Creating a Document

This chapter covers the following topics:

Overview

The Create Document workflow guides you through steps that allow you to create your spreadsheet. This section only applies to those products that instruct users to create documents through a form function that calls the Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator Create Document page flow. See your product documentation for information specific to accessing its spreadsheet functionality.

Note: Before you create your spreadsheet, make sure at least one layout has been defined. Layouts determine the fields that appear in the spreadsheet you will create. If you intend to automatically import information into the spreadsheet, make sure that a mapping has been defined. For details on defining layouts and mapping, see Administering Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator.

After you have defined the parameters for your spreadsheet, you can review them before creating the spreadsheet.

Note that the Create Document process varies depending on how it is implemented. Also, some of the parameters in the Create Document windows might be pre-configured by your system administrator.

Creating a Spreadsheet

Use this procedure to create a spreadsheet on your desktop to which you can import data from Oracle E-Business Suite.

There are three possible procedure flows for creating a spreadsheet:

Steps

  1. From the Oracle E-Business Suite Navigator, select the link appropriate for your product to create a document.

  2. In the Integrator window, select an integrator. The integrator defines the task you will be performing. For example, to use spreadsheets to upload data to General Ledger, select General Ledger - Journals Integrator.

    Note: You must be granted access to an integrator by your system administrator. Specific form functions grant access to specific integrators. See the product documentation for information on your product's form functions.

  3. In the Viewer window, select the viewer that you want to use to open your spreadsheet. For example, Excel 2000.

    Select the Reporting box only if you want to create a spreadsheet that does not allow data upload.

  4. In the Layout window, select a layout. Layouts determine which fields are included in your spreadsheet, their placement, and any default values. See Administering Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator for details on defining custom layouts.

  5. In the Content window, select the content to import. This window allows you to define a blank spreadsheet (None option) or automatically populate the spreadsheet (for example, using a Text File). There may be other options available, depending on the integrator.

    • If you select None, selecting Next will take you to Step 7.

    • If you select Text, selecting Next will take you to Step 6.

    • If you select a product-specific option, depending on the integrator you are using, Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator prompts you for mapping information and parameters required by the content. See your product documentation.

  6. If you selected the Text File option, select the Mapping to use in order to map the text file or other data to the spreadsheet columns. Select Browse to locate the text file in your local system.

    • Indicate the delimiter used in the text file. Enter the delimiter directly into the text field if you select Other.

    • Select Ignore Consecutive Delimiters if you do not want to insert a null value into the spreadsheet when two delimiters exist side by side in the text file.

    • Enter the line in the text file where you want to start importing. The first few lines in a text file may be header information that you do not want to import into the spreadsheet.

      Note: If you work in a multi-byte environment, save the text file with UTF-8 encoding before importing the text file.

    See Administering Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator for details on defining custom mappings.

  7. In the Review window, optionally, click Save. The Select Shortcut window allows you to select a shortcut that appears at the beginning of the Create Document flow. Specify the shortcut name and choose the settings you want to save. Any settings that you save will be pre-specified whenever you use this shortcut, and the pages displaying those settings will be skipped.

    Note: System administrators can save the shortcut to a form function, and attach the form function to a user's menu.

  8. Create your spreadsheet by selecting Create Document (or the link specified by your product documentation). Your browser will prompt you to download the file "WebADI.xls". Select Open, then select Enable Macros. The Excel file will open and a small window will open that will format the Excel file.

    If you selected a Content in Step 5, the data will be downloaded.

    Do not close the window or use Excel until this window indicates that formatting is complete.

    After you have finished modifying the spreadsheet, you can upload the data.

    Note: You cannot copy an entire worksheet to a different worksheet; however, you can copy row and column values from one worksheet to another Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator worksheet, and then upload the data. Copying the entire worksheet is not supported because, while rows and columns are copied, the macro code behind the Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator worksheet is not copied over to the new sheet.

Working with Spreadsheets

Once you have created and downloaded your document, Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator provides features that extend the functionality of the spreadsheet. The following figure highlights some of the features described in this section.

the picture is described in the document text

Note: In Microsoft Excel 2007, the Oracle menu is available from the Add-Ins tab.

Working with Unsigned Spreadsheets

If you choose not to use digital signatures in Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator, then you must enable the Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator macros on a case by case basis within Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Excel prompts you to enable the macros whenever you create or open an Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator spreadsheet. See: Selecting Macro Security Settings in Microsoft Excel.

Working with Digitally Signed Spreadsheets

If you set the BNE Enable Digital Signature profile option to have Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator affix a digital signature to the spreadsheets you create, then you can select a high macro security level in Microsoft Excel. The first time you create a signed Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator spreadsheet, you must identify the Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator macros as coming from a trusted source. Subsequently, whenever you create a signed spreadsheet, Microsoft Excel automatically allows the macros to run. See: Selecting Macro Security Settings in Microsoft Excel.

Note: If you create a digitally signed spreadsheet, it is recommended to work without saving in order to preserve the signature. If you save an Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator spreadsheet, then the Oracle signature is discarded, because the content of the spreadsheet is no longer controlled by Oracle. To continue working on the spreadsheet, you can use one of these options:

Viewing Data

The toggle bars at the top of the spreadsheet allow you to toggle on and off the views of each of the sections: Context, Header, and Lines.

Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator enables you to turn on Microsoft Excel filtering on the line items. This is useful when your spreadsheet contains many rows of data. To enable filters, from the Oracle menu select Filters, then Show Filters. To turn filters off, from the Oracle menu select Filters, Hide Filters.

Multiple Worksheets

Your spreadsheet may contain multiple worksheets if your product integrator is defined to generate multiple worksheets or if your downloaded data exceeds 64,000 rows, multiple worksheets will be automatically created.

If your spreadsheet contains multiple worksheets, then at upload time you will be presented the options of Upload or Upload All. Upload will upload only the current worksheet. Upload All will upload all worksheets.

Viewing Graphs

If your integrator supports graphs, your spreadsheet will include additional graphing options.

If the layout for your integrator was designed with the option Include Graph of Lines Data selected, then a graph of the data will be generated when you download the spreadsheet. Otherwise, view the graph of your line data by selecting Create Graph from the Oracle menu.

The Create Graph menu item provides the following options:

Note: Excel limits the number of data points that can be used in a graph.

Note: Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator graphs the data according to the graph definition specified in the layout. For more information, see Document Properties. The graph can be changed on the graph page by selecting Graph from the Oracle menu. Select Modify Graph Type or Modify Graph Options.

Adding Rows to a Spreadsheet

To add rows to an open spreadsheet:

Steps

  1. Unprotect the spreadsheet: Select Tools, then Protection, then Unprotect Sheet. Note that some spreadsheets are defined with protection turned off.

    Note: Certain regions of the spreadsheet will remain uneditable even when protection is turned off.

  2. Select a row in the lines section of the spreadsheet.

  3. Select Insert, then Rows. Repeat to add as many rows as you need. Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator displays a flag in the Upl column beside every row you add.

  4. To enter data, either type the data directly in the spreadsheet field, or if the field shows the List hint, then you can double-click the field to access the list of values. The hint text for the field displays an asterisk (*) if the field is required, and indicates the data type of the field (number or text).

  5. If desired, protect the spreadsheet by selecting Tools, then Protection, then Protect Sheet.

Entering Data

Steps

  1. To enter data, either type the data directly in the spreadsheet field, or if the field shows the List hint, then you can double-click the field to access the list of values. The hint text for the field displays an asterisk (*) if the field is required, and indicates the data type of the field (number or text).

  2. If desired, protect the spreadsheet by selecting Tools, then Protection, then Protect Sheet.

Uploading and Downloading Data from Spreadsheets

Uploading Data

After creating and modifying your spreadsheet, you can upload the data to Oracle E-Business Suite.

Note: Not all spreadsheets support upload.

Use the following procedure to upload data:

Steps

  1. While viewing your spreadsheet, choose Upload from the Oracle menu. The Upload Parameters window appears.

  2. Select the desired parameters.

    Upload parameters depend on the integrator you select. Moreover, your system administrator might disallow you from changing upload parameters using the Web ADI: Allow Set Parameters profile option. See your product documentation for information on the available parameters.

    The following table shows some common parameters that you may see:

    Upload Parameter Description
    Rows to Upload

    • All Rows

      Select to upload all rows in your spreadsheet, regardless of whether changes have been made.

    • Flagged Rows

      Select to upload only those rows that are marked with a flag character in the Upl column of your spreadsheet. Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator displays a flag character against a row that has changed.
    Validate Before Upload Recommended. Validating prevents invalid data from being uploaded to Oracle E-Business Suite. It is useful when you expect the import process to be quite lengthy or when you plan to run it unattended, such as overnight.
    Automatically Submit Import Select this option to automatically submit a processing request for the data after upload.
    This parameter is available when a post-processing procedure has been setup for the integrator. A post-processing procedure may be a call to a server-side procedure or a concurrent program to continue processing the data in the E-Business Suite.

  3. Start the upload process. After the upload process completes, the upload window indicates whether or not the upload was successful. Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator returns messages to the spreadsheet identifying all rows containing invalid values. If the data in any rows are invalid, Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator does not upload any of the data in the spreadsheet. You must correct all errors to successfully upload the spreadsheet.

    Any errors that occur during the upload of a multi-sheet workbook will also be displayed in a Summary Worksheet. The Summary Worksheet enables you to see all errors and link to them.

Downloading Data

Download enables you to refresh data that you have imported into your spreadsheet. This option is available only if the spreadsheet contains imported data. To download or refresh data, from the Oracle menu select Download.

Note: Any new rows of data or other modifications that you have made on the spreadsheet will be overwritten when you use Download to refresh the data. Some product integrators may not allow refresh.

If you imported data from a text file, Download will not be available.

Monitoring Concurrent Requests

The upload process of some of the integrators starts a concurrent program to import the data you have uploaded to an interface table in Oracle E-Business Suite. You can monitor concurrent requests from the spreadsheet.

To monitor concurrent requests from the spreadsheet, select the Oracle menu, then Monitor. The Monitor Requests window displays the last 10 concurrent requests submitted by the current user.