- Revision History
- Overview
- Feature Summary
- Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud
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- Features
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- New Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud Interface
- New Oracle Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud Operations Guide
- Support for Microsoft Edge Browser
- REST API to Review Rejected Metadata After Import
- REST API for Partial Clear
- Action Menus Now Support Launching a Form in Member Context
- New Flex Forms in Smart View
- New Status Indicator on Forms
- Reviewing Rejected Metadata After Import
- Calculation Manager Option to Disable Flash
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- Upcoming Changes
This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:
| Date | Feature | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 26 MAR 2020 | Created initial document. |
This document outlines the upcoming Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud update.
Column Definitions:
Features Delivered Enabled
Report = New or modified, Oracle-delivered, ready to run reports.
UI or Process-Based: Small Scale = These UI or process-based features are typically comprised of minor field, validation, or program changes. Therefore, the potential impact to users is minimal.
UI or Process-Based: Larger Scale* = These UI or process-based features have more complex designs. Therefore, the potential impact to users is higher.
Features Delivered Disabled = Action is needed BEFORE these features can be used by END USERS. These features are delivered disabled and you choose if and when to enable them. For example, a) new or expanded BI subject areas need to first be incorporated into reports, b) Integration is required to utilize new web services, or c) features must be assigned to user roles before they can be accessed.
| Ready for Use by End Users Reports plus Small Scale UI or Process-Based new features will have minimal user impact after an update. Therefore, customer acceptance testing should focus on the Larger Scale UI or Process-Based* new features. |
Action is Needed BEFORE Use by End Users Not disruptive as action is required to make these features ready to use. As you selectively choose to leverage, you set your test and roll out timing. |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature |
Report |
UI or |
UI or |
|
||
New Oracle Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud Operations Guide |
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Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud
Oracle will apply the latest monthly updates to your Test environments during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 22:00 UTC (15:00 Pacific time) on Friday, April 3, 2020. Oracle will apply the latest monthly updates to your Production environments during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 22:00 UTC (15:00 Pacific time) on Friday, April 17, 2020.
The Oracle Help Center provides access to updated documentation. The updates will be available in the Help Center on Friday, April 3, 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 recommends that you download the maintenance snapshot every day to a local server.
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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.
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Defects Fixed and Considerations
Software issues addressed each month and considerations will be posted to My Oracle Support.
New Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud Interface
Available in this update, there is an enhanced interface with improved navigation and new themes including the default Sky Blue.
The enhanced interface retains existing functionality and enhances your experience with a more modern look and feel and responsive design. The Welcome Panel and the Global Header readjust after resizing, which means less scrolling. An updated Welcome Panel features Announcements and Notifications. Arrows are available on the Home Page to help you navigate easily between the Home Page and infolet dashboard pages. A bigger Navigator Menu has improved usability, more themes for customization are included, and a bigger work area has more space to maneuver and provide better visibility. The interface is also more consistent with other Oracle products, such as Fusion Applications.
After this release, all new customers will use the new lighter-colored Sky Blue theme, and existing customers will keep their current theme. You can switch themes using Tools, and then Appearance.
NOTE: If you are using automation software to run regression tests on Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud, you may need to reassess, reconfigure, and retest your software’s test flows.
New Oracle Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud Operations Guide
The new Oracle Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud Operations Guide is now available. This guide discusses common customer reported problems and the procedures to correct them. Use this guide to self-diagnose the reason why some Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud issues occur and the steps involved in correcting them. If the suggested steps do not solve the problem, this guide lists the information that you must provide while seeking help from Oracle. This guide also details what information you must provide for different requests to Oracle.
In addition to many new topics, this guide contains the troubleshooting information that was previously available in Getting Started with Oracle Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud for Administrators.
Key Resources
Support for Microsoft Edge Browser
Starting with this update, Microsoft Edge browser version 80+ is now supported.
REST API to Review Rejected Metadata After Import
While using a REST API to import metadata, you can now specify an error file that captures the metadata records that are not imported for each dimension. If an error file is specified, a separate error file is created for each dimension. The error files are then zipped together and the zip file is stored in the Outbox where you can download the file using Inbox/Outbox Explorer or tools like EPM Automate or REST APIs.
Key Resources
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Import Metadata in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
Role Information
- Service Administrators
You can now use REST APIs to do a partial clear for an ASO cube. You can clear the cube, members, a valid MDX query, supporting details, comments, and attachments. You can also do a physical clear on Essbase. This gives you more flexibility and granularity when clearing the cube.
Key Resources
- REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
Role Information
- Service Administrators
Action Menus Now Support Launching a Form in Member Context
Using an action menu, you can now launch a form in the member context of the original form. Previously, users could only launch forms in the dimension context of the original form.
Service administrators set up action menus in Strategic Workforce Planning, where they define the dimension or member context and the forms that can be selected for launch.
- When the service administrator sets required members for a dimension, then this right-click menu will be available only for those members.
- When the service administrator does not set required members for a dimension, this right-click menu will be available for all members of that dimension.
Users then sign in to Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud, either in the web or in Smart View, and launch a form. From the form, when they right-click a dimension or member on which form launch has been defined, they can select to launch the form from the context menu.
Steps to Enable
You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.
Key Resources
Administering Planning:
Flex forms are a new form type that provide flexible row management in Smart View. Flex forms retain all regular form properties and features, such as running business rules attached to the flex form. However, using flex forms, you can rearrange row members and sort or move rows. You can also open a flex form in ad hoc mode and use ad hoc analysis to modify the grid layout and submit data.
NOTE: Flex forms are used only in Smart View and not in the web interface.
Steps to Enable
A Service Administrator performs these steps from the Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud web interface:
- From the Navigator, under Create and Manage, click Forms.
- Select an existing form to edit or, in the Form and Ad Hoc Grid Management page, click the Actions drop-down menu and click Create Simple form.
- In the form definition page, under Smart View Options in the Layout tab, select Enable flex form.
Key Resources
- "About Flex Forms" in Smart View for Office User's Guide
A new Status Indicator on forms now displays icons to indicate "busy" and "idle" server activity.
Any client-server action performed in a form grid (for example, clicking a button to fetch or save data, executing a rule, launching a popup, and so on) will cause a status change. If the status is active, the "busy" icon is displayed, otherwise the "idle" icon is displayed.
Key Resources
- Viewing Server Status on Forms in Working with Planning
Reviewing Rejected Metadata After Import
While defining the Planning metadata import job, you now have the option to specify an error file which captures the metadata records that are not imported for each dimension. If an error file is specified, a separate error file is created for each dimension, then the error files are zipped together, and the zip file is stored in the Outbox where you can download the file using Inbox/Outbox Explorer or tools like EPM Automate or REST APIs.
Key Resources
- Loading the Import File in Administering Planning
Calculation Manager Option to Disable Flash
In this update, Calculation Manager provides an option to disable Flash.
Key Resources
- Enabling/Disabling Flash in Designing with Calculation Manager for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
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, EPM Cloud will no longer support Internet Explorer starting with the 20.07 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.
APIS BLACKLISTED FROM THE STRATEGIC WORKFORCE PLANNING CLOUD GROOVY RULES JAVA API REFERENCE
In an upcoming update in mid-2020, the following APIs are being blacklisted from the Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud Groovy Rules Java API Reference:
- TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone zone)
- Locale.setDefault(Locale.Category category, Locale newLocale)
- Locale.setDefault(Locale newLocale)
Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud Groovy Rules Java API Reference
CALCULATION MANAGER DE-SUPPORT FOR FLASH
In an upcoming update, Oracle will disable Flash by default in Calculation Manager. You will still, temporarily, be able to enable Flash, if desired.
By the end of 2020, Oracle will disable Flash in Calculation Manager, and options to enable it will be removed. This change is in response to Adobe’s decision to stop updating and distributing Flash at the end of 2020. See https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/.
REMOVAL OF INSTANCE NAME FROM PREDEFINED ROLE NAMES
Currently, the predefined role names displayed in the Access Control screens of Strategic Workforce Planning 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 Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud environments, Oracle plans to rename predefined role names displayed within Strategic Workforce Planning 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 Strategic Workforce Planning 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.
PLANNER ROLE TO BE RENAMED AS USER
In an upcoming update, Oracle will rename the Planner EPM Cloud predefined role as User. This change will have no functional effect.
Subscriptions that were provisioned prior to the May 2016 update used the Planner role, which has been maintained in subsequent updates to provide continuity. In subscriptions that were activated after May 2016, the Planner role was already replaced by the User role.
PREDEFINED ROLE NAMES AS STRATEGIC WORKFORCE PLANNING CLOUD KEY WORDS
Starting with an update in the near future, Oracle plans to treat the following predefined role names as Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud key words, which should not be used in the name of any custom artifacts that you create; for example, as a group name in Access Control.
- Service Administrator
- Power User
- User
- Viewer
- Planner
- System Administrator
- Application Administrator
- Library Administrator
- Reports Administrator
If you have any groups or artifacts named using these keywords, Oracle requests that you rename or delete them; else Oracle will rename them to ensure that there is no impact because of this change. For example, a group named Power User will be renamed as Power User1 without affecting the current role assignments. If you do not want Oracle to automatically rename such groups, you must rename them.
This change is being implemented to address customer feedback. If you have any concerns about this change, please contact Oracle Support.
Key Resources
- Modifying Groups in Administering Access Control for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
UPDATE TO THE EXCEPTION RESPONSE IN REST APIS
Oracle will remove the internal package and class names from the following fields in the exception response in REST APIs for Strategic Workforce Planning in an upcoming update in early 2020:
- message
- localizedMessage
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.
CHANGE IN EMAIL ADDRESS FOR OUTGOING EMAILS
Starting with a future update, emails originating from Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud applications will use no.reply@oraclecloud.com instead of oraclecloudadmin_ww@oracle.com as the from address.
Emails from other Oracle Cloud sources, for example, New Account email sent from the Identity Domain, will continue to use the current From email addressses, for example, oraclecloudadmin_ww@oracle.com.