11i customization upgrade to 12.1.x

An Oracle White Paper

March 2012

Upgrading your Customizations to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1


Disclaimer

The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes

only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or

functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and

timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of

Oracle.


Introduction ....................................................................................... 1

Upgrade Goals for Customizations .................................................... 2

Customization Types ......................................................................... 2

Step 1. Creating an Inventory of Your Customizations ....................... 3

Tools for inventorying your customizations .................................... 3

Step 2. Compare Customizations to Release 12 .............................. 4

Product Family-level Changes ....................................................... 5

Individual Product-level Changes .................................................. 5

Data Model-level Changes ............................................................ 5

Technology Changes ..................................................................... 7

Step 3. Upgrading Common Types of Customizations ....................... 8

Upgrading Personalizations ........................................................... 8

Upgrading Oracle Forms Extensions ........................................... 10

General Schema Housecleaning ................................................. 11

Web ADI Customizations ............................................................. 11

Workflow Customizations ............................................................ 11

Step 4. Reimplement Customizations from Deprecated Technologies12

mod_plsql .................................................................................... 12

Oracle Reports Server Reports .................................................... 13

Oracle Graphics Integrations with Oracle Forms.......................... 13

AK Mode ..................................................................................... 14

Client ADI .................................................................................... 14

Step 5. Creating Future Customizations ......................................... 15

Modifying the UI of Oracle E-Business Suite Screens ................. 15

Adding New Screens to Oracle E-Business Suite Business Flows16

Building New Applications ........................................................... 16

Management and Testing of Customizations ............................... 16

Conclusion ...................................................................................... 17

Upgrade-related Services Available from Oracle ......................... 17

Upgrade Version Recommendations ........................................... 18

Upgrade Checklist for Customizations ......................................... 18

References ...................................................................................... 19


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Introduction

With Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i now in Extended Support until November 2013,

upgrading to Release 12 soon is more important than ever. However, like most Oracle E-

Business Suite customers, you probably have many existing personalizations, extensions and

customizations that have been made over the years. Upgrading these may be a daunting task.

This document discusses the different types of customizations and how to handle them going

forward. This document primarily covers upgrading to Release 12.1.3, but this material applies

equally to Releases 12.0, 12.1, and 12.2.

In this document we will discuss customizations in the context of the following process:

Step 1. Creating an Inventory of Your Existing Customizations

Step 2. Comparing Customizations to Release 12

Step 3. Upgrading Customizations

Step 4. Reimplementing Customizations

Step 5. Creating Future Customizations


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Upgrade Goals for Customizations

When you upgrade from Release 11i to Release 12 of Oracle E-Business Suite, you face many choices

about how to handle your existing customizations. In general we recommend that you aim for a much

smaller customization footprint in Release 12 than you have in Release 11i. Retiring as many

customizations as possible is the key. The smaller footprint will benefit you with easier upgrades going

forward.

For the cases where you do have to reimplement, it's important to choose the right technologies for

going forward. For changing shipped Oracle E-Business Suite pages and forms, using Oracle

Application Framework personalization or form personalization is usually the best answer. For

building extensions and completely new applications Oracle Application Framework is still the primary

recommended choice.

Customization Types

There are several different types of customizations in Oracle E-Business Suite, sometimes referred to

by the term "CEMLI":

Configurations

Extensions

Modifications

Localizations

Integrations

This document primarily focuses on the extension and modification parts of those customizations.

Configuration provides setup and administrative choices using the native features of the product.

Examples include profile options, user-defined fields (flexfields), function security setup, and data

security setup.

Personalization, which lies somewhere between configuration and extension, enables you to

declaratively tailor the UI look and feel, layout or visibility of page content to suit a business need or

user preference. Examples include changing prompts and text, reordering fields, and so on.

Extension describes building functionality of an application beyond what can be done through

personalization or configuration. Examples include adding new functional flows, extending or

overriding existing business logic, or even building entirely new applications. Extensions are usually

built using Oracle Forms Developer, Oracle JDeveloper, Oracle Application Framework, and so on.

Modification, or customization by modification, also known as "customization-in-place", is the practice

of simply modifying an existing or seeded object like a form or report. These are never recommended

because the modifications are not preserved during an upgrade.

Localizations are country-specific components for statutory requirements business practices.


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Integration can include data integration or application integration with systems outside Oracle E-

Business Suite through open interface tables, APIs, and various integration tools.

Step 1. Creating an Inventory of Your Customizations

While planning your upgrade, the first thing to do is to inventory what customizations you have in

Release 11i and sort them into what you can retire, what can be upgraded, and what you must

reimplement.

Many of your existing customizations may not be needed at all due to the wide range of functional

enhancements, streamlined business processes, and user interface enhancements throughout Oracle E-

Business Suite. The goal is to get rid of every customization you possibly can. Be sure to get rid of any

"not-currently-used" old code and database schema objects during this process. Time spent eradicating

unneeded code and schema objects will pay off when you move to a later release.

Over time, you may have accumulated customizations in many areas. Here are some types of

customizations you might have:

Forms Screens and Personalizations

Oracle Application Framework Pages and Personalizations

Reports

Workflows

Database objects

Concurrent Programs

BI Publisher templates

Java code

Web ADI

ADF

Tools for inventorying your customizations

Sometimes finding out what customizations you already have is the hardest part of preparing for an

upgrade. One place to look for customization information is in the applcust.txt file. This text file has

been a documented part of Oracle Application Object Library for many years as a place to register

modifications and extensions so that you would get a warning during patches and upgrades if a

customization would be overwritten. The applcust.txt file might have been updated by consultants or

others in the past, so it is worth checking. The file is located in the $APPL_TOP/admin directory.

Release 12 has a different customization registration mechanism, called flagged files, for the same

purpose.

There are various tools for inventorying your existing customizations, both from Oracle and third-

party vendors. Oracle and other vendors offer customization discovery and reporting tools that you


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can use yourself. Oracle offers the "CEMLI Services Tool" on a subscription basis. This tool can help

you inventory your custom database objects, forms, and configurations such as flexfields, functions,

and menu entries. This self-service tool provides the following features:

Catalog (discovery and reporting of customizations)

Packager for custom code patches

Impact analysis for incremental patches

Performance checker

Figure 1 Dashboard of the Oracle CEMLI Services Tool

The CEMLI Services Tool is available through Oracle Advanced Customer Services.

Many consulting services, including Oracle Consulting Services, have their own tools or include

discovery and reporting of customizations as part of upgrade assessment engagements. Oracle On

Demand also provides customization discovery as part of the process of moving to Oracle On

Demand Services.

All of these tools and services have different features and price points, and no single solution is

appropriate for every customer. The primary goal is to make your upgrade as smooth and simple as

possible using whatever tools or assistance help you.

Step 2. Compare Customizations to Release 12

Once you have an inventory, the next step is to compare your customizations to what is in Release 12.

Retiring customizations is the best way to make future upgrades easier and save money on

maintenance, so it helps to focus on areas with a lot of change between Release 11i and Release 12.

Specifically, customizations of forms or pages that change during that time are good candidates for

retirement. There are also some deprecated technologies whose old customizations should be retired or

reimplemented.


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Product Family-level Changes

You should especially look at the major functional changes in the product families, particularly in

Financials and Procurement. They have dramatically improved how they handle payments, bank

accounts, and tax codes, but those improvements may impact your customizations. The Financials

products and some other products in Oracle E-Business Suite have new, centralized setups, so setup

pages are likely places where old customizations are no longer useful.

The upgrade guides mention larger features that have been changed. Since of course Oracle does not

know what customizations you have, you need to keep your customizations in mind when you read

those guides and think about how certain feature changes might affect you. For information specific to

changes in the Financials and Procurement product families, see the Oracle Financials and Oracle

Procurement Functional Upgrade Guide. These changes include changes to tax codes, payments, and bank

accounts. Also, suppliers and sites information moved into the Oracle Customer Hub (TCA) product.

A special report, the Accounting Setup Manager Pre-Update Diagnosis Report, helps you find setup

inconsistencies you should resolve before upgrading. This report is described in the Oracle E-Business

Suite Upgrade Guide.

There is a lot of documentation to look at for understanding the new 12.1 options, not just the upgrade

guides. For example, you'll need to look at these Financials guides and this My Oracle Support Note:

Oracle Financials Concepts Guide

Oracle Financials Implementation Guide

“R12 Upgrade Considerations by Product” (Document 889733.1)

Individual Product-level Changes

At the individual product level, many modules have redesigned their flows to make them simpler and

more productive. These changes include fewer, rearranged screens and fewer steps for users to

complete tasks. Some old Oracle Forms-based forms have been rebuilt in Oracle Application

Framework, as well. These are great enhancements to the Oracle E-Business Suite products, but in

some cases the effect is that some of your old personalizations and extensions may no longer be

needed or valid.

Data Model-level Changes

There are many data model changes that will affect your custom code. Many of these are related to the

centralization of setups, such as the change from having distribution lines stored in separate

applications to having them in the new XLA tables.

Database changes from 11i to R12 are highlighted in product-specific Technical Overviews part of the

Release 12 Transfer of Information (TOI) online training sessions and other sources like the eTRM.

Available Release Comparison Reports

Oracle E-Business Suite also provides two very helpful static reports to highlight specific changes in

the data model and in shipped seed data:


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“Database Comparison Report” (Document 1290886.1)

“Seed Data Comparison Report” (Document 1327399.1)

These reports list changes between particular sets of releases, and they are available in popular release

combinations, such as for comparison of 11.5.10.2 with 12.1.3. Oracle Support can provide other

combinations if needed.

Use these reports for impact analysis for custom code. The seed data report compares definitions for

menus, profiles, and more. The database comparison report is a good source of details such as added

and removed tables, views, and packages that might affect your custom code.

These reports allow you to drill down into very detailed information. For example, when you see that

a particular view object definition has changed between Release 11.5.10.2 and 12.1.3, you can then drill

down within the report to see the view definitions and compare them.

Figure 2 Data Model Comparison Report


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Figure 3 Seed Data Comparison Report

Products Removed from Data Model

Certain old Oracle E-Business Suite products have been removed from the Release 12 data model, so

any customizations that reference these will be affected:

TABLE 1. PRODUCTS REMOVED FROM RELEASE 12 DATA MODEL

ABM CUN IMT OKR VEH

AHM EAA IPD OZP XNC

AMF EVM ME OZS XNI

CSS FPT OKB RHX XNM

CUE IBA OKO RLA XNS

The products listed in the table are no longer registered in fnd_oracle_userid and

fnd_product_installations tables in 12.1.3.

Technology Changes

Some technologies can upgrade with little or no change.

If you have been building extensions with Oracle Forms or Oracle Application Framework, you should

be able to upgrade those with little change, assuming that the underlying business logic or data model

hasn't changed.


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Custom code and custom applications in these standard Release 11i development technologies is

generally compatible with Release 12:

Oracle Application Framework

Oracle Forms

Certain technologies have been deprecated, and you should retire or reimplement anything that uses

them in Release 11i.

Mod_plsql

Oracle Reports Server Reports

Oracle Graphics integrations with Oracle Forms

AK mode of Oracle Application Framework

We'll discuss these more later in the paper.

Step 3. Upgrading Common Types of Customizations

These are the most common types of customizations:

Personalizations

Oracle Forms

Oracle Application Framework

Web ADI

Workflow

Here are recommendations for upgrading each of these types of customizations.

Upgrading Personalizations

Personalizations should upgrade transparently if the same page and its personalized objects still exist in

the target version of the product.


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Figure 4 Upgrading Personalizations

A personalization is not upgradable if you are not upgrading "from like to like". This can happen for a

number of reasons:

1. An Oracle Forms-based screen has been replaced by an Oracle Application Framework-based page.

This is very common across the 11i to 12.1 upgrade, because many products have rebuilt a lot of

their Oracle Forms-based functionality into Oracle Application Framework while adding or

redesigning other features.

2. A screen or page has been sufficiently modified in the new version of the product such that the old

objects, such as fields, that were personalized no longer exist in the new version. For the 11i to 12

upgrade, however, forms are more likely to have been rebuilt in Oracle Application Framework than

to have been modified using Oracle Forms.

3. A screen or page has been moved into a different product, so the personalization metadata no longer

applies (because each product has its own namespace).

In other words, if it's the same page, in the same technology, in the same product, then it's likely to be

upgradable. The key thing to remember, though, is that if an Oracle Forms-based form is rewritten to

be an Oracle Application Framework-based page, then it's not the same page!

The result of all this is that many of your existing personalizations are ripe for retirement. For

example, between 11i and 12.1, some payments forms were removed from Oracle Payables (AP) and

their functionality was consolidated with other payments functionality into a new Oracle Payments

(IBY) module. Personalizations made to those original AP payments forms would no longer apply. In

another example, the user interface for item instance functionality in Oracle Install Base has been

rewritten in Oracle Application Framework.


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See "Upgrading Form Personalizations and OA Framework Personalizations from Oracle E-Business

Suite Release 11i to 12.1" (Document 1292611.1) for more about upgrading personalizations from

Release 11i to Release 12. It includes a simple query to list Release 11i form personalizations.

Upgrading Oracle Forms Extensions

Upgrading custom Oracle Forms-based forms requires a Release 12 development environment.

Setting up this environment is described in My Oracle Support Note 444248.1, "Using the OracleAS

10.1.2 Forms and Reports Builders with Oracle Applications Release 12".

Upgrading your custom forms is mostly a matter of regenerating them. Both libraries and forms

upgrade automatically when you regenerate using the Forms 10g compiler (frmcmp.sh utility, was

f60genm generator) or using the Forms 10g Builder. Some upgrade changes are made by the Oracle

Forms Generator, and any errors will be highlighted at generation time.

In addition, Oracle Forms provides a tool, the Oracle Forms Migration Assistant, which you can use to

further evaluate your custom forms for changes that may be required to upgrade the forms from

Oracle Forms 6i to Oracle Forms 10g. This tool has a command line and a wizard version, and it can

be used to perform automatic changes or just produce a report of necessary changes. The tool issues

warnings when it cannot make the required changes automatically.

Information to help you:

Oracle Forms: Migrating Forms Applications from Forms 6i to 10g (10.1.2.0.2) for Windows and UNIX

Oracle E-Business Suite Developer's Guide (formerly Oracle Applications Developer's Guide)

Modifications you may have to make to your Oracle Forms code fall into three main categories:

1. Obsolete Forms Built-ins and Properties

2. Enhanced syntax checking in Forms PL/SQL

3. Change from 4.5 to 5.0 Compatibility Mode (primarily affects mirror items, validation, and

navigation)

Most required changes can be identified at build time. Some changes, such as changes in validation,

can only be identified at run time.

CUSTOM Library

The CUSTOM library is an Oracle Forms stub library that receives trigger events as Oracle Forms run.

Many customers have used the CUSTOM library (CUSTOM.pll) to modify the appearance and

behavior of Oracle Forms-based forms.

The CUSTOM library still exists and works in Release 12. However, the same caveats apply to the

CUSTOM library as to form personalizations. That is, if an Oracle Forms-based form no longer exists

in Release 12, any CUSTOM library logic for that form would need to be retired.

When you install Release 12, you get a new, empty version of CUSTOM.pll in the new Release 12 file

system. You need to copy your 11i CUSTOM.pll, upgrade it to Oracle Forms 10g, and put it in place


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in your new Release 12 file system. Alternatively, you can put your code into the Release 12

CUSTOM.pll after backing up the new, empty version.

General Schema Housecleaning

Verify that all custom tables are in your custom schema (not the APPS schema) and that your custom

schema is registered with Oracle E-Business Suite using the ORACLE Users window (in the System

Administrator responsibility).

Verify that the APPS schema has synonyms to your tables. Code should reference the synonyms in

APPS. Make sure that code does not reference tables in application schemas (schemas other than

APPS) directly. This is not new advice, but it will affect your upgrade to 12.2 later if these are not

correct.

Web ADI Customizations

Web ADI customizations can be of two flavors:

Custom Integrators created in 11i using Oracle shipped APIs

Modified layouts of seeded integrators

If you created custom integrators for Web ADI in Release 11i using shipped APIs, you should be able

to upgrade those. You must test them after the upgrade to make sure they still work as expected. If

you modified integrators that were shipped as part of the product, you will need to redo any layout

modifications after the upgrade, since those will be overwritten.

Spreadsheets you created in Release 11i do not interact with Oracle Applications products after the

upgrade. You will need to replace those existing spreadsheets with ones created using the Release 12

technology stack.

Note that starting with Release 12.1.2, Web ADI offers a powerful new feature called the Desktop

Integration Framework for creating your own custom integrators more easily. See Oracle E-Business

Suite Desktop Integration Framework Developer's Guide for more information.

Workflow Customizations

There are two options for customers to customize seeded business flows:

Plug in a custom flow into a seeded flow where a product has provided a placeholder

Extend a default business flow implementation with some configurations

Workflow developers operate with a specific Access Level when creating workflows:

Oracle Workflow Development - 0-9

Other Applications Technology Products - 10 - 19

Product Teams - 20 - 100

Customers and their subsidiaries - 101 - 1000


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Workflow developers and customers can set their flows to be protected from upgrade. Before

upgrading, check that your protection and customization options are set correctly.

If seeded flows are revamped during a major upgrade from 11i to R12, such as changing entire

business process flow definition by refactoring their flows or redesigning the activities, then

customizations to those seeded flows might need to be redone. These cases are described in the

product-specific documentation.

Step 4. Reimplement Customizations from Deprecated Technologies

Several technologies were deprecated for Release 12. These technologies include:

AK mode of Oracle Application Framework

Mod_Plsql


Oracle Graphics Integration

Client ADI

mod_plsql

In previous releases of Oracle E-Business Suite, mod_plsql provided a way to add an HTML user

interface to PL/SQL business logic by allowing developers to generate raw HTML output. However, a

standard look and feel was difficult, and security had to be implemented by each developer. Oracle E-

Business Suite Release 12 no longer installs, configures or uses mod_plsql technology.

If you have developed custom mod_plsql extensions to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i, and are

considering upgrading to Release 12, you will have to take some action to preserve that functionality.

The most preferable option is to determine whether the native functionality in Release 12 is now

sufficient for you to retire your mod_plsql extensions. Functional advances in Oracle E-Business Suite

may directly replace your custom development. It might also be possible to use Oracle Application

Framework Personalizations, Forms Personalizations, and Flexfields to implement your business

requirements as configurations and personalizations of standard product rather than custom

development.

Where the shipped functionality is not sufficient to eliminate the customization completely, you may

want to re-implement your mod_plsql user interfaces on a supported Release 12 extension technology

such as Oracle Application Framework, Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports, or Oracle XML Publisher.

Note that you may not have to re-implement your custom Server PL/SQL business logic, as all Oracle

E-Business Suite extension technologies can access Server PL/SQL.

If you are on Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 and higher, you can also use Oracle Application

Express to re-implement your mod_plsql user interfaces. Oracle Application Express, also known as

Oracle APEX, provides an easy way to create supplemental applications that are easily integrated with


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Oracle E-Business Suite and its data. For more information, see “Extending Oracle E-Business Suite

Release 12 using Oracle Application Express (APEX)” (Document 1306563.1).

If absolutely necessary, you may choose to install and configure mod_plsql yourself on a separate

application server. This approach is not recommended in that Oracle E-Business Suite Support and

Development cannot provide instructions or diagnostic assistance on any issues that arise from custom

development using mod_plsql (or any other database tool). See "Mod_plsql and Oracle E-Business

Suite Release 12" (Document 726711.1) for more information.


In Release 12, Oracle Reports Server is deprecated and replaced with Oracle BI Publisher (Oracle

XML Publisher within Oracle E-Business Suite), which is the standard for Reporting in Release 12.

Oracle BI Publisher provides complete template coverage for Release 12.1 reports, plus the flexibility

to create your own reports and templates.

If you have custom development that uses reports run through Oracle Reports Server, the following

migration alternatives are available:

Convert the reports to Oracle XML Publisher.

This method is recommended as it has several advantages. It prepares your application both for

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 and for Oracle Fusion Applications. It also lets you take

advantage of the benefits of Oracle XML Publisher, including superior ease of maintenance.

Additionally, some automated tools are available to help you migrate from Oracle Reports to Oracle

XML Publisher. For more information, see the Oracle XML Publisher User's Guide. You can convert

custom reports to BI Publisher before you upgrade. If you do, you may need to adjust your queries

after the upgrade, but formatting remains valid.

Convert the reports to Oracle Application Framework.

Depending on your reporting needs, this method may be an appropriate alternative. However, note

that no automated migration tools are available for this conversion. You will need to rewrite any

charts using the Oracle Application Framework Charting tool (BI Chart Bean). For more

information, see the Oracle Application Framework Developer's Guide.

Run the reports through the Concurrent Manager.

With this method, if you follow Oracle E-Business Suite coding standards, then you must modify

your PL/SQL code to meet the Concurrent Manager standards. In particular, you will need to use

some user exits. You will also need to rewrite any charts using the Oracle Reports Charting tool (BI

Chart Bean). Note that this method will not be supported in Oracle Fusion Applications, because

Oracle Reports is not part of the Oracle Fusion technology stack. For more information, see the

Oracle Applications Developer's Guide and Oracle Reports: Building Reports.

Oracle Graphics Integrations with Oracle Forms

If you have custom development that uses Oracle Graphics (Charting) integrated with Oracle Forms,

the following migration alternatives are available:


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Convert both the form and the chart to an Oracle Application Framework-based application. This

method prepares your application for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12. For more information,

see the Oracle Application Framework Developer's Guide.

Convert the chart to an Oracle Application Framework-based page that can be launched from

Oracle Forms. This method requires less time to prepare for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.

However, it will not be supported in Oracle Fusion Applications, because Oracle Forms is not

part of the Oracle Fusion technology stack. For more information, see the Oracle Application

Framework Developer's Guide.

AK Mode

If you still have personalizations of Oracle Application Framework-based pages in the AK repository,

then when you upgrade from Release 11i to Release 12, your custom personalizations will automatically

be migrated from AK to MDS, if the AK and MDS repositories are in the same database instance.

The upgrade will not automatically migrate your custom personalizations if the AK and MDS

repositories are in separate database instances. You will need to run the Personalization Migration tool

manually to migrate your personalizations in this case. For detailed instructions on how to use this tool,

see “Migrating AK Personalizations” in the Oracle Application Framework Personalization Guide.

If you have previously used AK/ICX Web Inquiries, you should use the Oracle Application

Framework Search feature to recreate your personalizable search regions. For detailed information

about the Search feature, see “Implementing Specific UI Features” in the Oracle Application Framework

Developer's Guide.

Client ADI

Client ADI was deprecated to move to a 3-tier, standards-compliant desktop integration architecture.

The functionality in Client ADI is available through a combination of Oracle Web ADI and Oracle

Report Manager, plus over 200 seeded integrators.

Customers can optionally move from Client ADI to Oracle Report Manager while on Release 11.5.10.

Customers upgrading from Release 11.5.10 to Release 12 must move to Report Manager if they have

not already.

Upgrading from Client ADI includes running the Data Migration tool, which upgrades Client ADI

report data to the Oracle Report Manager schema and migrates Client ADI User-to-Value mappings to

Oracle Report Manager.

Once you have upgraded to Oracle Report Manager, you can use the Report Manager Financial Report

Template Editor to define custom Microsoft Excel spreadsheet template layouts. You can use Oracle

XML Publisher to define custom RTF layouts. You can start publishing reports in Oracle Report

Manager.

Note that starting with Release 12.1.2, Web ADI offers a powerful new feature called the Desktop

Integration Framework for creating your own custom integrators more easily. See Oracle E-Business

Suite Desktop Integration Framework Developer's Guide for more information.


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Step 5. Creating Future Customizations

As you go through the process of upgrading your customizations, you'll find that there are many

customizations that need to be re-implemented or enhanced, as well as some new customizations you

want to create to take advantage of all of the new functionality you have in Release 12 of Oracle E-

Business Suite. Choosing the right technology for these customizations is crucial.

Consider the cost of development and maintenance of your customizations. Even small customizations

can cost a lot over the life of the customization, but some types will be much more expensive than

others. For example, personalizations are the least expensive and most cost-effective type of

customization you can make in the Oracle E-Business Suite.

Customizations in place, or modifications of files shipped with the Oracle E-Business Suite, will be the

most expensive customizations to make because you will have to keep redoing the customizations

whenever a patch or new version of the software overwrites your customization. Avoid doing

customization in place if at all possible. Modifications that can be particularly problematic include

changing Oracle Application Framework controller code, code used with Oracle Forms-based screens,

and shipped Oracle PL/SQL or mod_plsql code.

In between those two cost extremes are extensions to applications, so long as they are built according

to customization standards. Entirely new applications can be cheaper than the equivalent amount of

customization-in-place if they are built according to standards so that they won't be overwritten during

patches and upgrades. Customization standards include placing custom code in separate

CUSTOM_TOP directories and following naming conventions, among other things. See Oracle E-

Business Suite Developer's Guide and Oracle Application Framework Developer's Guide for more information

about customization standards.

Choosing the right technology depends on what you are trying to do with your customizations. Keep

in mind that certain configuration choices, such as flexfields and folder forms, provide options for

changing the appearance and behavior of some of the forms and pages within the Oracle E-Business

Suite.

Modifying the UI of Oracle E-Business Suite Screens

If you are trying to modify the user interface of an existing Oracle Forms-based form or Oracle

Application Framework page, personalization is almost always the right choice. Personalization has the

advantage that it is noninvasive, and all personalizations can be turned off at once if problems occur.

Also, personalizations are usually unaffected by upgrades as long as the page or form and its objects

still exist in the newer version of the software. Each of those technologies has its own personalization

framework, so you would use the framework that matches the technology of the underlying form or

page. Both frameworks are very powerful but avoid modifying code objects. Oracle Application

Framework personalization is being actively enhanced.

For extensions to Oracle Forms-based applications, using the CUSTOM library provides more

capabilities than form personalization, and it is useful where you do not need to create entire new

forms.


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If an existing Oracle Application Framework application requires changes or extensions to business

logic, you should use the BC4J substitution mechanism if possible. As with personalizations, BC4J

substitution is not invasive to Oracle E-Business Suite code and is easily turned off if necessary.

Adding New Screens to Oracle E-Business Suite Business Flows

For relatively small extensions of applications, such as adding a new page or form, or adding a new

business flow, generally it is appropriate to use the same technology as the business flow you are

extending. For example, if you are adding a new form that would be used as part of a business flow

that has been built using Oracle Forms, building the new form using Oracle Forms would make the

user interface consistent across the flow, and would be preferable to building the new form using some

other technology that would create confusion for users.

Building New Applications

For larger projects such as entirely new applications, the right technology depends upon what you are

building. For most new applications to be integrated with the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle

Application Framework is still the technology of choice, as it is still the primary development platform

for new Oracle E-Business Suite modules. Use Oracle Application Framework if your application

needs to use flexfields, Oracle E-Business Suite function security and data security, have seamless

session management with Oracle E-Business Suite applications, or have the same look and feel as the

Oracle E-Business Suite application.

Oracle Application Express, also known as APEX, is a good choice where you are building PL/SQL-

based applications and a simple, template-based HTML user interface is needed. For example, where

you might once have used mod_plsql, you can keep your existing business logic but create a new user

interface for it. See “Extending Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 using Oracle Application Express

(APEX)” (Document 1306563.1).

Consider Oracle ADF if your application needs to use the same standards-based Java development

platform as Oracle Fusion Applications or have rich user interface capabilities that are specific to

Oracle ADF, such as the hierarchy viewer or carousel widgets. You should also consider Oracle ADF

if you are building applications for mobile devices.

In some cases, you might consider a hybrid between Oracle Application Framework and Oracle ADF.

Using the Oracle E-Business Suite SDK for Java, you can integrate the two technologies to create, for

example, an Oracle Application Framework-based page that contains an embedded region with Oracle

ADF widgets in it. See "Oracle E-Business Suite Software Development Kit for Java" (Document

974949.1)

Management and Testing of Customizations

Beyond choosing which technology to use for building future customizations, you should also consider

how you are going to manage and test those future customizations. Change management tools such as

Oracle Application Management Suite for Oracle E-Business Suite, a subscription to the CEMLI

Services Tool, and use of the Oracle Application Manager Patch Wizard can all help you manage how

patching and future upgrades affect your customizations. The Oracle Application Management Suite


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for Oracle E-Business Suite includes the Customization Manager feature that can help you create

standard patches of your customizations and apply them to your Oracle E-Business Suite instances.

For testing, database options such as Real Application Testing, Database Replay, and SQL

Performance Tester can help you make sure database changes perform as expected. For the entire

application, including the user interface, Oracle Application Testing Suite (OATS) offers load testing,

functional testing, and test process management (and we use it for testing in development).

Conclusion

We recommend that you take the upgrade process as an opportunity to get rid of as many of your old

customizations as possible. For those cases where you still need customizations going forward, you

should choose your customization technologies carefully, following standards to keep your

customizations separate from Oracle E-Business Suite shipped software. Use Oracle Application

Framework personalization or Oracle Forms personalization wherever possible, and use Oracle

Application Framework for most extensions. Consider using Oracle ADF or Oracle APEX depending

on your particular use case.

Figure 5 Summary of Extension Technologies

Upgrade-related Services Available from Oracle

Upgrade services are available through Oracle through three main avenues:

Oracle Consulting

Advanced Customer Services

On Demand

Oracle Consulting has extensive experience with Oracle E-Business Suite upgrades. Advanced

Customer Services provides tailored support services for complex IT requirements, as well as the

CEMLI Services Tool subscription. On Demand provides upgrade services as part of a move to On

Demand on-site or hosted services using certified configurations.


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Many third-party and partner system integrators also have extensive experience providing upgrade

services. You should choose whatever in-house or outside help works for you—the point is to get

through the upgrade as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Upgrade Version Recommendations

If you are already planning or executing an upgrade to Release 12.1, keep going! Moving to Release

12.1.3 now lets you make use of the powerful new features and functionality in Release 12.1 and gets

you back on Premier Support until May 2014, and the first year of the additional cost of Extended

Support for Release 12.1 has been waived for June 2014 to May 2015. Release 12.1.3 is a very stable,

solid release that has been well-received by customers and users.

Upgrades to later releases will be easier if you significantly cut down on your customization footprint.

If you are on Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i today, we strongly recommend planning your

upgrade to Release 12.1.3 immediately. Upgrading your database to the latest certified Database 11gR2

patchset is also highly recommended.

If you wish to get a head start on other technologies, we recommend learning about Oracle WebLogic

Server, Oracle WebCenter, Oracle Access Manager, and Oracle SOA Suite. Getting familiar with these

technologies now will make the transition to future Oracle E-Business Suite releases easier.

Upgrade Checklist for Customizations

Following the process discussed in this paper will help make your upgrade smoother and

easier.

Upgrade Checklist for Customizations

Step 1. Create an inventory of your existing customizations

Step 2. Compare your customizations to Release 12 and decide what you can retire

Step 3. Upgrade common types of customizations such as personalizations, Oracle

Application Framework pages, and forms

Step 4. Reimplement customizations that were built using deprecated technologies

Step 5. Create your future customizations using the right technology for your situation

Good luck with your upgrade!


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References

Here is a list of the documents referenced in this article, plus a few extra upgrade resources. Manuals (in italics) are available from the Oracle E-Business Suite Documentation Library at http://www.oracle.com, and the other documents are available from My Oracle Support at http://support.oracle.com.

Oracle E-Business Suite Desktop Integration Framework Developer's Guide, Release 12.1, Part Number E15877-

02

Oracle E-Business Suite Upgrade Guide, Release 11i to 12.1.1, Part Number E16342-04

Oracle Financials and Oracle Procurement Functional Upgrade Guide: Release 11i to Release 12, Release 12.1, Part

Number E13482-03

Oracle Financials Concepts Guide, Release 12.1, Part Number E13424-03

Oracle Financials Implementation Guide, Release 12.1, Part Number E13425-05

Oracle Forms: Migrating Forms Applications from Forms 6i to 10g (10.1.2.0.2) for Windows and UNIX, Part

Number B15572-01

Oracle E-Business Suite Developer's Guide (formerly Oracle Applications Developer's Guide), Release 12.1, Part

Number E12897-04

“R12 Upgrade Considerations by Product” (Document 889733.1)

“Database Comparison Report” (Document 1290886.1)

“Seed Data Comparison Report” (Document 1327399.1)

"Form Personalizations" (Document 279034.1 for R11i and Document 395117.1 for R12)

"Upgrading Form Personalizations and OA Framework Personalizations from Oracle E-Business Suite

Release 11i to 12.1" (Document 1292611.1). This document includes simple queries to list 11i form

personalizations.

Oracle E-Business Suite Desktop Integration Framework Developer's Guide, Release 12.1, Part Number E15877-

02

"Using the OracleAS 10.1.2 Forms and Reports Builders with Oracle Applications Release 12"

(Document 444248.1)

“Extending Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 using Oracle Application Express (APEX)”

(Document 1306563.1)

Oracle XML Publisher User's Guide, Release 11i, Part Number B13817-02

Oracle XML Publisher Administration and Developer's Guide, Release 12, Part Number B31412-01

Oracle Reports Building Reports, 10g Release 2 (10.1.2), Part Number B13895-01

http://www.oracle.com/

http://support.oracle.com/


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“Migrating AK Personalizations”, Oracle Application Framework Personalization Guide, Release 12.1, Part

Number E12646-

“Implementing Specific UI Features” in the Oracle Application Framework Developer's Guide, available

through the “Oracle Application Framework Release 11i Documentation Road Map” (Document

275880.1) or "R12.1 documentation roadmap" (Document 790942.1)

"Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 Info center" (Document 806593.1)

"Planning Your Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) Upgrade from Release 11i to Release 12 (Document

1406960.1). This whitepaper covers planning for the entire Oracle E-Business Suite upgrade, not just

customizations.

"Oracle E-Business Suite Upgrade Guide – Home" (Document 461705.1)

"Database preparation guidelines for R12.1 upgrade" (Document 761570.1)

"Mod_plsql and Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12" (Document 726711.1)

"Oracle E-Business Suite Software Development Kit for Java" (Document 974949.1)

Upgrading your Customizations to

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1

March 2012

Author: Sara Woodhull

Contributor: Steven Chan

Oracle Corporation

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