August 2020 Update

Revision History

This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:

Date	Product	Feature	Notes
18 AUG 2020	Important Actions and Considerations		Updated document. Added REST API change.
30 JUL 2020			Created initial document.

Overview

This document outlines the upcoming Enterprise Data Management Cloud update.

Feature Summary

Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Monthly Update Schedule

Test Environments: Oracle will apply this monthly update during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 22:00 UTC on Friday, August 7, 2020.

Production Environments: Oracle will apply this monthly update during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 22:00 UTC on Friday, August 21, 2020.

The Oracle Help Center provides access to updated documentation. The updates will be available in the Help Center on Friday, August 7, 2020. Some of the links to new feature documentation included in this readiness document will not work until after the Oracle Help Center update is complete.

NOTE: Backing up the daily maintenance snapshot and restoring the environment as needed are self-service operations. Oracle strongly recommends that you download the maintenance snapshot every day to a local server.

Please Join Oracle Cloud Customer Connect

Please take a moment to join the Cloud Customer Connect forums for EPM Cloud services. Oracle Cloud Customer Connect is a community gathering place for members to interact and collaborate on common goals and objectives. This is where you will find the latest release information, upcoming events, or answers to use-case questions. Joining takes just a few minutes. Join now!

https://cloud.oracle.com/community

NOTE: The Settings and Actions menu now contains a link to Cloud Customer Connect. To access this link, from the Home page, click the down arrow next to the user name (in the upper right-hand corner of the screen), and select Cloud Customer Connect.

Give Us Documentation Feedback

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content of the What's New document and the product documentation. Please send us your feedback at EPMdoc_ww@oracle.com. In the body or title of the email, state that you are inquiring or providing feedback, and indicate for which EPM Cloud service and the monthly update cycle.

Follow Us on Social Media

For the latest updates and information about EPM Cloud, follow us on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Defects Fixed and Considerations

Software issues addressed each month and considerations will be posted to My Oracle Support.

Features

Conditional Approval Policies

Approval policies can be configured with filters to conditionally require approvals for request items which meet certain criteria. The Actions filter controls which request actions must be approved and the Node Condition filter controls the nodes which need to be approved for the policy. Additional approval policies can be created with different filters to handle conditional approvals of specific data sets by different users.

Conditional approval policies can be used for situations where only certain types of changes for specific nodes need to be approved by another party.

Key Resources

• Configuring Policies in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Create Map Bindings and Mapping Keys Moved to Bindings

Bindings used for managing mappings can be created for dimensions in the Dimension inspector. When a map binding is created, a new data chain (hierarchy set, node set, and viewpoint) is automatically generated for the dimension binding using the node types specified. This eliminates the need to manually create these mapping data chain objects. Bound mapping viewpoints and mapping keys are now configured in the Binding inspector for a map binding. These parameters were previously defined in the Dimension inspector for each dimension.

This feature provides an easy way to set up data chain objects and configure parameters used for mapping purposes since application registration does not include mapping set up.

Key Resources

• Creating a Mapping Viewpoint in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Custom Application Type Renamed as Universal

The Custom application type has been renamed to Universal. The Universal application type provides the same functionality that the Custom type did previously. Universal applications are intended for use with integrated systems for which there is no packaged application type.

The rename of the application type provides a better indication of the abilities of this application type. 

Key Resources

• Working with Universal Applications in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Custom Namespace for Properties in Universal Application Registration

New properties that are created for Universal type applications are defined in the Custom namespace only. This prevents potential conflicts with properties in other namespaces which originate from application registration for a different application type.

You can create new properties for Universal applications without creating conflicts between the new properties and those predefined as part of the application type.

Key Resources

• Creating a Custom Property in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Derived Default Values for Data Storage Properties in EPM Cloud Applications

Default values for cube-specific Data Storage properties in EPM Cloud applications are now derived based on the primary Data Storage property. This setup allows the cube-specific properties to use the same value as the primary property without manual definition of values or additional configuration of expressions.  

The following application types are pre-configured in this manner:

• Financial Consolidation and Close
• Planning
• Planning Modules

This feature simplifies the maintenance of data values because cube-specific Data Storage properties in EPM Cloud applications will default to the same value as the primary Data Storage property.

Key Resources

• Registering Planning Applications in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

• Registering Financial Consolidation and Close Applications in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Disable Validations for Dimensions of Packaged Application Types

Validations that are included with packaged application types can be disabled to meet specific business needs. Validations can be individually disabled and re-enabled for each dimension of an application. 

These application types allow pre-packaged validations to be disabled:

• E-Business Suite General Ledger
• Financial Consolidation and Close
• Financials Cloud General Ledger
• Planning
• Planning Modules

If you are only using certain product features of a target system or are using a packaged adapter with a related application type (such as on-premise Planning), this allows you to disable validations that are not required for your business purposes.

Key Resources

• Managing Enforcement of Application-Specific Validations in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

GreaterThan and LessThan Methods for Strings in Expressions

Additional methods are available for expression terms of a String data type to compare string values based on their alphanumeric sort order. The new methods are GreaterThan, GreaterThanOrEqual, LessThan, and LessThanOrEqual.

Some business rules on string values need to identify whether a string value is before, in between, or after another string.  An example is a validation which ensures the name of a child node is within a specific range of values.

Key Resources

• Data Types for Expression Terms in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Hybrid Mode Support for EPM Cloud Applications

Hybrid Mode support can be enabled in application registration for an EPM Cloud application. This option configures additional properties for BSO cubes in the EPM Cloud application to be managed in Enterprise Data Management.

Hybrid Mode is a popular feature for EPM Cloud application cubes used to improve calculation performance and allows you to manage dimensions for Hybrid Mode applications in Enterprise Data Management.

Key Resources

• Registering Cubes, Applications Settings, and Dimensions in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud
• Registering Financial Consolidation and Close Application Settings and Dimensions in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Import and Export Options for Null and Empty Values

Import and export options are available to better handle null and empty string values that are being imported or exported. 

These new options can be set for an application dimension:

• Ignore Empty Fields on Import
• Clear Value Keyword for Import
• Export Keyword for Null Values
• Export Keyword for Empty Strings

When importing data into Enterprise Data Management, you may need different handling for null values and empty fields coming from the import source. When exporting data from Enterprise Data Management, you may need different handling of null values and empty strings when output to the export target.

Key Resources

• Managing Import Options in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud
• Managing Export Options in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Improved Comparison of Null Values in Expressions

The Equals method available for several data types in expressions now handles the comparison of null values. When comparing two null values, the Equals method returns True. When comparing a null value and non-null value, the Equals method returns False.

When comparing properties in an expression, it is useful to treat two null values as the same rather than being different. 

Key Resources

• Data Types for Expression Terms in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Localized Email Notifications

Email notifications are translated to the language selected in the Language user preference for each user. If no language preference is set, the email content will be in the default language for the service.

This allows users to display email notifications in their language of choice.

Key Resources

• Request Notifications in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Locations and AllAncestors for Node Object in Expressions

New expression fields are available for the Node and SourceNode objects to access information for shared nodes within an expression. Locations returns a list of shared node locations in a viewpoint. AllAncestors returns a list of ancestor nodes for all locations of a shared node in a viewpoint.

The following methods are available for Locations and AllAncestors:

• Any()
• Count()
• Find()

This is useful if you have business rules based on information for a shared node across multiple locations and hierarchies. An example is a validation which prevents shared nodes under a common top node.

Key Resources

• Data Types for Expression Terms in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Move and Add Children to Predefined Members in EPM Cloud Dimensions

Nodes in EPM Cloud dimensions with Enterprise Predefined Member = True can be moved to different parents in the hierarchy and have child nodes added below them using requests. 

These actions were previously restricted but are now supported for these application types:

• Financial Consolidation and Close
• Planning Modules

The Financial Consolidation and Close and Planning Module business processes in EPM Cloud allow these types of changes to be made to predefined members in their dimensions. This update provides the same capability in Enterprise Data Management.

Key Resources

• Predefined Properties for Planning Applications in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

• Predefined Properties for Financial Consolidation and Close Applications in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Nested Derived Property Expressions

Derived property expressions can now reference other derived properties to evaluate and calculate values. Circular references between derived properties are prevented and expressions that have circular references cannot be saved.

Derived properties can be selected for the following expression terms:

• Node
• Node.parent
• Node.ancestors
• Node.allAncestors
• Node.locations

In some cases, it's necessary for one derived property to reference one or more other derived properties. This nesting of expressions allows for more advanced logic to be defined and enables sharing of logic across derived properties.

Key Resources

• Derived Properties in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Notification Policies for Completed Requests

Notification policies allow additional users to receive email notifications when requests are completed to make them aware of changes made to specific views and viewpoints. A notification policy can be set up for an application,dimension, node type, or hierarchy set.  Users and groups can be included in the notification policy. Filters are available to only send notifications for requests which meet specific conditions.

Users who manage or consume enterprise data need to be aware of changes made by other users but may not need to be involved to approve, enrich, or review the requests.

Key Resources

• Configuring Policies in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Out of Office Indicator on Home Page

An information icon is displayed on the Home page when the current user has set the Out of Office user preference. This indicator reminds the user the preference is set and that no requests are being assigned to them. You can access user preferences directly from the indicator to disable the setting.

Users who have set the Out of Office user preference may need to be reminded to turn it off so they can have requests assigned to them again.

Key Resources

• Setting Your Preferences in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Permissions and Policies Report

Permissions and policies reports provide a comprehensive view of permissions and policy types which have been assigned to users and groups across all applications. Reports can be filtered by data chain and permission. You can inspect data chain objects to view more details or make changes to the permissions and policies.

Permissions and policies reports provide application and dimension owners with an easy way to view user access across applications so they can appropriately set up access and modify it.

Key Resources

• Permissions and Policies Reports in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Refresh Requests Pane in Open View

Requests displayed in the Requests pane for an open view can be refreshed to see request changes resulting from concurrent users of the same view. A Refresh button is available on the Requests pane to refresh requests on demand.

Previously in order to view request changes from other concurrent users in the same view, you had to refresh the browser page or close and reopen the view. The Refresh button provides a faster way to see concurrent changes.

Key Resources

• Opening and Editing Draft Requests in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Search for Property Label in Properties Pane

In the Properties pane, you can search the properties of a selected node by the property label. This allows you to quickly find a particular property or multiple properties with a similar label.

In cases where a node has many properties, being able to search for a property label makes it easy to find the property you are looking for.

Key Resources

• Working with Node Properties in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Set Time Zone User Preference

A Time Zone user preference can be set to display dates and times in the user interface and email notifications in a specific time zone. This enables users in different geographic locations to view information in their preferred time zone.

Users want to view date and time-related information in their local time zone.

Key Resources

• Setting Your Preferences in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Sibling Sort Order Property for Exports

The CoreStats.Sibling Sort Order property can be used with a Universal application dimension to output a numerical sort order for sibling nodes under a common parent node when exporting a hierarchy viewpoint. This sort order information can be used by another process to sort the hierarchy relationships for import into a target application to ensure the order is preserved.

This is useful for integration processes with external systems that need a way to sort hierarchy relationships based on a field of data in an export file. 

Key Resources

• System and Statistical Properties in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Subscriptions Report

Subscriptions reports provide a complete listing of subscriptions for all views and applications to easily identify which subscriptions have been defined. Subscriptions can be filtered by data chain or view. You can inspect a subscription from the report to view more details or make changes to it.

Subscriptions reports provide application and dimension owners with an easy way to view subscriptions that have been defined across all views and applications. This report allows them to determine which subscriptions have been configured and if changes are necessary.

Key Resources

• Subscriptions Reports in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Suppress Export of Descendants for Shared Members in EPM Cloud Dimensions

For nodes in EPM Cloud dimension viewpoints where the Data Storage property is Shared, descendants of the nodes in the hierarchy are excluded from dimension export results. This prevents issues when importing the dimension members into the EPM Cloud application. 

The following application types do not export descendants of shared members:

• Financial Consolidation and Close
• Planning
• Planning Modules

In some cases, including descendants of shared members when importing a dimension into an EPM Cloud application will result in loading issues. This feature prevents those issues.

User Profile Image Displayed on Pages and Inspectors

User profile images are displayed on pages and inspectors in the user interface where Created By and Modified By information is presented.

Displaying the user profile image allows users to visually identify another user by their profile image instead of their name.

Key Resources

• Setting Your Preferences in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Validate Dimension Viewpoints on Export

The Validate Before Export setting configured for a dimension can control whether viewpoints should be validated at the time of export. When exporting a dimension or mappings for an application, viewpoint validations can be run and if there are validation issues, you can decide whether to be warned or discontinue the export.

You may want data to be validated before it is exported to an external system. While data is interactively validated when changed in a request, data may become invalid in other ways including inherited and derived values as well as from an import process. In cases when validations fail, you may want to resolve the validation issues before the data is exported.

Key Resources

• Managing Export Options in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Visualize and Navigate to Locations for Selected Node in Viewpoint

The Locations tab identifies all locations of a selected node in a hierarchy viewpoint. Multiple locations for the same node can be visualized together and you can navigate to any location where a node exists. Locations are grouped by parent and can be viewed in a collapsed or expanded format. Property values for each location can be displayed to determine similarities or differences across locations.

This feature is helpful for shared nodes that exist in multiple locations in a hierarchy viewpoint. It may be necessary to identify all of the locations, visually compare properties for the node in those locations, and navigate to the locations to browse or modify data.

Key Resources

• Viewing Node Locations in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud
• Configuring Locations Tab Properties in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

New Topics in EPM Cloud Operations Guide

The Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud Operations Guide has been enhanced with additional topics.

New topics include:

• Enrolling in the Implementation Success Program
• Requesting Performance Validation
• Requesting Automated Regression Testing
• Requesting an Increase in Profitability and Cost Management Governor Limits
• Fixing Smart View Issues

Key Resources

• Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud Operations Guide

EPM Automate Updates

A new version of EPM Automate with support for Narrative Reporting is available. Other changes in this version include support for encrypting the passwords used in the replay command and the removal of XLS as a report output format for report generation commands affecting Consolidation and Close, Tax Reporting, and Account Reconciliation business processes.

The XLS report output option has been removed for these commands:

• runComplianceReport
• runMatchingReport
• runSupplementalDataReport 
• runTaskMangerReport

Additionally, Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud has been enhanced with Windows and Linux/UNIX scripts to replicate users and predefined role assignments across identity domains.

Key Resources

• Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud:
  • Installing the Utility
  • Command Reference
  • Narrative Reporting Commands
  • Replicating Users and Predefined Role Assignments

IDENTITY_DOMAIN As a Required Parameter No Longer Needed for the EPM Automate Login Command

EPM Automate login command no longer requires the use of IDENTITY_DOMAIN as a required parameter. Instead of obtaining the identity domain name from the IDENTITY_DOMAIN parameter, EPM Automate calculates it automatically from the URL parameter. Any value you set for this optional parameter is ignored. Existing scripts that contain this value are not affected.

IMPORTANT Actions and Considerations

EXPORT FILE LINK MOVED TO GET JOB RESULT RESPONSE IN REST API

Prior to 20.08, when using the Export Dimension To File endpoint in the REST API, the link to download the export file was previously included in the response for the Get Job Run endpoint which is called after running the export. With the introduction of the Validate Dimension Viewpoints on Export feature in 20.08, the export file link has been moved to the response for the Get Job Result endpoint to be returned along with any validation issues occurring during the export. This change will impact existing processes which export a dimension to a file using the REST API. API programs should be modified to call the Get Job Run endpoint to poll for the status of the export job and then the Get Job Result endpoint to retrieve the link for downloading the export file.

FUTURE AVAILABILITY OF THE REDWOOD THEME

In a future update, EPM Cloud will offer a new Redwood appearance theme, in addition to the existing 13 themes available. The Redwood theme gives an enhanced look and feel in terms of colors and icons and brings consistency across Oracle Cloud.

Redwood will be the default theme for new instances, while existing instances will continue to see the current theme by default. You can switch to the Redwood theme from Tools > Appearance.

The following EPM Cloud business processes will have the option to select the new theme:

• Account Reconciliation
• Enterprise Data Management
• Financial Consolidation and Close
• Narrative Reporting
• Planning
• Profitability and Cost Management
• Tax Reporting

IDENTITY_DOMAIN AS A REQUIRED PARAMETER NO LONGER NEEDED FOR THE EPM AUTOMATE LOGIN COMMAND

In an upcoming release, Oracle will remove the IDENTITY_DOMAIN parameter from the EPM Automate login command documentation. However, you can still set a value for this parameter and it will be ignored. Existing scripts that contain this value will not be affected.This documentation change is expected to be implemented in the 20.10 update.

USABILITY ENHANCEMENTS FOR HORIZONTAL TABS IN NAVIGATION FLOWS

In an update within the next few months, we are introducing a feature within navigation flows to open additional horizontal tabs on the fly to perform related actions; for example, view drill through from a form in a new temporary tab. As part of this new ‘on the fly tab’ feature; the horizontal tabs will move to the bottom of the page instead of at the top of the page where they are currently located. These changes will be the default for all customer environments where horizontal tabs are being used within navigation flows.

With tabs at the bottom of the page instead, customers will benefit from a clear separation of the EPM Cloud horizontal tabs from their browser tabs at the top of the window. Another benefit of this change will be to keep the navigation flow tab names distinct from the name of the artifacts (such as forms and dashboards) rendered within the horizontal tabs. The vertical tabs will stay where they are.

The effective date of the update will be announced in the month prior to the update. It is expected in the next 2-4 months’ timeframe.

INTERNET EXPLORER BROWSER SUPPORT

For Internet Explorer browser users, Microsoft recommends using the new Microsoft Edge as your default browser. With this guidance in mind, the 20.08 update will be the last update to support Internet Explorer. EPM Cloud will no longer support Internet Explorer starting with the 20.09 update.

We continue to upgrade the underlying technologies that support EPM Cloud but we are no longer testing our products using Internet Explorer starting with the 20.09 release. Thus, existing functionality that currently works and is supported using Internet Explorer may no longer work beginning with the 20.09 or subsequent updates  Only supported browsers are tested and supported for existing and new functionality.

All customers should have plans in place for all users to discontinue the usage of Internet Explorer beginning with the 20.09 update. If you have any questions regarding de-support, please create a Service Request. For additional guidance on Internet Explorer Lifecycle, please reach out to Microsoft.

REMOVAL OF INSTANCE NAME FROM PREDEFINED ROLE NAMES

Currently, the predefined role names displayed in the Access Control screens of EPM Cloud environments prefix the instance name to the role name in INSTANCE_NAME ROLE_NAME format. They are also stored in this format in the snapshots, making it difficult to migrate snapshots from one instance to another.

To facilitate the migration of security across EPM Cloud environments, Oracle plans to rename predefined role names displayed within EPM Cloud applications by removing the instance name prefix. For example, if the instance name is Planning1, predefined role names are Planning1 Service Administrator, Planning1 Power User, Planning1 User, and Planning1 Viewer, the new role names will be Service Administrator, Power User, User, and Viewer.

NOTE: This change does not affect how the role names are displayed in the MyServices customer portal.

This change won't impact customers who currently use predefined roles for managing application-level provisioning and access to artifacts. Oracle will ensure that all application role assignments and artifact security assignments are automatically updated after the roles are renamed. This change makes it easy to migrate EPM Cloud artifacts across environments.

This change is being implemented to address customer feedback. If you have any concerns about this change, please contact Oracle Support.

EPM MOBILE APP STATEMENT OF DIRECTION

EPM Mobile App is a downloadable application for the phone that is purpose built to perform approval actions for iOS and Android based phone devices. It was purpose built to help users perform Approval and Workflow activities. It is currently only supported for Oracle EPM Cloud for the Planning business process.

The terminal release of EPM Mobile App is September 2020.  EPM Mobile App will not be available for download in the Apple and iOS App Stores effective October 2020. Oracle’s strategic direction is to have customers use the Approval and workflow capabilities using the mobile browser interface on mobile devices.

Oracle will continue to support Oracle EPM Mobile App in its current supported versions until September 2020.  Oracle recommends that users using Oracle EPM Mobile App prepare to instead use the approval functionality using supported mobile browser in tablet devices.