ebs-design-best-practices.pdf


ATG Live Webcast: Usability Best Practices for

Oracle E-Business Suite

Sara Woodhull, Principal Product Manager

Applications Technology Group

ORACLE

PRODUCT

LOGO


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.


Program Agenda

• Introduction

• Upgrade to Release 12.1.3

• Personalize

• Extend


Introduction

• Make your applications more usable

• Get the most out of the new usability enhancements

• Follow User Experience best practices when

customizing your applications

• UX Direct Program

Usability Best Practices


Oracle’s Applications Strategy

• Continuation

– Upgrade to current releases of existing applications

• Coexistence

– Complement existing applications with integration to and

coexistence with specific Oracle Fusion Application functionality

• Replacement

– Completely replace older deployments with Oracle Fusion

Applications

Three top-level adoption strategies for Fusion Applications


Top Three Ways to Improve EBS Usability

1. Upgrade to Release 12.1.3

2. Personalize to your requirements

3. Use right technology and follow standards for

extensions

Get the most out of Oracle E-Business Suite


Upgrade to Release 12.1.3

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Oracle Application Framework Overview

• Web application development framework for Oracle

E-Business Suite

• Declarative application development based on model-

view-controller (MVC) architecture

• Runtime framework to create UI personalizations

• Declarative extensions development


Upgrade to Release 12.1.3

• Usability enhancements in all OA Framework-based

products due to technology improvements

• Many screens rebuilt using OA Framework

• Individual products redesigned with new task-based

flows

Take advantage of usability improvements


Oracle Application Framework Release 12

• Modern Look and Feel

• Support for WSRP Portlets

• Web services support

• Personalization – Personalization Document Manager

– Contextual Hierarchy Page

– Support for EL Syntax

– Enhanced Configurable Page

Personalization

– Enhanced Home Page Personalization

– Configurable Start Page

• Rich User Interface – Configurable Home Page

– New Navigator and Favorites

– Look-ahead LOV

– Inline Attachments

– Pop-up dialogs

– Rich content container

• Flexfield Reference support

• Record History support

• Support for RESTful services

• Personalization of additional attributes

• Portletization capabilities

12.0 12.1


Rich User Interface Configurable Home Page

Embedded

Content Reconfigured

Layout


Rich User Interface Configurable Home Page

New Navigator

Tree


Rich User Interface Navigator

Drop-down

Navigator Menu


Rich User Interface Favorites

Drop-down

Favorites Menu


Rich User Interface Navigator and Favorites

• Allows rapid cross-responsibility, cross-application

navigation

• Can add and manage Favorites with a single click

• Feature controlled by profile option


Rich User Interface Look-Ahead LOV

Inline look-ahead LOV

window


Rich User Interface Inline Attachments

Inline “Add Attachment”

window


Rich User Interface Inline Attachments

Inline “View Attachment”

window


Rich User Interface Profile Options

Profile Option Name Values Default

FND: Disable Configurable Home Page True, False False (Site)

FND: Disable Navigator and Favorites Rich Menu True, False False (Site)

FND: Disable Look Ahead LOV True, False False (Site)

FND: Disable Inline Attachments True, False False (Site)

• Rich UI capabilities are enabled by default in 12.1.3

• Best practice is to leave enabled.


Rich User Interface Pop-up

Inline Pop-up

window


Rich User Interface Rich Content Container

Embedded OBIEE

Analytic Contents


Rich User Interface Embedding Custom Rich Content


REST Service Interface Enables Rich, Responsive User Interface

• Powerful, light-weight interface to expose your

business services – Referred to as “RESTful Services”

• RESTful services send or receive data in

standard XML formats

• Example RESTful service UIs in EBS: – Tree Navigator on home page

– Navigator and Favorites links

• You can build custom user interfaces using the OA Framework

RESTful Service Interface


Oracle Application Framework 12.1+ (Roadmap)

• Personalization

– Add new items based on

dynamically created view objects

– Extend personalization capability

to more components and

properties

– Support attaching PPR events and

actions

– Support Copy/Undo

Personalization

• UI Indicators

• Simplified ADF integration

• AutoVue integration

• Enhanced mobile/iPad support

• Enhanced EL Support

Future


Rich User Interface Navigator Search on Navigator Link

Type-ahead

search

Use of icons for space

optimization

Use of icons for space

optimization

“Personalize Navigator”

moves down

Future


Rich User Interface UI Indicators

Activity indicator

Visual

Hints

Hover-over

Pop-ups

(Dotted Line)

Click

Pop-up

(Full line)

Future


Rich User Interface Exceptions as Pop-ups

Error message appears in a

pop-up window

Future


AutoVue Integration

“Print Attachment”

dialog window

Future


Personalize Oracle E-Business Suite for Maximum Usability

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Customizations in Oracle E-Business Suite

• Personalize

– Add new items

– Change prompts, titles, text

– Reorder items or regions

• Configure

– Profile Options

– User-defined Flexfields

– Function and Data Security

Setups

• Extend

– Add new functional flows or

content

– Extend or override existing

business logic

• Modify

– OVERWRITE Oracle Shipped

code / business logic


Usability Best Practice: Data Planning

• Consider structuring data for usability in Lists of Values

and queries.

– Data with same first characters requires users to type in many

extra characters repeatedly, wasting time and annoying users.

– Example: "Dunning Report" and "Supplier Report" would be

easier values to use than "Report on Dunning" and "Report on

Suppliers" where "Report on" are common initial characters.

– There are MANY areas where careful data creation can improve

usability!

All across your applications


Options for Personalization

• Personalization refers to using Oracle E-Business Suite

personalization frameworks to modify user interface of a

page

– OA Framework

• Administrator personalizations

• User personalizations (search pages only)

– Forms


Form Personalization

• Allows you to make changes to a form without programming

• You can:

– Change object properties such as title, required, and so on

– Display messages to the user

– Activate additional menu entries

– Execute certain Forms built-ins such as database procedure call, ‘Do’

key, open form/URL


Accessing the Form Personalization UI


Form Personalization UI: Condition


Form Personalization UI: Actions


OA Framework Personalization

• Immediate, visual feedback of changes

• Patching the base page doesn’t usually affect the

personalizations

• Available on all OA Framework components

• Translation support

• Utilities to move changes across instances

Features


Personalization

• Administrator Personalization

– Function

– Location

– Site

– Organization

– Responsibility

• End User Personalization

– User Views

• Personalization at each layer is

stored in its own XML document

Levels

Organization Layer

Responsibility Layer

Site Layer

Location Layer

Function Layer

Base Page Layer

User Views


Personalization

• Tailor text for labels, prompts, and tip messages

• Hide or show components

• Reorder components

• Restrict query results

• Add new items: fields, buttons, links,

pick lists, images, regions, and so on

• Tailor graphs and charts

• Seed end-user views

Administrator Personalizations

Best Practice:

Hide fields your

organization

doesn't use


Personalization

• Available on query regions only

– Create and save a search

– Tailor results table column titles

– Hide/show results table columns

– Reorder results table columns

– Add data filters

– Change sorting order

• A system administrator can seed user views and set up

a default view

End User Personalizations

Best Practice:

Train end users

to tailor their

searches and

save them for

later reuse


Usability: Personalization Best Practice

• End users can create saved searches (Views) with 5-25

rows in results table where Save Search is available

• System administrators can personalize "Records

Displayed" property of search results tables with larger

numbers of rows

– Improve usability where users need to see many rows at once

– Beware of possible performance impact

– Optimal number of rows depends on page. Test with users!

Rows in a Table


Usability: Personalization Best Practice

• Keep informational text where the user expects to see it

– Keep text near the affected objects

• Keep added text to a minimum

– A big black paragraph of text is daunting to users

– After the first few uses, that paragraph just gets in the way

• Be sure to translate text personalizations

– Translate OA Framework personalizations in Manage Levels

screen

– If you create new Message Dictionary messages, translate them

Informational Text


Do Quick Usability Tests of Personalizations

• Test original page layout and multiple personalization

possibilities

– Set up different personalizations against several different dummy

functions or responsibilities

– Let users try out the options online

• OR

– Take screenshots of pages with different personalizations

– Show screenshots as paper prototypes to users

Usability Best Practice


Personalization and Extension Best Practice

• Screens for occasional use by a given user

– Needs more explanatory text

– Leads user from one part of task to the next

– Generally more white space

• Screens for heavy, repeated use by a given user

– Needs less explanatory text

– Fit more fields and rows into available space to cut down on

page-to-page navigation, improve user throughput

Tailor UI to Type of User


Extend Oracle E-Business Suite for Maximum Usability

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Extensibility

• Extension refers to building new components and

integrating with Oracle E-Business Suite

• Extend Oracle E-Business Suite if you want to:

– Modify or extend business logic such as data validation

– Build new pages

– Change page flows

– Build new business components

Overview


Extension Technologies

• BC4J Substitution to extend business logic only

(preferred)

• Build new pages, applications:

– OA Framework (preferred)

– Oracle Forms

– Application Express (APEX) for PL/SQL-based extensions

– Oracle ADF


Best Practice: Choose the Right Technology

• Use OA Framework if your application needs to:

– Use Flexfields

– Use E-Business Suite function

security and data security

– Have seamless session management

with E-Business Suite applications

– Have same look and feel as the

E-Business Suite application

New Applications

OAF



• Use APEX if you are building PL/SQL-based applications

with simple template-based UIs

– Requires PL/SQL skills

– No Java required or allowed

– Provides lightweight

HTML-based UI

New Applications

APEX



• Use ADF if your application needs to

– Use the same standards-based Java development platform as

Oracle Fusion Applications

– Have rich user interface capabilities that are specific to ADF

– Support mobile devices via ADF Mobile

New Applications

ADF


Levels of Integration Between EBS and ADF

Integration uses Oracle E-Business Suite SDK for Java

and can include:

• Access to Oracle E-Business Suite data

– Using AppsDataSource with ADFBC

– Using SOA Suite

• Access to Oracle E-Business Suite stored procedures

– Using AppsDataSource

• Navigation between ADF and OAF pages (coming soon)

– Register ADF pages and add to EBS menus

– Optionally embed ADF pages on OA Framework pages


Navigation between OAF and ADF pages

ADF Faces

Page

OA Framework

Page


ADF Content in OAF Page Pop-Ups

Best Practice:

• Use pop-ups to show

drilldown detail for a

"quick look"

• Use ADF when there is

no corresponding OA

Framework component

available Embedded ADF

Content (Pop-up)


Embedding ADF content in an OAF page

Embedded ADF

Content

Best Practice:

• Use ADF when there

is no corresponding

OA Framework

component available


Usability Best Practice for Extensions

• Use the same technology for the extension as is in the

rest of the business flow

– Avoid switching user interface styles in the middle of a process.

– Many EBS UI standards are built into OA Framework and Oracle

Forms technology and development process.

• Keep page styles as consistent as possible

– Follow development and UI standards for the particular

technology.


Conclusion

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Key Takeaways

1. Upgrade to Release 12.1.3 to improve usability and user

productivity through enhanced rich user interactions.

2. Personalize applications and follow best practices to make

shipped applications suit your users' needs.

3. Extend applications and make use of better integration with

Fusion Middleware technologies like ADF to bring the latest

technologies to your enterprise.

Enhance Usability of Oracle E-Business Suite


Standards and References

• Usable Apps Blog

– http://blogs.oracle.com/usableapps

• Form Personalizations

– My Oracle Support Notes 279034.1 (Release 11i) and 395117.1

(Release 12)

• Oracle Application Framework Personalization Guide

– http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/documentation/applications-

167706.html

Do Extensions and Customizations Right

http://blogs.oracle.com/usableapps

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/documentation/applications-167706.html




Standards and References

• Oracle E-Business Suite Developer's Guide

– New applications, customization standards, building Oracle

Forms-based screens

• Oracle Application Framework Developer's Guide

– OA Framework-based screens

• BLAF UI Standards

– Content standards still apply for Release 12 OA Framework-

based pages

– http://download.oracle.com/tech/blaf/specs/index.html

Do Extensions and Customizations Right


More information

• OA Framework 12.1.2/12.1.3 Release Notes

• MOS notes 951242.1 and 1087332.1

• Steven Chan’s Blog

• http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/

• ATG Webcasts and Training • http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/e_business_suite_technology_learning

• Fusion Middleware for E-Business Suite

• http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/fmw4apps/ebs/index.html

https://support.oracle.com/CSP/main/article?cmd=show&type=NOT&id=949406.1

https://support.oracle.com/CSP/main/article?cmd=show&id=1080973.1&type=NOT

http://blogs.oracle.com/schan/

http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/

http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/e_business_suite_technology_learning

http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/fmw4apps/ebs/index.html




More Usability Resources

• Usability best practices across all product lines

• UX Direct Program Contact:

[email protected]

UX Direct Program: Usability Best Practices


Q&A

ebs-design-best-practices.pdf

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