1 Feature Summary
This chapter describes the feature enhancements in this release.
Noteworthy Enhancements
This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in the Oracle Retail Brand Compliance Management Cloud Service update and describes any tasks you might need to perform for the update. Each section includes a brief description of the feature, the steps you need to take to enable or begin using the feature, any tips or considerations that you should keep in mind, and the resources available to help you.
Note:
Where new fields, User Interface (UI) changes, or glossary entries are introduced as part of a change, the portal owner may need to apply their own translations of the core system text.Column Definitions
-
Feature: Provides a description of the feature being delivered.
-
Module Impacted: Identifies the module impacted associated with the feature, if any.
-
Scale: Identifies the size of the feature. Options are:
-
Small: These UI or process-based features are typically comprised of minor field, validation, or program changes. Therefore, the potential impact to users is minimal.
-
Large: These UI or process-based features have more complex designs. Therefore, the potential impact to users is higher.
-
-
Delivered: Is the new feature available for use immediately after upgrade or must the feature be enabled or configured? If no, the feature is non-disruptive to end users and action is required (detailed steps below) to make the feature ready to use.
- Customer Action Required: You must take action before these features can be used. These features are delivered disabled and you choose if and when to enable them.
Table 1-1 Noteworthy Enhancements
Feature | Module Impacted | Scale | Delivered | Customer Action Required? |
---|---|---|---|---|
All |
Small |
Yes |
Yes Apply any translation overrides. |
|
New Product |
Medium |
With License Purchase |
Yes |
|
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) |
Medium |
Yes |
No |
|
Supplier |
Medium |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Supplier |
Medium |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Product |
Medium |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Reports |
Medium |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Reports |
Medium |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Reports |
Small |
Yes |
No |
|
Reports |
Medium |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Workspace |
Small |
Yes |
No |
|
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) |
Medium |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) |
Medium |
Yes |
Yes |
Additional Languages
The following languages have been introduced:
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Arabic
-
Chinese-Traditional
-
Croatian
-
Greek
-
Hungarian
-
Korean
-
Polish
-
Turkish
The languages are available now as active languages, for full translation to be provided in the future. If any of the new languages are not required, the Language record should be deactivated. See Post Release Tasks.
Retail Data Store (RDS) Availability
Oracle Retail Data Store enables retailers to unlock the value of their data through a comprehensive set of tools, enabling virtually unlimited extensibility while abstracting those workloads from those of the original Oracle Retail cloud services. This toolset allows the retailer to create a wide variety of functionality that they can tailor specifically to their own business processes. Examples include custom web services to expose specific data elements, custom integration (inbound and outbound), reporting and analytics, and custom user interfaces for capture of retailer-specific data.
A separate subscription different from Brand Compliance Cloud Service is required for Oracle Retail Data Store, which is composed of two parts:
-
Oracle Retail Data Compute Cloud Service – this portion of the subscription covers compute resources available to the cloud service and allows a retailer to add compute to their solution as necessary for their extensions.
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Oracle Retail Data Storage Cloud Service – this portion of the subscription covers data storage resources available to the cloud service and allows a retailer to add storage to their solution as necessary for these extensions.
For more information about RDS, see its documentation set on the Oracle Help Center.
OAuth Enablement
As part of the move to the Next Generation Cloud environment, there is change in the way clients authenticate with the application when using the APIs.
The current basic authentication method requires that for each call to the application a username and password be supplied in order to authenticate with the application before being allowed to call the API. This approach means that for each call to an API, traffic has to be routed through to Identity Management to verify and authenticate the username and password before being allowed to actually call the API, thus putting unnecessary load onto the Identity Management environment as well as the networking layers of the infrastructure.
The approach for the Next Generation Cloud is a move to OAuth authentication (which is enabled when the environment is built). OAuth allows a token to be generated by Identity Management when an API is called for the first time, then subsequent calls to the API can pass this token so that the APIs can simply be called without having to return to IDCS. The token lasts for a period of time, after which a new token must be obtained.
This requires clients to change their implementation and use of the Brand Compliance APIs, to utilize OAuth.
Site Reference Notifications
The References page of the Site record contains a table for recording the site’s certification details, such as EC Licence Number, Organic or Kosher Certification. Each reference/certification may optionally hold an expiry date.
The enhancement introduces an automated notification to advise the appropriate users when a site’s reference/certification is becoming due or has expired. The notification is in the form of an email and/or an assignment task to the site’s lead technologist, and designated supplier contacts. The feature includes a new batch job, system parameters, email templates, and tasks/assignments.
Use of the notification and the rules for its generation are all configurable. The feature is disabled by default, requiring the client to enable and configure it for use. See Post Release Tasks for details of the configuration requirements.
New Assignments/Tasks
Assignment Type | Source | Visible To | Target |
---|---|---|---|
Sites with References Due {0} |
Shown if any associated sites have references/certificates becoming due |
Retailer users who are designated Lead Technologist for the Site Supplier users with the designated contact roles for the Site |
Sites with References Due list view. |
Sites with References Expired {0} |
Shown if any associated sites have references/certificates that have expired |
Retailer users who are designated Lead Technologist for the Site Supplier users with the designated contact roles for the Site |
Sites with References Expired list view. |
For implementations of Brand Compliance that do not have the JET UI Workspace enabled, the equivalent of the Assignment notifications are generated as Tasks:
-
You have {0} Sites with References Due
-
You have {0} Sites with References Expired
New Email Templates
Trigger |
The Site Reference Expiry Notifications batch job identifies a site's certificate/reference as becoming due. |
Email Code |
SITREFDUE |
Email Description |
Notification that a site has a certificate/reference becoming due. |
Content |
From: [Portal Name] Sent: [Date & Time] To: See Recipients below Subject: This site has a reference certificate that is due within the next [Days] days
Site: [Site Name], Site Number: [Site Number] #if ($showInternationalNames ) ([sitelocalname]) #end
This is an email automatically generated by the <Portal Name> Portal, please contact $supportemail if you require assistance or believe this message has been sent to you in error. |
Recipients |
Based on the Site Reference Notification system parameters:
User's accounts must have Login ID Disabled unchecked. |
Sensitive |
No |
Trigger |
The Site Reference Expiry Notifications batch job identifies a site's certificate/reference as being expired. |
Email Code |
SITREFEXP |
Email Description |
Notification that a site has a certificate/reference that has expired. |
Content |
From: [Portal Name] Sent: [Date & Time] To: See Recipients below Subject: This site has a site reference certificate that has expired. The [Reference Type] reference type has an expiry date of [Expiry Date] for Site: [Site Name], Site Number: [Site Number] #if ($showInternationalNames ) ([sitelocalname]) #end
This is an email automatically generated by the <Portal Name> Portal, please contact $supportemail if you require assistance or believe this message has been sent to you in error. |
Recipients |
Based on the Site Reference Notification system parameters:
User's accounts must have Login ID Disabled unchecked. |
Sensitive |
No |
Supplier and Site Deletion
The existing facility for deletion of Supplier and Site accounts is intended as a post on-boarding facility for removing accounts that are not used, so is restricted to only allowing sites to be deleted if they have no associated contacts, users, or other types of records.
The enhancement provides more deletion capability, by the use of soft deletion of Supplier and Site records, and removal of associated Contacts, Users and references in Alerts, Documents, and Announcements/News Items. However, deletion is not permitted if the account has other types of records associated to it, such as Product Specifications, Audits, Assessments, or links to Processes.
The deletion facility is restricted to only users with Power Administrator access rights. The feature is a change to the existing supplier and site deletion facility, so the enhancement functionality becomes available automatically, but requires a Permissions configuration change to enable it. See Post Release Tasks.
Note:
There is a known issue with the behavior of the Supplier list view, where associated Sites that have been soft-deleted remain visible within the Site Name and Site Code columns. The current list views architecture only permits filtering of deleted records for the main entity being listed (in this case the Supplier record). This constraint will be taken into account when designing the equivalent list view for the new JET UI, with the aim being that deleted Site records are filtered out of the Suppliers list view.
Nutrition Product Classification
Nutrition Scoring is utilized by various legislations to score the healthiness of products, both for labelling purposes and for restricting promotion and placement of products which are rated as less healthy.
The enhancement extends the Nutrition Scoring facility already available in Brand Compliance, to allow the classification of products, for promotion and placement purposes. The classifications are configured within a new Nutri-Score Product Classification glossary, and are assigned to Product Specifications, within the Nutrition section. The feature is enabled by a new system parameter. See Post Release Tasks.
The new Product Classification glossary is a simple keyword type, containing the standard Code, Description Priority, Active, and Default fields.
The new Product Classification selector field will appear in the Specification’s Nutrition section if the system parameter is enabled:
The field is not mandatory by default, but is capable of being made mandatory using the Mandatory Field Rules configuration. By default, the field will become locked at the same time as other fields in the Nutrition section when the spec reaches Pack Copy Sent status (or Approved status for Produce specs). However, the locking rules can be modified using the Specification Locking Rules configuration.
The new field is included in the Nutrients and Nutrition Section report queries, in the Specification data extract (column DF), and in the REST API. The field is not required for pack copy purposes, so is not included in the standard Pack Copy templates, however, it is possible to add the field to custom templates.
Audit Outcome Summary Report
The new Audit Outcome Summary report (CR110) is a form style report. The user applies filters in the report schedule to identify a specific Audit (or limited number of Audits) to be included in the report.
The report uses a new Audit Outcome API data source, which is based on the Audits API data source plus a number of additional fields from the Audit's associated Site record (Status, Type, GLN, Top Grade, Business Unit, Business Categories, Technologists, and Custom Fields), as well as from the Contacts (Name, Email, Roles, and Phone) and the Specifications associated with the Site (Specification Name, Number, Version, Type, Status, and Supplier Address). The report provides totals of the Audit’s issues/non-conformances (open issues, overdue issues, and total issues).
For the tables of the site’s Contacts and Specifications, in order to filter for specific contact roles or specification statuses, the filters must be applied to the report’s RTF template file. These filters cannot be applied to the report design or schedule because the data source is an API. See Post Release Tasks.
See the Oracle Retail Brand Compliance Management Cloud Service Report Layouts document for details of the report contents, and the Oracle Retail Brand Compliance Cloud Service Reports User Guide for guidance on applying filters within the RTF template.
Shelf Life, Ingredients, Country of Origin Report
The new Shelf Life, Ingredient, Country of Origin report (CR109) combines Product Specification data from the Main Details, Recipe/Formulation, Storage and Other Labelling Copy sections, plus supporting data from associated Product Record, Supplier and Site records.
Two variants of the report are provided, each with its own query data source: for draft Specifications (report CR109A, based on the Draft Shelf Life query), and for non-draft Specification (report CR109B, based on the Non-Draft Shelf Life query). The reports output a row per specification/product variant combination. Multi value fields have the contents concatenated.
Product Query with Site Information
A new reporting query is provided which combines product and site data, per product variant/site combination. The granularity is based on the Product Record, with multiple rows output per Site (as opposed to the Site data being concatenated). Data is also included from the associated Product Specification (Main Details and Other Labelling Copy sections) and Supplier records.
Two variants of the data source are provided: for non Produce products (the Product Spec Variants query), and for Produce products (the Product Spec Variants (Produce) query).
Surveillance Laboratory Reports
The new Surveillance Laboratory reports (CR107 and CR108) provide product information for surveillance testing purposes. The data is output for product variant/site combinations, from the Product Record and the associated Product Specification, Supplier and Site records.
Two variants of the report are provided, each using the new data source queries that combine product and site data (see the Product Query with Site Information above): for non Produce products (report CR107, based on the Product Spec Variants query), and for Produce products (report CR108, based on the Product Spec Variants (Produce) query).
See the Oracle Retail Brand Compliance Management Cloud Service Report Layouts document and the Oracle Retail Brand Compliance Cloud Service Reports Guide for details of the report contents.
Assignments Description in Business Language
The Description column in the Assignments list view identifies the type of assignment, typically by the name of the record. Some records, such as Product Specifications, may hold a corresponding description in the portal’s business language. The Description in the Business Language column is now available to be added to the Assignments list view.
REST API Attachments
The existing facility for retrieving files attached to certain types of record through the REST APIs is extended to make the facility available to all main record types.
The following REST APIs now allow for the retrieval of the attachment ids, and subsequent retrieval of the actual attachment files by calling the Attachment REST API:
-
Users
-
Suppliers
-
Sites
-
Audits
-
Audit Issues/Non Conformances
-
Assignments/Scorecards
-
Product Records
-
Product Specifications
-
Processes/Projects
-
Process/Project Activities
To utilize this facility, the client must develop the necessary web services to call the Brand Compliance APIs. See Post Release Tasks.
Product SOAP API Features in REST API
The existing Brand Compliance SOAP APIs are being deprecated. Clients that currently use the SOAP APIs must plan their transition to the equivalent REST APIs. Each of the legacy SOAP APIs (Users, Product Records, Specifications, and Process/Project Activities) currently has an equivalent REST API. However the SOAP Product Record API includes some additional features. The enhancement makes the relevant features also available to the REST Product Record API, thus facilitating the transition. Some of the features require configuration setup to enable them. See Post Release Tasks.
The features being added to the REST Product Record API are as follows:
-
Cross-referencing of Supplier Codes
When creating or updating a Product Record with the REST API, the usual means of identifying the associated supplier is with the Brand Compliance Supplier account code. If product data is being sourced from an external system which does not hold the Brand Compliance codes, this facility allows for the alternative codes to be held in Brand Compliance.
Enabled by a system parameter, the enhancement allows the alternative supplier codes to be held in the Billing Details table of the Supplier record to provide the cross-reference lookup for locating the relevant Supplier record.
-
Allow Duplicate Product Numbers
When creating a Product Record with the REST API, the default validation prevents the product being created if the product number already exists for another supplier.
Controlled by a system parameter, the enhancement allows this to be overridden, thus permitting the same product number to be used by different suppliers. The default setting of the system parameter will allow for duplicate product numbers (across different suppliers).
-
EAN/Barcode Cascade to Specification
When a Product Specification is linked to a Product Record, any EAN barcodes or Shipping Case Codes that are present on the Product Record are cascaded to the corresponding field in the Specification’s Other Labelling Copy section.
The values in the Specification may then be edited independently of the Product Record, up to the point that the Specification becomes locked. In the scenario where the Specification is created (and linked to a Product Record) using the Specifications API, any barcodes provided in the Specification XML will remain, rather than being overwritten by those on the Product Record, as in this case, there is no need for a default value.
-
TBC Contact Default
When creating a Product Record with the REST API, if the Product Technologist or Other Contacts are omitted, they may be set to a temporary assignment of TBC in order to pass the mandatory field validation. This feature depends on TBC being configured as a dummy user account, and assigned the necessary roles (for example Technologist, Buyer, and Product Development Manager).
-
Additional Validation
When creating or updating a Product Record with the REST API, additional processing is applied to validate certain fields that reference a glossary.
Note: The existing SOAP API Submit function, which detects whether a record already exists and automatically triggers either the create or update function accordingly is not carried through to the REST APIs. Therefore, submissions to the REST APIs must explicitly call the appropriate POST or PUT functions, according to whether creating or updating a record respectively.
Post Release Tasks & Impact on Existing Installation
The following post release tasks and impact on an existing installation must be taken into account as part of this release.
Additional Languages
The Additional Languages feature introduces eight new languages. If any are not required, the Language record should be deactivated, within the System Text section of the Admin area.
Site Reference Notifications
If the Site Reference Notifications feature is to be used, the following administration tasks are required to enable and configure it:
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Configure the system parameters in the Registration page of the System Parameters record in the Admin area according to the required behavior:
-
Generate Reference Due Emails enables email notifications for site references when they become due.
-
Becomes due prior to expiry date (days) determines when a site reference becomes due (the number of days prior to the expiry date).
-
Re-send Reference Due email frequency (days) controls the frequency of the Reference Due email (the number of days since it was previously sent).
-
Generate Reference Due Assignments enables assignment task notifications for site references when they become due.
-
Generate Reference Expired Emails enables email notifications for site references when they expire.
-
Re-send Reference Expired email frequency (days) controls the frequency of the Reference Expired email (the number of days since it was previously sent).
-
Generate Reference Expired Assignments enables assignment task notifications for site references when they expire.
-
Notify if Site Status controls which site statuses are to have site reference notifications. The default is Active and Awaiting Approval.
-
Notify Lead Technologist by Email controls whether the site's lead technologist is to be a recipient of site reference email notifications.
-
Notify Lead Technologist by Assignment controls whether the site's lead technologist is to be a recipient of site reference assignment notifications.
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Notify Supplier/Site Contacts by Email is a picklist of the mandatory contact roles, used to determine the supplier recipients of site reference email notifications.
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Notify Supplier/Site Contacts by Assignment is a picklist of the mandatory contact roles, used to determine the supplier recipients of site reference assignment notifications.
-
-
Make any custom overrides to the new system text, and email templates:
-
Notification that a site has a certificate/reference becoming due (SITREFDUE).
-
Notification that a site has a certificate/reference that has expired (SITREFEXP).
-
Supplier and Site Deletion
The following administration tasks are required for the Supplier and Site Deletion enhancement.
-
A Permissions change is required to enable the facility. Add the following to the Site tab of the Permissions spreadsheet.
Record (A) Authority Profile (B) Menu Option (C) Sub Menu Option (D) Action (E) Data Record (F) User Mode (L) Access Level (M) Site
POWER ADMINISTRATOR
DELETE MANUFACTURER
Site
NORMAL
F
The instructions for downloading and uploading the amended Permissions spreadsheet are as follows:
-
Log in as an Oracle Authorized Administrator user and go to Company > Admin > Roles & Permissions.
-
Open the Permissions page.
-
Download the active spreadsheet by selecting the row with true in the Active Permissions column, click Download Selected, and save locally.
-
Edit the downloaded spreadsheet, make the changes described above, then save the spreadsheet.
-
Upload the edited spreadsheet by clicking Upload Permissions, select the spreadsheet, and click Ok.
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Apply the changes by selecting the uploaded spreadsheet row, click Process Selected, and then click Ok to confirm.
-
-
The soft deleted records are excluded from list views and data extracts. To exclude the soft deleted records from reports, it is necessary to add the Deleted column as a filter to the relevant Report Data Source, Report Design, and Report Schedule records.
-
By default, soft deleted records are returned by the APIs (the XML contains a
deleted
element, which is set to true). To exclude soft deleted records, it is necessary to use a softDelete=false parameter when calling the API. For example:/creations-core/services/rest/site?softDelete=false
Nutrition Product Classification
The following administration tasks are required for the Nutrition Product Classification enhancement.
-
Set the Use Product Classification for Nutri-Score system parameter in the Products page of the System Parameters record in the Admin area to enable the feature.
-
A Permissions change is required to provide access to the new glossary. Add the following to the Admin tab of the Permissions spreadsheet.
Record (A) | Authority Profile (B) | Menu Option (C) | Sub Menu Option (D) | Action (E) | Data Record (F) | User Mode (L) | Access Level (M) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Admin |
Product Administrator |
NUTRI SCORE PRODUCT CLASSIFICATION |
NORMAL |
F |
|||
Admin |
Product Administrator |
Admin |
NUTRI SCORE PRODUCT CLASSIFICATION |
NORMAL |
Y |
-
Set the Use Product Classification for Nutri-Score system parameter in the Products page of the System Parameters record in the Admin area to enable the feature.
-
A Permissions change is required to provide access to the new glossary. Add the following to the Admin tab of the Permissions spreadsheet.
The instructions for downloading and uploading the amended Permissions spreadsheet are as follows:
-
Log in as an Oracle Authorized Administrator user and go to Company > Admin > Roles & Permissions.
-
Open the Permissions page.
-
Download the active spreadsheet by selecting the row with true in the Active Permissions column, click Download Selected, and save locally.
-
Edit the downloaded spreadsheet, make the changes described above, then save the spreadsheet.
-
Upload the edited spreadsheet by clicking Upload Permissions, select the spreadsheet, and click Ok.
-
Apply the changes by selecting the uploaded spreadsheet row, click Process Selected, and then click Ok to confirm.
-
-
Configure the new Nutri-Score Product Classification glossary in the Product Global glossaries admin area.
The glossary is not pre-populated with default values, however, for information purposes only, the following is a typical list of classification descriptions:
-
Prepared Soft Drinks containing added sugar ingredients
-
Savoury Snacks
-
Breakfast Cereals
-
Confectionery (inc. chocolates & sweets)
-
Ice cream, ice lollies, frozen yoghurt, water ices and similar frozen products
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Cakes & cupcakes
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Sweet biscuits and bars based on one or more nuts, seeds or cereal
-
Morning goods
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Desserts & Puddings
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Sweetened Yoghurt & Fromage Frais
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Pizza
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Roast potatoes, sweet or potato chips, fries, wedges, potato waffles (and more)
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Complete (or main part) ready meals, breaded or battered vegetable, fish, shellfish, meat or poultry products
-
Reports
The following administration tasks are required if any of the new reports (Audit Outcome Summary / Shelf Life, Ingredients, Country of Origin / Surveillance Laboratory) are required to be run:
-
To filter for specific contact roles or specification statuses to be included in the Audit Outcome Summary report, create a custom version of the report’s RTF template file (CR110_Audit_Outcome_Summary.rtf) and add the appropriate filtering. These filters cannot be applied to the report design or schedule because the data source is an API.
-
Make any custom overrides to the new report layouts or system text.
-
Schedule the reports to run, as required.
ReST API Attachments
To utilize the facility for retrieving file attachments using the APIs, the client must develop the necessary processes to call the Brand Compliance APIs. See the AttachmentsRestService section in the Oracle Retail Brand Compliance Cloud Service Implementation Guide for further details.
In order to access the Brand Compliance APIs, the necessary External System records must be configured by the system administrator.
Product SOAP API Features in REST API
The additional features being added to the Product Record REST API to reflect functionality in the SOAP API require the following configuration settings to enable the functionality:
-
Set the Use Alternative Code for Product API system parameter in the Global page of the System Parameters record in the Admin area to enable the cross-referencing of supplier codes.
-
Set the Allow Duplicate Product Numbers system parameter in the Global page of the System Parameters record in the Admin area to enable the facility to allow the same product number across different suppliers.
Then assign the alternative codes to the Billing Details table in the Supplier records, checking the Alternative API Code column to indicate as such.
-
Create a TBC user account and assign the appropriate contact roles (such as Technologist, Buyer, and Product Development Manager) if the facility to default missing contacts is required.
Permissions
For the change to permit retailer users to edit the Growers List in the Site record (item 31450870), assign the Supplier & Site Administrator authority profile to any users who require that level of access.
List View Configuration
For the changes to the Contact information in the Supplier list views (items 33709195 and 34446591), any existing Supplier list views that reference the Fax and Phone columns need to be modified in order to use the corrected fields. Remove those columns from the list view, and then re-add them and save, as appropriate.
Field Locking Rule Configuration
For the change to allow locking of the Recycling Advice fields in the Advanced Packaging section (item 34526595), configure the locking rules as required, in the Specification Locking configuration area.
Select the fields from the advancedPackagingComponentDetails table, and then from the advancedPackagingRecyclingAdviceDetails table, and then blank the Section field.
Enabling Identity Management Notifications
As an IDCS or OCI IAM Administrator, verify that Notifications are enabled in the corresponding Stage / Production tenant.
Enabling User Roles
If they do not already exist, configure the Power User, Account Administrator, Assistant Technologist, and Site Inspector user roles, and assign to the appropriate users.
Enabling Artwork with SSO
Artwork is not a core Brand Compliance module, but a third-party add-on application. This process enables the integration with the third-party Artwork application, where it is used.
For existing installations that use the Artwork module, in order to configure single sign on (SSO) between Brand Compliance and the Artwork solution (using IDCS or OCI IAM authentication), the following steps must be taken by the Customer or their Partner:
-
Ensure the MYARTWORK external system has been created in Brand Compliance PROD and STAGE.
-
Raise an SR service requesting for creation of the Artwork Application for PROD and STAGE. The call back URLs and IDCS or OCI IAM URLs must be provided in the SR.
-
Once created, you will be able to gather the Client ID and Client Secret from IDCS or OCI IAM.
Refer to the Artwork chapter in the Oracle Retail Brand Compliance Management Cloud Service Administration Guide for the full process for enabling Artwork with SSO.