Configuring Shells

Configuring a shell consists of activating it and organizing it into a hierarchy.

Note: Before you configure shells, Oracle recommends that you plan the shell hierarchy with your users and uDesigner user. The instance, and cost settings, affect how you will use the shell and its relationship to other shells. Planning will help you achieve the result that will meet your business needs.

As the administrator, you can configure the project numbering and the status of each project/shell type. As part of the numbering scheme, you can enable and disable automatic numbering and you can update the format and starting number. The system implements the new settings for records created after the change is implemented and ensures that unique labeling is maintained. If you change the value of Format or Start, the system cannot guarantee that the selected sequence is available due to possible conflicts with existing data and might alter the selected information to prevent a conflict. Changing this information might also create gaps in the numbering sequence.

Example: If you specify a Format of ABC and a Start of 0001, and records ABC0001 through ABC0015 have been created, and you then change the Format to DEF and the Start to 0001, the system starts generating new records with DEF0001. If you change the Format to back to the original ABC and a Start of 0001, the system would begin the sequencing of new records using ABC0016.

To configure the shell types in the Shell Manager

Go to the Company Workspace tab and switch to Admin mode.
In the left Navigator, click Configuration > Shell Manager.
Double-click the applicable shell type.
The <shell name>-General Configuration window opens.
On the General tab, complete the following fields:
- Enable Automatic Numbering: To allow automatic numbering of projects based on the specified Format and Start values, select this option. You can deselect this check box to disable automatic numbering; it is selected by default.
  - Format: If you enable automatic numbering, specify the format of the numbering schema. By default, Format is blank.
  - Start: If you enable automatic numbering, specify the starting number. Start determines the starting number of the numeric schema. By default, Start is 0001.
- Cost Codes: This read-only field displays the type of cost code specified in uDesigner for the shell type.
  - WBS: Standard Cost Manager
  - Generic: Generic Cost Manager
- Status: Select the applicable status, Active or Inactive. Users cannot access shell types that have an Inactive status. The default is Inactive.
  Note: If a project/shell is open and visible when its corresponding shell type is changed to Inactive, you cannot create a new shell of the applicable type but existing shells are not affected.
Click the Organize tab.
On this tab you can specify the sub-shell types that are allowed under the selected shell type. For example, assume you have configured a shell called Region, which has the sub-shell types Properties and Buildings. Also, Properties has Buildings as a sub-shell. The system performs validation during shell configuration, and manages the relationships among the shells that you configure. The table below shows the relationships among the shells described above.

To add sub-shell types from the list of imported shells, click Add and select the applicable types. You can only add shells that have an Active status.
Select the Active check box for the sub-shell types you want to activate.
You can deactivate sub-shell types that you do not want users to use for sub-shell instance creation. You can deactivate a sub-shell type even if sub-shell instances have been created with that type.

Note: You can remove a sub-shell type from the list by clicking Remove, as long as an instance of the sub-shell type is not created under the shell.
When you are done, click Save.
Complete the configuration steps for each shell type.


Shells->	Parent	Child	Grandchild
Sub-shells that are allowed
Parent	No	No	No
Child	Yes	No	No
Grandchild	Yes	Yes	No

Last Published Thursday, December 14, 2023