Oracle® Fusion
Applications Common Implementation Guide 11g Release 6 (11.1.6) Part Number E20360-06 |
![]() Home |
![]() Contents |
![]() Book List |
![]() Contact Us |
![]() Previous |
![]() Next |
This chapter contains the following:
Define Help Configuration: Overview
FAQs for Assign Help Text Administration Duty
The Define Help Configuration task list contains tasks that let you set up and maintain Oracle Fusion Applications Help for all users. Use the Set Help Options task to determine if certain aspects of Oracle Fusion Applications Help are available to users and to control how aspects of the help site work. Use the Assign Help Text Administration Duty and Manage Help Security Groups tasks to set up customization of help content.
After performing the help configuration tasks, you can review the predefined help and consider whether to add or customize any content. You can also customize help that is embedded in the application, for example hints and help windows, using other tools such as Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle Composer.
Use the Setup and Maintenance work area to access the tasks in the Define Help Configuration task list.
Help feature choices on the Configure Offerings page in the Setup and Maintenance work area control the look and behavior of Oracle Fusion Applications Help, and also determine which help options are available. Help options are setup options on the Set Help Options page.
Select the Local Installation of Help feature choice so that the Define Help Configuration task list appears in your implementation project, and you can select two additional features (Access to Internet-Based Help Features and Help Customization) to control the fields available on the Set Help Options page.
Select this feature choice to provide users access to features that involve navigation to sites on the Web. If you select this feature choice, then the Web Sites Available from Help Site section is available on the Set Help Options page.
Important
Some help includes links to the Oracle Fusion Applications Technology Library. If you select this feature, then these links open the library on the Oracle Technology Network Web site. If you do not select this feature, then your service administrator (Oracle Cloud implementations) or system administrator (other implementations) must download the library from Oracle Technology Network (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/documentation/default-1577155.html) and put all the content from within the extracted folder (for example E28271_01) directly into the appmgr/APPLTOP/fusionapps/applications/ahc/afh/reference/TechLib folder.
Select the Help Customization feature choice if you intend to customize predefined help or add your own files to help. For example, you can add internal policies or procedures as help, and Oracle User Productivity Kit content, if any. Not selecting this feature choice only hides the relevant setup options; help customization is not disabled for users with customization access. To disable help customization, remove the Oracle Fusion Help Text Administration duty from the job roles where it is predefined.
If you select this feature choice, then the Custom Help Security feature choice is available, as well as all these sections on the Set Help Options page:
Custom Help
User Productivity Kit
Privacy Statement
Select this feature choice if you want certain help files to be available only to a restricted set of users. You can define the user groups allowed to view corresponding help files. Do not select this feature choice if you do not have this requirement, because the feature can have an impact on performance.
If you select the Custom Help Security feature choice, then the Manage Help Security Groups task is available in the Define Help Configuration task list in your implementation project. There are no help options associated with this feature choice.
Announcements and collaboration features (discussions, ratings and comments) allow users to share information regarding help and the subjects that particular help files cover. The collaboration features are also used elsewhere in Oracle Fusion Applications. Discussions may not be available in Oracle Cloud implementations.
Use the Set Help Options page in the Setup and Maintenance work area to enable the announcements and discussions features and to set options about ratings. When administering these features, consider the purpose of each feature and points that are specific to Oracle Fusion Applications Help.
Use announcements to broadcast information to all users of your help site. You can provide information about help, for example new custom help that was recently added, or about anything that users should take note of, for example a change in company policy. Announcements can appear on any of the tabs on the home page of Oracle Fusion Applications Help. You can target specific user groups by posting announcements to specific tabs, for example, posting information related to implementation to the Functional Setup tab.
Only users with the Oracle Fusion Help Text Administration duty role have access to the Manage Announcements icon button in the Announcements sections. They can create, edit, and delete announcements for the tab that they are on, and set the date range for when each announcement is to be displayed.
Users can use discussions to post questions or comments about subjects covered in specific help files. For example, after reading help on expense reports, users might have questions or comments about company policies or processes for expenses. Other users who later access this help file would benefit from the information in the discussion.
You can set a help option to enable discussions. Each help file would contain a Discuss link that all users can use to read discussions about that file. They can also start a discussion topic or post to existing topics. These discussions are visible only to users in your enterprise.
Important
Do not enable discussions until servers for discussions are up and running.
Only users with the appropriate administrator role can moderate discussions. For more information on granting the administrator role on the discussions server, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.
Users can rate any help file on a five star system and provide feedback about the content. This information is helpful to other users in deciding which help file to open. Help files with a higher average rating are listed first in help windows, and in the help listings you see as you browse using the help navigators.
The scope of ratings and reviews is limited to your enterprise.
Provide a link to your Oracle User Productivity Kit (UPK) library if you have UPK licensed and custom UPK content to share with your users. You give them access to a library of custom UPK content in addition to any custom UPK demos that you added to the help site itself. UPK demos that you add as custom help are available only in the See It mode, so the library can include the same demo in other modes. If you have UPK versions earlier than 3.6.1, then you cannot add UPK demos as custom help, so the link is the only way for users to access custom UPK content from the help site.
The URL to enter on the Set Help Options page
should be the full path from the Web server where you
are hosting your Oracle User Productivity Kit (UPK) content to the
index.html file that opens the table of contents for the library,
for example, http://<your domain>.com/UPKcontent/PlayerPackage/index.html
. In this example, you or your UPK administrator would publish one
UPK player package that contains all the content to be linked to from
Oracle Fusion Applications Help, as well as the index.html file, and
place the PlayerPackage folder in a manually created folder called
UPKcontent on the Web server.
Users with the Oracle Fusion Help Text Administration duty role have access to customize help in Oracle Fusion Applications Help. This duty is assigned by default to various job roles, in particular the administrators for product families.
You can assign the duty role to other users who need access to customize help. Use the Manage Duties task in the Setup and Maintenance work area to search for the Oracle Fusion Help Text Administration duty role on the Role Catalog page, and map additional job roles to this duty role.
This example demonstrates how to create a help security group to define a set of job roles that have access to help. The help security group can then be assigned to particular help files so that only users with any of the defined roles have access to the help.
The following table summarizes key decisions for this scenario.
Decisions to Consider |
In This Example |
---|---|
What type of users do you need to limit help access to? |
Human resources (HR) specialists |
Is there a specific time period for which this access is needed? |
No, the help files should always be viewed only by the HR specialists |
Where do you want this group to appear in the list of values for help security groups? |
First |
Define a help security group and assign a duty role to the group.
Field |
Value |
---|---|
Help Security Group |
HR |
Meaning |
HR Only |
Description |
Viewing by HR specialists only |
Display Sequence |
1 |
You have created a new lookup code for the Help Security Groups lookup type, which is a standard lookup. The lookup code has the name, meaning, and description that you defined for the help security group.
You have also created a data security policy for the help database resource, specifying that the Human Resource Specialist role can view help that is defined with the HR security group. If you go to the Manage Database Resources and Policies page and find the database resource, or object, ATK_KR_TOPICS, then you can see the policy for the Human Resource Specialist role, with the condition that the column name, SECURITY_CODE, is equal to the value HR.
If you have the appropriate job roles, then you can customize the help files in the help site. Use the Manage Custom Help page to maintain both predefined and custom help files. You can create, duplicate, edit, and delete custom files, or set their status to Active or Inactive. For predefined files, you can only duplicate them or set their status. For each help file, predefined or custom, use help locations to determine where the help file appears in the application and in the help site. You have various options in how you add custom help, for example by uploading a file or specifying a URL.
Note
To make a copy of all custom help for testing, migration, or other purposes, use the export and import feature in the Setup and Maintenance work area.
There are various ways to access help customization.
Many help files can be accessed from help windows in the application. If you want to customize help in the context of a help window, for example create a custom help file and add a link to it from a specific help window, then start by opening that help window. When you click the Manage Custom Help link, you go to the Manage Custom Help page, and the help location fields are automatically populated with values that correspond to the help window. This way you can easily select existing files to add to the same help location, and when you create a new file, the same help location appears by default.
Open the Manage Custom Help page directly from the home page of Oracle Fusion Applications Help or from search result pages.
To edit a specific file, you can either find it in the Manage Custom Help page, or open the file itself and click the Edit link.
Likewise, you can find glossary terms in the Manage Custom Help page, or click the Glossary link in the global area to open the Glossary tab, search for the term, and click Edit.
Note
When you search in the Manage Custom Help page, make sure that the Custom Help Only check box is not selected if you are looking for predefined help.
If your enterprise has purchased Oracle User Productivity Kit (UPK) content, then your administrator can also add a UPK item to the Help menu in the global area of Oracle Fusion Applications. When users select this menu item, they access UPK content specific to the page that they are on.
Oracle Fusion Applications Help contains various types of help content, including demos, examples, FAQs, glossary terms, help topics, and PDF guides. A business process or product can be supported by some or all of these help types.
Demos are Oracle User Productivity Kit (UPK) topics that visually demonstrate how to use the application to complete a short task or portion of a task. Demos can also provide an introduction to complex dashboards and work areas.
Examples provide real use cases of features to illustrate how and when to use the feature, or scenarios to illustrate abstract concepts. Worked examples show exactly what you need to do to achieve a specific result, emphasizing decisions that you make and values that you enter.
FAQs, or frequently asked questions, provide brief answers to questions that you might have regarding a task or page. For example, they can briefly explain what a term means, why something happened, how you can perform an action, or what happens if you perform the action.
Glossary terms provide definitions for words or phrases used in help. You can search or browse glossary terms in the Glossary tab of Oracle Fusion Applications Help. Where the links are available, you can also see the definition when you hover over the term in help content for other help types.
Help topics explain key concepts, illustrate how application components work together, or assist in decision-making by explaining points to consider or the options you have. Help topics can also provide reference, overview, and other information.
PDF guides present a collection of help content from the other help types, except demos, in an organized and logical format. For example, there are guides addressing specific business processes and setup offerings. You can see lists of all guides from the Guides menu in Oracle Fusion Applications Help.
Help locations determine where users can find help files, custom or not, from either the application or the help site.
Help locations include:
Page or section values
Help hierarchies
Primary locations
The value in the Page or Section field on the help customization pages represents where users can click a help icon to open a help window that contains a link to the help file. In most cases, this value represents a page or region header in the application. Help windows are also available on specific tabs or windows, and in the Setup and Maintenance work area for specific task lists or tasks. You can associate a help file with multiple page or section values, or with none at all.
The page or section value reflects the logical navigation to the help window. For example, Edit Opportunity page, Revenue tab, Recommendations window does not mean that the help file is available in three different places. The help icon is in the Recommendations window, which is accessed from the Revenue tab on the Edit Opportunity page.
If the value suggests multiple locations, for example Create and Edit Opportunity pages, then the help file is available from the page header of both the Create Opportunity and Edit Opportunity pages. If the page or section value is, for example, a dashboard region that appears in multiple dashboards, then the value does not specify the page name but just the region. The help file is available from that region in multiple dashboards.
Help files are associated with help hierarchies, which are used to categorize help files and aid users in finding help. Each help file can have multiple hierarchies, with at least one of type Business Processes. The business process hierarchy is based on the Business Process Management model. Every page or section value is predefined with a specific business process hierarchy. If you select a page or section without entering a business process hierarchy, the predefined hierarchy appears by default.
The Search by Business Process navigator in the help site is based on the business process hierarchy. For example, if you assign two business process hierarchies to a help file, users can find the file in both locations in the navigator. When the user clicks More Help from a help window, all help files assigned to the same business process hierarchy as the page or section value are returned as search results.
Similarly, the Search by Product navigator is based on the Product hierarchy type, in which level 1 is the product family, level 2 is the product, and level 3 is the business activity owned by that product.
The Search by Functional Setup navigator is based on the Functional Setup hierarchy type. The level 1 nodes for this hierarchy are:
Functional Setup Manager, which includes help about using the Setup and Maintenance work area.
Guides, which contains level 2 nodes that correspond to business areas and setup offerings. All the user reference and functional setup PDF guides are included.
Offerings, which contains level 2 nodes for each setup offering, and lower levels for the main task lists in the offerings. Help for the task lists and tasks are included.
The Search by Common Tasks navigator is based on the Welcome hierarchy type. The level 1 nodes represent categories of functional areas common to all users.
The primary location of a help file designates the hierarchy that is displayed for the help file in search results and within the help content as breadcrumbs. You cannot change the primary location of a help file that came with your help installation. Primary locations of predefined help are based on the business process hierarchy, while custom help files can have primary locations based on hierarchies of any type.
When you open any predefined help file, including glossary terms, that came with Oracle Fusion Applications Help, you can see an edit option if you have roles allowing edit access. When you edit predefined help, keep in mind:
What happens to the original help file
Where predefined help appears
Considerations specific to glossary terms
When you edit predefined help, you are actually creating a new custom help file based on the original file, with the same help locations. The customized version replaces the original, which becomes inactive and hidden from users. You can display both versions by reactivating the original in the Manage Custom Help page.
Note
In the Search Results: Existing Help region on the Manage Custom Help page, there is no option to edit predefined help. You can duplicate a predefined help file, edit the copy, and optionally inactivate the original.
All predefined help comes with preassigned help locations, including at least one based on the hierarchy of type Business Processes. Many also have predefined page or section values that indicate where the help can be accessed from help windows in the application.
To change where predefined help appears, either in the help site navigators or in the application, create a duplicate in the Manage Custom Help page. Change or add help locations to your custom copy, and inactivate the original.
Even though glossary terms do not appear in the help site navigators, you still need to enter at least one help location to categorize the glossary term.
When you edit a predefined glossary term, the original term becomes inactive. Existing links to the glossary term, from other predefined and custom help files, will automatically point to your custom version. If you later inactivate the custom glossary term, make sure to activate the original term so that the links still work.
When you create or edit custom help, follow best practices when you include links to help files or other content. If you are working on custom help created by duplicating a predefined help file, then you may see existing links from the original file in the Help Content section. The types of links that you can work with include:
Related help links
Standard hypertext links
Links to documentation library content
Glossary term links
For all link types, except the standard hypertext links, you must create or edit custom help with a Text or Desktop source type. In other words, you must type the help content directly in the application or use an HTML file that you upload to help. For standard hypertext links, the source type can also be URL.
Related help is the section at the end of help files that contains links to other help files. The syntax for related help contains a comma-separated list of title IDs that represent help files.
This figure provides an example of related links code.
You can delete this code to remove
all related help, or delete title IDs to remove individual links (for
example, CREATE_AUTOMATIC_POSTING_CRITERIA_S_0000
).
To replace existing links or add new links, you need to retain the code syntax and enter desired title IDs. To find title IDs, search for the help files on the Manage Custom Help page. Title IDs are displayed in the search results, but the Title ID column is hidden by default.
You can create standard hypertext links to any file or Web site as long as you ensure the stability and validity of the links, including links to other help files, custom or not. These links can appear anywhere in the body of your help file as long as they come before any related help links.
In the Help Content section, highlight the text that you want to use as link text and click the Add Link icon button.
For links to other help files, open the file to which you want to link, and click the E-Mail link. Use the URL in the autogenerated e-mail text as the link to the file.
The syntax for links to HTML files in documentation libraries, for example the Oracle Fusion Applications Technology Library, is:
<span class="HP_topic-link_bridgeDocument-linkToSTDoc_"><?ofa
linkToSTDoc(WCSUG4636) ?><span class="HP_topic-linktext_">Understanding
Tags</span><?ofa endLink ?></span>
.
WCSUG4636
is the anchor
ID and Understanding Tags
is the link
text. You can:
Modify the link by replacing the existing anchor ID or editing the link text, or both.
Remove the link by deleting all the code for it.
Create links to documentation library content by following the same syntax. These links can appear anywhere in the body of your help file as long as they come before any related help links.
Important
To ensure that you are linking to a supported documentation library, enter anchor IDs only from documentation libraries that are linked from predefined help topics.
Glossary term links provide definitions in a note box when users hover over the term in help files.
This figure shows an example of code for a glossary term link.
In this example, accounting period
is the link text, or glossary term, and ACCOUNTING_PERIOD_001 is
the identifier, or title ID.
To remove the link but retain the text, delete all the code except the term itself.
To add glossary term links, you must follow the link syntax and use the correct title ID for the glossary term. You can find title IDs in the search results of the Manage Custom Help page.
Note
If your custom help has glossary terms and the source
type is Desktop File, then make sure before uploading that the quotes
around the glossary term are actual quotation marks in raw HTML, not "
. Otherwise, quotation marks will appear
when users view the help file.
This example demonstrates how to customize a PDF guide that came with Oracle Fusion Applications Help. This guide is currently not available from any help window in the application.
The following table summarizes key decisions for this scenario.
Decisions to Consider |
In This Example |
---|---|
What changes do you need to make to the guide? |
Change the title of a chapter and remove a section in that chapter, to hide content about a particular subject |
Which help window should the customized guide appear in? |
The help window for the entire Welcome dashboard of Oracle Fusion Applications |
Which help navigators should the customized guide appear in, and on which node? |
Same as the original guide, plus the path associated with the help window |
Do you want to limit access to the customized guide? |
No, same as the original guide |
Edit a copy of the original PDF guide, and use the Manage Custom Help page to replace the original PDF guide with your new file.
This example demonstrates how to add custom Oracle User Productivity Kit (UPK) topics as demo help files. These help files function like any predefined help file for demos. You can search and include these files in help windows and navigators as you would other help.
In this scenario, you are adding two demos about social networking, to appear in help windows on the Welcome dashboard.
Note
Your demo must be made with UPK 3.6.1 or later to be added as help.
The following table summarizes key decisions for this scenario.
Decisions to Consider |
In This Example |
---|---|
What UPK content do you want to add to help? |
From a UPK module containing five topics, add two as custom demos on the help site |
Which help navigators should each demo appear in, and on which node? |
Because the two demos are about social networking:
|
Which help window should each demo appear in? |
On the Welcome dashboard of Oracle Fusion Applications, one demo goes in the help window in the Activity Stream region, and the other in the People Connection region |
Do you want to limit access to the help files for the demos? |
No |
Do you want the help files to appear in the New and Updated pane? |
Yes |
Generate a report of UPK document IDs, which you will use when creating custom help, to identify the UPK topics that you want to add. Publish the UPK module as a player package, then create custom help for the UPK topics that you want to use as help demos.
Field |
Value |
---|---|
Title |
The name of the UPK topic. |
Source Type |
Oracle User Productivity Kit |
File Location |
The full URL of the player package folder on the Web
server, for example, |
Document ID |
The document ID of the UPK topic to add to the help window in the Activity Stream region. You can copy and paste this ID from the Microsoft Excel file that you generated earlier. |
Help Type |
Demo |
Help Security Group |
Unsecured |
Keywords |
Terms relevant to the demo. |
Description |
Summary of the demo. |
Include in New and Updated pane |
Selected |
The Help Location section contains values for the help window in the Activity Stream region. This help file will also appear in the Search by Business Process navigator under this predefined hierarchy.
When you create or edit help, select a help security group that represents the set of roles that you want to have access to the help. If you do not see the Security Group field, then your administrator has not selected the Custom Help Security feature choice. The Unsecured group has no associated roles, so anyone can view the help. The predefined Secured group includes all internal employees and contingent workers, unless this group has been edited. You can create security groups and associate roles using the Manage Help Security Groups page, which you can access by starting in the Setup and Maintenance Overview page and searching for the Manage Help Security Groups task. Your new security groups are immediately available for use to secure new or edited help files.
You must specify a page or section to add the existing help to. To ensure that help is added to the correct help window, go to the page or section in the application, click the Help icon, and click the Manage Custom Help link in the help window. Alternatively, in the Manage Custom Help page, search for at least a page or section and a level 1 value for the Business Processes hierarchy type before selecting the Select and Add option.
You cannot select and add help to a particular hierarchy, on the Manage Custom Help page, without a page or section. To add just a hierarchy, search for the help file, add a new help location, and specify only the hierarchy information.
Oracle Fusion Applications Help patches update all help files, both active and inactive, except custom help. Custom help files are not affected by patches. Consider reviewing inactive files to see if you want to activate the updated version, or to make similar edits to the custom versions of those files, if any.
You can customize help that is embedded in the application, for example hints and help windows, for all users of Oracle Fusion Applications.
Embedded help customization is fully described in the Oracle Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide.