Brief History of OA Framework

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Brief History of OA Framework
.and its future
How did OA Framework EvolveWhy did OA Framework
EvolveWhy is it still evolvingChanges in Fusion
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Brief History of Self Service in EBS, its
evolution and reasons for direction
PL/SQL Web Cartridge PL/SQL stored procedures
build HTML tags and returned the HTML document. A
package named htp can be used to generate HTML
tags. API's within pl/sql package htp/htf were
provided. Some examples are htp.htmlOpen,
htp.htmlClose, htp.headOpen, htp.headClose,
htp.bodyOpen, htp.bodyClose, htp.comment,
htp.base, htp.title, htp.script, htp.formOpen,
htp.formClose, htp.formCheckbox, htp.formText
etc
A pl/sql procedure builds HTML tags, and the
resultantHTML is shown on the browser
Disadvantages Both static/dynamic Content
validations were programmed within the PL/SQL.
Presentation and data were within the same layer
much like java servletsEven the simplest
possible change required changes to PL/SQL Code
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To overcome some of the limitations imposed by
PL/SQL Web Cartridges

• Oracle introduced a metadata concept in form of
  AK Developer
• Item properties like required/prompt/LOV etc
  became configurable
• This meta data was stored in tables. The names of
  these tables begin with AK_
• Reduced the programming effort when making minor
  changes to the application behaviour.

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Brief History of Self Service in EBS, its
evolution and reasons for direction
AK Developer with PL/SQL and other technologies?
In AK Developer Regions and Region Items can be
defined using Screens. ? Important tables in AK
Developer are AK_REGIONS and AK_REGION_ITEMS.?
AK Developer separates Data Layer from
Presentation Layer. ? Regions within the screen
and their fields can be defined using AK
Developer.
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Brief History of Self Service in EBS, its
evolution and reasons for direction
AK Developer with PL/SQL and other
technologiesThere were different subset of
technologies that were used alongside AK
Developer. HRMS with PL/SQL Cartridges, but
referenced AK Metadata iProc with "XML Regions
that were mapped to AK Regions" iStore with JSP
pages that internally used AK Regions as
Metadata.
Disadvantages of using AK Developer Any changes
made to Region Item AK_REGION_ITEMS properties
like Prompt or  Required or Displayed etc
were lost during subsequent patches, as Oracle
patches would reload the AK Definitions with
their changes. Hence implementers had to reapply
the AK developer changes after Oracle patching.
For shared regions, the changes done to
Region/Region Items were globally reflected in
all the screens/responsibilities that reused
those regions/region items.
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So, what was biggest issue with AK Developer?

• Customers would change the Meta Data, only to
  find their changes wiped off when Oracles
  patches re-issued new AK Definitions
• This limitation was overcome by adding few more
  tables to the AK Application. These tables would
  store customers changes

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Brief History of Self Service in EBS, its
evolution and reasons for direction
OA Framework AK Developer as Meta Data
Personalizations in AK A combination of OA
Framework AK Developer. This solution was
delivered by Oracle to overcome the disadvantages
whereby patches undid the AK Developer Changes. 
In this case, personalizations are allowed and
are stored in AK_CUSTOMIZATIONS,
AK_CUSTOM_REGIONS and AK_CUSTOM_REGION_ITEMS.
Hence changes done to Prompt, rendering etc
property were retained during patches/upgrades.
Still there were Limitations and Disadvantages
AK Developer is standalone and is not
integrated with jDeveloper. Hence part of the
design/development happens in jDeveloper and the
rest in AK developer AK is a proprietary
technology Very limited number of item styles
were supported
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• OA Framework with MDS Meta Data Service
  CURRENT TECHNOLOGY
• Regions are created as XML but then loaded into
  Database into JDR tables.
• Oracle made a provision to migrate all the AK
  Definitions to Meta Data Service, that holds the
  structural definition of OA Framework pages into
  database tables
• The meta-data is defined as XML at design time,
  which is latter loaded into JDR tables in the
  database.
• Automatic migration path provided by Oracle to
  migrate AK Regions into JRAD/MDS
• Modules that were migrated from AK to MDS, will
  have profile option FND Migrated To JRAD set
  to Y at Application Level

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OA Framework Current Version

• Advantages
• Completely integrated within jDeveloper for
  design and development purposes.
• MVC Industry Standard Architecture
• Highly extensible architecture

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OA Framework Current Version

• Disadvantages
• Declarative design of screens. What you see is
  not what you get for layout
• No drag and drop for designing layout of the
  Page.
• No out of the box integration with Webservices,
  for example you cant simply drag the Webservice
  control onto the page.
• MDS Meta Data Service is still proprietary.
  Not fully based on Open Standards as yet
• Lot of coding is required, for example in
  Controller class. Screen navigation logic
  integration is neither designed nor visible in
  Business Flowchart style

WELCOME FUSIONWhere these limitations will be
overcome