Apps To Fusion

Oracle Configurator Overview

About this white paper:
Dear readers, I am planning to publish a series of articles which will help you understand and use Oracle Configurator Module in Oracle E-Business Suite. This is the first article which gives first glance information about Oracle Configurator Module.

The main objective of this article is to simplify the learning process of Oracle Configurator Module. If the one goes through Oracle User Guides for this module then a person can easily get lost in 4-5 separate 200+ pages document, making the learning more difficult. Of course this series of Configurator articles will contain 3-4 more articles but information presented will be on the spot which is necessary for working on this module.   

Prerequisite for using Oracle Configurator is knowledge of Oracle Inventory and Oracle Bills of Material modules.

After going through this white paper reader should understand following things:

• Oracle Configurator Components
• Important Profiles and Concurrent Programs
• Relationship of Oracle Configurator with Oracle Inventory/Bills of Material
• Overview of Most Importance component Oracle Configurator Developer

I will be using Oracle E-Business Suite R12 for screen shots but I will be discussing features which are present in Oracle EBS 11.5.10.2.

Overview:

Oracle Configurator Module can be treated of as a selling machine if there is a model bill against which to configure by selecting options. It can also be thought of as an engineering machine if there is no model bill. An engineering machine could generate a bill. Configurations created with Oracle Configurator are standard bills based on an already existing model bill. Configurator does not have to be based on bills of material, although that is currently necessary for ordering and downstream ERP.

Oracle Configurator is an application or part of an application that lets a user configure products and services. The configuration model, which is typically based on a BOM model, consists of structure, rules, and UI definition.

Oracle Configurator Components

Oracle Configurator consists of the following main elements:

• Runtime Oracle Configurator
• Oracle Configurator Servlet (OC Servlet)
  • UI Server
  • Configuration Interface Object (CIO)
• The Oracle Configurator Schema within an Oracle Applications database
• Oracle Configurator Developer

With Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.10.2 all above components come as integral part Oracle EBS installations. In Previous version, Oracle Configurator Developer used to be a separate desktop application.

Runtime Oracle Configurator

The runtime Configurator provides a means of selecting options to create a configuration. It is presented to end users by the OC Servlet as an Oracle Configurator window. Although Configurator can be deployed as a standalone application, the Oracle Configurator window is usually launched from within a host application.

From Oracle Order Management runtime Configurator can be invoked if ATO/PTO model is entered on Order Line and Configure button is clicked.

Oracle Configurator Servlet

This consists of UI Server and Configuration Interface Object. The OC Servlet runs on Oracle Internet Application Server (iAS), which includes the Apache Web Server. The behavior of the OC Servlet can be customized by setting Servlet properties.

Oracle Configurator Schema

The Oracle Configurator schema consists of Configurator (CZ) tables in the Oracle EBS 11i database that is accessed by both the runtime Oracle Configurator and Oracle Configurator Developer.

Oracle Configurator Developer 

With Release 11.5.10 this comes as integral part of EBS. This is used to develop various configuration rules, user interface, add non-BOM items which are necessary for guided selling. The user interface (UI) can later be published to various hosting applications like Order Management, iStore etc.

Important Responsibilities

• Oracle Configurator Administrator
• Oracle Configurator Developer
• Inventory (For defining MODEL, Catalogs)
• Bills Of Material (for defining MODEL BOM)

Both Oracle Configurator responsibilities see the same user interface except using Administrator responsibility one can edit/change MODELs created by other users while Developer responsibility can edit MODELs created by same user. So we will be using Oracle Configurator Administrator only.

Important Profiles

Item Related Setups in Oracle Inventory

Oracle Configurator is driven by the MODEL (ATO or PTO) type of items. Generally Oracle Configurator is used for guided selling i.e. user is presented with various questions and based on user inputs respective components are selected. So user should be allowed to select various product properties. These properties are stored as Item Catalog values in Oracle Inventory.

Item Properties are grouped into Catalog Groups. Each Catalog group can have multiple catalog elements (properties). At the most one catalog group can be assigned to a given item. While defining product structure for ATO Model and related Option classes one must design option class and its properties in such a way that end user should be able choose various property value in Configurator. In Configurator, these catalog groups are termed as Item Types. We can define property based rules to choose components for various option classes.

There are multiple ways of defining or designing catalog groups. We can have separate catalog groups defined for each option class/component items. Let’s discuss this with example of Model “Sentinel Custom Desktop” Item Code CN-92777. This model has various components viz. Software, Memory, Hard Disk etc. Each option class and its related item can have related catalog group attached to it. E.g. Hard Disk Catalog Group can have properties (elements) like Manufacturer, Size, type etc. All items which come under hard disk options can have this catalog group assigned to it. Finally the MODEL item can have a new catalog group e.g. CTO Sentinal or Laptop which will contain all the catalog elements of individual option classes.

Second type of Product design can be MODEL and all its option classes/components can have the same catalog group assigned to them e.g. Desktop Catalog and individual components have values only for related properties/catalog elements.

A product can be configured (by calling Configurator) from Oracle Order Management, Order Entry screen. This order can be progressed to create a new configured item (typically called STAR item because the new item code is Model item code and a sequence number separate by ‘*’). Newly created item is standard item with standard bill of material containing actual components (as against the option classes for MODEL item). The new star item also get the catalog group assigned to Model and the catalog element values come from individual component’s catalog element values. For example, newly configured star item CN92777*12245 has “CTO Sentinal or Laptop” group of which is same as base MODEL and individual value like Memory, Hard Disk Size etc will get values from individual components.

While designing catalog element one has to take care that all option class catalog elements names are unique. E.g. Manufacturer property will be present for all option class catalog groups, to make it unique we should name it like HD. Manufacturer for Hard Disk, FD. Manufacturer for floppy disk, RM. Manufacturer for RAM etc. So when final star item gets created all catalog elements for individual components get clubbed to gather automatically.

Populating Oracle Configurator Schema (CZ)

Enterprise Item data is created and maintained in the Oracle Inventory and Bills are maintained in Oracle Bills of Material. This data imported into the Oracle Configurator schema as read-only data for access by Configurator Developer and the run-time Configurator.

The Oracle Configurator schema includes a specialized control table CZ_DB_SETTINGS for custom data import.

The data stored in the CZ schema includes:

• Configuration models
• Item and Model structure data
• Configuration rules
• User interface definitions
• Publication records
• Configurations

Item and BOM data can be imported into CZ schema using following concurrent programs (registered under Oracle Configurator Administrator responsibility)

• Populate Configuration Models
• Refresh a Single Configuration Model
• Refresh All Imported Configuration Models
• Disable/Enable Refresh of a Configuration Model

Oracle Inventory-Bills Of Material-Oracle Configurator:

Data Setup and Movement

The first step of Configurator Data setup is prepare item data (MODEL) and its bills of Material containing various components and option classes. One needs have a confort level with Oracle Inventory and Oracle Bills of Material Modules.

• Login to Oracle Applications using Inventory responsibility and navigate to Master Item Screen. Create new item/MODEL by using Copy from functionality. Use existing ATO MODEL item code CN92777.

 

• Assign Inventory/Child Organizations

• Change Responsibility to Bills Of Material and navigate to Create Bills Screen. Use Copy Bills functionality to copy BOM data from CN92777 and create BOM for PB-CN92777

• From Tools Menu Create Common Bill

• Next step is to transfer Item/BOM information for a given model to Oracle Configurator Schema (CZ). To perform this activity, change responsibility to "Oracle Configurator Administrator" and submit concurrent job Populate Configuration Model with Item PB-CN92777 as input parameter. Please note there is similr CONC job available under Bills of Material Responsibility, please don't use that CONC program as its errors out (may be its older version of Populate Configuration Model)

• After successful completion of Populate Configuration Models Concurrent Program, we can check the population of CZ schema through SQL*Plus or through Oracle 11i front end by clicking Configurator Developer Menu and navigate to Repository (Main) Tab to see newly populated item PB-CN92777

Oracle Configurator Developer Overview

Oracle Configurator Developer is the most important component where Configuration Rules are defined and DHTML user interface is created. This is accessible from Oracle Configurator Developer menu through Oracle Configurator Administrator Responsibility. This tool (now integrated with Oracle EBS 11.5.10.2 installation) is used for following Oracle Configurator Setups viz. Create NON-BOM Items for guided selling, Create Numeric Rules, Create Logic Rules, Create Statement Rules, Create Configurator Extension Rules to allow customizations, Create User Interfaces and finally publish these user interfaces (UIs) as runtime UIs to hosting applications like Order Management, iStore, Oracle Telesales or third party custom order entry applications.

This consists of two HTML tabs viz. Repository and Workbench. Repository consists of Main, Item Master and Publication sub-tabs. Oracle configurator developer is used for defining following things:

Repository-Main

 

The hierarchical table in the Main are of the Repository contains a root folder in which all Configurator Developer objects are created, maintained, and organized.

 

You use the Select checkbox to apply an Action, such as copy or move to one or more objects at a time. The Edit icon opens an object for editing. If the object is a Model, clicking the Edit icon opens the Workbench for working on that Model. The Create icon is for creating a new child object. In other words, if you want to create a new Property to appear within a certain Folder, you select the Create icon appearing in the row for that Folder. In this case, the Folder would be the parent object, and the new Property to be created and stored within that folder would be the child object.

Repository-Item Master

 

This screen is used to maintain item/catalog groups. You can create Items which are not present in Oracle Inventory using this area. All Items are grouped into various Item Types which are nothing but Catalog Groups defined in Oracle Inventory. Catalog Elements form the various properties of items in Configurator.

 

Repository-Publications

 

This section is used after Rules definition and UI creation is completed i.e. when Configurator UI for a given model is ready to be deployed to host application. You can also publish the UI to same Oracle apps instance or any different instance.

 

 

Work Bench-General

 

This section gives all information about the model. You typically access the Workbench from the Repository Main area by selecting the Edit icon in the hierarchical table row for a particular Mode

 

Work

Workbench-Structure

 

The Workbench also has areas for defining the Model's Structure, Rules, and User Interfaces. The Model structure area is shown here. It contains a table displaying a hierarchical tree of Model structure nodes. In this section you can create Non-BOM Items for a given model. Such items are typically required for building guided selling type of user interface.

 

Work Bench-Rules

 

The Rules area of the Workbench contains many pages for defining rules in a streamlined flow. The first page of the Rules area contains a hierarchical table displaying a hierarchical tree of Rule folders and rules. You can create various types of rules viz. Numeric Rules, Logical Rules, Statement Rules, Configurator extension rules by clicking “Create” icon.

 

Work Bench-User Interface

 

This section is used to build user interface which can be displayed in host applications. UI elements representing screens and UI controls are added, edited, copied, moved, or deleted here. The User Interfaces structure can be rearranged completely independently of the Model structure. Any model content can be displayed multiple times on either the same screen or on different screens.

Summary

 

I hope this article gave you an overview/idea about Oracle Configurator features and components involved in Oracle Configurator. In the upcoming articles we will talk about defining Configuration Rules, Creation of User Interface, Creating Configurator Extensions (Customizations) and various handy PLSQL APIs related to Configurator.

 

Stay tuned for upcoming Configurator Articles.........

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