Creating Global Connections

Global connections enable you to share data with external applications using extracts.

The following connection types are supported:

  • Oracle Cloud EPM connections send data to an Enterprise Performance Management inbox for use by a metadata import process.
  • Oracle Cloud ERP connections send data to a Universal Content Management (UCM) document account for use by an File Based Data Import (FBDI) process.
  • Oracle Object Storage connections serve as technology adapters for more general purpose external systems.

Use Cases

  • Global connections to Oracle Cloud ERP can be used to transfer data such as account combinations, mapping sets, and related value sets for import into Financials Cloud.
  • Global connections to Oracle Cloud EPM can be used in the following ways:
    • Universal applications that manage the Account Reconciliation business process can use global connections to send profiles to the application inbox.
    • Universal applications that manage dimensions for the Profitability and Cost Management business process can use global connections to send metadata files to the profitinbox.
    • To send mapping files to a Data Management inbox

Note:

Global connections are not used for application imports and exports. Instead, the application connection information that you specify when registering the application is used.

You can restrict connection types so that they can be used only by specific applications in Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Data Management.

Creating a Global Connection

Note:

You must be a Service Administrator in order to create global connections.

Considerations

  • After you create a global connection, you can use it in an extract. You can use a global connection in multiple extracts, but each extract can use only one global connection.
  • You cannot change the connection type after you create a global connection.
  • You can use global connections for extracts only. You cannot run a dimension export using a global connection.
  • The parameters that you specify for a global connection are determined by the connection type. For example, when setting up a global connection to an Oracle Object Storage, you must specify the Default Bucket.
  • Global connections to Oracle Cloud EPM applications support basic and OAuth2 authentication. You must register an OAuth2 client for each global connection. See Using OAuth2 in Cloud EPM Applications.
  • Global connections to Oracle Cloud ERP and Oracle Object Storage support basic authentication only.

To create a global connection:

  1. From the Connections cluster, click Create.
  2. Select the connection type:
    • Oracle Cloud EPM
    • Oracle Cloud ERP
    • Oracle Object Storage
  3. Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the connection, and then click Create.

    The global connection is displayed in the connection inspector.

  4. Click Edit and specify the parameters for the connection. The parameters that you specify are dependent on the connection type:
    • Oracle Cloud EPM parameters:
      Field Description
      Location The URL for the EPM inbox. For example: https://epm.mycloud.com

      Caution:

      If you are pasting the address from your browser, do not include the context (for example, /epmcloud) in your URL.
      Authentication Type Select an option:
      • Basic: Use the provided user credentials to authenticate.
      • OAuth: Use OAuth2 IDs and tokens to authenticate. (Available for environments on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) / Gen 2 architecture only.) Using OAuth2 in Cloud EPM Applications
      Basic:
      User Name/Password Credentials required for basic authentication

      Identity Domain (Optional)

      		 Identity domain to append in front of the user name when authorizing.
      OAuth:
      Client ID Client ID for the client that you created for global connections.
      Access Token Access token for the client that you created for global connections.
      Refresh Token Refresh token for the client that you created for global connections.

      Default Folder (Optional)

      		 Default folder to send extract files to in Cloud EPM environments:
      • Planning, FreeForm, Financial Consolidation and Close, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management default application inbox
      • Data Management folder (for example, inbox/repository)
      • Profitability and Cost Management inbox (for example, profitinbox)
    • Oracle Cloud ERP parameters:
      Field Description
      Location The URL for the EPM server. For example: https://erp.mycloud.com
      User Name/Password Credentials required for basic authentication

      Identity Domain (Optional)

      		 Identity domain to append in front of the user name when authorizing.

      Default Document Account

      		 Folder to extract file to in Oracle Cloud ERP. For example, fin/generalLedger/import.
    • Oracle Object Storage parameters:
      Field Description
      Location The Swift URL of the Oracle Object Storage Cloud bucket. The format of the URL is: https://swiftobjectstorage.region_identifier.oraclecloud.com/v1/namespace, where:
      • host name (using the Swift API type), for example, swiftobjectstorage.
      • region_identifier is the hosting Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), for example us-phoenix-1. See Regions and Availability Domains.
      • namespace is the top-level container for all buckets and objects. Each Oracle Cloud Infrastructure tenant is assigned a unique system-generated and immutable Object Storage namespace name at account creation time.

      Tip:

      The Oracle Object store Swift URL should include the version and namespace. Do not include a trailing forward slash in the Location parameter.
      User Name/Password Credentials required for authentication, as follows:
      1. Generate an Auth token (see To create an Auth token in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation).
      2. For User Name, enter the OCI user name that the Auth token was generated for.
      3. For Password, enter the generated Auth token. This parameter is case-sensitive.
      Default Bucket Container to store the extracted file within the namespace for the object storage. This parameter is case-sensitive.
      Default Subfolder (Optional) Subfolder under the Default Bucket to write the extract file to. If the subfolder that you specify does not exist, it will be created. This parameter is case-sensitive.
  5. (Optional): In Supported Applications, click Specified, and then select the applications that can use this global connection.
  6. Click Test Connection to validate the connection details.

    Note:

    For Oracle Object Storage connections, you must enter a Default Bucket in order to test the connection.
  7. Click Save.

    Note:

    All issues must be corrected in all connections before you can save the connections. If there are any missing required fields in the connection details of any connections, an indicator is displayed on that connection and an error is displayed that one or more connections has issues that must be fixed.

To delete a global connection, from the Actions column click Actions, and then click Delete. You cannot delete a global connection that is being used by an extract.