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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09 OCT 2020 | Applications Security | Location-Based Access for Scheduled Processes Work Area | Updated document. Delivered feature in update 20C. |
| 02 SEP 2020 | Approvals and Notifications | See When Workflow Tasks Can Be Automatically Withdrawn | Updated document. Revised feature information. |
| 02 SEP 2020 | Extensibility | Default Redwood Theme for Your Application | Updated document. Revised feature information. |
| 02 SEP 2020 | User Experience | Enhanced Look and Feel of Your Application | Updated document. Revised feature information. |
| 26 JUN 2020 | BI Cloud Connector | BI Cloud Connector Redesigned User Experience | Updated document. Delivered feature in update 20C. |
| 16 JUN 2020 | Reporting and Analytics | BI Publisher Data Models No Longer Support Passing Dynamic SQL Parameters in Reference Cursors | Updated document. Revised feature information. |
| 05 JUN 2020 | Created initial document. |
This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in this update.
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Automatically Archive Workflow Tasks Once a Day
Once a day, the Extract Workflow Tasks for Archive, Process Translation Workflow Tasks for Archive, and Upload Workflow Task Attachment for Archive scheduled processes automatically run to archive workflow tasks. Tasks with a final status, such as Completed, Withdrawn, or Expired are included if they haven't been archived already. Though unlikely, if at any time you need to archive more frequently, you can manually run all three processes from the Scheduled Processes work area. These scheduled processes replace the Archive Workflow Tasks process, which no longer runs automatically once a month and shouldn't be run manually either.
See When Workflow Tasks Can Be Automatically Withdrawn
Workflow tasks are automatically withdrawn if they're still open after the number of days you see in the Open Tasks Withdrawn After Number of Days field. This field is now available on the Application Preferences page, and it's set to 180. You can't change this number, but you can set up expiration, escalation, and renewal policies that allow tasks to be open for longer. Define these policies as you would before, for any individual workflow task that's not a FYI task. If the expiration settings are set to Do Nothing, then the task is withdrawn after 180 days.
Enhanced Look and Feel of Your Application
You can now experience an enhanced look and feel of your application with the Redwood theme. This theme includes the news feed layout, which is now the default layout for your home page. You might see changes in icons, colors, and shapes of some UI components.
Improve your productivity with intuitive navigation and an optimized user experience. You can quickly go to your work areas using the Navigator or the work area icons in the Apps section of your home page. The work area icons are grouped in tabs. You can also use the Quick Actions section to go straight to the key tasks based on the selected tab. To have a quick look at your open notifications and act on them, you scroll down to the Things to Finish section of your home page. And you can view your infolets in the Analytics section.
Help icons are now visible by default for all users, every time they sign in. This setting makes it more likely that users will find the help they need to complete their tasks. They no longer need to click the Show Help Icons link in the Settings and Actions menu.
Clicking a help icon opens a help window that provides information specific to your current page and task.
Configure the Visibility Settings of Announcements on the Home Page
You can now specify which user roles can see specific announcements on the home page. While creating or editing an announcement, you can specify an EL expression in its visibility settings.
Default Redwood Theme for Your Application
Enjoy the experience of working with a new theme, the Redwood theme, which gives your application a refreshing color palette and a distinct and modern look and feel. If you want to configure the Redwood theme, all you need to do is change the logo, cover image, or both using the Themes page in the Appearance work area. You might see changes in icons, colors, and shapes of some UI components, and some might look the same no matter which theme you use.
Create Automated Regression Tests
You can create automated regression tests against your staging pod by following the set of instructions for Oracle ADF - Runtime Automation Sample Library:
https://www.oracle.com/tools/downloads/application-development-framework-downloads.html
Inactive and Unavailable BI View Objects (BIVOs) and BIVO Columns for Exclusion from Extraction in BI Cloud Connector
Beginning with update 18B, there are BI View Objects and BI View Object columns that are unavailable or marked inactive in Oracle Applications Cloud. These objects are unavailable for extraction using BICC in Oracle Applications Cloud.
BI Cloud Connector Redesigned User Experience
User Experience Improvements to BI Cloud Connector
The BI Cloud Connector pages are enhanced to help you speed up your tasks related to adding, editing, and previewing data stores. Here's a summary of the changes:
- The pages for Preview Data Store, Add Data Store, Edit Data Store, and Jobs Data Store now share the same look and feel.
- Related options are grouped or arranged in such a way that you don't lose time in looking for them.
- Labels of buttons and fields are renamed to make them intuitive.
- You can now extract data of type CLOB as a string.
OTBI Metadata Independent Mode for Extraction
In update 19C, BI view objects may now be extracted in OTBI Metadata Independent mode.
Oracle strongly recommends that you switch your BICC extracts to use OTBI Metadata Independent mode by update 20C.
BI Publisher Data Models No Longer Support Passing Dynamic SQL Parameters in Reference Cursors
BI Publisher data models no longer support dynamic SQL as a parameter value in a procedure call. This change doesn't affect existing BI Publisher data models that use explicit SQL statements in procedure calls or user-defined report filter parameters.
If you currently pass dynamic SQL statements in a BI Publisher data model in production, you must replace SQL procedures containing dynamic SQL query parameters with explicit SQL statements PRIOR to 20D.
Location-Based Access for Scheduled Processes Work Area
Location-based access is available for the Scheduled Processes work area (Navigator > Tools > Scheduled Processes). You can control user access based on their computer IP addresses. That means if location-based access is enabled, users can use the Scheduled Processes work area only if their IP address is in the defined allowlist. Use the Administration page in the Security Console to set this up.
Location-based access based on roles doesn't apply to the Scheduled Processes work area. So let's say location-based access is set up and the Enable Role for Access from All IP Addresses option on the Edit Role page is selected, which makes a role public. Users still can't access the Scheduled Processes work area unless their IP address in the allowlist.