This chapter covers the following topics:
To implement Oracle Sales Offline:
Ensure that you have fully implemented Oracle Sales.
Ensure that you have licensed Oracle Sales and applied Oracle Sales Offline patches using ADpatch.
After applying the patches, clear the _asl and _bne cache.
If you are implementing Flexfields, refer to Descriptive Flexfield Support.
Restart the application server.
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.
Using System Administrator responsibility, launch the Menus form and navigate to the ASL_XLS_MAIN_MENU menu.
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.
In the Sales Offline summary sheet Hot Keys are provided for:
Main tabs - Home, Tasks, Lead, Opportunity, Quote, and Customer
Subtabs - Home, Conflict Resolution, Organization, Contact and Person
Global buttons - Calendar, Profile and Sync
Action buttons - Reapply, Discard, Save and Create
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 |
To toggle the remove checkbox on the task summary sheet follow these steps:
Set prompt ASLX_REMOVE_TASK_KEY to the value you want to use as the hotkey. A valid setup is a single character
Navigate to the cell containing the remove checkbox using the Up/Down Arrow keys.
Click Ctrl + Alt + Hot Key from the keyboard to toggle the value of the remove checkbox.
The Profile Options in Oracle Sales Offline are contained in one of the following five categories:
Deployment: Profiles that must be set up for Oracle Sales Offline to run. These include items such as file paths, ports, hosts, and performance optimizations.
Download and Default Category: Use these profiles for upgrade or maintaining backwards compatibility.
Debug: Profiles that enable debug/diagnostic features.
Security: Profiles related to security features, including access control, authentication, auditing, encryption policies, and intrusion detection settings. Examples include Hide Diagnostics, Guest User Password, Signon Audit and Session Timeout.
UI or Interaction: Profiles that are cosmetic or productivity preferences. In general, these are things users set as a 'preference'. For example, language, date format, colors, number of rows in a table, or default date.
The following table lists each Sales Offline Profiles and the profile's corresponding category. Note that these profiles are downloaded from Oracle Sales.
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:
These are the system profile options you can set:
ASL: Campaign Code Download Threshold - Determines the number of campaign (source/offer) codes to download.
ASL: Excel Debug - If set to Yes, debug option is turned on and the application will create a log file on the server when a user downloads a new Oracle Sales Offline template or performs a synchronization in Oracle Sales Offline. The log file is created in a directory of the middle tier. The location of that directory is specified by the OC4J parameter service.Logging.common.filename, along with a log type. The format of the file name is ASL_<username>_<log-type>_<sessionID>.log.
The <log-type> specifies if you downloaded a new Oracle Sales Offline template (specified with a log type of T) or performed a synchronization (specified with a log type of S).
For example:
ASL_LJONES_S_12223422222.log (performed a synchronization)
or
ASL_LJONES_T_1232345562.log (downloaded a new template)
With this logging enabled, the log file created during a synchronization is compressed into ServerLogs.zip and this file is copied into the client logs directory located where the Oracle Sales Offline template was downloaded.
ASL: Download Service Items - Set this profile to Yes if you want to download services for Quoting module.
ASL: Excel Server Host - Set this value in a Multi-Node Load Balanced Environment to override the server name defaulted in the Oracle Sales Offline template. The profile value must be set to the external host name.
ASL: Excel Server Port - Set this value in a Multi-Node Load Balanced Environment to override the server port defaulted in the Oracle Sales Offline template. The profile value must be set to the external port number.
ASL: Excel SSL Acceleration On - Set this profile to Yes if the environment has SSL enabled.
ASL: Turn On SQL Trace - If set to Yes, a SQL trace file is created for each synchronization in Oracle Sales Offline.
These profiles are used for storing user preferences specified in the Sync Preferences window. No setup is required. Do not change these values.
ASL: Excel Budget Status
ASL: Campaign Code Download Threshold
ASL: Download Service Items
ASL: Excel Customer Category
ASL: Excel From Win Probability
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 and Inventory Category
ASL: Excel Sales Stage ID
ASL: Excel Start Period
ASL: Excel Timeframe
ASL: Excel To Win Probability
This system profile option is used for storing your last synchronization. Do not change this profile option.
ASL_EXCEL_LAST_SYNC_TIME
This system profile controls the download of price lists to Oracle Sales Offline.
ASL: Download ALL_ITEM Price List Lines
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.
The following profiles are not used in Sales Offline. They are listed here for your information.
ASL:Enable Outlook Integration
ASL: ACCESS_CALLOUTS
ASL: Conflict Flag
ASL:Debug
ASL: Enable Attachment
ASL: Enable Configurator
ASL:Laptop Default Responsibility
ASL: Enable Encyclopedia
ASL: Enable Selective Download
ASL:Excel Save User Directory
ASL:SSL HTTP Port Number
ASL:Remove Upload My Changes Checkbox
ASL:Use Secured Server Connection
ASL_WRAPPER_DEBUG
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.
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:
OS: Address Required for Person
OS: Address Required for Sales Lead
OS: Default Budget Status for Leads
OS: Default Channel for Lead Channel Selection or Engine
OS: Default Lead Contact Role
OS: Opportunity Probability Link
OS: Sales Methodology
OS: Source Code Mandatory for Leads
OS: Source Code Required for Opportunity
OS: Lead Link Status: For the Lead to Opportunity flow to work properly, the OS: Lead Link Status must be established in Oracle Sales Offline (ASL.J).
Task Manager: JTF Tasks default date selected. See the Oracle Telesales Implementation guide for additional information.
HZ: Default Flexible Address Format : Use to display the default address style for those countries that do not have an address style mapping.
These Quote profiles are supported:
JTF_PROFILE_DEFAULT_CURRENCY
ASO: Enable Approvals
ASO: Allow Skip Approvers
ASO: Default Ordered Qty
ASO: Default Quote Status
ASO: Quote Duration
ASO: Enable Security Check
ASO: Enable Submit Button
ASO: Status Override
ASO: Validate Salesrep
ASO: New Quote Security
ASO: Enforce Account Relationships
See the Oracle Quoting Implementation Guide for details.
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.
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.
ASL: Summary Hyperlink Optimization
This profile controls the activation of the summary sheet loading hyperlink optimization. By default, this optimization is not activated.
If this profile is set to Yes, the hyperlink optimizations are enabled, and the display screen tip for each hyperlink are removed. The following generic hyperlinks are added to the summary sheets in its place:
Detail: A Click for Details screen tip will appear if you move your mouse over a hyperlink.
Website URL: A Click to Open Browser screen tip will appear if you roll your mouse over the website hyperlink.
Email: A Click Here to Send E-mail screen tip will appear if you roll your mouse over the E-mail hyperlink.
ASL: Summary Autofit Optimization
This profile controls whether the summary page loading column auto fit optimization is activated. By default, this optimization is not activated.
Set this profile to Yes, if you want to set the columns at predefined values to optimally accommodate the various data within the columns. The hyperlinks on each summary sheet have an associated screen tip text box containing the hyperlink value. Move the mouse over the hyperlink to display this value. When you click on a cell with truncated contents, a pop-up comment box appears displaying the entire contents of the cell. If you have a value that exceeds the predefined column width (primarily in the address column), single click on the cell and to display a pop-up comment box showing the values of that cell.
If you do not enable the option, the application retains the auto-fit operation and certain columns will dynamically adjust to the widest cell.
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.
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.
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.
Set up the following profiles to enable Sales Offline synchronization to work with WinZip, PKZip, and WinRAR software compression tools:
ASL:Excel Registry Key for Compression Tool Location
ASL:Excel Compression Tool Executable
ASL: Excel Compression Tool Command Line Option
The profile settings required for WinZip, PKZip and WinRAR are listed in the following tables:
Oracle Sales Offline implements the following two profiles which give the login user the privilege to update the Lead/Opportunity owner:
To enable Tasks and Notes to work correctly in Oracle Sales Offline set the following time zone profile:
Enable Timezone Conversions
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:
ASL Debug log. See General System Profiles for details on setting up an error log
Screen capture or details from the Sync Details dialog box
Error log from the client. See Client Logging for details on setting up detailed logging