How You Configure and Extend Assets Using Application Composer

Use Application Composer to extend and configure the install base asset object by creating fields, objects, and relationships between objects. Here are some changes you can make using this tool:

• Modify the Install Base asset object by adding new user-defined fields or create entirely new objects.

  New objects can be either standalone and not related to the asset object, or standalone but related to the asset object, or directly associated as a child object of an asset.

• Create foreign key-based relationships between two objects.

• Modify user interface pages by exposing your newly created user-defined fields for an object, or create an entirely new work area for your configured objects.

• Display object relationships on pages in the form of subtabs. You can display the child objects for an asset using subtabs on the Edit Asset Details page

• Write application logic, such as triggers and validation rules, for an object or for use across multiple objects.

• Implement functional and data-level security for configured objects.

• Enable configured objects for reporting by creating configured subject areas.

• Write Groovy scripts using the expression builder, which appears in many places as you modify existing objects or create new configured ones.

Note: By default, a configured object and its records are visible and editable only to users who are provisioned with the Custom Objects Administration (ORA_CRM_EXTN_ROLE) role. This role should be given to any user who's using Application Composer. Additionally, the UI pages you create for configured objects aren't visible to additional users unless you provide access in Application Composer using the object's Security node. Use the Security node to specify not only which job roles can access the UIs, but the levels of access. Provision data security for configured object records and restrict users who have privileges to view, update, or delete records. You can give access to all users or only to members of access groups, to owners of records or to an owner and his management hierarchy, and to user-defined roles.

Before You Start

To use Application Composer, you should have the Application Implementation Consultant role.

Next, create a Sandbox in which to create, edit, preview, and deploy your changes to the install base asset object. Here are the steps:

1. Navigate to Configuration > Sandboxes

2. Click Create Sandbox

3. On the Create Sandbox page, enter a name and description

4. Select Application Composer as the tool using the check box. You can also select flexfields if you also want to setup and verify adding flexfields to the Asset Overview Tab in the context of a sandbox

5. Click Create and Enter. You will now be in the context of the sandbox for this environment

Create, Edit, and Preview Your Changes

When you create a sandbox, you can then navigate to the Application Composer page. Here are the steps:

1. Navigate to Configuration > Application Composer

2. Select the Application > ERP and SCM Cloud.

3. Under Objects, expand the Standard Objects region.

4. Under Standard Objects, expand the Installed Base Asset object

5. You can now:

   • Manage child or related objects

   • Define your own fields or manage standard fields

   • Edit certain pages

   • Manage actions and links

   • Manage server scripts

Here are the pages that can be extended:

Page	Description	Extensibility
Landing Page Layouts	This page is Service Assets and is included in the Service work area only. The page is used to search customer assets and includes a filter region and a table of results. This isn’t the Manage Assets page that’s you access from the Maintenance Management landing page. Application Composer doesn't support the Manage Assets page.	You can control the fields that are displayed as columns in the result table. This includes deciding which columns are displayed by default and those which can be manually added to the table layout. Additionally, you can create your own fields to add to the results region, as well as to the search filter as additional criteria.
Creation Page Layouts	This page is used to create new assets and is exposed both in the Service and Maintenance Management work areas.	You can control the fields that are displayed in the create page. This includes deciding which attributes are displayed by default and the optional attributes which can be hidden. Additionally, you can create your own fields to include in the create page.
Details Page Layouts	This page is used to manage asset details and is exposed both in the Service and Maintenance Management work areas for a contextual asset.	You can control the fields that are displayed in the Overview tab. This includes deciding which attributes are displayed by default and the optional attributes which can be hidden. Additionally, you can create your own fields to include in the Overview tab.

To extend a page, first create a duplicate copy of the page and then you can edit it. When all the changes are made, you can preview the changes using the same sandbox.

Using User-Defined Fields and Objects

You can choose to create user-defined objects using Application Composer.

Here are the types of user-defined objects:

Type	Description
User-defined Fields	Create user-defined fields for the Install Base Asset object: You can then add these fields on the overview tab of the Edit Asset Details page This is an alternative to using Definable Flexfields (DFFs) and is the main use for Apps Composer to extend the IB Asset These fields are assigned to the Extended Attribute fields in the CSE_ASSETS_B table The fields are automatically provisioned in the Installed Base Asset REST API These fields aren't currently exposed in the IB Asset subject area in OTBI However, you can create a user-defined data model and SQL to access these fields for reporting and analysis purposes
User-defined Object – not related	Create a user-defined object if you want to track data about an object that's not already delivered with your cloud service. We recommend a user-defined object if you want a stand-alone object that doesn't have a relationship with another object After you create the object, you then add user-defined fields and design user interface pages where your users can enter object records. When defined, you can view these pages from the Home screen. At some point in the future, you can choose to create a relationship to another object. However, this could then result in mixed data of related and non-related data. There's no fixed limit on the number of user-defined objects that you can create.
User-defined Object – related	A user-defined object can have a relationship defined to another object, such as a standard object like the Installed Base Asset: For example, after a relationship is created with the Installed Base Asset, you can expose the user-defined object through Application Composer by adding a new tab to the Asset’s details page. When added, the user-defined object stores a foreign key between the two related objects. After you define a relationship, you can create new records in the context of an Asset. Therefore, each row is stamped with the Asset_ID reference. However, you can also create new records in the context of other objects or even without any context This may be the preferred method in you want to primarily create new records in the context of a single parent object: You can leverage a groovy script to automatically store a foreign key to the Installed Base Asset object in a field in your user-defined object. You can then create a user-defined subject area (CSA) which can be used for reporting. This is covered later in this document. Keep in mind that you may want to remove access on the Home screen to the landing page for the object, or a user could create a stand-alone new record without a reference to the Installed Base Asset.
Child Object – related	Child objects are created in the context of a parent object. The parent can be a user-defined object or a standard object, such as the Install Base Asset object. This is performed by creating the child directly under the Installed Base Asset in the Standard Objects region of Application Composer Child objects neither include an object overview page, nor are they accessible from the home page. You can create a child object and then expose it on a new tab in the Edit Asset Details page. Since a child object is embedded on the user interface pages of its parent object, the relationship between the two is always in context This may be the preferred method in you only want to always create new records in the context of a single parent object. However, you can’t create a user-defined subject area (CSA) which can be used for reporting. Therefore, it may be a better practice to create a stand-alone user-defined object, then relate it to the Installed Base Asset object as future enhancements could be leveraged for reporting using a CSA, which is supported for a user-defined object that's not a child object. At this time, you must follow a SQL-based approach in order to relate this data to the Asset for reporting purposes, as covered later in this document.

Save Your Work and Publish the Sandbox

When you're done making your changes, you must publish the sandbox by clicking the sandbox name and selecting Publish. This deploys your changes to the environment and your users can start to use the extended and configured pages.

For more information, refer to the Configuring Applications Using Application Composer and the Groovy Scripting Reference guides.