| November 2021 Edition Oracle Integration & Process Partner Community Newsletter |
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| Grow the Oracle Cloud business and connect, extend & innovate Oracle SaaS solutions. |
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| Connecting Opera Cloud to the World |
| PaaS Partner Community Webcast November 30th |
| The Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform gives you unprecedented access to your data, enabling you to connect your hotel applications with OPERA Cloud for faster, more innovative product development and easier collaboration. |
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To accelerate the integration between Opera Cloud and any other business application. Oracle has now created the Hospitality Adapter for Oracle Integration Cloud giving one step further in making integrations with Opera Cloud even more easy. Hear directly from the product team behind OHIP and the Hospitality Adapter what is coming up and how this adapter makes your life easier.
Speakers: Luis Weir & Antonio Amado & Niall Commiskey
Schedule: November 30th 2021 16:30-17:30 CET (Berlin time) |
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| Cloud Platform Partner YouTube Update November 2021 |
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The November video includes three topics:
• Free Oracle Digital Assistant training & certification
• New Integration Partner Community Website
• Connect Opera Cloud Webcast
For regular updates please subscribe to our YouTube channel here. Thanks for your likes and for sharing the video on YouTube and LinkedIn. |
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| Integrate SaaS Hands-on Bootcamps Webtraining |
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Attend the Oracle Integration Bootcamp, a three days hands-on training for Oracle partners.
Oracle Product Management is pleased to invite Oracle Partners to attend a 3-days hands-on workshop on how to integrate with ERP & HCM applications using Oracle Integration Cloud. |
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Free Oracle Cloud platforms 30 days cloud trial are available here. Your Oracle partner manager can extend this trails.
For SaaS trials please visit https://demo.oracle.com. For support please contact the OPN Team.
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This Invite-Only hands-on workshop will be delivered at No-Fee to Partners. It will consist of presentations, demos, and hands-on labs.
Schedule:
• On-Demand Training
• India November 2nd, 4th, 9th 2021
For additional locations please visit our website here (community membership required). |
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| Oracle Implementation Certifications |
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Enablement and certification are key to cloud success.
At the Oracle Learning Center partners can attend free online classes and certifications.
Additional we offer the latest implementation exams ($245 or free vouchers) for: |
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Oracle Named a Leader for Five Consecutive Years in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service
Oracle enables business process automation in the cloud with leading integration solutions
Austin, Texas—October 12, 2021
Today Oracle announced that it has been named a Leader in the 2021 Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (EiPaaS)” report for the fifth consecutive year. Combined with its similar Leader position in 2021 Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools,” we believe Oracle provides a complete integration solution for the most demanding business process automation across hybrid cloud environments.
The rapidly growing EiPaaS market is fueled by the need to efficiently connect, modernize, and automate Oracle and non-Oracle SaaS, on-premises, and custom-built cloud-native applications, data, APIs, and end-to-end business processes. As organizations move to digital platforms as their primary source of customer and employee engagement with updated web, mobile, and artificial intelligence, expanding with IoT and blockchain solutions, a scalable, secure and comprehensive EiPaaS is a foundation for a digital integration hub is critical.
Recognized for delivering a broad set of capabilities ranging from the application, data, B2B, and API-focused integration capabilities, Oracle Integration powers thousands of customers to automate routine business processes and connect workflows to streamline essential activities. Oracle continues to deliver on its promise of helping companies accelerate, modernize, and manage their business processes with visual designers, prebuilt adapters, and support for any SaaS, on-cloud, on-premises, or cloud-native custom application.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated companies’ pivot to digital engagement and challenged them to combine disparate SaaS and on-premises applications to automate a business process,” said Suhas Uliyar, vice president, Digital Assistant, and Integration, Oracle. “We’re inspired and guided by the thousands of customers and partners who are using Oracle Integration to rapidly accelerate their modernization initiatives through intelligent automation and run-ready templates that give citizen integrators and developers increasingly powerful low code point and click solutions.”
How to call the OCI AI-Language Service from the Oracle Integration Cloud by Daniel Teixeira
The OCI AI-Language service is one of the new sets of AI Services and it can provide valuable capabilities in the context of the OIC. I wrote about the language AI service in this post.
There are plenty of use cases where OIC could potentially benefit from AI Services, anomaly detection being an obvious one, but also the language with the ability to detect sentiment, detect language and extract keywords from the text.
This post will focus for now on the technical side of setting this up in OIC. Later on, I will bring more posts focusing on specific use cases.
Step 1: Create a Connection
This is similar to other Connections, like Object Storage and Functions.
The connection URL can be found
Leveraging OCI AI-Language Service from Oracle Integration by Niall Commiskey
First, a simple example of what's possible here - I enter a text for analysis - This is my second order for this product, it is really cool.
As you can see - a positive sentiment and rightly so our iBike is the best in the virtual world!
Now how can I invoke this from OIC? Imagine I have an order processing integration - the payload includes a comments field - where customer can open their hearts to us. Let's implement this in OIC.
Step 1 - create a connection to OCI AI Service
Invoking AI is just like invoking other OCI services from OIC. The connection setup is similar to that for Object Storage etc. So I begin by cloning my existing Object Storage connection.
Are you getting the most out of your Oracle Cloud subscription? By Prateek Parasar
Whether you are a SaaS or OCI (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure) customer, you may be finding it hard to stay up-to-date on all the features being added by Oracle on a quarterly basis. Oracle is at the moment innovating much faster than any other cloud provider.
Whether it’s the standard SaaS (HCM, Recruit, Payroll, ERP, Procurement and Supply Chain, etc), PaaS (see table below), or IaaS offerings such as network, compute, or storage, Oracle is constantly adding advanced features such as Autonomous upgrade to AI capabilities.
Field Level Encryption with Oracle Integration and OCI Vault by Stan Tanev
Integration platforms are often required to handle confidential information such as personal details, payment information, or other data protected by compliance and regulatory standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, PII, and PCI.
Various methods exist to protect data from unauthorized access while data is in transit and at rest. These approaches typically encrypt the entire payload. As a complementary approach Field Level Encryption has an important role to play by ensuring that only appropriately configured clients can read sensitive data fields. This approach also allows clients without the encryption keys to work with the non-sensitive data which would be impossible to do with a fully encrypted payload.
Although Field Level Encryption (FLE) is not natively supported in Oracle Integration (OIC) today, this blog will explore several options that will allow you to implement FLE with OIC. In this blog, I will present these options, discuss some guiding principles and showcase some sample implementations.
In the context of Oracle Integration, an implementation of Field Level Encryption should allow a developer to easily encrypt/decrypt individual field(s) as part of an integration flow. Let’s explore several use cases where this may be applicable:
Oracle Integration may be required to receive or send encrypted information to other systems as part of a bigger data payload. For instance: OIC developers may be required to encrypt some but not all fields for a new hire sourced from Oracle HCM prior to sending them to an external system.
Send emails with the OCI Email Service and Node.js by Daniel Teixeira
The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) has an Email Service and like any other OCI service, it can be accessed via the OCI CLI, REST API’s, or one of the available SDK’s.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Email Delivery is an email sending service that provides a fast and reliable managed solution for sending high-volume emails that need to reach your recipients’ inbox. Email Delivery provides the tools necessary to send an application-generated email for mission-critical communications such as receipts, fraud detection alerts, multi-factor identity verification, and password resets.
In the next steps, I will configure this service and use Node.js to invoke it programmatically.
Create an Approved Sender
An approved sender must be set up for all “From:” addresses sending mail through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or mail is rejected.
Go To: Developer Services > Integration > Email Delivery > Approved Senders
You can define your own email and email domain, but that would take a bit longer and it’s not really necessary outside a Production environment.
Oracle Integration Cloud – Twilio Adapter for SMS and WhatsApp by Daniel Teixeira
The Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC) has an Adapter for Twilio which allows communicating easily via SMS or with WhatsApp.
The Twilio Adapter provides the following benefits:
• Sends an SMS or MMS message.
• Returns all inbound and outbound SMS messages.
Create a Connection
Choose the Twilio Adapter from the Connections List.
A Twilio security identifier (SID) and authorization token are required.
These are provided when you create your Twilio user account.
Use them to properly configure the connection. Save and Test.
Create an Integration
Here I will create an AppDriven Integration with a REST trigger.
The REST trigger will have a parameter called input.
FlexDeploy Loves OIC: Series Overview by Dan Reynebeau
In this FlexDeploy Loves OIC blog series, we will show how FlexDeploy is used to configure, manage, deploy and test OIC artifacts as they are promoted through the different environments. Here is a summary of the FlexDeploy Loves OIC blog series.
• FlexDeploy Loves OIC: Manage Integrations with Connections
• FlexDeploy Loves OIC: Manage Connection Property Replacement
• FlexDeploy Loves OIC: Continuous Integration
• FlexDeploy Loves OIC: Automated Testing
• FlexDeploy Loves OIC: Continuous Delivery with Pipelines and Releases
• FlexDeploy Loves OIC: Manage Connections, Lookups, and Libraries
At the conclusion of the series, you will see the ease and benefits of managing OIC integrations through FlexDeploy.
Leveraging Grafana for OIC Metrics by Niall Commiskey
OCI Logging and OCI Logging Analytics are compelling offerings, but some folks may have standardized other monitoring tools, such as Grafana.
So no time like the present to look at how one can leverage Grafana to monitor OIC Service Metrics. My colleague Valeria C. has already done great work in this area and has provided me with the impetus to get started. But first, I need Grafana!
Step1 install Grafana on an OCI Compute instance.
Step 2 install the Grafana OCI Metrics plugin.
Step 3 monitor!
Install Grafana on OCI Compute instance
1. Spin up a compute instance
2. ssh into the instance
3. install Grafana - currently, we need a version under v8.
Create a fixed-length file in Oracle Integration by Ankur Jain
Are you struggling to create a fixed-length file in Oracle Integration and not able to find the step-by-step process on this, so this is the article that helps you to achieve your requirement.
Let’s first understand what is fixed-length file.
What is a fixed-length file?
Fixed length files have a constant length for each field and record.
For example, if you have data in a text file where the first column always has exactly 8 characters, and the second column has exactly 5, the third has exactly 12 (and so on), this would be categorized as a fixed-width text file.
To create a fixed file, you must create the XML Schema Definition (XSD) file that allows creating a fixed-length file. In this example, I’m using the below XSD schema to create the fixed-length file:
Using OCI Logging for searching OIC Activity Stream Log by Niall Commiskey
The scenario is as follows - I have an order processing integration used by many of my trading customers. Often they contact me to query what was actually ordered. I can use OIC Monitoring > Tracking to find the order, but what happens if the customer contacts me 3 weeks later? Maybe the data is no longer in the Activity Stream log. Here's where OCI Logging comes into play - Enabling OIC to send its activity stream log to OCI Logging is easy -
Now to this simple demo order processing integration. The Hare of the Dog pub has ordered a keg of Guinness - whatever that is. But as we say at Commiskey Beer Wholesalers - the customer is always right. The JSON payload is transformed into XML for processing -
I check out what the order looks like in the Activity Stream
Process Excel files with OIC + Oracle Functions by Stan Tanev
In this blog post, I will explore how we can extend the native capabilities of Oracle Integration (OIC) with Oracle Functions to process Excel files.
Although OIC can handle a number of file formats natively, .xlsx or .xls files need a bit of extra love.
The inspiration for this blog comes from the back of several customer inquiries into this subject.
The simple solution for most customers is to convert the Excel file formats to CSV and subsequently process them with OIC. I will use this approach here too but with a little bit of help from other OCI services such as Oracle Functions, an API Gateway, and Object Storage.
A video of this demo is available here.
The Solution
As OIC does not natively support Excel files you need to write a bit of extra code to handle them. You can either store this code within OIC as a JavaScript library or use something like Oracle Functions as a container for your code. I have chosen to use this approach here and will rely on Oracle Functions to do the file conversion for me.
With this approach in mind, I can think of two ways to implement this pattern:
The All in one Approach:
Above: a high-level design that captures a single integration flow that will convert and process excel files
1. The flow begins with an Excel file that resides on an FTP server (this can be any FTP/SFTP server but for this demo, I will use the file server embedded within OIC). I have chosen to use an FTP server as my starting point for this flow as I still see the predominant use of file servers over cloud storage alternatives in most integration flows. In this step, OIC will use the FTP adaptor and its native abilities to list and download my Excel file(s).
Surfacing OIC Design Time audit logs in OCI Logging Analytics by Niall Commiskey
The use case here is customer needs to see what is happening in respect of integration activation and deactivation.
The basis is the OIC Design Time Audit Log - visible in OIC Monitoring - Note the action column values, activate, deactivate, etc. Currently, OIC does not push this log to OCI Logging, so the quick workaround here is to leverage the OIC REST API to retrieve the design time audit data - OIC REST API docs are available here
I try this out in Postman, to get the response payload –
The next step is to create a REST connection in OIC to OIC itself.
This I then invoke from a Scheduled Orchestration
Configuring OIC Notifications by Niall Commiskey
The simple scenario here - customer wants OIC to send context-sensitive emails in case of error. So what do I actually mean by this? I have ERP and HCM related errors, each of these will result in the sending of a notification. However, the ERP-related email should have its own sender email address, email formatting, etc. The same applies to HCM - Here is a simple example of such emails - Note the 2 email addresses
niallC@hcm.com
and niallC@erp.com. These have been specified as valid email addresses in OIC - Settings - Integrations - Notifications - Now to the integration that will send the email. This will be part of your error handling framework. For this simple example, I use the following request payload.
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| Business Process Management & Innovation Section |
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Get Started with Processes
Look here for everything you need to know to start using Processes
Topics:
• Access Processes for Oracle Integration
• Learn About Processes
• Become Familiar with Process Language and Technology
• Learn About Roles for Processes
• Tour the My Tasks Page
• Tour the Process Applications Page
Start your process journey here. |
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| Additional New Material for PaaS Community |
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ODTUG Kscope22 Abstract Submission is Open!
We are excited to announce ODTUG Kscope22 abstract submissions are open. By submitting your top-notch abstracts, you ensure that ODTUG Kscope22, June 19-23, 2022 continues to be the go-to event for premier content. For tips on how to submit a great abstract watch our video, How to Write a Winning Abstract.
Submission topics include:
• Analytics
• Application Express
• Core & Database
• Emerging Technologies
• Enterprise Planning
• EPM Foundations & Reporting
• Essbase
• Financial Close
• Modern App Development (PaaS)
• Profitability
• Strategic EPM
This year at ODTUG Kscope we are introducing personas that describe the various roles that typical Oracle technologists and ODTUG Kscope attendees hold in their work lives. In this context, a "persona" is a technical or work role that one can identify with or aspire to - a description of what one does in a typical workday.
By including personas, it will help Kscope22 attendees navigate their path through ODTUG Kscope22. Attendees will be able to select persona(s) that interest them and view the list of ODTUG Kscope sessions that apply for their selections.
Attendees should realize that a given persona will often match well with sessions across a variety of tracks. This creates greater depth and breadth for learning opportunities and creates a more rounded and inclusive view of all that ODTUG Kscope has to offer. Submit an abstract here. For the additional calls for papers please visit the wiki here.
- Cloud transition Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, runs high-performance computing workloads on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to improve car design and development efficiency.
- AI breakthrough The startup Aleph Alpha is advancing a new generation of self-learning AI that can find hidden patterns in data, unsupervised. “It’s like a capable assistant—or an unlimited number of smart interns,” says CEO and founder Jonas Andrulis.
- Now you can be certified as an Oracle Digital Assistant Platform 2022 Solution Engineer Specialist
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| Top Tweets PaaS Community |
Send your tweets #PaaSCommunity
Follow us on Twitter. |
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| Join the Oracle Developer Meetup groups |
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Want to learn more about developing Enterprise-grade Cloud Native applications on the Oracle Cloud Platform, covering topics like Microservices Architecture, developing in Node, Python and PHP, using Low Code development tools to build Mobile apps, and much more?
Join the Oracle Developer Meetup groups if you want to follow Oracle’s solutions in this area or participate in the events and hands-on labs we organize:
- Utrecht, Netherlands
- Brussels, Belgium
- Cairo, Egypt
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Lille, France
- London, UK
- Madrid, Spain
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Sao Paulo, Brazil
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| PaaS free trial Accounts |
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Free Oracle Cloud Accounts 30 days cloud trial are available here. Your Oracle partner manager can extend these trails.
For SaaS trials please visit this page. For support please contact the OPN Team. |
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