Oracle Configurator Modeling Guide

Modeling Guidelines

Oracle Configurator provides tools for a wide range of solutions. This section consists of chapters that are designed to lead you from relevant planning guidelines through important design questions to best practices that leverage the strengths and requirements of Oracle Configurator.

Introduction

Scope of this Guide

Conventions

Product Support

Troubleshooting

Planning Your Model Design

Overview of Designing a Configuration Model

Planning Guidelines Relevant to Model Design

BOM Model Design or Redesign

End-User Expectations

Rule Design

Lifecycle and Maintainability Expectations

Starting Your Model Design

Do You Expect Configurator to Display Large Lists of Options?

Are the Same Product Elements Repeated in Separate Models?

Are You Modeling Many Related Products?

Do You Need Default Values Set Automatically?

Does Your End User Need to See the Bill of Materials?

Will Configurations Contain Instances of a Component?

Will Your Configurator Collect Many End-User Inputs?

Does Configurator Depend on Information Collected Upstream?

Does Configurator Pass Non-Orderable Information Downstream?

Are Some Selections Disallowed Until Other Selections Are Made?

Will Your Rules Include Repeating Patterns or Redundancy?

Are your configuration rules based on legacy rules?

Do You Need to Express Compatibilities in Your Model?

Do You Need to Express Comparisons in Your Model?

Best Practices

Explicit Model Structure Versus Abstractions

Explicit Structure

Permutation

Abstractions

Downstream Consequences in Other Oracle Applications

Explicit Model Structure Versus References

Explicit Structure

Model References

Referencing BOM Option Classes

Non-Imported Model References

Downstream Consequences in Other Oracle Applications

Optional and Multiple Instantiation

Optional Instantiation of BOM Option Classes

Setting Node Values After Adding Instances

Downstream Consequences in Other Oracle Applications

Large Numbers of Instances

Guided Buying or Selling

Manufacturing vs. Sales View of a Model

Shallow Versus Nested or Deep Hierarchy

Items Versus Alternatives to Items

Values Needed For Configuration Only

Values Needed Downstream

Large Option Features and Option Classes

Grouped Versus Ungrouped Items

Maximum Selections on Large Option Classes or Features

Alternatives to Option Features With Many Options

Relevant Case Studies

Defaults Rules Versus Alternatives to Default Selections

Evaluating the Need for Default Selections

Activating Defaults on End User Request

Boolean Features With Initial Values

The postConfigNew Configurator Extension

Implies Relation Instead of Defaults Relation

Default Rule Idiosyncrasies

Repetitive Rule Patterns and Redundancy

Repetitive Patterns and Common Subexpressions

Redundancy

Circular Propagation

Number and Complexity of Rules

NotTrue Logical Function Imposes Order and Causes Locking

Order Dependency Caused By NotTrue

Locked States Caused By NotTrue

Compatibility Rules

Expressing Compatibility Using Properties

Minimizing Participants in a Compatibility

Using the Excludes Relation to Express Incompatibilities

Minimizing the Size and Complexity of Property-based Compatibility Rules

How do Property Features Simplify Property-based Relationships between Large Option Classes?

Comparison Rules

Comparison Rules That Raise Warnings

Using Intermediate Values Effectively With Comparison Rules

Connectors with Connection Rules

Connection Rules That Depend on End-User Input

Order Independent Connection Rules

Restoring Configurations With Connections

Optimizing User Interface Performance

Display Conditions

Graphics

Number and Type of Pages and Controls

Configuration Summary User Interface Template

Custom User Interface

Large Amounts of End-User Data Collected Using Configurator Extensions

Configurator Extension Design

Avoiding Unnecessary Interactions

Accessing Runtime Nodes

Components and Requests

Adding and Deleting Instantiable Components

Impact of Making Connections Among Components

Optimization of Configurator Extensions that Change Model Structure

Detailed Sequence

Comparison of Coding Approaches

Code Example

Optimization of Validation Configurator Extensions

Case Studies

To solve your configuration problem, Oracle Configurator may require a combination of best practices that is not obvious. This section presents some examples of common configuration problems and optimal design solutions best suited to an Oracle Configurator implementation.

Many Large BOM Models

Overview

Project Description

A Deficient Modeling Approach

The Suggested Modeling Approach

Applying Best Practices to Your Model Structure

Applying Best Practices to Further Optimize the End-User Experience

The Resulting End-User Flow

Advantages of This Modeling Approach

Many BOM Items

Overview

Project Description