Category Archives: General

All things general

Oracle Fusion Applications Development and Extensibility Handbook Chapters 5 & 6

31 Monday Mar 2014

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Continuing with the review of Oracle Fusion Applications Development and Extensibility Handbook (Oracle Press) into Chapters 5 & 6. We start to be taken into a lot more detail on the different types of customisation. Chapters 5 & 6 looks at the page composer capabilities. Chapter 6, specifically focuses on CRM because of the differences it has, although the core principles are the same and chapter 5, tends to be look at it for everything else. For non CRM solutions the users get a limited Page Composer capability, and Administrators get a more powerful level of capabilities in the form of being able to control what information is hidden or presented. The fact that the book identifies the differences in behaviour between the likes of the  HCM and Financials etc is of serious credit to the authors as it requires a lot of effort to check and verify such differences.

The chapters although following the previous ones providing a breadth of coverage also now dive into some detailed step by step examples of customisation. The examples don’t cover every possible type of customisation, but a good example from each area for example adding details to a form and re-arrange form layout and labelling through to changing the navigation menus.  My only small criticism is that there is no clear statement about the start state (i.e. which components are deployed and their initial configuration, is there any prior data needing to be loaded etc). For me at least, I tend to look at the step by step guides as being comparable to the detail necessary to manually run test scenarios. That said, this shortcoming isn’t the end of the world and I’m sure with a standard deployment of the fusion apps to hand to experiment with you should be able follow achieve the points being demonstrated even if you have to err away from the precise actions described.

The CRM Fusion Application appears to have a lot more capability within the Composer approach to extensions with ability to develop scripts using Groovy and ADF Business Components. The definition of event triggers, simple workflows and user alerts via the likes of email.

I had hoped that the chapters would perhaps touch upon internationalisation and localisation (e.g. making labels language specific, currency presentation) but checking the Oracle documentation this is a development (JDeveloper) style activity – so I’m sure that the next chapters will address as they look at customisation from a JDeveloper perspective.

Over all a well written pair of chapters managing to walk that fine line of providing breadth of information whilst still going into enough detailed depth for you to understand what is involved in implementing these customisations.

 

See earlier chapter reviews at:

Oracle Fusion Applications Development and Extensibility Handbook Chapters 3 & 4

23 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Books, General, Oracle, Technology

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Continuing with the review of Oracle Fusion Applications Development and Extensibility Handbook (Oracle Press) I’m going to look at chapters 3 & 4. Chapter 3 looks at the different types of Flex Fields from the well known Dynamic Flexfields (DFF) and the more advanced EFFs and KFFs (different ways to provide more advanced flex values such as linking other tables of data).

The book describes briefly the steps to utilise many of the capabilities with some screenshots but don’t mistake this for a detailed key this value followed by click that button combined with screenshots of every step for all aspects (if you did that we’d probably trying to read 5000 pages not 500). So if you want to see and feel all the different aspects explained you will need to have an instance of Fusion apps to try the techniques out with. For me, this is no bad thing, I want to understand what the capabilities are and a sense of the effort and complexity involved – if I want to have blow by blow guide I’d turn to OTN and the tutorial video clips being made available everyday by Oracle on YouTube.

The book also recognises not all strategies are available with all Fusion apps and what can therefore be done. Either by implementing the capability yourself, or asking Oracle to prioritise feature development in the Fusion apps domain.

Unusually rather than continuing with customisation capabilities in Chapter 4 we look at Security. This is no bad thing as if you want to achieve security in depth you need to understand how it can be incorporated at every level as you go rather than as an after thought at the end. But as you go through this chapter you’ll see just how central the security framework is to working with Fusion Apps.

The security perspective comes primarily from an authentication and authorisation (A&A) perspective so bringing in OAM and OID along with related tooling (including APM which is a central tool for Fusion Apps Security). The A&A framework provides an advanced hierarchy of roles and permissions as the capability to integrate extensions with it. The book again provides a solid foundation on which you can build specific implementation understanding.  Security comes in two forms – functional (i.e. restricting access to Fusion app capabilities) and data (which records a user can or cant see). The fascinating aspect for me is the data view because the different organisational possibilities that can influence the data you can or can’t see – for example by value, by internal organisational structures such as departments, by suppliers/partners/customers and so on (Oracle use the terminology of sets).

Security considerations go beyond just managing major roles, but how to autoprovision users (i.e. I create an OID entry for a new employee – how to provide them with a standard set of credentials). How to interact with Fusion Apps at the web service level from inside or outside the secured FusionApps environment.

As with Chapter 3, there are illustrations on how to establish some security settings and leverage security for your own development, but not in an exhaustive click by click manner.

Both chapters, particularly Chapter 4 introduce the ideas and approaches in a succinct manner explaining both the more well known concepts but also the more advanced capabilities along with identifying some common challenges and how they can be overcome (through the provision of tooling or technique for diagnosis).

So far this has been the best introduction to Fusion Applications I have come across.

Enterprise Security – A Data Centric Approach to Securing the Enterprise – A Slight Return

13 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by in Books, General, mindmap, Technology

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A while back I reviewed the excellent book Enterprise Security: A Data-Centric Approach to Securing the Enterprise.  I had mentioned that I would in due course make a mindmap available based on my reading of the book as I use mindmaps as a memory jog when I need to go back to referencable material.

Well I have made by first cut of the mind map – which can be found with my shared mindmaps here. I shall be updating it and adding details, so it is worth checking back.

As WordPress prevents embedding iframes – I can only offer an image here – but the mindmap toolsite provides a fully interactive view to the mindmap.

Oracle Fusion Applications Development and Extensibility Handbook – review Chapters 1 & 2

13 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by in Books, General, Oracle, Technology

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So I’ve got through the first couple of chapters of Oracle Fusion Applications Development and Extensibility Handbook (Oracle Press). The book starts with a presumption of minimal knowledge so the first chapter provides an excellent high level overview on the framework and assembly of Fusion Applications and some of the principles such as Weblogic node management. Although an appreciation of non Fusion Apps will give you a sense of some ideas such as Flexfields would be useful at this stage, but they are explained in a lot more depth later on.

Chapter 2 moves onto the different kinds of customisation that can be performed and how those customisations are achieved from user configuration through to tools in the Fusion Apps and onto JDeveloper and the Fusion Apps libraries. The interesting thing is that all though it is clear a lot of work has gone into managing the dev and test cycles on a shared Fusion Apps platform including potential change conflict management there seems to be little for direct linkage or built in configuration management.

In terms of a book, it has started very well, providing a sense of over all shape of Fusion Apps in a very readable and informative  manner.  I think this is going to be a informative & easy read.

Oracle Fusion Apps at Google

TOGAF Mindmap

11 Tuesday Mar 2014

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Following yesterday’s post, I thought I’d share a mindmap that was useful with the TOGAF stuff …

TOGAF Mindmap

To use a friendly readable & navigable version of the mind map click on the image or here.

This is one of a number of mind maps I have made available through a SaaS mindmapping tool now.

TOGAF Certification – Passing on the Helpful Tips

10 Monday Mar 2014

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Having successfully become certified with TOGAF 9. I thought it would be good to share some hints, tips and observations that have helped me along the way.  So as you may know the exam is conducted through multiple choice – but that simple examination approach should not give a false sense of ease – because a lot of the options will sound right (until you understand the exact technical meanings).

  • Training course or not to training course, that is the question? Personally I wouldn’t taken on the exam without the training – the TOGAF full text runs to 1000 pages. The course for me at least gave 1000 foot view, an some insight from practitioners and the 1st set of suggestions on preparing for the exam.
  • One of the key points I picked up is the terminology and language is very important. Understand the key terms and read questions very carefully and a lot of information will standout. As I was told when on the training, it is surprisingly common for the right answer to often be the longest textual answer because it is being semantically accurate.
  • Books – well I’d suggest that the full TOGAF® Version 9.1 manual is a desk reference for whilst practicing TOGAF. To get the exam under your belt read TOGAF® 9 Foundation Study Guide you will need to pretty much need to know this stuff cover to cover. Although the guide is Foundation stage – it will get you a long way and you can add additional knowledge from the TOGAF® Version 9.1 A Pocket Guide
  • From these guides you need to know the ADM itself, including the steps in each phase, what the techniques are for and why you might use them (things like gap analysis etc).
  • The study guide has mock stage 1 exams, and each section also has practice questions – take advantage of them. The questions are stylistically pretty good, although in hindsight perhaps erring of the easier side, and the mock exam questions got progressively harder in my opinion.  But the real exam for me, question 1 was a real curve ball.
  • There are other sources of mock questions (including other books) – I found the mock exams at http://theopenarch.com/ helpful.  After each mock exam, I reviewed the answers that I got wrong to try and understand why they are wrong – which helped me identify any areas of reading I was weak on.
  • Read the questions very carefully, there are sometimes indicators as the right answer in the question. Also watch for things like, not what answer in A-E is right, but which one is wrong.
  • Timing – 60 minutes for 40 questions in part 1 doesn’t sound like very long – particularly given the advise of take your time read the questions very carefully. But actually, you’ll find once you’ve got a handle on a chunk of the study guide you’ll find you can rip through some of the questions very quickly giving you time to think carefully about the questions that aren’t so easy – the exam also has means by which you can go back and review questions if you want.
  • For the harder questions, in part 1 I ended up writing A-E on the paper and crossing off the answers I could eliminate. That made it easier (for me at least) to then focus on dissecting the 1 or 2 possible options left. In part 2, I applied a similar approach – part 2 is more about which phase(s) do I need to use and what are the steps. So I took each possible answer and wrote on paper what phase(s) then answer needed and then went through each answer option teasing out the terminology for the different steps (and the phases they originated from). The option with the most steps from the correct phase, appear to give me the best or second best answers.
  • Part 1 is closed book, but part 2 you are meant to be able to refer to the TOGAF material – for me the link to the TOGAF reference failed.  So best not to bank on having it available.

Aside all of this there are classic exam suggestions – give yourself time to get to the exam location – a calm composed mind is crucial for this.  Try and rush through this and you’re potentially facing a disaster. Make sure you have all the information the test centre requires (id’s etc) – one less stress.  Travel light as you wont be able to take anything into the test room. Finally, try and get into ‘the zone’ and roll with the blows dont let the process of taking the exams stress you.  I thought I’d scrapped through stage 1, and flunked stage 2 – but discovered I came through with reasonably good scores.

Spotting an audiophile with 1 question

26 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by in General, Music

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I recently changed my car, and in the process of sorting all the various things out (removing CDs etc from my previous car) lead me to a thinking about a question I have seen often mentioned in music blogs, biographies and other books.  That simple question ‘When you get a new bit of audio kit, do you have a specific album that’s at be played first?’  That audio kit could be simply a car stereo or iPod through to some audiophile exotica (go look at marvels such as http://www.michell-engineering.co.uk/turntables/gyrodec/ or http://www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/Speakers/Home_Audio/Nautilus/Overview.html and these are still relatively tame).

By know you’re either reading this going – what planet are you on, or mug you can’t tell the difference between £100 and £1000 piece of stereo, or perhaps a knowing response of  yes it’s xyz album.  If you’re response is the later, then you’re probably at least a self confessed audiophile.  So, you have the question, and I’m sure if you ask it unless you’re a known audiophile basher (middle response above) you’ll probably get the appropriate response every time.

The fascinating thing is that the album concerned doesn’t necessarily reflect a persons’ taste; it might even be a recording that particularly exercises a HiFi in a manner that shows off its strengths or reveal audio weaknesses (every audiophile will have a few albums they like to use to test a bit of kit with) but most likely something like the first album played on the first bit of proper HiFi.  So for me, it is a rather uncool Mike Oldfield QEII.  It was one of the first CDs I purchased and played on my 1st vaguely ok HiFi.  I still love the album for the swooping guitar work, diverse musical styling. But I’d not suggest it is reflective of my musical taste which which is very wide, but with a strong deference to Alt Rock/Americana these days.

Before I risk getting flamed out by audiophiles about associating CD with quality – yes I do have vinyl and a well respected turntable.  For those at the other end, I’m not audiophile zealot – I do have an iPod  (a 80GB classic as it happens which is perpetually full) & the name MP3Monster is not without reason.  Right playback for the right conditions  – MP3 on the move, CD for day to day and those rare quiet moments just occasionally the vinyl gets out. But always music.

Next book review – Oracle Fusion Applications

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

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The next book up for review is going to be Oracle Fusion Applications Development and Extensibility Handbook (Oracle Press)

I have to declare a slight interest in my reviewing as I have had the good fortune to work with one of the authors- Vladimir Ajvaz; and extremely knowledgeable and talented Application Architect.

Oracle Fusion Applications

Enterprise Security – A Data Centric Approach – A brief review

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

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So I have previously blogged a series of largely chapter by chapter reviews of Aaron Woody’s book Enterprise Security – A Data Centric Approach. This post tries to provide a brief summarised view pulling my thoughts of the book overall together.

As an Enterprise Architect I took an interest in this book as an opportunity to validate my understanding of security and ensure in the design and guidance work that I do I am providing good insights and directions so that the application architects and developers are both ensuring good security practices and also asking the helpful information available to other teams such as IT Security, operational support and so on.

The book has been overall very well written and extremely accessible to even those not versed in the dark arts of IT Security. Anyone in my position, or fulfilling a role as an application designer or product development manager would really benefit from this book. Even those on the business end of IT would probably benefit in terms of garnering an insight into what IT Security should be seeking to achieve and why they often appear to make lives more difficult (I.e. putting restrictions in, perhaps blocking your favourite websites).

So why so helpful, well Aaron has explained the issues and challenges that need to be confronted in terms of Security from the perspective of the organisations key assets – mainly its data (certainly the asset that is likely to cause most visible problems if compromised). Not only that the book presents a framework to help qualify and quantify the risks as a result device a justifiable approach to securing the data and most importantly make defensible cases for budget spend.

I have to admit that the 1st chapter that that introduces the initial step in the strategy was a bit of a struggle as it seemed to adopt and try to define a view of the world that felt a little too simplistic. The truth is that this the 1st step in a journey, and in hindsight important – so stick with it.

Once the basic framework is in place we start looking at tooling strategies and technologies to start facilitating security. The book addresses categories of product rather than specific solutions so the book isn’t going to date too quickly. The solution examination includes the pros and cons of their use (e.g wifi lock down) which is very helpful.

Finally to really help the book comes with a rich set of appendices providing a raft of references to additional material that will help people translate principles into practice.

To conclude, a little effort maybe needed to get you started but ultimately a well written, informative, information rich book on security.

Previous blog entries:

There is also a supporting website for the book athttp://www.datacentricsec.com/
Enterprise Security - A Data Centric Approach

Enterprise Security – A Data Centric Approach – the final chapter

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

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so I have reached the final chapter of the book which covers the handling of security events and security incidents (the differentiation of the two being the consequences of the event – a piece of malware being detected on a desktop can an event as the consequences are relatively trivial compared to the defacing of an e’tailer’s website).

I have to admit I glossed through this chapter as my role within an organisation doesn’t demand the operational management of issues. That said, the book provides some clear guidance on how to develop a process to support the handling of a security issue – important as you don’t want be figuring these things out when something happens, you want to get on and focus on execution. s with previous chapters, this well written and doesn’t demand knowledge of security dark arts to get to grips with.

The book finishes with a series of appendices which provides some illustrative information for chapters in the book, plus a series of appendices of really useful additional reference information sites cover a spectrum of information from security education resources to security tools.

This series of blogs on this book will wrapped up with a short review of the whole book. But I would like to congratulate Aaron Woody on a fine book rich with helpful additional information.

Previous blog entries:

There is also a supporting website for the book athttp://www.datacentricsec.com/
Enterprise Security - A Data Centric Approach