for Oracle App lications

prod ucts. It is used p rimarily for system testing an d u ser training. See alsoproduct

group.

dependent product

An Ap plications prod uct that is not licensed, but wh ose files are shared in par t by a

fully installed App lications product. A depend ent prod uct is also known as a shared

product.

desktop client

A computer that sends u ser requests to the forms server and h and les responses

such as screen upd ates, pop -up lists, graphical wid gets, and cursor movem ents.


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f


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Glossary-6

form

A logical collection of fields, regions, and graphical comp onents that app ears on a

single screen. Oracle App lications forms resemble pap er forms used to run abusiness. You en ter data by typing information into the form.

Forms client

A Java applet that ru ns on a desktop client and provid es the user interface and

interaction w ith a forms server.

Forms server

A type of application server that h osts the Forms server engine. It mediates between

the desktop client and th e database, providing inp ut screens for the Forms-based

prod ucts on the desktop client and creating or chang ing database records based on

user actions.

functional currency

In Multiple Reporting Currencies, a currency other than your p rimary currency.

Gigabyte (GB)

A unit of mem ory or d isk space equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes. One Gigabyte is equ al

to 1,024 Megabytes. Often round ed to 1,000,000,000 bytes.

GUI (Graphical User Interface)

An interface used w ith personal compu ters and workstations that allows th e user to

access field s and regions of the screen w ith a p ointing d evice, typically a mou se.

The acronym is pronou nced "goo-ee".

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

A simple language used to format d ocum ents, predominantly for viewing w ith a

web browser. Portions of text or im ages, called hyp ertext, can be associated with

other documents.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)

The TCP/ IP-based network p rotocol used to transmit requests and d ocum ents

between an H TTP server and a web brow ser.

HTTP listener

A program on an H TTP server that accepts and processes incoming HTTP requests

from web browsers.

HTTP server


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Glossary-7

HTTP server

An ap plication server that runs an H TTP listener, and sends out w eb pages in

response to H TTP requests from rem ote browsers. SeeHTTP listener, web browser.

Import utility

An Oracle8i server utility used to read op erating system files written by the Export

utility. You use it to restore d ata into a d atabase.

index

A da tabase object associated w ith a table and used by the Oracle8i server to locaterows of that table quickly.

initialization parameters

Param eters defined in an initialization file that configure an Oracle8i server

database. The param eters affect how the database performs.

Internal concurrent manager

A concurren t man ager process that monitors, controls, and disp enses requests to allother concur rent man ager processes.

Internet Computing Architecture

A comp uting m odel in which various functions are distributed among three tiers of

servers: the desktop clients issuing u ser requests, the database servers provid ing the

database and database processing, and a m iddle tier that m ediates connections

between the two.

intranet

A netw ork of comp uters tha t are internal to a comp any. A comp anys intranet is

basically a local extension to the globally-distributed Internet, wh ich is a global

inter-connected network of comp uters and smaller compu ter netw orks.

Java

A compu ting language used, among other things, to produce programs that can bedow nloaded and run on a d esktop client using a w eb browser. It is also used to

prod uce platform-ind epend ent program s that run on a server, either interactively or

when invoked throu gh a request from a web brow ser. See also appletan d servlet.

JAR (Java Archive) file

A collection of Java classes comp ressed into a files for faster down load to a d esktop

client.

Java class


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Glossary-8

Java class

Comp onents of a Java program th at define objects and operations p erformed on

objects. Java class also iden tifies an op erating system file that contains a p rogram orpart of a program w ritten in Java.

JDBC (Java Database Connectivity)

A Java p rogram ming interface that enables Java p rogram s to access the Oracle8i

server.

JVM (Java Virtual Machine)

An interp reter that translates a comp iled Java program , called bytecode, to machine

code. JVM makes Java portable, because each op erating system s JVM translates

bytecode to instru ctions th at the microprocessor can execute. A Java-enabled w eb

browser h as an interna l JVM that allows it to execute app lets or applications written

in Java.

LAN (Local Area Network)

A limited -distance, high-speed, data comm un ications network that allows variousdata p rocessing resources to be connected and shared. A LAN is a network

contained w ithin a single physical site (one or m ore buildings), as opp osed to a

WAN . See also WA N.

latency

In networking, the amou nt of time it takes a packet of data to travel from a source to

its destination. The speed and capacity of a network d epend on both band width

and latency. See also bandwidth.

load balancing

Distributing tasks to the server that is least busy w hen several servers are hand ling

the sam e workload . Using load balancing, the HTTP server connects the Forms

client to th e Forms server that h as the lightest load . This server is called the "least

loaded host."

LOCAL

Und er Window s NT, an environment setting that identifies the network alias of an

ORACLE instance runn ing on the local machine or on another n etworked machine.

This variable overrides any setting for ORACLE_SID and causes t