Setting Up the Development Environment

Overview

If you do not want to use standard Oracle E-Business Suite mobile apps installed directly from public app stores, Oracle lets you deploy mobile apps against Oracle E-Business Suite in the following different ways:

This chapter describes the following topics on the environment setup for both enterprise distribution and custom app development for Oracle E-Business Suite:

Performing Server-Side Tasks

Perform the following tasks on the server side:

Note: When setting up a development environment for Oracle Mobile Supply Chain Applications for Oracle E-Business Suite (MSCA), you only need to apply the Oracle E-Business Suite server-side patches described in this section. The mobile app definition metadata setup and migration between instances are not applicable for MSCA that is not developed based on Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Foundation.

  1. Applying Oracle E-Business Suite Server-Side Patches

  2. Setting Up Mobile App Definition Metadata

  3. Migrating Mobile App Metadata Between Instances

After applying the server-side patches and performing needed tasks, you need to perform setup tasks on the client side. See: Performing Client-Side Tasks.

Applying Oracle E-Business Suite Server-Side Patches

Oracle strongly recommends applying the latest server-side patches for your mobile apps.

For the product family patch information, see Applying Prerequisite Patches on the Oracle E-Business Suite Server, Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Apps Administrator's Guide, Release 12.1 and 12.2.

Setting Up Mobile App Definition Metadata

Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Foundation based mobile apps can be configured and managed from Oracle E-Business Suite server.

Once an app is launched, it runs the validation steps against the Oracle E-Business Suite server to check if the app is configured and if the current user can access the app before allowing the user to use the app. Therefore, before deploying a mobile app that you have modified for enterprise distribution or created for custom app development, you need to perform the following setup tasks on the server to ensure the app is ready for deployment:

Note: Since enterprises can develop custom mobile apps either using the Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Foundation Login component or any mobile app development framework of their choices, the setup tasks described in this section are not required if the Login component is not used in custom app development.

Note: For Oracle E-Business Suite mobile apps that you installed directly from a public app store, such as Apple App Store or Google Play, the definitions of these apps are already shipped by Oracle.

Registering and Updating Your Mobile App Definition Metadata

You need to register your mobile app definition metadata on the server first before deploying and testing the app. If any changes to the mobile definition later, you can modify the application definition metadata if needed.

Accessing the Mobile Applications Manager UI Pages

To access the Mobile Applications Manager UI pages, log in to Oracle E-Business Suite as a user who has the Mobile Applications Manager responsibility.

Note: Separate User Privileges in the Mobile Applications Manager UI Pages

The Mobile Applications Manager responsibility allows you to access the Mobile Applications Manager UI pages, and this responsibility is assigned through the Mobile Applications Administrator role (UMX|FND_MBL_ROLE_ADMIN) or the Mobile Applications Developer role (UMX|FND_MBL_ROLE_DEV) which provides you with various access privileges. For more information about these user roles and their privileges, see Enabling a Mobile App Individually and Specifying the Configuration Through the UI Pages, Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Apps Administrator's Guide, Release 12.1 and 12.2.

The Search Mobile Applications page appears.

Search Mobile Applications Page

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Note: Users who have the Mobile Applications Administrator role can find the additional Users and App Usage columns from the search result table for viewing the platform-specific user installation and app usage information. See: Viewing Mobile App Installation and Usage Metrics, Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Apps Administrator's Guide, Release 12.1 and 12.2.

For additional administrative tasks on enabling and configuring a mobile app individually through the UI pages or configuring multiple apps using a script as well as viewing configuration details, see the Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Apps Administrator's Guide, Release 12.1 and 12.2.

This is the entry point where you can:

Registering Your Mobile App

Use the following steps to register an app on the server:

  1. Log in to Oracle E-Business Suite as a user who has the Mobile Applications Developer role.

  2. Select the Mobile Applications Manager responsibility and choose the Applications link from the navigator.

  3. In the Search Mobile Applications page, click the Register Application button to register an enterprise app.

    The following pages are displayed in the sequence listed here as part of the registration process for an app:

    1. Application Details Page

    2. Distributions Page

    3. Configuration Details Page

    4. Review Page

Application Details Page

After you click the Register Application button in the Search Mobile Applications page to register an app, the Application Details page appears.

Application Details Page

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Enter the following application metadata information for your enterprise app:

Note: Ensure that the desired information for Application Name, Application Short Name, and Application Bundle Id are correctly specified for your app. These fields are not allowed to change after the registration. See: Updating Your Mobile App.

Click Next to access the Distributions page to continue the registration process. See: Distributions Page.

For information on registering an app, see Registering Your Mobile App.

Distributions Page

After you enter the application metadata information for an app and click Next, the Distributions page appears. This is the page where you specify the service version and distribution method for the app.

Distributions Page

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Enter the following distribution information for the app:

Click Next to access the Configurations page. See: Configuration Details Page.

Click Back to modify the application metadata information if needed. See: Application Details Page.

For information on registering an enterprise app, see Registering Your Mobile App.

Configuration Details

Use the Configuration Details page to specify the desired configuration parameters for your mobile apps. Specifically, you can use this page to:

Configuring a Desired Authentication Type

Selecting "Connection Settings" as the Category Value for Configuring a Desired Authentication Type

Category "Connection Settings" is required to be configured for every mobile app for it to connect to the Oracle E-Business Suite server. You must select either one of the following authentication types for your app based on your authentication scenarios as the Sub Category value for the connection settings:

Note: The authentication type selected here during the app registration can be changed later when an administrator configures the app.

For information on setting configuration parameters for the Apps SSO Login authentication type, see step 8 in the Enabling and Configuring a Mobile App Individually section, Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Apps Administrator's Guide, Release 12.1 and 12.2.

Configuration Parameters region

The Configuration Parameters region allows you to predefine the configuration parameters for a selected configuration category. To display this region, click the Show link next to the configuration category.

Specify the parameter values listed in the region to predefine the configuration settings for the app.

Click Next to access the Review page. See: Review Page.

Click Back to modify the configuration information if needed. See: Distributions Page.

For information on registering an app, see Registering Your Mobile App.

Adding Push Notifications to App Configuration

Starting from Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Foundation 7.0 and onwards, Oracle E-Business Suite supports push notifications in the following apps, when using Oracle Mobile Cloud Service or using Oracle Mobile Hub (from Release 9.0 and onwards when an appropriate patch is applied):

Selecting "Push Notifications" as the Category Value for Configuring Push Notifications

If your mobile app supports push notifications, in order to enable the feature and configure the related parameters, you must add the "Push Notifications" category.

Click the Add Category button to add another row. Select "Push Notifications" as the Category value. "No" is displayed as the default value in the Sub Category field which means that when the app is deployed, the push notifications feature is disabled by default.

Configuration Details Page with "Push Notifications" Category Selected

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In addition to adding the "Push Notifications" category for the mobile app definition and configuring corresponding parameters, following tasks are important for the server and the mobile app to send and process push notifications:

In the Configuration Parameters region, specify default parameter values for the mobile app. The default parameter values can be overwritten by the administrator when configuring the mobile app.

Configuration Details Page with Configuration Parameters for Push Notifications

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Note: You must specify the Push Notifications Business Event field, but you may leave the Android Deployment Bundle ID and iOS Deployment Bundle ID fields blank when creating the mobile app definition metadata.

Click Next to access the Review Page.

For information on registering an app, see Registering Your Mobile App.

Review Page

Once you complete the required registration information for your app, the read-only Review page appears. It displays all the metadata information, distributions, and configuration details that you specified earlier for the app.

Mobile App Registration Information Displayed in the Review Page

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If no more change is required for the app, click Submit to save and register the app. A confirmation message appears indicating that the mobile app is successfully registered.

Click Back to modify the information if needed. See: Configuration Details Page.

For information on registering a mobile app, see Registering Your Mobile App.

Updating Your Mobile App Definition

To update the definition of an existing app, locate the app from the search result table in the Search Mobile Applications page.

Search Mobile Applications Page

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Click the Update icon from the search result table. This action allows you to access the Application Details page and modify the definition of the selected enterprise app.

Warning: You can update the application definition metadata for an app that you register for enterprise distribution or custom app development, but should never remove or modify the application definitions of Oracle E-Business Suite mobile apps, starting with com.oracle.ebs*.

Application Details Page

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Note: Alternatively, you can click the Application Name link, such as ICX_IPROCUREMENT, from the search result table first to display the read-only Application Details page. Click the Update button in the page to enable the update for the app.

Similar to the app registration process, you can update the application definition metadata for the selected app.

For information on registering an app, see Registering Your Mobile App.

Deleting Your Mobile App Definition

When the application definition of an app becomes invalid or is no longer needed, you can remove it from the server.

Warning: You can delete or update the application definition metadata for an app that you register for enterprise distribution or custom app development, but should never remove or modify the seeded application definitions of Oracle E-Business Suite mobile apps, starting with com.oracle.ebs*.

To delete the definition of an app, click the Delete icon from the search result table. A confirmation message appears requiring you to confirm the delete action. Once it's confirmed, the definition of the selected app is removed from the database and it is no longer available for users.

Creating and Using Mobile App Access Roles

Oracle E-Business Suite mobile apps use role-based access control to allow users who are assigned the appropriate access roles to access Oracle E-Business Suite.

Similar to self-service applications, some mobile apps may require a responsibility to be selected before accessing required application data. In order to show a list of responsibilities for users to select before using a mobile app, you need to first create a mobile app access role, and then associate the access role with your mobile app in Oracle JDeveloper.

When the mobile app is deployed to users, a mobile applications administrator can then assign the mobile app access role to responsibilities that will have access to the mobile app. All users who have access to those responsibilities will then inherit that mobile app access role and hence be able to use one of those responsibilities before using the mobile app to access Oracle E-Business Suite.

Important: Oracle Mobile Approvals for Oracle E-Business Suite is the only app that does not have an app-specific access role required for users to access the app. Other than the Approvals app, you must set up required roles for your apps.

  1. Create mobile app access roles in Oracle E-Business Suite.

    See: Creating Mobile App Access Roles.

  2. Assign the mobile app access roles to responsibilities.

    See: Assigning Mobile App Access Roles to Responsibilities.

  3. Migrate the mobile app access role definitions to a target Oracle E-Business Suite instance where your app could connect.

    See: Downloading and Uploading Mobile App Access Roles.

Creating Mobile App Access Roles

Perform the following steps to create mobile app access roles:

  1. Log in to Oracle E-Business Suite as a user who has the User Management responsibility. For example, log in as SYSADMIN.

  2. Select the User Management responsibility and navigate to the Roles and Role Inheritance page.

  3. In the Roles and Role Inheritance page, click the Create Role button.

  4. The Create Role page appears.

    Create Role Page

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    Enter the following information in the Create Role page:

    • Category: Select "Security Administration" from the drop-down list.

    • Role Code: Enter the role code in the format of "PROD_MBL_APP_NAME", such as "XXX_IPROCUREMENT_MBL_ROLE".

      Record the Role Code information entered here which will be used later for the client-side setup.

      • A prefix "UMX|" is added to this value automatically.

        In this example, the entered code value is automatically converted to UMX|XXX_IPROCUREMENT_MBL_ROLE.

      • The Role Code information entered here should be specified in the oracle.ebs.login.rolecode property of the ebs.properties file later. See Assigning Mobile App Access Roles.

    • Display Name: Enter a valid display name, such as "iProcurement Mobile App Access Role".

    • Description: Enter a valid description information for the role, such as "iProcurement Mobile App Access Role".

    • Application: Select the application name. For example, "Custom Application".

      Similar to the Role Code value, the Application Short Name information entered here should be set up in the oracle.ebs.login.roleappname property of the ebs.properties file later. See Assigning Mobile App Access Roles.

    • Active From: Leave the default unchanged.

    • Active To: Leave this field blank.

  5. Save your work.

Note that the REST interfaces created for a given mobile app should be granted to the mobile app access role created for that app. See: Implementing Oracle E-Business Suite REST Services.

Additionally, once a new mobile app access role is created for an enterprise app, make sure that the corresponding REST services permission set of the associated seeded app is granted to the new access role. For information on the seeded app-specific access roles and REST services permission sets for Oracle E-Business Suite mobile apps, see Appendix C: Mobile App Access Roles, Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Apps Administrator's Guide, Release 12.1 and 12.2.

Assigning Mobile App Access Roles to Responsibilities

After you create app-specific access roles, a mobile applications administrator can then assign these roles to responsibilities.

If the mobile app access roles were not assigned to any valid responsibilities that are assigned to the mobile users, those users will not be able to see any responsibilities on the mobile app and hence will not be able to connect the mobile app to Oracle E-Business Suite.

For information on assigning roles to responsibilities, see Setting Up Mobile App Access to Responsibilities, Setting Up the Mobile Apps chapter, Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Apps Administrator's Guide, Release 12.1 and 12.2.

Please note that on the client side you need to specify these app-specific roles in the MAF application's ebs.properties file in order for the corresponding apps to use these roles. See: Using Mobile App Access Roles.

Configuring Your Mobile Apps

Before deploying your apps, you must work with a mobile applications administrator to perform needed administrative tasks to ensure your apps can work as expected. These administrative tasks, including mobile app configuration and validation, can be performed in a development instance.

For information on the administrative tasks, see the Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Apps Administrator's Guide, Release 12.1 and 12.2.

Migrating Mobile App Metadata Between Instances

If there is a need to migrate the mobile application definition metadata and relevant mobile app access roles from one instance to another, perform the following tasks to transport the needed information:

This section includes the following topics:

Downloading and Uploading Mobile App Definitions

Once the application definition metadata has been registered in the database, you can transport the metadata information between different instances for testing or migration purposes.

Downloading Mobile App Definition Metadata

This can be achieved by first downloading the metadata into a data (.ldt) file, based on a .lct file $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afmobile.lct using the Application Short Name as the key.

For example, use the following commands to download the metadata to a .ldt file:

FNDLOAD <APPS username> 0 Y DOWNLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afmobile.lct xxxiproc.ldt FND_MBL_APPLICATION APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME=XXX_IPROCUREMENT

ORACLE Password:

Uploading Mobile App Definition Metadata

To upload the downloaded .ldt file, such as xxxiproc.ldt, to another instance, use the following commands:

FNDLOAD <APPS username> 0 Y UPLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afmobile.lct xxxiproc.ldt

ORACLE Password:

Downloading and Uploading Mobile App Access Roles

Similar to the concepts of transporting application definition metadata information between instances, you can migrate the mobile app access role definitions from one instance to another if required.

Downloading Mobile App Access Roles

Use the following commands to download the definition of mobile app access roles:

FNDLOAD <APPS username> 0 Y DOWNLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afrole.lct xxxapprole.ldt WF_ROLE ROLE_NAME=UMX|XXX_IPROCUREMENT_MBL_ROLE

ORACLE Password:

Uploading Mobile App Access Roles

After downloading the definition of mobile app access roles, you can upload the downloaded .ldt file to another Oracle E-Business Suite instance to which the mobile app should connect. For example, use the following commands to upload the role definition:

FNDLOAD <APPS username> 0 Y UPLOAD $FND_TOP/patch/115/import/afrole.lct xxxapprole.ldt

ORACLE Password:

Performing Client-Side Tasks

This section describes the following setup tasks:

  1. Installing the Development Tools

  2. Downloading and Installing Oracle JDeveloper 12.2.1.3.0 Studio Edition

  3. Downloading and Installing Oracle Mobile Application Framework 2.6.3 for Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Foundation Release 9.1

  4. Setting Up Oracle JDeveloper

Installing the Development Tools

Install the required development tools for the iOS and Android platforms:

Downloading and Installing Oracle JDeveloper 12.2.1.3.0 Studio Edition

To develop mobile apps for Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Foundation 9.1, 9.0, and 8.0, ensure you have Oracle JDeveloper version 12.2.1.3.0 Studio Edition.

Note: For mobile apps built with Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Foundation 7.0, ensure that you have Oracle JDeveloper version 12.2.1.0.0 Studio Edition.

For information on setting up Oracle JDeveloper, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Installing Oracle JDeveloper.

Downloading and Installing Oracle Mobile Application Framework 2.6.3 for Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Foundation Release 9.1

Downloading Oracle Mobile Application Framework

In addition to Oracle JDeveloper, you need to download Oracle Mobile Application Framework 2.6.3 included in the "Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Foundation and Mobile Application Archive 9.1" software distribution from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud (https://edelivery.oracle.com) through part number V1031711-01. You can also download this MAF version on My Oracle Support through Patch 31581902.

Additionally, install underlying mobile platforms required for Oracle Mobile Application Framework. For example, in Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Foundation Release 9.1, install the following platforms required for Oracle Mobile Application Framework 2.6.3:

For information on maintaining two instances, refer to Oracle Mobile Application Framework 2.6.3 Migration Notes (from MAF 2.6.2) (https://www.oracle.com/application-development/technologies/maf/maf263migration.html).

Installing Oracle Mobile Application Framework

After you have installed the iOS SDK, Android SDK, or both required for your platform(s) and downloaded the required Oracle Mobile Application Framework 2.6.3, follow the installation instructions to install the downloaded Oracle Mobile Application Framework. See: Installing the MAF Extension in JDeveloper, Installing Mobile Application Framework with JDeveloper, Installing Oracle Mobile Application Framework.

You can use Oracle Mobile Application Framework for:

Setting Up Oracle JDeveloper

To configure the environment for your target platform in Oracle JDeveloper. select Tools from the menu and then Preferences to open the Preferences dialog. Select your desired platform, either Android or iOS, from the Mobile Application Framework tree node. This opens a page for the selected platform. Specify the platform and SDK location and then provide the information for the signing credentials.

For instructions on setting up development tools for the iOS and Android platforms, see:

Setting Up Oracle JDeveloper for Internationalization

In Oracle JDeveloper, select Tools from the menu, and then Preference.

In the Preference dialog, select Environment from the left panel, and then select "UTF-8" in the Encoding field from the drop-down list.

For information on internationalizing Oracle E-Business Suite mobile apps, see Internationalizing Oracle E-Business Suite Mobile Apps.