Oracle's Lifetime Support policy has three phases:  Premier Support, Extended Support, and Sustaining Support.  For details about coverage during each phase, see:

• Oracle Lifetime Support Policies 

You can purchase a support plan for your licensed products to obtain Premier Support.  There is an additional fee for Extended Support. 

Extended Support for Database 11.2 runs to December 31, 2020. The Extended Support fee for Oracle Database 11gR2 11.2 has been waived to December 31, 2018.  See:

• Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1)

Related Articles

• 11.2.0.4 Database Certified with E-Business Suite 11i, 12.0, 12.1
• Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 Certified with E-Business Suite 12.2
• Reminder: Error Correction Support Ended for Database 11.2.0.3

Introduction

In previous articles in this series, I have discussed some of the ways in which you can extend or override the Composite Component Framework. These include the overriding of lifecycle method callback names (not recommended) and custom property parsing (very useful). Additionally, of course you have the lifecycle methods themselves as a place to carry out the internal operations of your Composite Components. This all adds up to a pretty rich working environment, but the addition of the custom metadata capability really completes this story. In this article, I'll be looking at how to define and work with extended metadata.

Defining Custom Metadata in the Composite Component Architecture

We have already seen how the definition metadata can contain information above and beyond that which is strictly required for runtime use. The description property and method parameter properties are examples of this. The intention of course being that consumers of the Composite Component can receive a richer description of the component. However, even those "Design Time" attributes may not be enough and so the framework also supports an extension mechanism.

Additional metadata of your own can be introduced anywhere within the Composite Component metadata definition (e.g. its JSON file) using the property extension. The value of this property can be defined as a complex object in it's own right allowing you to define an unlimited amount of ancillary information on top of the base API.

Here's an example of metadata with some extensions added:

      {
        "name" : "ccdemo-meter-reader",
        "version" : "1.0.0",
        "jetVersion" : ">=2.3.0",
        "extension": {
          "author" : "Duncan Mills",
          "license": "MIT"
        }
        "properties" : {
          "fromMonth" : {
            "description" : "Start of display range",
            "type" : "date",
            "extension": {
              "validate" : {
                "type" : "range""minValue" : 1,
                "maxValue" : 12
              }
            }
          },
          "utility" : {
            "description" : "gas | electricity",
            "type" : "string",
            "extension" : {
              "validate" : {
                "type" : "enumeration""values" : ['gas','electricity']
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    

 The Composite Component framework itself, will do nothing with these extension properties after the metadata is parsed. Any functionality (such as the range and enum checking that I've illustrated here) is a task for the component author¹, or exists to help some design time tool that you develop in-house to use the extension.

By design, there are currently no prescribed set of attributes for any extension metadata that you define. You have total freedom as to how you use the facility, however, be aware that some further evolution and standardization of CCA metadata will be taking place over the next few releases of JET. So you should certainly keep an eye on the release notes for changes in this area,

Accessing the Extended Metadata

Just being able to extend the metadata definition without being able to read it again afterwards would not be very useful. Therefore, framework provides two ways to access the metadata including any extension information that you have supplied:

1. From a Custom Property Parser - as I discussed in Part X, one of the attributes passed to any custom parser that you register, is the metadata for the property being parsed. This would provide a convenient place to read the extension metadata as defined for that property and use it, for example, providing a validation mechanism as illustrated here. You only see property metadata here though, not the whole metadata defintion.
2. From oj.Composite - the oj.Composite object provides a static method called getMetadata() to retreive the whole metadata object for the Composite Component. This takes the name of the component (the same one passed to the oj.Composite.register() function) and returns a promise to the resolved metadata object. Because this function is both static and external to the Composite Component, it can be used both within the component itself or by external entities such as Design Time tooling that wishes to introspect the component. Note that the component has (of course) to be loaded / registered before it can be described by this API².

Don't Forget to Standardize!

It's all very well having the freedom to extend the CCA metadata in pretty much any way that you want. However, you want to be consistent in how you approach this task. Keep in mind that the CCA is constantly evolving and more standard metadata will be added as new releases arrive. So you should be prepared to revisit your use of metadata with each release and migrate any custom definitions to the standardized ones. This will ensure maximum compatibility with any tooling that reads the metadata. You should also never add custom attributes directly to the JSON outside of the extension property buckets. This will ensure that you don't inadvertently add a property which might clash with a future feature property added by the framework. The extension properties are your "safe zone", stick to adding value there. Furthermore, I would recommend that you namespace your extension metadata within the extension object, for example: 

"extension" : {
  "acme" : {
    "extensionProp1":"Some Value"
  }
}

What's Next?

We're almost done with the core technology aspects of the Composite Component Architecture, in the next article I wrap that all up with some of the more advanced topics around the loader script and registration process.

CCA Series Index

1. Introduction
2. Your First Composite Component - A Tutorial
3. Composite Conventions and Standards
4. Attributes, Properties and Data
5. Events
6. Methods
7. The Lifecycle
8. Slotting Part 1
9. Slotting Part 2
10. Custom Property Parsing
11. Metadata Extensibility

Stream Analytics platform provides a compelling combination of an easy-to-use visual façade to rapidly create and dynamically change Real Time Streaming Analytics (Fast Data) applications, together with a comprehensive run-time platform to manage and execute these solutions. Completely abstracting the entire development and deployment processes, it simplifies the rapid creation of event driven applications for any type of real time business solution, enabling the Enterprise to really immerse itself in next generation real time applications, with times to market of minutes, rather than days or weeks.
Oracle Stream Analytics embraces an industry focus approach with features to leverage preexisting patterns of well known event processing implementations, the definition of Streams that represent the connection to the most popular protocols and methodologies, References which allow immediate joining of streaming data to relational databases and Explorations that provide a stunning visual representation of real time disparate event data flows providing customers with insightful data interrogation in real-time so that downstream applications, service oriented architectures and event-driven architectures are driven by true, real-time intelligence.
Oracle Stream Analytics provides organizations with a complete “top-down” solution for designing, defining, developing and implementing Event Stream Processing applications that not only meet business requirements but perform to the highest levels of the enterprise expectation. Built on the latest industry-standards including ANSI SQL, Java, Spring DM and OSGi, the Oracle Stream Analytics Event Processing runtime component provides an open architecture for sourcing, processing, and publishing complex events throughout the enterprise.  Now together with this ease-of-use web tooling and a visual development environment, as well as standard Java-based tooling, this ensures that your IT and line of business teams can be developing event-driven applications without the hurdle of specialized training or unique skill-set investment. Read the complete article here.

OA & 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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Oracle's Lifetime Support policy has three phases:  Premier Support, Extended Support, and Sustaining Support.  For details about coverage during each phase, see:

• Oracle Lifetime Support Policies 

You can purchase a support plan for your licensed products to obtain Premier Support.  There is an additional fee for Extended Support. 

Premier Support for Database 12.1 runs to July 31, 2018. Extended Support for Database 12.1 runs to July 31, 2021. The Extended Support fee for Oracle Database 12c 12.1 has been waived to July 31, 2019.  See:

• Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1)

Related Articles

• Database 12.1.0.2 Certified with E-Business Suite 12.1
  
• Database 12.1.0.2 Certified with E-Business Suite 12.2
  

Introduction

Just to complete the core set of technical articles on the CCA, before I move onto the more use-case driven topics, I wanted to revisit the loader script. Recall that way back in Part II of the series I mentioned that the the loader script was mostly boilerplate and unchanging apart from the injected script names? Well that's certainly mostly true, but there are some tweaks and advanced options to discuss before we can say that the topic is totally complete. So here I want to look at three things:

1. Custom property parsing
2. Options for Register Configuration Properties
3. Loading remote modules

Custom Property Parsing

One of the advanced capabilities of the loader script is to supply a custom parsing function for properties as part of the oj.Composite.register(...) call. I've included a mention of it for completeness, however, it was the subject of a whole article on it's own, so if you need to learn about this, jump back to Part X to read all about it.

Options for Register Configuration Properties

If we look at a typical loader script, you will note that the various configuration properties for the composite are marked with inline here for example is the one that I've been using throughout this series for the ccdemo-name-badge component.

      define(
        ['ojs/ojcore',
         './ccdemo-name-badge',
         'text!./ccdemo-name-badge.html',
         'text!./ccdemo-name-badge.json',
         'css!./ccdemo-name-badge',
         'ojs/ojcomposite'],
         function (oj, ComponentModel, view, metadata, css) {
         'use strict';
            oj.Composite.register('ccdemo-name-badge',
              {
                  metadata: {inline: JSON.parse(metadata)},
                  viewModel: {inline: ComponentModel},
                  view: {inline: view},
                  css: {inline: css}
              });
         }
      );

        css: {inline : 'ccdemo-name-badge:not(.oj-complete){visibility: hidden;}'}
    

    define(
      ['ojs/ojcore',
       'plugins/ModelFactory''ojs/ojcomposite'],
       function (oj, factory) {
       'use strict';
          var metadata = {"name" : "ccdemo-name-badge",
                          "version" : "1.0.0",
                           ...};
          var viewHTML = '<div><h2>Test Composite</h2>...';
          var css = 'ccdemo-name-badge:not(.oj-complete){visibility: hidden;}';
          oj.Composite.register('ccdemo-name-badge',
            {
                metadata: {inline: metadata},
                viewModel: {inline: factory.makeModel()},
                view: {inline: viewHTML},
                css: {inline: css}
            });
       }
    );

The use of factories for creating the viewModels and views may be the most likely type of deviation from the standard pattern. To help support this further, the register() API configuration properties can also be provided as {promise:...} as an alternative to {inline:...}. As you would expect, this instructs the CCA that the value for the property is supplied as a promise and internally it will wait for the promise to resolve before the registration is completed. So for example we might use the requireJS require() API to load a view from some dynamic location ¹:

  var viewPromise = new Promise( function(resolve, reject){
    var viewLocation = '/js/random/';
    require(['text!' + viewLocation + 'ccdemo-name-badge.html'],
            function(resolvedView){
              resolve(resolvedView);
            };);
    });
    oj.Composite.register('ccdemo-name-badge',
      {
          metadata: {inline: JSON.parse(metadata)},
          viewModel: {inline: ComponentModel},
          view: {promise: viewPromise},
          css: {inline: css}
      });

Remote Module Loading

On the subject of the loading of component constituents, ie the view, viewModel etc., we need to think about the case where loading is remote to the consuming application.

As a matter of course, your loader script (e.g. ccdemo-name-badge/loader.js in my case) should load all of it's resources using relative paths in the loader define block. This is what we have been doing all along. By sticking to relative paths in the loading, the only requireJS configuration needed on the part of the consumer is to define the home / root location of the Composite Component.

Right? Well almost. That's fine if the Composite Component has been sucked into the consuming application codebase. If you wanted to load the Composite Component from a remote location, however, for example a CDN, then here is one additional piece of configuration for the consumer. This is actually nothing to do with the CCA per say, but rather relates to the default behavior of requireJS when loading from separate origins ². By default, the requireJS text plugin will, as a security measure, not allow resources (such as the view and metadata) to be fetched. Only .js files will work from a different origin.

To fix this is a simple configuration task in the requireJS configuration of the consuming application. The configuration for the text plugin should define a useXhr function to return true for the source server for the CCA.

Here's an example requireJS configuration for an application that implements the most general version of this:

    requirejs.config(
      {
        baseUrl: 'js',

        // Path mappings for the logical module names
        paths:
        {
          'knockout': 'libs/knockout/knockout-3.4.0.debug',
          'jquery': 'libs/jquery/jquery-3.1.0',
          'jqueryui-amd': 'libs/jquery/jqueryui-amd-1.12.0',
          'promise': 'libs/es6-promise/es6-promise',
          'hammerjs': 'libs/hammer/hammer-2.0.8',
          'ojdnd': 'libs/dnd-polyfill/dnd-polyfill-1.0.0',
          'ojs': 'libs/oj/v2.2.0/debug',
          'ojL10n': 'libs/oj/v2.2.0/ojL10n',
          'ojtranslations': 'libs/oj/v2.2.0/resources',
          'text': 'libs/require/text',
          'css' : 'libs/require-css/css',
          'signals': 'libs/js-signals/signals'
        },
        // Shim configurations for modules that do not expose AMD
        shim:
        {
          'jquery':
          {
            exports: ['jQuery', '$']
          }
        },
        ,
        //Additional Configuration
        config:
        {
          text:
            {
              useXhr: function (url, protocol, hostname, port) {
                // Allow cross-domain requests to get Text resources
                // Remote server must set Access-Control-Allow-Origin header
                return true;
              }
            }
        }
      }
    );
    

What's Next?

Over the past 12 articles I've covered the core knowledge-base needed to create your own Composite Components to quite a sophisticated level. The following articles in this series are more focused on examining specific use cases and techniques that I've encountered when working with this technology. The next article will specifically be looking at how to create User Interfaces within your Composite Components on the fly rather than having them all pre-defined as part of the component definition.

CCA Series Index

1. Introduction
2. Your First Composite Component - A Tutorial
3. Composite Conventions and Standards
4. Attributes, Properties and Data
5. Events
6. Methods
7. The Lifecycle
8. Slotting Part 1
9. Slotting Part 2
10. Custom Property Parsing
11. Metadata Extensibility
12. Advanced Loader Scripts

A few days ago, Oracle released the new version of Oracle Stream Explorer and renamed it to Oracle Stream Analytics (OSA). This new version is an impressive release with over 15 new major features! It really deserves the name change.

Enhanced Patterns Library

The existing patterns have been enhanced substantially  now including Spatial, Statistical, General industry and Anomaly detection through streaming machine learning.

New Geo-spatial pattern

This pattern can be used to analyze streams containing geo-location data and determine how events relate to pre-defined geo-fences in your maps.

Integrated Expression Builder

The Expression Builder allows to add calculated/derived fields on the Live Output Stream of an exploration, an important step towards the “streaming Excel sheet” idea of Oracle Stream Analytics.

It provides the ability to apply and insert mathematical and statistical calculations into the active live output stream. Once a new expression has been defined and validated, a column will be added next to the column of relevance. This new column can then be used in subsequent filters and explorations. Read the complete article here.

OA & 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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Check out our newly available training and certification offerings for February 2017!

Oracle Learning Subscriptions – Preview the Following:

• Security Learning Subscription
• Oracle Systems Learning Subscription
• MySQL Learning Subscription
• Oracle E-Business Suite Learning Subscription
• Oracle Platform as a Service (PaaS) Learning Subscription
• Oracle Marketing Cloud Learning Subscription

New Training Courses

• Transition to Oracle Solaris 11 Ed 5
• Using Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 13c Ed 1
• Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance Overview Ed 1
• Oracle Database Security: Detective Controls Ed 1
• Oracle BI 12c: Build Repositories Ed 1
• Oracle BI 12c: Create Analyses and Dashboards Ed 1
• Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c: Multitenancy Administration Ed 1
• Oracle Service Cloud Integration for Developers
• Primavera Unifier: Reports and Dashboards Rel 1
• JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Sales Order Management Rel 9.2
• Oracle Utilities: Mobile Workforce Management Overview

New Oracle Certifications

Beta Ending:

• Oracle Exadata X5 Administration | 1Z0-070
• Oracle Database 12c: Advanced PL/SQL | 1Z0-148

Coming soon in production:

• Oracle Database 12c Administration | 1Z0-075
• Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Cloud Service 2017 Implementation Essentials | 1Z0-338
• JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financial Management 9.2 Implementation Essentials | 1Z0-342
• JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Distribution 9.2 Implementation Essentials | 1Z0-343
• Oracle Policy Automation Cloud Service 2017 Implementation Essentials | 1Z0-345
• Oracle Order Management Cloud 2017 Implementation Essentials | 1Z0-347

View recent training and certification releases for prior months:

• January 2017
• December 2016

Written by Diana H. Gray, Oracle University Senior Principal Curriculum Product Manager

Are you already certified as an Oracle Database SQL Associate or Expert?  Passing the Oracle Database 12c Advanced PL/SQL exam will give you the credentials that demonstrate you’re able to provide strategic guidance to fully exploit the most advanced features of PL/SQL, especially those added in Oracle Database 12c. Gain more responsibilities in your role using these advanced application code architecture skills. 

When you leverage Oracle Certifications with training, you get the benefit of being trained and tested by Oracle experts who want to make sure you are equipped with the right skills to do your job. The recommended training to become an Oracle Database 12c: Advanced PL/SQL Developer Certified Professional is Oracle Database 12c: Advanced PL/SQL.

This training teaches you how to use the advanced features of PL/SQL to design and tune PL/SQL to interface with the database and other applications. Expert Oracle University instructors will help you explore advanced features of program design, packages, cursors, extended interface methods and collections. In this course, you will be introduced to the Oracle Database Exadata Express Cloud Service.

Advance your Career with Oracle Database 12c certifications. To find out more about Oracle Certifications, go to education.oracle.com/certification.

The E-Business Suite Technology Codelevel Checker (ETCC) tool helps you identify missing application tier or database bugfixes that need to be applied to your E-Business Suite Release 12.2 system. ETCC maps missing bugfixes to the default corresponding patches and displays them in a patch recommendation summary.

What's New

ETCC was recently updated to include bug fixes and patching combinations for the following:

Recommended Versions

• January 2017 Oracle WebLogic Server PSU
• Oracle Fusion Middleware 11.1.1.9
• January 2017 Database 12.1.0.2 PSU and Proactive Bundle Patch
• October 2016 Database 11.2.0.4 PSU and Engineered Systems Patch

Minimum Versions

• October 2016 Oracle WebLogic Server PSU
• Oracle Fusion Middleware 11.1.1.7
• October 2016 Database 12.1.0.2 PSU and Proactive Bundle Patch
• July 2016 Database 11.2.0.4 PSU and Engineered Systems Patch
  

Obtaining ETCC

Related Articles

• Identifying Missing App Tier and Database Tier Patches for EBS 12.2
• ETCC Tool Enhanced for Finding Mandatory EBS 12.2 Patches
• E-Business Suite Technology Codelevel Checker Updated for EBS 12.2
  

References

• Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2: Consolidated List of Patches and Technology Bug Fixes (Doc ID 1594274.1)
• Database Patch Set Update Overlay Patches Required for Use with PSUs (Doc ID 1147107.1)
• Database Patches Required by Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Engineered Systems: Exadata Database Machines and SuperClusters (Doc ID 1392527.1)

Welcome to a new stream (no pun intended) on Red Mavericks articles. This time, we’ll be doing an introduction on Oracle’s new Stream Analytics.

We’ll be guiding you through this new, and very cool, product showing what it is and what it can do to leverage this largely untapped resource which is event stream analysis. In fact, streams are everywhere and are becoming more and more open and accessible. If you “wiretap” these, listen to them and understand the behavioral patterns , you can build extremely valuable applications that will help you deliver more to your customers.

It’s a whole new ball game. I hope you find this interesting.

What is Oracle Stream Analytics?

Oracle Stream Analytics (previously Oracle Stream Explorer) is, in fact, an application builder platform, focused on applications that process events coming from the most various systems, internal or external to the organization, thus enabling Business Insight information and deriving relevant data from these events.

It works using an Event Processing Engine to perform Fast Data Analysis over a large number of events that typically appear in a given timeframe.

It also provides a run-time platform that will allow you to run and manage the applications you built.

It’s not a new Oracle Event Processor. It uses OEP as the underlying Event Processing Engine (you can also use Apache Spark as a processing engine, if you prefer. More on this in other articles)

The real power in Oracle Stream Analytics is, curiously, in its UI. As an application builder, it went to great lengths to keep the UI really easy to use. The result is, in my view, very well achieved, with enough simplicity to allow that Business Users, provided they have a bit of technical knowledge, can actually build  applications on their own or with little help from the IT. 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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With Oracle Linux, you can use the same operating system on-premise and in the cloud, avoiding complicated migrations and permitting hybrid environments.

Learn about what Oracle Linux 7 brings you by taking the Oracle Linux 7: What's New for Administrators course. You can take this course as a:

• Live-Virtual Event: Attend a live event from your own desk, no travel required. Events are added to the schedule to suit different time-zones. Events on the schedule include 15 March, 26 April and 31 May 2017.
  
• In-Class Event: If you want to travel to an education center to attend a class, register your interest in a date and location.

Resources:

• To see the selection of courses on the Oracle Linux curriculum and the schedules available or to register for an event, go to http://oracle.com/education/linux
• Oracle Linux Documentation
  
• Oracle Linux Product Page
• Oracle Cloud Computing

Property Manager Development has released a patch to replace the need to run SQL queries to archive historical lease data.The patch creates a concurrent program that users can run at each fiscal month-end to archive the lease data.A patch that enables users to create calculations and generate reports from the archived lease data is planned for a later date.

The patch numbers are:

25460193:R12.PN.B - Prerequisite:12.1.3 delta 6

25460193:R12.PN.C - Prerequisite:12.2.3 with R12.PJ_PF.C.delta.4

The purpose of this enhancement patch is to enable users to archive their lease data for each period-end, starting from February 2017. Later, when the solution for the Look Back period is released, users can run a calculation program using the archived period-end lease data to generate the required financial results, by period.

For more information on requirement of Look Back Period, the changes that are introduced via above patches etc, please review Doc ID 2217306.1.

Oracle Java Cloud Service (JCS) can be used for development, testing, user acceptance testing, staging and production applications. You can create dedicated and isolated Oracle WebLogic Server (WLS) 11g or 12c environments to run your entire cluster at scale. 

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 and Oracle WebLogic Server

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 uses a three-tier logical architecture.  The technology stack for Release 12.2 comprises an application tier technology stack and a database tier technology stack. The Oracle E-Business Suite applications are tightly integrated with the various technology stack components.

The application tier technology stack in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 includes Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle WebLogic Server. WLS replaces the Oracle Containers for Java (OC4J) used with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.

Can the Oracle WebLogic Server included with Oracle Java Cloud Service be used with EBS?

We are sometimes asked if the Oracle WebLogic Server included with Java Cloud Service can be used with EBS Release 12.2 as an alternative to the embedded WLS that comes with EBS and is described above.

The answer is - no, you cannot. Such usage isn't supported because the Oracle Weblogic Server provided as part of EBS is a tightly integrated and customized component of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 application tier technology stack. In addition, JCS does not provide the full application tier technology stack (including Oracle Forms and Reports) that EBS R12.2 (whether running on-premises or on Oracle Cloud) requires.

References

• Getting Started with Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Cloud (Doc ID 2066260.1)
• Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Cloud Landing Page
• Oracle E-Business Suite Learning Subscription
• Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Cloud White Paper

Related Articles

• Getting Started with EBS on Oracle Cloud
• EBS Deployment Options on Oracle Cloud