Glossary

application role

A role specific to applications and stored in the policy store.

application stripe

A collection of Oracle Application Server Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) Provider policies that are applicable to the application with which it is associated. Out of the box, an application stripe maps to a Java EE application. Oracle Platform Security Services also supports mapping multiple Java EE applications to one application stripe.

artifact (SAR file)

A file included in the SAR file of the SOA composite application. Examples of artifacts include binding components and service components, references to B2B agreements, Oracle Web Services Manager (Oracle WSM) policies, human task flows, and metadata such as WSDL and XSD files.

binding component

A component that establishes the connection between a SOA composite application and the external world. There are two types of binding components:

• services: provide the outside world with an entry point to the SOA composite application

• references: enable messages to be sent from the SOA composite application to the external services in the outside world.

BPEL

Business Process Execution Language. An XML-based markup language for composing a set of discrete web services into an end-to-end process flow.

BPEL process

A service component that integrates a series of business activities and services into an end-to-end business process flow. See also BPEL.

bucketset

A container for defining a list of values or a range of values of a specified type. After you create a bucketset, you can associate the bucketset with a fact property of matching type. Business rules use the bucketsets that you define to specify constraints on the values associated with fact properties in rules or in decision tables.

business event

A message sent as the result of an occurrence or situation, such as a new order or completion of an order. You can raise business events when a situation of interest occurs. When an event is published, other applications can subscribe to it. Definitions for business events are stored in an Oracle Metadata Services (MDS) repository, and then published in the Event Delivery Network (EDN).

business object

A resource in an enterprise database, such as an invoice or purchase order.

Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)

See BPEL.

business rule

A statement that describes business policies or describes key business decisions.

configuration plan

As you move projects from one environment to another (for example, from testing to production), you typically must modify several environment-specific values, such as JDBC connection strings, hostnames of various servers, and so on. Configuration plans enable you to modify these values using a single text (XML) file. During process deployment, the configuration plan searches the SOA project for values that must be replaced to adapt the project to the next target environment.

customize

To change a standard (existing) Oracle Fusion Applications artifact.

data dimension

A stripe of data accessed by a data role, such as the data controlled by a business unit.

data security

The control of access to data. Data security controls what action an end user can take against which data.

data stripe

A dimensional subset of the data granted by a data security policy and associated with a data role. The data dimension expresses stripes of data, such as territorial or geographic information, that you can use to partition enterprise data.

decision table

An alternative business rule format that is more compact and intuitive when many rules are needed to analyze many combinations of property values. You can use a decision table to create a set of rules that covers all combinations or when no two combinations conflict.

dependent value set

A list of values whose availability and meaning depend on the value that the end user provides for a prior segment, where the prior segment is associated with an independent value set.

descriptive flexfield

A type of flexfield used to give additional attributes to a data model. A descriptive flexfield can support only a set amount of segments.

design time customizations and extensions

Customizations and extensions that include more complex changes, such as creating Oracle SOA Suite composite applications or creating new batch jobs. Design time customizations are most often done by Java developers using Oracle JDeveloper (a comprehensive IDE), or may be done in other tools, such as Oracle SOA Composer. The customizations are then uploaded or deployed to a running instance of Oracle Fusion Applications.

domain value map

A set of value mappings that enables you to associate values from one application with values from another. For example, one value can represent a city with a long name (Boston), while another value can represent a city with a short name (BO). In such cases, you can directly map the values by using domain value maps.

entitlement

A set of grants of access to functions and data. This is an Oracle Fusion Middleware term for privilege.

extend

To create a completely new artifact, such as a custom business object or custom view page.

extensible flexfield

A type of flexfield that is similar to a descriptive flexfield, but does not have a fixed number of segments, allows grouping of segments into contexts, allows entities to inherit segments from their parents, and supports one-to-many relationships between an entity and its extended attribute rows.

flexfield

A set of placeholder fields (segments) that is associated with a business object. Oracle Fusion Applications provides three types of flexfields: descriptive, extensible, and key. Implementors use descriptive and extensible flexfields to add custom attributes to business objects. Implementors use key flexfields to define keys, such as part numbers.

flexfield sandbox

A sandbox to which you can deploy flexfield configurations for testing purposes before deploying to the mainline code.

format-only value set

A value set that conforms to formatting rules. This is used when you want to allow end users to enter any value so long as that value conforms to formatting rules. For example, if you specify a maximum length of 3 and numeric-only, then users can enter 456 but not 4567 or 45A. Use a format-only value set only when no other types of validation are required.

function security

The mechanism by which user access to application functionality is controlled.

global layer

A customization layer in which customizations affect all end users of the application. This layer's XML files are added for everyone, whenever the artifact is requested. Customizations made to ADF Business Components in Oracle JDeveloper must be made in the global layer.

human task

A Business Catalog component that enables you to define how end users interact with your Oracle Business Process Management (Oracle BPM) processes. Human tasks are implemented in an Oracle BPM process using the user task. Human tasks are also used in SOA composite applications, where they are known as service components.

independent value set

A predefined list of values for a flexfield segment. These values can have an associated description. The meaning of a value in this value set does not depend on the value of any other segment.

key flexfield

A non-optional type of flexfield. This type of flexfield is used to define the parts of a key structure such as the parts of a product key or the parts of a customer key.

metadata sandbox

The type of sandbox that supports making changes to the application's metadata stored in an Oracle Metadata Services (MDS) repository.

multi-tenant environment

An environment where a single application instance serves multiple client organizations by partitioning the data and configurations into separate virtual application instances.

Oracle Mediator

A service component that performs message and event routing, filtering, and transformations within a SOA composite application.

page fragment file

A particular type of file that represents only a fragment of a page, but that is necessary to properly display the entirety of that page.

partner link

Characterizes the conversational relationship between two services in a BPEL process by defining the roles played by each service in the conversation and specifying the port type provided by each service to receive messages within the conversation.

permission

A security artifact in the policy store that maps a specific application resource with an allowed action. For example, a permission may be granted to a role to confer access rights to users.

personalization

The changes that every end user of the Oracle Fusion Applications product suite can make to certain artifacts in the user interface (UI) at runtime. These changes remain for that user each time that user logs in to the application. Personalization includes changes based on user behavior (such as changing the width of a column in a table), changes the user elects to save, such as search parameters, or composer-based personalizations, where an end user can redesign aspects of a page.

privilege

A grant of access to functions and data. A privilege is a defined by a single, real world action on a single business object.

resource bundle

A collection of locale-specific objects. When a program needs a locale-specific resource, a String for example, it can load the resource from the resource bundle appropriate for the current user's locale. In this way, the program code is largely independent of the user's locale, isolating most, if not all, of the locale-specific information in resource bundles.

role

An identity that determines permitted access to application functions and data.

rule dictionary

A business rules container for facts, functions, globals, bucketsets, links, decision functions, and rulesets. A dictionary is an XML file that stores the application's rulesets and the data model. Dictionaries can link to other dictionaries.

ruleset

A business rules container for rules and decision tables. A ruleset provides a namespace, similar to a Java package, for rules and decision tables.

runtime customizations and extensions

Customizations and extensions that can be made to Oracle Fusion Applications at runtime using browser-based components. These customizations and extensions are available to all or to a subset of Oracle Fusion Applications end users, and range from changing the look and feel of a page, to customizing standard business objects, adding a new business object and associated pages and application functionality, changing workflows, defining security for new objects, and customizing reports.

sandbox

A testing environment that separates sections of an application so that changes and modifications are kept within the sandbox and do not affect the mainline code or other sandboxes. Different users can create their own sandboxes to test their own sections. After the changes made in the sandbox have been tested, the sandbox user has the option to publish the changes to the mainline code.

SAR file

A SOA archive deployment unit. A SAR file is a special JAR file that requires a prefix of sca_. (For example, sca_OrderBookingComposite_rev1.0.jar). The SAR file packages binding components and service components, such as BPEL processes, business rules, human tasks, and mediator routing services, into a SOA composite application.

security reference implementation

Provides role-based access control in Oracle Fusion Applications, and is composed of predefined security policies that protect functions, data, and segregation of rules. The reference implementation supports identity management, access provisioning, and security enforcement across the tools, data transformations, access methods, and the information lifecycle of an enterprise.

security sandbox

The type of sandbox that supports making data security changes.

segment

A subdivision of a flexfield. A segment captures a single atomic value, which is represented in the application database as a single column. In the application UI, segments can be presented as individual table columns, as separate fields, or as a concatenated string of values.

service component

A component that implements the business logic or processing rules of a SOA composite application. Service components include Oracle Business Process Execution Language processes, business rules, human tasks, and mediator routing services.

site layer

A customization layer in which customizations affect end users at a particular location.

skin

A style sheet based on the CSS 3.0 syntax and that is specified in one place for an entire application. Instead of providing a style sheet for each component, or inserting a style sheet on each page, you can create one skin for the entire application.

SOA composite application

An assembly of service binding components, service components, and reference binding components designed and deployed in a single application. Wiring between the components enables message communication. The details for a composite are stored in the composite.xml file.

subset value set

A set of values taken from an existing independent value set. For example, if you have an independent value set for the days of the week, a weekend subset can be composed of its entries for Saturday and Sunday.

table value set

A value set with the Table validation type. The valid values in the value set are obtained from a specified column in a database table.

user layer

The customization layer in which all personalizations are made. The user layer is automatically selected when you use the Personalization menu.

value set

A list of values used to specify the validation rules for a flexfield segment.

wire

Wires connect service binding components, service components, and reference binding components into a complete SOA composite application.