Oracle® Workflow

Release Notes

Release 2.6.2

April 2002

Part No. A95814-01

This document summarizes the differences between Oracle Workflow Release 2.6.2 in Oracle9i Application Server Release 2 (9.0.2) and its documented functionality.

See Also: Oracle9i Application Server Release Notes

1 Certification and System Requirements

1.1 Oracle Workflow Server Hardware and Software Requirements

Attention: Do not install the Oracle Workflow server in an Oracle E-Business Suite database. If you are licensing Oracle Workflow to define new workflow processes in Oracle E-Business Suite, you can continue to use the version of the Oracle Workflow server embedded in Oracle E-Business Suite.

The components of Oracle Workflow Server require the following hardware and software configurations:

• Oracle9i Enterprise Edition database version 9.0.1.2 or higher, along with the Oracle Objects and JServer Options, installed on a supported server machine

• At least 40 Mb of available disk space for Oracle Workflow Server once it is installed in your Oracle Home

• At least 128 Mb of memory, 256 Mb recommended

• Oracle Net 9.01.2 or higher

• SQL*Plus 9.0.1 or higher

• Oracle HTTP Server Release 2 (9.0.2) and mod_plsql, installed on a server machine

• A Web browser that supports frames, JavaScript, Java Development Kit (JDK) Version 1.3.1 and AWT, such as Netscape Communicator version 4.76 or a higher 4.7x version, or Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0x or 5.5x

• UNIX Sendmail or a MAPI-compliant mail application

• An unzip utility, such as WINZIP from NicoMak, to extract the Workflow HTML help from the wfdoc262.zip file

• Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Version 1.1.8 to run the Oracle Workflow Java Function Activity Agent and the Workflow XML Loader

If you are installing Oracle Workflow Server on Microsoft Windows NT, the following additional hardware and software configurations are required:

• ISO 9660 format CD-ROM available as a logical drive

• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or higher

If you plan to implement Oracle Workflow integration with Oracle Internet Directory and Oracle Single Sign-On Server, the following additional hardware and software configurations are required:

• Oracle Internet Directory Release 2 (9.0.2)

• Oracle9iAS Single Sign-On Server Release 2 (9.0.2)

• Oracle9iAS Portal Release 2 (9.0.2)

• mod_osso installed on a server machine along with Oracle HTTP Server

The notifications component of Oracle Workflow includes a program called the Notification Mailer. This program communicates notifications to users via e-mail and interprets responses. The Notification Mailer has implementations that can integrate directly with UNIX Sendmail or MAPI-compliant mail applications.

• The UNIX Sendmail implementation is installed automatically during the Oracle Workflow Server installation process. This implementation requires UNIX Sendmail to be installed on the same server as Oracle Workflow.

• The MAPI-compliant implementation is installed on your Windows NT PC using the Oracle Universal Installer from the Oracle9iAS client CD. This implementation requires a Windows NT MAPI-compliant mail application installed on the PC that is acting as your mail server.

  The MAPI-compliant implementation is available only with Oracle9iAS for Windows NT. It is not available with Oracle9iAS for UNIX.

  Note: The Microsoft Outlook E-mail Security Update that was released on June 7, 2000 desupports the MAPI Common Messaging Calls (CMC) interface used by the Oracle Workflow MAPI Mailer. (See: OL2000: Developer Information About the Outlook E-mail Security Update, http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q262/7/01.ASP.) As a result, the Oracle Workflow MAPI Mailer is not certified on any Microsoft Windows platforms where this Microsoft Outlook E-mail Security Update or above has been applied. The Oracle Workflow MAPI Mailer is not certified on Windows XP. Workflow customers running on NT/2000 are certified to install the UNIX version of the Oracle Workflow Notification Mailer (on UNIX) and connect to a Workflow Server database running on NT/2000.

1.2 Oracle Workflow Client Hardware and Software Requirements

1.2.1 Oracle Workflow Builder

Oracle Workflow Builder is a GUI tool that allows you to create and edit workflow definitions on a PC running either Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT, or Windows XP. A workflow definition can be saved to a flat file or to your Workflow Server database if you have Oracle Net installed on your PC. Oracle Workflow Builder requires the following hardware and software configurations:

• Oracle Net Client Version 9.0.1.2 or higher

• Required Support Files Version 9.0.1.2 or higher

• An IBM, Compaq or 100% compatible personal computer with the following:
  • A 486 processor or better

  • Clock speed of 66 Mhz or greater (90 Mhz or greater is recommended)

  • Network card

  • SVGA color monitor

  • Modem configured with dialin access for use by Oracle Worldwide Customer Support. At least one PC at your site should be configured with a modem.

  • Remote access and control software to be used by Customer Support for dial-in access through a modem to your PC. The preferred software is Symantec's Norton pcANYWHERE, or Microcom's Carbon Copy.

    Without some form of remote access and control software, Oracle Worldwide Customer Support will not be able to dial in to your site to diagnose problems, nor will they be able to supply patches directly to your client PC.

    WARNING: Please follow the necessary security precautions against viruses and unauthorized access when installing any software that allows remote access.

  • ISO 9660 format CD-ROM available as a logical drive

  • Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows NT 4.0 or higher

  • At least 65 Mb of available disk space to install Oracle Workflow Builder, Oracle Net, and Required Support Files.

  • At least 32 Mb of memory, 64 Mb recommended

    Note: The Oracle TCP/IP Protocol Adapter requires and only supports the use of Microsoft's TCP/IP drivers.

    Note: Oracle Workflow Builder currently cannot be installed on a central file server or be shared by other client PCs over the network.

1.2.2 Notification Mailer

The notifications component includes a program called the Notification Mailer. This program communicates notifications to users via e-mail and interprets responses. The Notification Mailer has implementations that can integrate directly with UNIX Sendmail or MAPI-compliant mail applications.

• The UNIX Sendmail implementation is installed automatically during the Oracle Workflow Server installation process. This implementation requires UNIX Sendmail to be installed on the same server as Oracle Workflow.

• You can install the MAPI-compliant implementation on a Windows NT PC using the Oracle Universal Installer from the Oracle9iAS client CD. This implementation requires a Windows NT MAPI-compliant mail application installed on the PC that is acting as your mail server.

  The MAPI-compliant implementation is available only with Oracle9iAS for Windows NT. It is not available with Oracle9iAS for UNIX.

  Note: The Microsoft Outlook E-mail Security Update that was released on June 7, 2000 desupports the MAPI Common Messaging Calls (CMC) interface used by the Oracle Workflow MAPI Mailer. (See: OL2000: Developer Information About the Outlook E-mail Security Update, http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q262/7/01.ASP.) As a result, the Oracle Workflow MAPI Mailer is not certified on any Microsoft Windows platforms where this Microsoft Outlook E-mail Security Update or above has been applied. The Oracle Workflow MAPI Mailer is not certified on Windows XP. Workflow customers running on NT/2000 are certified to install the UNIX version of the Oracle Workflow Notification Mailer (on UNIX) and connect to a Workflow Server database running on NT/2000.

2 General Issues and Workarounds

This section describes general issues and their workarounds for Oracle Workflow.

2.1 Business Event System Limitation

You may encounter a known issue with LOB support in Oracle9i Database Server version 9.0.1.2 when using the Oracle Workflow Business Event System. (Bug 2258881)

2.2 Single Sign-On

If you encounter issues when signing on or signing off using Oracle9iAS Single Sign-On with Oracle Workflow Release 2.6.2, please check bug 2302142 for instructions.

3 Configuration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes configuration issues and their workarounds for Oracle Workflow.

3.1 Creating a Database Access Descriptor for Oracle Workflow

When using Oracle Enterprise Manager to create a database access descriptor (DAD) for Oracle Workflow, it is recommended to set the Session State Management to Stateless-ResetPackageState. However, because of a known issue, you may encounter the following error when you save the DAD:

Changes not applied. The value: Stateless-ResetPackageState must match 
with one of the values from the list: [StatelessWithResetPackageState, 
StatelessWithFastResetPackageState, StatelessWithPreservePackageState].

If you encounter this error, you can leave the Session State Management field blank as a workaround in order to save your DAD definition. (Bug 2282789)

3.2 Installing Oracle Workflow Builder (Windows 2000 only)

If you plan to install Oracle Workflow Builder on a Windows 2000 PC, you should first check the system32 directory on the PC for the following files:

• VB40032.DLL

• regsvr32.exe

Save backup copies of these files to another directory. Then install Oracle Workflow Builder. During the installation, you may encounter the following error:

Files that are required for Windows to run properly have been replaced 
by unrecognized versions. To maintain system stability, Windows must 
restore the original versions of these files.

After this error occurs, complete the installation, and then copy the original versions of these two files back to the system32 directory from your backups. (Bug 2255993)

3.3 Workflow Translation Files

To obtain updated Workflow translation files for Release 2.6.2, please download and install patch 2301967.

4 Documentation Errata

This section describes known errors in the documentation.

4.1 Synchronizing Workflow Directory Services with Oracle Internet Directory

In the Setting Up Oracle Workflow chapter of the Oracle Workflow Guide, the section Step 4 Synchronizing Workflow Directory Services with Oracle Internet Directory shows examples of the commands used to run the WF_LDAP.Synch_all() and WF_LDAP.Schedule_changes() APIs. When running these APIs for a production instance, you should remove the following statement from these commands:

wf_log_pkg.WF_DEBUG_FLAG := TRUE;

5 Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle Corporation is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/.

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle Corporation does not own or control. Oracle Corporation neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

Oracle is a registered trademark, and Oracle9i and SQL*Plus are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Copyright © 2002 Oracle Corporation.

All Rights Reserved.