I have heard that APEX supports REST so I decided to try this out on my SOA CS environment's
DB CS instance. AS per usual, I studiously avoided reading any documentation.
This should be simple, right?
I created a simple table Customers -

Now, as luck would have it I locked my ADMIN APEX user out.
This I fixed as follows -
ssh into the DB CS machine
start sqlplus

conn system/yourPwd@yourSOADB;

alter session set current_schema = APEX_050000;

select user_id, substr(user_name, 1,10), account_locked from wwv_flow_fnd_user;

update APEX_050000.WWV_FLOW_FND_USER

set web_password = 'yourNewPassword'

where user_name = 'ADMIN'

Read the complete article here.

SOA & BPM Partner Community

For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

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Did you know Oracle Linux is used as the underlying operating system for the following appliances?

• Oracle Exadata
• Oracle Exalogic
• Oracle Big Data Appliance
• Oracle Exalytics
• Oracle Database Appliance

Getting trained and certified on Oracle Linux 5 & 6 or Oracle Linux 7 not only expands your skill set; it strengthens your credibility by validating your knowledge.

Learning at your own pace through our Training On Demand offerings gives you unmatched flexibility.

Educating yourself on Linux technologies will help you better understand the Oracle Appliances your organization purchased. Develop your system administration skills by taking recommended Training On Demand courses in these highly sought after technology areas:

Oracle Linux 5 & 6 Training On Demand 

Oracle Linux 5 & 6 System Administration
The Oracle Linux System Administration course covers a range of skills including installation, using the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, configuring Linux services, preparing the system for the Oracle Database, monitoring and troubleshooting.

Oracle Linux 5 & 6 Advanced Administration
This Oracle Linux Advanced Administration training is ideal for experienced administrators who need to learn more about advanced features of Oracle Linux.

You'll learn to configure network and authentication services, implement virtualization technologies to more effectively manage system resources, and deploy new types of file systems to improve performance and increase data integrity, while developing troubleshooting and advanced storage administration skills.

Certification:Oracle Certified Associate, Oracle Linux 5 and 6 System Administrator- 1Z0-100

Certification:Oracle Certified Professional, Oracle Linux 6 System Administrator- 1Z0-105

Oracle Linux 7 Training On Demand Track

Oracle Linux 7: System Administration
This course helps you develop a range of skills, including installation, using the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, configuring Linux services, preparing the system for the Oracle Database, monitoring and troubleshooting. Work with expert Oracle University instructors to develop expertise using this solution to benefit your business.

Oracle Linux 7: Advanced Administration
This training is ideal for experienced administrators who need to learn more about Oracle Linux 7.

You'll learn how to configure networking services and authentication services, implement virtualization technologies to more effectively manage system resources, perform advanced storage administration tasks, implement shared storage technologies, and develop advanced troubleshooting skills.

Oracle Learning Streams - Access the latest Oracle Systems Training Content

Now is the time to subscribe to theOracle Systems Learning Stream.

Hundreds of videos are available 24/7 in one convenient subscription. Get up-to-date information on Oracle Systems and related topics. 

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Pokemon Go surprised the world with incredibly fast adoption rates as people stayed glued to their mobile devices and attempted to catch their favorite "pocket monsters." Although the app was consumer-focused, it raised interesting questions in the enterprise space about how a company might use Augmented Reality (AR) to “catch and retain more customers,” increase learning and engagement, generate more revenue and better ROI, and improve productivity.

This post describes the steps to add AR effects to the Oracle Mobile Self Service app. With the addition of AR in the Oracle Mobile Self Service app, new employees will be able to find such content as an employee handbook in a gamified way. For the purposes of this post, we will add an "onboard" function in the employee dashboard and leverage AR in the "onboard" function.

Firts, watch the video on YouTube to preview the new AR function we will build in this app.

To add AR effect to the app, follow the steps below:

• Prepare your Oracle JET environment and make sure the Oracle Mobile Self Service app is ready

• Install AR plugin

• Create WTC file

• Create ARchitect World

• Add an icon to launch ARchitect World from Oracle Mobile Self Service

• Build the app and test

Prepare your environment

Before adding AR effects to the app, make sure your environment has been set up to develop Oracle JET applications, and is able build mobile applications. Refer to the steps to set up your Oracle JET environment if you haven’t set up this yet.

The Mobile Self Service app is developed with Oracle JET. The source code of the Oracle JET project can be retrieved from the tutorial of the app. You should extract the project file and follow the "Mobile App Setup" section in the tutorial to get your default project code ready. Make sure you can build the mobile app with the default project code.

Install AR plugin

OracleJET leverages Cordova plugins to work with device capabilities. To add AR effects to the app, the first thing you need to do is to install AR plugin to the current Oracle JET project.

We will use Wikitude’s Cordova plugin in this guide.

At the command line, change to the "hybrid" folder in your project. Run the following command to add the plugin.

If you are working with the Android platform, update your Android platform to allow it working with the AR plugin.

Go to the license page in Wikitude, sign up and get your license key for the Wikitude SDK.

Open the downloaded Wikitude plugin under hybrid\plugins\com.wikitude.phonegap.WikitudePlugin, and replace the text ENTER-YOUR-KEY-HERE for the property this._sdkKey in WikitudePlugin.js in line 12.

Try to build the mobile app files again to make sure the Wikitude plugin has been successfully installed without any errors.

Create WTC file

A WTC file is a target collection file that stores the digital footprint of your images that will be recognized by the AR SDK. We will create the WTC file and add the target image to the WTC file, and use the WTC file in our project in the next step.

Log into the Wikitude Target Manager, create a new project and add the image to be recognized by the AR SDK as a target in the project. In our case, we will add the image in the employee welcome letter to the project. Download the WTC file which we will use later in our Oracle JET project.

Create ARchitect World

We will leverage the Client Recognition examples to create the ARchitect world in our app. Source code of the examples can be found on GitHub.

Under the "src" folder in the Oracle JET project, create a folder ‘ar’ and place the ade.js file from the example code to the "ar" folder.

Create the "onboard" folder and place the assets related to this ARchitect world to the "onboard." The final structure should be like this:

The index.html file is the page to be loaded in this ARchitect world. The following three JS files will be loaded in the index.html:

• architect://architect.js

• ../ade.js

• js/onboard.js

We will show three images in the AR layer when the camera recognizes the image in the welcome letter. We will register the WTC file and implement the business logic to create the AR layer in the onboard.js file.

In this demo, we use the WTC file that is created in the previous step.

We will show three images in the AR layer:

• assets/employee-handbook.png

• assets/company-logo.png

• assets/employee-directory.png

For each of the images to be shown, we need to create the image resource and pass it to the AR.ImageDrawable object. The link of the employee handbook image points to the employee handbook document in Oracle Document Cloud Service.

Finally, we pass all the AR.ImageDrawable objects to the AR.Trackable2DObject and specify the name of the image in the WTC file to be recognized.

The full onboard.js file:

Add an icon to launch ARchitect World

We will leverage one of the unused icons in the employee dashboard to launch the ARchitect World created in previous step.

In the ViewModel file of the employee dashboard: src\app\pages\dashboard\dashboard.js, we will create a new variable "app" and load the AR plugin inside the "app" variable.

Add new functions under "app" to load the ARchitect World by URL

Add another function under "self" to call the above function to load the ARchitect World when the icon on the dashboard is clicked.

Add a variable to hold the label value which will be shown in the html page.

In the View file src\app\pages\dashboard\dashboard.html, we will leverage the existing taxforms icon to trigger the "onboard" function. Find the taxforms link in the employeeMenu, replace the existing line with below

Build the app and test

Now we have completed the changes to the code, let’s build the mobile app again and test.

Again, follow the section "Mobile App Setup" in the tutorial of the Oracle Mobile Self Service Solution to build the mobile app files from this Oracle JET project and install on your phone.

Here are the steps for testing:

1)Launch the app and sign in. If you don’t have Oracle Mobile Cloud Service fully configured, check the "Simulate Offline" option in the login page.

2)After login, click on the "Onboard" icon, the ARchitect world is loaded. Now you can scan the image in the welcome letter, the three images you added in the AR layer will be shown.

3)Click on the employee handbook image, it will ask if you want to browse the document in the Oracle Documents Cloud Mobile app or within the browser. If you have the Oracle Documents Cloud Mobile app installed on your phone, you can choose the first option. Otherwise, use the browser to view the document.

You are welcome to check the video we have on YouTube to verify the result. Cheers and enjoy the AR magic!

Oracle versions numbers can be very long.  Complicating matters further, different product families within Oracle use the version hierarchy differently.  This can make it confusing to determine whether a specific product update has been certified with Oracle E-Business Suite.

Oracle Database update numbers can be daunting.  However, it might be reassuring to learn that the fifth-level digit in Oracle Database version is not relevant to E-Business Suite certifications.  In other words, you can apply any database patchsets that have been certified at the fourth-level digit. 

For example, we have certified EBS 12.2 with Database 12.1.0.2. All of the following Oracle Database patchsets will work with EBS 12.2:

• Oracle Database 12.1.0.2.0 (documented certification)
• Oracle Database 12.1.0.2.160419 (April 2016 Database Proactive Bundle Patch)
  
• Oracle Database 12.1.0.2.160719 (July 2016 Database Proactive Bundle Patch)
  

This is sometimes shown in our documentation in either of the following ways:

• Oracle Database 12.1.0.2
• Oracle Database 12.1.0.2.x

The absence of a fifth-digit or the presence of an 'X' in the fifth digit's place means any fifth-digit level updates may be applied to an Oracle Database for EBS 12.2 without requiring a new certification.  This applies to all environments, including test and production environments.

Related Articles

• Which Oracle Access Manager Patchsets Can Be Used with EBS?
• Database 12.1.0.2 Certified with E-Business Suite 12.2 
• Database 12.1.0.2 Certified with E-Business Suite 12.1
• On Database Patching and Support: A Primer for E-Business Suite Users
  

SOA principles drive new focus.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) has been a topic of conversation among IT professionals since before phones got smart and the word cloud referred to something other than airborne water vapor. While the basic concept of SOA hasn’t really changed, perceptions and practices around implementing SOA continue to evolve.

Services are everywhere, and with this burst of cloud, mobile, and API initiatives, SOA couldn’t be in better shape.

Rolando Carrasco,
SOA Principal Architect and Co-Owner, S&P Solutions

To get a sense of how that evolution is playing out among people who work in SOA, I put the following question to the community via an Oracle Technology Network discussion forum: Where is SOA going?

As it happens, three of the most detailed responses came from the authors of the book Oracle API Management 12c Implementation. That’s particularly fitting, given that their book’s general subject matter, API management—always a factor in SOA—has taken on even greater significance as the use of cloud-based services becomes increasingly prevalent in enterprise IT.

Oracle ACE Director Luis Weir, the book’s lead author and the principal architect at HCL Industries, is confident of a solid and rosy future for SOA as an architectural concept. But he thinks how we talk about it is changing.

“SOA has been reborn in the form of ‘digital technologies’ such as IoT [Internet of Things], API management, microservices, and cloud integration solutions,” Weir says.

Among those digital technologies, API management looms large as a connecting thread. In a post on his blog, Weir defines the term API management as “the discipline that governs the software development lifecycle of APIs. It defines the tools and processes needed to build, publish, and operate APIs.” Given that APIs provide the means for connection and interaction between services—in the cloud and elsewhere—the elevated role API management plays in today’s SOA is understandable. Read the complete article here.

SOA & BPM Partner Community

For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

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Effective 1 November 2016, the Oracle Cloud (Fusion) Application update policy is changing.

Please attend this session to learn more about this change and how it will impact your environment management activities.

Date and Time: Wednesday, November 2, 2016; 10:00 – 11:00 AM PT

Lisa joined Oracle at the beginning of 2015, focusing on improvement of operational efficiency related with Oracle’s Cloud Application deployments worldwide. She has overall responsibility for establishing, maintaining, and communicating best practices, standards, and processes related with Oracle Cloud Application Operations. 

Written by Eugene Simos, Expert Oracle University Instructor

Whenever you want to deploy, create and manage Oracle virtual machines deployed to Oracle Cloud Services, you have several interesting options that can ease day-to-day administration and management tasks. 

The most convenient approach is to use the graphical web console, which depending on your own security profile roles, gives you the capability to manage and monitor your Oracle Compute Cloud Service instances and the associated storage and networking resources.

Other tools such as the web services REST API calls, the CLI for Oracle Compute Cloud Services and the opc-init can also be used to create, customize and implement automations on your virtual servers, using the Oracle IAAS infrastructure.

In this article we will use the Oracle Compute Cloud Service CLI to manage a simple IAAS infrastructure.

To run the examples and the provided scripts, you need to have an account for the Oracle Compute Cloud Service infrastructure, and a Linux server where the Oracle Compute Cloud Service CLI will be installed. This is also where you will access your Oracle IAAS services.

I used an OL6.8 virtual box (Linux part) and installed the CLI following these steps:

Download the CLI installation bundle (.zip file) fromhttp://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/cloud/downloads/index.html#opccli

Unzip the CLI installation bundle.

Install the RPM file with yum (as an Linux administrator).

At the end of this yum installation procedure, the CLI is installed on your Linux server.

Some additional settings can be performed on your Linux server to simplify your scripts:

Store the REST API endpoint URL of your Oracle Compute Cloud Service site in an
environment variable named OPC_API

To get the REST API end point, you have to be logged into your Oracle Cloud account with the WebConsole, switch to the service details view, and copy the REST Endoint url from the field shown in the image above.

Store your two-part user name (/Compute-identity_domain/user) in an environment variable named OPC_USER.

In my testing environment, the settings are:

export OPC_API="https://api-z17.compute.em2.oraclecloud.com"

export OPC_USER=/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com

You can store these variables either to your .bash_profile or to a plain text file and use them before launching your scripts.

Store your Oracle Cloud Account password in a plain-text file on your Linux file system.

You can then specify this password file at the command line by using the –p flag. Check that the password file isn't world-readable by changing the permission to 600, otherwise your CLI script will fail:

chmod 600 /full/path/to/password/file

Make sure you have the appropriate roles to execute the CLI scripts (either of these will work):

- Compute_Operations to be able to run all CLI commands

-Compute_Monitor role can run only the get, list, and discover commands

An easy way to check this is to use the Web Console of your Oracle Cloud Account Service, switch to the user view, and then place the cursor over your account. A pop-up window will show the roles associated with your account:

Once these preliminary configuration settings are done, you will be able to use the CLI to create, manage and modify your Oracle Cloud Virtual Machines.

The character # in the following CLI scripts marks a comment:

# First create your ssh keys on your Linux server:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C "Cloud key eugene" -P "" -f "/home/oracle/.ssh/id_rsa" –q

# Add your public ssh key to your Oracle Compute Cloud Service:
oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd add sshkey \
/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/adminkey ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub -f json

Check that they key is uploaded to your account by using the Web Console.

# Retrieve your ssh key on your Linux server:
oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd get sshkey \
/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/adminkey -f json

Create your server(s) by create/upload/start orchestrations.

Orchestrations define attributes and interdependencies of collections of compute, network and storage resources for the Oracle compute Cloud Service.

Orchestrations give you huge administrative flexibility by writing json scripts. When they are uploaded to your Oracle compute Cloud Service account, you can create/start/stop/remove all kinds of Oracle compute resources needed for our IASS infrastructure.

An easy way to start is to create an Oracle Virtual Machine manually, then go to the Orchestration tab of your IAAS Compute services and download the generated json files to your local Linux server, which you can then tailor to fit your new orchestrations.

I have created a simple OL6 server, managed by a master orchestration, which then creates a storage and an associated Oracle image.

My orchestration json files are on my local Linux server; then with the following CLI, I upload them to my account:

# add the orchestration:

oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd \
add orchestration home/oracle/cloud/eugeneOL671_storage.json -f json

oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd \
add orchestration /home/oracle/cloud/eugeneOL671_instance.json -f json

oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd \
add orchestration /home/oracle/cloud/eugeneOL671_master.json -f json

# start the orchestration, creates, and starts my Oracle Linux server:
oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd start orchestration \
/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/eugeneOL671_master -fjson

# monitor the orchestration:
oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd get orchestration \
/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/eugeneOL671_master -F status,description

Then we have to enable network ssh access to our image from the public internet:

# security lists @ firewalls
# create security list

oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd \
add seclist /Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/permitall \
--policy permit --outbound_cidr_policy permit --description 'Permit in both directions'

Check again that this configuration has been created on your Oracle Compute account with the Web Console:

The same result can be obtained by using the CLI as:

# list sec lists
oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd \
list seclist /Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com -F name,policy,outbound_cidr_policy

Then create a security IP list; this is a set of IP addresses or subnets external to the instances that you have to create in your Oracle Cloud Compute account.

This list will be used as a source or a destination when you define access rules (in our case it will be used to provide ssh access from the Linux box – public internet - to the Cloud Compute instance). By default, there are some IP lists predefined, but for the sake of this example, I have explicitly created a public IP range:

# create a security IP list
oracle-compute add seciplist /Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/sshhosts 0.0.0.0/0 \
--description 'ssh hosts for the my cloud instances' -f json

Again, the verification of this setting can be done from the Web Console:

Retrieve the vcable_ID of the cloud instance that you want to add to the security list “permitall”

#
oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd get instance \
/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/eugeneOL671/9a634738-b48a-453b-a082-46301d312833/02c24eee-ec82-426f-8fc7-cea9738a7f51 -F vcable_id

The reply of the command is the vcable_id:
vcable_id
/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/02ec31ea-4189-42f4-a68a-31f240aec227

We will use this value to get the ip of the instance as:

oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd list ipassociation \
/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com \
--vcable /Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/02ec31ea-4189-42f4-a68a-31f240aec227 -f json

Then build a security association list.

A security association is a relationship between a security list and the vcable of an instance.

The vcable is an attachment point to a specific network interface of a cloud compute instance (Virtual machine).

# create a security association between the permittall and our vcable_id server:
oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd add secassociation \
/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/02ec31ea-4189-42f4-a68a-31f240aec227 \
/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/permitall -f json

Create a security rule
This security rule will define network access from a set of external hosts (an IP list) to our cloud instance defined in a security list.

# create a sec rule to let ssh traffic from the Internet to the mycloud seclist'
oracle-compute -p /home/oracle/Cloud_passwd add secrule \
/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/publicssh \
seciplist:/oracle/public/public-internet \
seclist:/Compute-ouopc019/eugene.simos@oracle.com/permitall \
/oracle/public/ssh permit --disabled false \
--description 'Permit ssh traffic from the Internet to the mycloud seclist' -f json

Again, check the creation of this setting within the Web Console:

And the last step is to connect to your Oracle Cloud instance from your Linux box to a predefined opc account using your private ssh key:

Conclusion:

By following a few simple steps, you can create, configure and start a cloud instance by using simple scripting tools. 

To learn more about the above process, register for this 3-day course:

Oracle Cloud IaaS: Compute and Storage Fundamentals

If there is no classroom training scheduled near you, try Oracle University's Live Virtual Class format. You can attend from anywhere with an internet connection.

Next: in future posts, I will demonstrate the ability to configure and distribute software using Chef-Solo configurations.

About the Author

Eugene Simos is based in France and joined Oracle through the BEA-Weblogic Acquisition, where he worked for the Professional Service, Support and Education for major accounts across the EMEA Region. He worked in the banking sector, ATT and Telco companies giving him extensive experience on production environments. Eugene currently specializes in Oracle Fusion Middleware, teaching an array of courses on Weblogic/Webcenter, Content,BPM /SOA/Identity-Security/GoldenGate/Virtualisation/Unified Comm Suite) throughout the EMEA region.

Customers frequently ask whether Oracle E-Business Suite is certified with the FIPS standards. 

The Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 140-2 defines US Federal standards for cryptographic-based security systems.  FIPS Publications are issues by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

From our Oracle E-Business Suite Security FAQ (Note 2063486.1)

The cryptographic modules in Oracle E-Business Suite currently cannot be considered FIPS certified. Some elements of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 technology stack have been FIPS certified; however, some of the cryptographic libraries that are used by Oracle E-Business Suite have not been FIPS certified. Additionally, some of the cryptographic libraries that have been FIPS certified have had patches issued since certification, which technically takes them out of compliance.

Specifically, the cryptographic libraries that Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) uses for SSL/TLS traffic were FIPS certified. However, there have been a variety of security and non-security related patches in that area that technically take it out of compliance, and it has not been recertified since those patches have been issued. Oracle E-Business Suite also makes use of other cryptographic libraries for variety of usages that have not been FIPS certified.  Oracle does not currently plan to certify all of the cryptographic libraries currently used by Oracle E-Business Suite.

For anyone interested in exploring Oracle JET for both web AND hybrid mobile application development, I recently published two articles on Dzone which you may find helpful in getting started:

• Installing Oracle JET for JavaScript Web Development 
  
• Installing Oracle JET for Hybrid-Mobile Application Development
  

Of course this isn't the only way to start with JET, and we highly recommend you take the chance to check out the free MOOC, the next scheduled online course will be available 14th November 2016.

Separate to the MOOC we hope you find the articles useful as a written narrative in compliment to the online training (in other words you prefer reading over watching ;-)

Happy JETing!

The November edition of the PaaS & Middleware Partner Update contains three key topics:

• Community Resources
• Managed Service Provider Partner Program
• SOA & BPM Partner Community Webcasts November 29^th 2016

For regular updates please subscribe to our YouTube channel here. For the latest SOA & BPM Partner Community information please visit our Community update wiki here (Community membership required)

SOA & BPM Partner Community

For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

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Please join us for the monthly Oracle Cloud Platform Partner Webcast Series that will keep you up to date with the Oracle Cloud Platform strategy, product offerings and go-to-market programs specifically for partners.

Oracle Poduct Management gives partners the latest information on Cloud Services availbale in the PaaS area.

You can check-out the Webcast Replays right hand tab for the past webcasts recordings and presentations.

The Oracle Management Cloud 2017 Implementation Essentials (1Z1-500) exam is designed for individuals who demonstrate the knowledge to architect and implement Oracle Management Cloud services.

This certification is available to all candidates but is geared toward members of the Oracle PartnerNetwork. OPN members earning this certification will be recognized as OPN Certified Specialists. This certification qualifies as competency criteria for the Oracle Management Cloud 2017 Specialization.

Request a discounted beta voucher via the OPN Beta Certified Specialist Exam Voucher Request Form and take the exam until December 17, 2016!

Oracle Profitability & Cost Management Cloud (PCMCS) is now generally available.

This latest addition to Oracle’s EPM Cloud delivers a comprehensive allocation solution designed to be owned by business users.

PCMCS addresses critical business processes such as product/customer/market profitability, shared service allocations, IT service costing and chargeback, management allocations, cost transparency, and transfer pricing.

The solution improves financial decision making, empowers business users with flexibility, and creates a culture of profitability & accountability.

Written by Christopher Cole, Oracle University

Change is everywhere: from gadgets to job roles to work skills.

We’re living the fourth industrial revolution - and that means the skills we use now in the workplace are not necessarily the skills we’ll need in the future.

To adapt to this change, adults need to go one step further and develop knowledge that equips them to deal with the challenges of our time.

Growing digitalization demands new skills and competences from employees, citizens and even consumers.

What is Adult Learning?

Adult learning is defined as the entire range of formal, non-formal and informal learning activities which are undertaken by adults after a break since leaving initial education and training, and which results in the acquisition of new knowledge and skills.

It will pay off in the long-term from many perspectives: for competitiveness, well-being, healthy populations, growth and more.

Who Are the Adult Learners?

Adult learners are a diverse group – typically age 25 and older – with a wide range of educational and cultural backgrounds, adult responsibilities and job experiences. They often return to school to stay competitive in the workplace or prepare for a career change.

And they usually study on a part-time basis, taking one or two training courses per term, while maintaining work and family responsibilities.

According to Eduventures’ Adult Learners Survey, the interest in conventional higher education is edging downward and the interest in alternative credentials is growing.

More adults are questioning the higher education value proposition - particularly the return on investment for online and other adult-friendly features.

Furthermore, survey insights reveal the need for new and innovative strategies to reengage the adult learner market and improve adult student completion rates.

Education providers should consider three important trends in adult education:

1. Students seek a balance between online and campus-based learning.

2. There is a significant increased interest in non-degree programs.

3. Cheaper and faster programs are not enough anymore.

Despite the commodity and the lack of time, adults have shown little enthusiasm for wholly online programs.

While many adults value the convenience and flexibility of online delivery, the mix of delivery mode preferences among adult prospects between the ages of 25 and 54 is much more complex.

Delivery mode preferences converge for prospects between the ages of 25 and 34, among whom no single method dominates.

When asked what would increase the interest in returning to school, adults put great value on lower tuition and fees, job placement services, and self-paced programs.

The Rise of Non-Degree Programs

Interest in non-degree options is coming strong from behind, with an increase of nearly 10% since 2013. Almost one-third of prospective adult students would now consider enrolling in non-degree courses or programs.

These programs should reflect adult learners’ top preferences, as they require less time and are more immediately applicable to the job market. Many prospects find such elements valuable because they allow them to advance their skills and knowledge without the time and expense of degree programs.

All adults should invest in improving their skills to stay relevant in the face of change - investing in technical training and certifications is increasingly important.

In today’s fast-changing global IT environment, the most important investment is in oneself.

Oracle and Java Certifications are among the highest paying IT credentials according to recent studies, enabling students to obtain a higher level of service, updated, in-demand skills and current knowledge and a great higher earning power.

Job experience, coupled with an Oracle Certification, demonstrates skill and proficiency in the industry and sets adults on the path to a better and more rewarding career.

Since adult learners place a higher value on career advancement and choose learning opportunities closely designed to meet their schedules, they will access a broader marketplace of learning opportunities than prior generations.

Their decisions about what to study, when, and how will be less influenced by the attraction of traditional degrees from traditional providers.

Explore how organizations like Oracle University offer adult learners the experience and knowledge they need to be successful through new types of training and certification.

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I recently had the opportunity to see version 12.2.1 of Oracle's SOA Suite in action--and I can say it offers some very nice features that we developers have been waiting for. These features will make our lives much easier, especially when working with Cloud integrations, using REST and locating failures in BPEL instances.

These are some of the new features:

1. JavaScript support for SOA Composites and OSB Pipelines. Besides REST support for OSB and BPEL (which comes from a previous version), now we have a JavaScript activity for BPEL flows and another one for OSB Pipeline components. With this activity it is possible to handle payload with native and custom functions of this language without converting from JSON to XML (i.e., we are able to create REST BPEL orchestrations and OSB flows using JSON and work with this structure in a natural way with JavaScript). You can read more about using JavaScript in SOA Composites in the well-explained and complete article found here: https://technology.amis.nl/2015/11/02/soa-suite-12-2-1-a-first-look-at-end-to-end-json-and-javascript-support-in-soa-composites/.
2. XSLT Mapping Debug. XSLT transformations now have debug functionality. We can set breakpoints to check a function's input and output data at runtime. This feature is available for applications deployed in local and remote servers, and for BPEL and Mediator components as well as for OSB projects.
3. Oracle Integration Continuous Availability. This complete solution comprises a set of SOA Suite operative functionality, including diagnosis, performance, availability, scalability among other operative aspects. Its main purpose is to provide tools and capabilities to solve issues arising from failures and improve our implementations. The following are part of this group:

In-Memory SOA. When we create a BPEL in JDev, a new tab called In-Memory SOA lets us choose from three persistence options: immediate, deferred and faulted. This functionality uses Coherence cache associated with WebLogic Server to run non-transactional short-running BPEL processes in-memory. This helps improve performance, lighten the DB job and make its maintenance easier. State data is stored and read from Coherence cache according to the option we choose: Read the complete article here.

SOA & BPM Partner Community

For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

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