This chapter covers the following topics:
For general information about publishing, seeIntroduction to Publishing.
In the Publications area of the Repository, all Model publications appear alphabetically by Model name. Depending on the View you selected, the following information may appear:
Model/Publication ID: The name of the Model as it appears in the Main area of the Repository, and the Model publication ID number. The publication ID number is generated by the database when the publication is created.
In each row, the Model name is a parent of the publication ID. Therefore, you may need to expand the Model name row to view the publication ID, and then edit or create a copy of the publication.
User Interface: The User Interface associated with the publication. You can create multiple UIs for a Model in Oracle Configurator Developer, but a Model publication can have only one UI.
Database Instance: The database on which the publication exists.
Published: The date the publication was created.
Status: The current status of the selected publication. Values include Complete, Pending, Update Pending, Processing, and Error. See the Oracle Configurator Implementation for more information.
Disabled: Indicates whether the publication is currently enabled. Disabled publications are not available to host applications.
This section describes the UI controls and actions you can perform in the Publications area of the Repository.
Create Model Publication: Click this button to create a new Model publication.
Creating a new Model publication is described in Creating a New Model Publication.
Enable/Disable: Use these buttons to enable or disable an existing publication.
For details, see Enabling or Disabling a Publication.
Republish: Select an existing publication and then click this button to republish a Model.
Republishing is described in Republishing.
Delete: Select an existing publication and then click this button to delete a publication from the database. This action does not remove any Model data from the CZ schema.
Deleting a publication is described in Deleting a Publication.
Edit: Click the icon in the Edit column to modify the applicability parameters for an existing publication. This function changes the availability of the publication, but does not actually copy Model data to the target database.
Editing publications is described in Editing a Model Publication.
New Copy: Click the icon in the New Copy column to create a new Model publication that is based on an existing publication.
You may want to do this if, for example, you want to create a new publication that has applicability parameters that are similar to an existing publication.
Copying publications is described in Copying an Existing Model Publication.
Note: Click your browser’s Refresh button to update the Status column for the list of publications. The status of one or more publications may change when one of the publishing concurrent programs completes successfully. For details about the publishing concurrent programs, see the Oracle Configurator Implementation Guide.
Use the procedure described in this section to create a Model publication, which is the first step in the process of making a configuration model available to one or more host applications. If you want to publish the same configuration model but specify different applicability parameters, you can create a copy of an existing publication and then modify its applicability parameters. This process is described in Copying an Existing Model Publication.
Before you can create a new publication, the UI and logic for the configuration model must be up to date in Configurator Developer. To refresh a UI or regenerate logic, see Generating Logic.
For an overview of the publishing process, see Introduction to Publishing .
Note: Although it is possible to create and maintain publications on separate databases (for example, a development and a production instance), configuration models that will be available to customers should be published only from a single development environment. Additionally, remember that publishing a Model to a remote database prevents Configurator Developer from running on that instance. For more information, see the Oracle Configurator Implementation Guide.
To create a new Model publication:
In Configurator Developer, generate logic and refresh the UI for the Model you want to publish.
For details, see Introduction to the General Area of the Workbench.
Navigate to the Publications area of the Repository, and then click Create Model Publication.
Select the Model to publish, then click Continue.
In the publication details page, select a User Interface from the list.
Leave this setting blank if you do not want to associate a UI with this publication. For more information, see Publishing a Model without a User Interface.
Note: For information about the Product ID, see the Oracle Configurator Implementation Guide.
Select a Target Database Instance from the list. This is the database from which you want the publication to be available to host applications. The list includes all Oracle Applications database instances defined and enabled in your organization. Select "Local" to publish to the instance on which Configurator Developer is running.
If you are publishing to a remote instance, be sure that Configurator Developer is not currently running on that instance. Refer to Copying Model Data to a Database for more information.
Database maintenance tasks such as defining and enabling remote servers are described in the Oracle Configurator Implementation Guide.
Note: If you are using Multiple Language Support (MLS), all installed languages on the source and target databases must be the same when publishing to a remote server. For more information, see Publishing and Multiple Language Support.
Choose a publication Mode of either Test or Production.
Enter Applicability Parameters, including one or more Applications, Languages, Usages, and effective date range.
For details, see Applicability Parameters.
Note: A publication’s applicability parameters must be unique before you can create it. For details, see Overlapping Applicability Parameters.
Optionally specify a Standalone Container Page and a JSP Container.
The Standalone Container Page setting controls the document that defines the layout of each page in the UI. The default setting is Default Page Layout. In this case, Configurator Developer uses czBlafPageLayout.jsp when you generate a User Interface.
To specify another container page, select Custom Page Layout and enter the name of a document whose type is Page Layout.
The JSP Container settings control which Java Server Page Configurator Developer uses as a container for each UI page. In other words, the page you specify wraps the content of each UI page at runtime.
Select Empty Container to display UI content without the Oracle Configurator image that czBlafPageLayout.jsp provides.
Accept the default value (Container with Header Bar) to display UI content without the Oracle Configurator image that czBlafPageLayout.jsp provides.
To use a different JSP, select Custom Container and enter the name of the file. The file you specify must exist in the publication and user interface definition tables.
For more information about how the runtime Oracle Configurator renders the UI, see the Oracle Configurator Implementation Guide.
Click Apply.
Developer displays an error message if one or more applicability parameters overlaps with an existing publication. If this occurs, modify the parameters as required, then click Finish. The new publication appears in the list of publications with a unique publication ID number and a Status of Pending.
Note: Make a note of the publication ID. This value is a required parameter when running one of the publishing concurrent programs that copies publication data to the target database.
Copy the publication to the target database.
Publish a configuration model without specifying a UI only if you plan to use another application to create a custom user interface that accesses the Configuration Interface Object (CIO). This implementation is not described directly in any Oracle Configurator documentation. For details about the CIO, see the Oracle Configurator Extensions and Interface Object Developer’s Guide.
If a host application launches Oracle Configurator to configure an item that has been published, but no user interface is available for the publication, the runtime Oracle Configurator displays an error similar to the following:
No user interface found for publication ID 456123.
Instead of creating a new publication from scratch, you can copy an existing publication and then modify its applicability parameters. You may want to do this if, for example, you want to create an additional publication for a Model and make only minor changes to its applicability parameters.
To copy an existing publication:
Navigate to the Publications area of the Repository, then select an existing publication from the list.
Click the icon in the New Copy column.
Modify the new publication’s applicability parameters as required.
Applicability parameters are described in Applicability Parameters.
Click OK.
Make a note of the publication ID for future reference.
Modify the settings in the Container Page/Region section, if required.
For details, see Creating a New Model Publication.
Click Apply.
Copy the publication to the target database.
For details, see Copying Model Data to a Database.
For general information about republishing, see Republishing.
To republish a Model:
Navigate to the Publications area of the Repository.
Select the publication to update, and then click Republish.
Configurator Developer creates a concurrent request to copy Model data to the specified database. Make a note of the new publication ID for future reference.
Update the publication by copying the publication to the target database.
For details, see Copying Model Data to a Database.
When you create a publication, Configurator Developer creates a new record in the database on which Configurator Developer is running (this is known as your development database). This record consists of the entire configuration model, including Model structure, rules, and a UI (specifying a UI is optional, but is usually included when creating a publication). Before a host application can access the publication, this data must be copied to the database that you specified as the "target" when creating the publication.
You copy Model data to the target database by running one of the publishing concurrent programs. There are two publication concurrent programs: one selects only a single publication that you specify, while the other selects all publications that have a status of Pending. For more information about these programs, see the Oracle Configurator Implementation Guide.
The concurrent program selects the publication record(s) that you created in Configurator Developer and copies the new or changed data to the target database. When the program completes successfully, it creates a new publication record (if you are creating a new publication) or updates the existing publication (if you are republishing). At this point, the status of the publication changes to Complete in the Publications area of the Repository, and host applications can view the publication in a runtime Oracle Configurator.
All affected Models must either be unlocked or locked by you before running the concurrent program. For details, see Automatic Model Locking.
It is possible to publish to your local (development) instance because different tables are used to store the publication that you create in Configurator Developer, and the one that is accessed by host applications. To create a publication on your development database, specify "Local" as the publication target.
You can also publish to a database instance other than the one on which Configurator Developer is running (in other words, a "remote" database instance). For details about setting up a remote server, refer to the section about the Server Administration concurrent programs in the Oracle Configurator Implementation Guide.
Important: Do not publish Models to a remote instance that is used to develop configuration models (in other words, an instance on which Configurator Developer is running). If you do, the instance becomes a "publication target only" instance and Configurator Developer is no longer available in that environment. Refer to the Oracle Configurator Implementation Guide for information about converting a publication target instance into a development instance.
Note: If you make any changes to the Model or any of its referenced Models in Configurator Developer before the concurrent program copies the data to the target database, the Model’s logic will not be up to date and the program will fail. When this occurs, Configurator Developer sets the publication status to Error. To create the publication and change its status to Complete, you must republish the Model. This is described in Republishing a Model.
Edit a Model publication’s applicability parameters when you want to change its availability to host applications. For example, you can add host applications to the Applications parameter to make it more widely available, modify the effective dates, or change the publication Mode. To make a publication available for a different application or Usage and for a different date range, you must create a new publication. For details, see Creating a New Model Publication.
You can edit a publication only if its status is Complete or Pending. For more information about publication statuses, see the Oracle Configurator Implementation Guide.
Note: If a Model that contains UI Template References is published and you modify the template in Configurator Developer, the changes do not appear in any UIs that reference the template until you republish the Model. Republishing is explained in Republishing a Model. For more information, see User Interface Template References.
Changing a publication’s applicability parameters only affects its availability to host applications, it does not create a new publication in the database, copy Model data, or modify existing Models in any way.
Configurator Developer does not allow you to make changes that would create publications with overlapping applicability parameters in the same database instance. Overlapping applicability parameters are explained in Overlapping Applicability Parameters.
To modify a publication’s applicability parameters:
Navigate to the Publications area of the Repository.
In the same row as the publication you want to modify, click the icon in the Edit column.
Modify the publication’s applicability parameters. You can modify the Mode, Applications, Languages, Usages, and effective dates.
Modify the settings in the Container Page/Region section, if required.
For details about these settings, see Creating a New Model Publication.
Click Apply.
Note: When you update a publication’s applicability parameters in Configurator Developer, the changes propagate automatically to the publication in the target database. Therefore, running one of the publication concurrent programs is not necessary.
Deleting a publication prevents any runtime Configurators from accessing the Model for any further testing or production activities. You may also want to delete a publication if, for example, one of the publication concurrent programs has an error status upon completion, and you want to republish it.
You can delete a publication only if its status is Complete, Pending, or Error.
Deleting a publication removes the publication record from the database, but it does not delete any data in the CZ schema that is associated with the publication. For information about purging publication records and data from a database, see the Oracle Configurator Implementation Guide.
To delete a publication:
Navigate to the Publications area of the Repository.
Select a publication, then click Delete.
Click OK.
Note: It is not necessary to run one of the publication concurrent programs to delete the publication record in the target database. This is because deleting a publication in Configurator Developer also deletes the publication that is accessed at runtime by host applications.
You might want to disable a publication if, for example, you need to make it temporarily unavailable to host applications.
To enable or disable a publication:
Navigate to the Publications area of the Repository.
Select a publication, then click Enable or Disable.
Click OK to confirm the action.