Implementing Oracle Sales Offline

This chapter covers the following topics:

System Administration Tasks

To implement Oracle Sales Offline:

  1. Ensure that you have fully implemented Oracle Sales.

  2. Ensure that you have licensed Oracle Sales and applied Oracle Sales Offline patches using ADpatch.

  3. After applying the patches, clear the _asl and _bne cache.

  4. If you are implementing Flexfields, refer to Descriptive Flexfield Support.

  5. Restart the application server.

Configuring Tab Display (Optional)

Optionally, you can use the ASL_XLS_MAIN_MENU menu to control the display of tabs in Oracle Sales Offline.

Note: Configuring the tab display applies to the Quotes tab only.

  1. Using System Administrator responsibility, launch the Menus form and navigate to the ASL_XLS_MAIN_MENU menu.

  2. Edit the tab display as desired:

    • To change the label of a tab, edit the Prompt field of the corresponding menu entry.

    • To change the order of tabs, recreate the menu entries in the desired sequence (determined by the Seq field).

    • To remove a tab, clear the Prompt field of the corresponding menu entry.

    • To customize the subtabs, refer to the Submenu name under the parent menu and locate that menu. Then modify as described for tabs. For example, to customize the subtabs under the Home tab, find the menu ASL_XLS_HOME and edit its menu entries.

      Note: ASL_XLS_MAIN_MENU and its submenus are not associated with any existing responsibility. As a result, changes to these menus affect all Oracle Sales Offline users. Menu and function exclusion defined at Responsibility level are not considered when rendering tabs in Oracle Sales Offline.

Customizing Hot Keys

In the Sales Offline summary sheet Hot Keys are provided for:

All hot keys are defined by an underline and you can access the Hot Keys with the key combination of {Ctrl+Alt}.

Using the System Administrator responsibility, launch the Menus form and edit the prompt for the ampersand '&' character position. The hot key will be the first character after the ampersand '&'. For example, in &Home H is the hot key for the Home Tab.

Menu Function
ASL_XLS_MAIN_MENU Controls hot keys for main tabs
ASL_XLS_HOME Controls hot keys for Home and Conflict Resolution sub tabs
ASL_XLS_CUSTOMER Controls hot keys for Organization, Contact and Person sub tabs
ASL_XLS_ROOT_MENU Controls hot keys for Calendar, Profile and Sync global buttons

Using the Application Developer Common modules responsibility, launch the Define Attributes form and edit the label for the ampersand '&' character position. The hot key will be the first character after the ampersand '&'. For example, in &create C is the hot key for the Create button.

Attribute Function
ASLX_SUM_REAPPLY Controls hot key for Reapply button
ASLX_SUM_DISCARD Controls hot key for Discard button
ASLX_SUM_SAVE Controls hot key for Save button
ASLX_SUM_CREATE Controls hot keys for Create button

Task Summary Sheet

To toggle the remove checkbox on the task summary sheet follow these steps:

  1. Set prompt ASLX_REMOVE_TASK_KEY to the value you want to use as the hotkey. A valid setup is a single character

  2. Navigate to the cell containing the remove checkbox using the Up/Down Arrow keys.

  3. Click Ctrl + Alt + Hot Key from the keyboard to toggle the value of the remove checkbox.

Oracle Sales Offline Profile Categories

The Profile Options in Oracle Sales Offline are contained in one of the following five categories:

The following table lists each Sales Offline Profiles and the profile's corresponding category. Note that these profiles are downloaded from Oracle Sales.

Profile Category Profile
ASL_Deployment ASL: Excel Server Host
ASL: Excel Server Port
ASL: Excel Registry Key for Compression Tool Location
ASL: Excel Compression Tool Executable
ASL: Excel Compression Tool Command Line Option
ASL: Excel SSL Acceleration On
ASL_Download and Default ASL: Campaign Code Download Threshold
ASL: Download ALL_ITEM Price List Lines
ASL: Download Service Items
ASL: Excel Budget Status
ASL: Excel Customer Category
ASL: Excel End Period
ASL: Excel Forecast Category
ASL: Excel Forecast Credit
ASL: Excel From Win Probability
ASL: Excel Inventory Category
ASL: Excel Lead Channel
ASL: Excel Lead Max
ASL: Excel Lead Rank
ASL: Excel Lead Status
ASL:Excel Opportunity Status
ASL: Excel Organization Country
ASL: Excel Organization State
ASL: Excel Period Type
ASL: Excel Price List
ASL: Excel Sales Channel
ASL: Excel Sales Marketing Inventory Category
ASL: Excel Sales Stage ID
ASL: Excel Start Period
ASL: Excel Timeframe
ASL: Excel To Win Probability
ASL: Operating Unit Sync Preference
ASL_DEBUG ASL:Excel Debug
ASL: Turn on SQL Trace
ASL_Security ASL_EXCEL_LAST_SYNC_TIME
ASL:Enable Sync Engine
ASL_UI ASL: Default Business to Customer
ASL: Remove Organization Create Button
ASL: Remove Person Create Button
ASL: Remove Contact Create Button
ASL: Summary Hyperlink Optimization
ASL: Summary Autofit Optimization
ASL: Default Quote Contact

System Profile Options Used by Oracle Sales Offline

This section describes the system profile options used by Oracle Sales Offline. The procedure for setting and changing system profile options is the same for all Oracle applications. For a detailed description of the procedures, refer to the Oracle E-Business Suite Maintenance Guide.

The profiles described are:

General System Profiles

These are the system profile options you can set:

User Preference Profiles

These profiles are used for storing user preferences specified in the Sync Preferences window. No setup is required. Do not change these values.

Synchronization Time Profile

This system profile option is used for storing your last synchronization. Do not change this profile option.

Price List Lines Profile

This system profile controls the download of price lists to Oracle Sales Offline.

The default is null.

Blank indicates that no price lists will download.

Yes indicates to download price lists that have the Mobile Download checkbox selected and the Product Attribute is set to ALL_ITEMS.

No indicates to download price lists that have the Mobile Download checkbox selected, and to exclude price lists where the Product Attribute is set to ALL_ITEMS.

Profiles Deleted from Sales Offline

The following profiles are not used in Sales Offline. They are listed here for your information.

Oracle Sales Offline/Oracle Sales Profiles

Oracle Sales Offline does not support the existing Data Quality Management (DQM) features used in Oracle Sales. The following profile options allow you to turn off the creation of Customers (Organizations, Persons and Contacts) in Oracle Sales Offline. If these profile options are turned on, the Create buttons for Organizations, Persons and Contacts will be disabled.

Sales Offline Profile Description Values
ASL: Remove Organization Create Button When set to Yes, the Organization create buttons will be removed in ASL. Yes/No
Default=No
ASL:Remove Person Create Button When set to Yes, the Person create buttons will be removed in ASL. Yes/No
Default=No
ASL: Remove Contact Create Button When set to Yes, the Contact create buttons will be removed in ASL. Yes/No
Default=No
ICX: Date Format Mask Keeps the date look and feel consistent between the online and offline applications. The American English default is DD–MON–RRRR, for example, 12–NOV–2002.

You no longer have to maintain two sets of profiles to use Oracle Sales Offline. Oracle Sales Offline will download and leverage the following Sales profiles. You do not have to set the corresponding Oracle Sales Offline profile option separately.

Former Sales Offline Profile Sales Profile Equivalent Downloaded Description Values Default
OS:Default Opportunity Win Probability ASN: Default Opportunity Win Probability When an opportunity is created, this value defaults into the create page. Based on win probability values set up in admin page. N/A
OS:Default Sales Channel ASN:Default Opportunity Sales Channel When a lead of opportunity is created, this value defaults into the create page. Based on values set up for sales channel. N/A
OS:Default Opportunity Status ASN:Default Opportunity Status When an opportunity is created, this value defaults into the create page. Based on statuses set up with applicability to "Opportunity" selected. N/A
OS: Default Close Date Days ASN: Default Close Date Days When an opportunity is created, this value drives the data that is defaulted into the create page. Numeric Field 30 Days
OS:Default Win/Loss Status ASN:Default Win/Loss Status This value determines the win/loss status when a product is added to an opportunity. Based on lookup ASN_WIN_LOSS_STATUS None
OS:Default Status for Leads ASN:Default Lead Status When a lead is created, this value defaults into the create page. Based on statuses set up with applicability to "Lead" selected. N/A
OSO:Forecast Pipeline Calculation Basis ASN:Forecast Defaulting Type Users can add, edit, and create Forecast information within an Opportunity in ASL. Pipeline (values are pipeline and win probability). N/A
OSO: Default Country ICX:Territory Use to default address style in address form Standard set of values set up for eBusiness suite. N/A
OSO: Default Forecast Currency ICX: Preferred Currency Use to default currency in lead and opportunity creation. Standard set of values set up for eBusiness suite. N/A

Downloaded Online Application Profiles

Oracle Sales Offline will download and use these profiles if they are established in the online applications. Refer to the appropriate online application implementation guide for further details on these profiles:

Quote Profiles

These Quote profiles are supported:

See the Oracle Quoting Implementation Guide for details.

Opportunity Profile

The AS_OPPTY PROB_SS_LINK profile controls the display of a warning or error message when the combination of the Sales Stage and Win Probability information does not pass validation. The user_profile_option_name is OS: Opportunity Probability Link.

Valid values are Warning and Error.

If the value is set to Warning, and any of the Sales Stage and Win Probability information that you entered is invalid, you will see a warning message and the opportunity will be updated.

If the value is set to Error, and any of the Sales Stage and Win Probability information that you entered is invalid, you will see an error message and the opportunity will not be updated.

Improve Summary Sheet Load Time Profiles

To improve the loading speed of the summary sheets activate the optimization profiles listed below. You can set the profiles at the site, application, responsibility, or user level.

Synchronization Profile

Oracle Sales Offline uses an asynchronous synchronization process. The application goes into a locked, read-only mode when you click Go Offline and you cannot add, modify, or save data while Oracle Sales Offline is in this mode.

The profile controls the asynchronous synchronization process.

Set this value to Yes to allow data synchronization, and to check whether the current client template is compatible with the current version of the server. The default value is Yes.

This profile indicates whether the synchronization engine is enabled. The synchronization engine performs the synchronization between Oracle Sales Offline and Oracle Sales. If the synchronization engine is disabled, you cannot perform synchronizations of your offline data to the online database.

Set this option at the site level. When the ASL Uploader receives a synchronization request it checks this profile option to determine if synchronization is enabled.

If synchronization is not enabled, the process immediately returns a FAILED status with an appropriate error message.

Set this profile value to No to disable data synchronization for all users during an upgrade. The server checks this value before starting the synchronization process.

This profile value also supports version checking for an incompatible client. The numbering system for the Sales Offline client determines which version of the client can synchronize with the server. The client version number enables the server synchronization engine to determine if the client is compatible. Click on the Oracle menu in the spreadsheet to display the unique identity of the client version currently in use.

For example, during the upgrade process to the asynchronous Oracle Sales Offline template you might attempt to synchronize using an older client, which does not support the asynchronous architecture. The client will still call the existing asyProcessSync.jsp file, however it will return a message indicating that you should upgrade your client

Also, the version checking functionality determines if you are using an outdated version of Oracle Sales Offline and alerts you to download the latest version. To check your version of Oracle Sales Offline navigate to Oracle > About Sales Offline.

The profile Apps Servlet Agent is in the form http://<server>:<port>/<context_root>. For the OC4J techstack environment use OA_HTML for the <context_root>. The default value is OA_HTML. The BNE Servlet Path profile is no longer used.

SSO Profiles

Oracle Sales Offline uses standard Oracle application foundation (FND) to complete the user login and authentication. Sales Offline is a disconnected application that does not use the normal login process and cannot display the HTML challenge page during the synchronization process. When using Oracle Sales Offline and working in an SSO environment, store the necessary passwords in the FND_USER. Implement this by setting the profile, Application SSO Login Types, to Both or Local.

Defaulting Contact and Address Profile

The profile ASL: DEFAULT QUOTE CONTACT allows for the defaulting of contacts and addresses for quotes.

If this profile is set to Yes at the site level, you can customize your quote contacts and addresses based on business rules as described in the Oracle Sales Offline User Guide.

If this profile is set to No, the primary contact from the related opportunity will default; no other defaulting will occur.

Profiles for Compression

Set up the following profiles to enable Sales Offline synchronization to work with WinZip, PKZip, and WinRAR software compression tools:

The profile settings required for WinZip, PKZip and WinRAR are listed in the following tables:

Default Seeded Values for WinZipProfiles for WinZip
Profile Value
ASL: Excel Compression Tool Executable WinZip32.exe
ASL: Excel Compression Tool Command Line Option -min -e -o
Excel Registry Key for Compression Tool Location WinZip32.exe
PKZip Compression Utility Profile Values ( PKZip command line addon is required)
Profile Value
ASL: Excel Compression Tool Executable PKZipc.exe
ASL: Excel Compression Tool Command Line Option -extract = all
-silent = all
-over = all
ASL: Excel Registry Key for Compression Tool Location PKZipc.exe
Profile Values for WinRAR Compression Utility
Profile Value
ASL: Excel Compression Tool Executable WinRAR.exe
ASL: Excel Compression Tool Command Line Option X –ibck –inul –o+
ASL: Excel Registry Key for Compression Tool Location WinRAR.exe

Profiles for Updating the Lead/Opportunity Owner

Oracle Sales Offline implements the following two profiles which give the login user the privilege to update the Lead/Opportunity owner:

Timezone Profile

To enable Tasks and Notes to work correctly in Oracle Sales Offline set the following time zone profile:

Troubleshooting Tips

This section describes the most common problems that can occur when attempting to download Oracle Sales Offline.

Oracle Sales Offline Fails at the Macros

If Oracle Sales Offline fails at the macros, ensure that the macros security is set at medium or low level. Do this by navigating to Tools > Macro > Security in Microsoft Excel 2000.

Suggestions for Reporting Users Reporting Problems

Provide the following information to expedite problem resolution: