5 Customizing Menus

This chapter describes how to use the Manage Menu Customizations task to customize the navigator menu and the home page menu in Oracle Fusion Applications.

This chapter includes the following sections:

Section 5.1, "About Menu Configuration"
Section 5.2, "Adding Navigator Menu Groups"
Section 5.3, "Adding Menu Items"
Section 5.4, "Hiding and Showing Nodes"

5.1 About Menu Configuration

You use the Manage Menu Customizations task to customize the navigator and home page menus. This task is available from the Setup and Maintenance work area, which is accessible from the Administration menu in the Oracle Fusion Applications global area.

You customize the menus at the site level and your changes affect all users (or all users of a tenant if in a multi-tenant environment).

In non-Cloud implementations, you can localize menu customizations. For more information, see the "Translating Menu Customizations" section in the Oracle Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide for Developers.

Note:

While you can customize the navigator menu and the home page menu at runtime, you cannot customize the global preferences menu at runtime.

For information about customizing the navigator and home page menus using Oracle JDeveloper, see the "Customizing Menus" section in the Oracle Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide for Developers. This functionality is not available in Oracle Cloud implementations.

5.1.1 About Navigator Menu Configuration

The navigator menu is the global menu that is accessible from the Oracle Fusion Applications global area. It allows an end user to navigate directly to pages inside of Oracle Fusion Applications as well as to outside web pages. The menu is composed of links (items) that are organized in a hierarchy of groups.

You can customize the navigator menu to address needs that are specific to your organization. For example, you might want to add specialized groupings for cross-functional teams or add links to web pages or external applications. You can add groups and links to the navigator menu, as well as hide and show them.

The navigator menu typically appears when the end user clicks the Navigator link, as shown in Figure 5-1. However, in some non-Cloud applications, the page template can be customized to present the top level groups and items as dropdown buttons, as shown in Figure 5-2, in place of the single Navigator link. For information about how to display the navigator menu as a series of dropdown buttons see the "Rendering the Navigator Menu as Dropdown Buttons" section in the Oracle Fusion Applications Developer's Guide.

Figure 5-1 Navigator Menu Example — Navigator Link

Figure 5-2 Navigator Menu Example — Navigator Dropdown Buttons

The Manage Menu Customizations task displays the menu groups as expandable nodes, as shown in Figure 5-3, with which you can traverse the menu hierarchy.

Figure 5-3 Expandable Group Nodes in Manage Menu Customizations Task

Group nodes with one expanded to show items

In non-Cloud implementations you can also customize the navigator menu from Oracle JDeveloper. For more information, see the "Customizing Menus" section in the Oracle Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide for Developers

5.1.1.1 What You Can Do with the Navigator Menu at Runtime

If you have the required privileges, you can perform the following tasks to customize the menu:

Add and delete custom groups.
Edit any group.
Add and delete custom items.
Edit any item.
Specify navigation for an item:
- Specify navigation to a UI Shell page in an Oracle Fusion application.
- Specify navigation to an external web page using either a dynamic URL or a static URL.
Hide or show groups and items.

5.1.1.2 What You Cannot Do with the Navigator Menu at Runtime

You cannot make the following menu customizations at runtime:

You cannot add menu items (links) as top-level nodes. You can add nodes to only the groups in the top level and subgroups.
You cannot delete nodes that are delivered with the product.
You cannot move nodes. Instead, you must duplicate the node and hide the original node.

5.1.2 About Home Page Menu Configuration

The home page menu is the set of tabs that are displayed in the Oracle Fusion Applications global area at the top of a desktop page, as shown in Figure 5-4. The home page menu displays tabs for all the items in the menu for which the end user has access privileges. You can add tabs to the home page menu, as well as hide and show them.

Figure 5-4 Home Page Menu Tabs

In a multi-tenant environment, you customize the home page menu at the site level and your changes affect the tenant at that site level. Otherwise, you customize the home page menu at the site level and your customizations affect all end users.

In non-Cloud implementations you can also customize the home page menu from Oracle JDeveloper. For more information, see the "Customizing Menus" section in the Oracle Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide for Developers

5.1.2.1 What You Can Do with the Home Page Menu at Runtime

If you have the required privileges, you can perform the following tasks to customize the menu:

Add and delete custom items.
Edit any item.
Specify navigation to a home page in an Oracle Fusion application.
Hide or show items.

In non-Cloud implementations, you can localize home page menu customizations. For more information, see the "Customizing Menus" section in the Oracle Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide for Developers

5.1.2.2 What You Cannot Do with the Home Page Menu at Runtime

You cannot make the following menu customizations at runtime:

You cannot add menu items (links) as sub-nodes. All nodes are top-level nodes.
You cannot delete nodes that are delivered with the product.
You cannot move nodes. Instead, you must duplicate the node and hide the original node.

5.1.3 Before You Begin Customizing a Menu

Before you customize a menu, you should be familiar with the Oracle Fusion application architecture that enables customization, as described in Chapter 1, "Customizing and Extending Oracle Fusion Applications." You should also understand the typical workflows for working with customizations, as described in Chapter 2, "Understanding the Customization Development Lifecycle."

You will need to do the following before you can begin customizing a menu:

If you are making minor changes, such as adding or editing one or two nodes, then you can hide the changes until you have completed your customizations. However, if you are making more than minor changes, such as rearranging several nodes, you might want to instead create a sandbox and make your changes in the sandbox. For more information see Section 2.2, "Using the Sandbox Manager."
You must have specific privileges to access the Manage Menu Customizations task. Contact your security administrator for details.
Open the Manage Menu Customizations task. To access this task, choose Setup and Maintenance from the Administration menu in the Oracle Fusion Applications global area and search for the task.
Select the menu type — Navigator Menu or Homepage Menu — from the Customize dropdown list.

5.2 Adding Navigator Menu Groups

You arrange the navigator menu by building a hierarchy of nested groups. For example, in Figure 5-3 the Manager Resources group contains the Career group.

Task: Navigate the Menu Hierarchy

Use the View menu to expand or collapse a group of nodes. You can also right-click a node and access similar actions to facilitate tree navigation.

Task: Add a Group

As shown in Figure 5-5, you can insert a group above or below a peer group or insert a child group. You edit a group by defining a label and specifying whether the group should be rendered. You typically hide the group until all changes have been completed.

Figure 5-5 Actions Menu

5.3 Adding Menu Items

The home page menu items are URL links to Oracle Fusion Applications home pages. Navigator menu items can be links to UI Shell pages or links to external applications and web sites.

You can add navigator menu items to top-level groups and to their subgroups. You cannot add navigator menu items as top-level nodes. Home page menu items are always top-level items.

Task: Adding a Home Page Menu Item

To add a home page menu item, navigate to the place where you want the item to appear and choose Insert Above or Insert Below from the Actions menu. You can also choose to duplicate an existing item. You must supply the menu label and a link to a UI Shell page as described Task: Linking to a UI Shell Page. The Create Item Node dialog for the home page menu is shown in Figure 5-7.

Figure 5-6 Create Item Node Dialog for the Home Page Menu

Task: Adding a Navigator Menu Item

To add a navigator menu item, navigate to the item's group and insert the item above or below another item, as shown in Figure 5-5. You can also choose to duplicate an existing item. When the Create Item Node dialog appears, as shown in Figure 5-7, select the type of link that you want to create.

Application Page: Use this choice to link to a UI Shell page in an Oracle Fusion application.
Dynamic URL: Use this choice to link to a page outside of Oracle Fusion Applications where the host, port, or context root might change. To use this choice, you must first register the application in the topology using the Register Enterprise Applications task. The advantage of using a dynamic URL is that when the host, port, or context root changes, you can make the change to the web application in the topology registration and the change affects all menu items that have dynamic links to that web application. An example of a need for a dynamic URL is when you need to link to a test version of an application and you will need to change the host and port when you move the application to production.
Static URL: Use this choice to link to a page outside of Oracle Fusion Applications where you do not expect the host, port, or context root to change. For example, you can use a static URL to link to http://www.oracle.com.

Figure 5-7 Create Item Node Dialog for the Navigator Menu

Task: Linking to a UI Shell Page

To add a menu item that links to a UI Shell page, create a new item to display the Create Item Node dialog shown in Figure 5-7. Select Application Page, select the web application from the dropdown list, and provide the view ID of the target page.

The quickest way to obtain the web application name and view ID is to copy them from an existing menu item that links to the same page. In a non-Cloud implementation, you also can obtain the web application name from the context root for the application, and you can obtain the view ID from the id attribute for the page's <view> tag in the product's public_html/WEB-INF/adfc-config.xml file.

If you want to secure access to the target UI Shell page from the menu item, then you must provide the name of the secured resource and the name of the policy store's application stripe. When an end user clicks the link, Oracle Fusion Applications checks the secured resource and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) policy store to determine whether the user the privilege to view the page.

If there is another menu item that points to the same page, then you can get the secured resource name and application stripe from that item. In a non-Cloud implementation, you also can obtain the application stripe from the jps.policystore.applicationid parameter in the application's weblogic-application.xml file. Examples of application stripes are crm, fscm, and hcm.

For non-Cloud applications, you can determine the secured resource name by obtaining the name of the web page's page definition file. By default, the page definition files are located in the view.PageDefs package in the Application Sources directory of the view project. If the corresponding JavaServer Faces (JSF) page is saved to a directory other than the default (public_html), or to a subdirectory of the default, then the page definition will also be saved to a package of the same name. An example of a secured resource name is oracle.apps.view.pageDefs.CaseList_Form_Attach_ UIShellPagePageDef.

A UI Shell page might take parameters and display or act differently based on the parameters that are passed in. For example, if accessing a page from one group in the menu hierarchy, the parameter might be set to status="Open" and if accessing the page from a different group, the parameter might be set to status="Closed". If the page takes parameters, you can use the Page Parameters List text box to provide a semicolon-delimited string of name-value pairs, such as org=m1;context=s1. You can use expression language (EL) to specify the parameters. If the EL evaluates to an Object, the toString value of that Object is passed as the value of the parameter.

Task: Dynamically Linking to an External Web Site or Application

To link to a page outside of Oracle Fusion Applications where the host, port, or context root might change, first use the Register Enterprise Applications task to add the web application to the topology.

Next, create a new menu item, and, in the Create Item Node dialog, select Dynamic URL as shown in Figure 5-8. From the Web Application dropdown list, select the web application that you added to the topology. In the Destination for Web Application text box, type the remainder of the URL. For example, if you wanted to link to http://example:9011/myApp/faces/Page1, you would add MyApp to the topology with a protocol, host, port, and context root of http://example:9011/myApp. In the Create Item Node dialog, you would select MyApp from the dropdown list, and you would type /faces/Page1 in the Destination for Web Application text box.

Figure 5-8 Creating an Item Node with a Dynamic URL

Create Item Node with Dynamic URL selected.

Task: Statically Linking to an External Web Site or Application

To link to a page outside of Oracle Fusion Applications where the host, port, or context will not change, create a new menu item, and, in the Create Item Node dialog, select Static URL as shown in Figure 5-8. Next, type the full URL, for example http://www.oracle.com, in the Destination text box.

Figure 5-9 Creating an Item Node with a Static URL

Create Item Node dialog with Static URL selected

5.4 Hiding and Showing Nodes

While you are creating or working with a group or item, you might want to prevent end users from accessing the node. You can hide the group or item while you are working with it, and then show the node when you have completed the task.

If you want a group or item to appear only if certain conditions are met, you can use an EL expression to indicate when the node should appear.

Tip:

For major changes that need to be tested and approved, you might want to use the sandbox manager instead of hiding and showing nodes. For more information, see Section 2.2, "Using the Sandbox Manager."

The Manage Menu Customizations page shows all nodes. A node that appears in italics either has an EL expression or the Rendered check box was deselected, as shown in Figure 5-10.

Figure 5-10 Hidden Node Shown in Italics

Task: Hiding or Showing a Node

When you add a node, the Rendered check box is selected by default. To hide the node, deselect the check box. You can edit the node later to change how it is rendered.

If you want the node to appear only if certain conditions exist, click the down arrow on the right side of the Rendered check box to open the EL Expression Editor dialog. Type the expression that must be met for the node to appear, such as #{securityContext.userInRole['ADMIN']}.