Oracle E-Business Suite Interface 6 0 Release Notes

Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite
Version 6.0
Release Notes
October 3, 2012
IMPORTANT: This document describes new features and updates in version 6.0 of the
Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite. It includes descriptions of the changes
since version 5.1 as well as upgrade instructions. OpenText recommends that you read
this document in conjunction with the Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite
documentation included with the software. If any conflicts exist, the information in this
document supersedes that documentation.
Check the OpenText Knowledge Center at https://knowledge.opentext.com for any patches or
documentation updates that may have been posted after the initial release of this version
of Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite.
Note
For space considerations, throughout the rest of this document we will refer
to Oracle E-Business Suite as Oracle EBS.
Table of Contents
General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
New Features and Changes in Version 6.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Known Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Upgrade Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
After the Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

This software product and documentation is licensed subject to the terms of the license agreement shipped with the product.
Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite v6.0 Release Notes (October 3, 2012) VP4EBS060000-RN-EN-02
Page 1
General Information
General Information
The Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite version 6.0 is a major update. The
software has been completely rewritten. There are major improvements in all of these
areas:
Performance
Efficiency and space requirements
Usability
For more information on the enhancements and changes in version 6.0, see New Features
and Changes in Version 6.0 on page 3.
The core functionality of the product remains the same. However, in order to bring these
improvements to market as quickly as possible, version 6.0 does not include some
peripheral features from version 5.1 that were seldom used. We plan to add most of these
features back into the product in future versions. See Removed Features on page 7 for a
list of the features that have not yet been transitioned to the new generation of the
interface.
The Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite version 6.0 is available as a download
from the OpenText Knowledge Center. The release directory contains all files needed for
either a new installation or an update from a previous version. If you are updating an
existing installation, please refer to Upgrade Instructions on page 10 of this document.
If you are installing the software for the first time, please follow the procedures in Chapter
3 of the Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite Users Guide.
Compatibility
Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite 6.0 works with Oracle EBS versions 12.0.x
and 12.1.x.
You can migrate information to any Vista Plus server host running Vista Plus 5.5.0 with
the patch for issue VP-1875, or 5.5.1 or later.
The Oracle EBS applications server must run a version of UNIX or Linux which supports
the remote capture tools for the Vista Plus version(s) used by the server host(s) you will
be migrating data to. See the Release Notes for your version of Vista Plus for supported
UNIX and Linux versions.
Installing the interface on a Windows Oracle EBS applications server is not supported.

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New Features and Changes in Version 6.0

The lists below briefly describe the new features and operational changes found in version
6.0. As mentioned above, the software has been completely rewritten for this release. The
changes described here include visible changes to the user interface and product behavior,
improved performance and reliability, and internal modifications which should be
invisible to the user.
Simpler, More Efficient Software and Database

We have greatly simplified both the database structure the interface uses and the software
itself. This results in better performance, decreased disk space usage, and a product that is
easier to maintain and update. Specifically:
We have substantially reduced the number of programs comprising the interface and
the total lines of code. This makes the programs more efficient and more reliable, and
makes it easier to diagnose and fix any problems that may arise.
We have normalized the database, reducing the number of tables from 45 to 17 and
the average number of columns per table from 24 to 11. Redundant data has been
removed, dramatically reducing the size of the database and making data storage and
retrieval much more efficient.
These changes have resulted in dramatic performance improvements. The gains are
largest in operations which take place entirely within the interface, such as initialization
and synchronization. Improvements during migration and report capture, which copy
information into Vista Plus, are less striking because the Vista Plus components are
unchanged, but are still significant.
Testing with our in-house sample database, which contains over 2000 responsibilities,
1000 users, and 100,000 reports, showed these improvements:
Initialization of the entire database was over four times faster.
Synchronization of the entire database was over 10 times faster.
Migrating the entire database showed about a 40% improvement, reducing the time
needed on our test system by more than five hours. With version 6.0, almost all of this
time was occupied by executing the vadmin commands on the Vista Plus server.
Migrating fewer objects showed larger gains, as the more efficient interface played a
larger part in the overall operation.
Capturing 100 reports completed more than four times as fast. As with migration, if
there are fewer reports in an individual capture request run, the performance gain is
correspondingly greatermore than 30 times as fast when capturing a single report.
We include these test results solely to give you an idea of the types of gains we have seen
in our environment, and that you may see in yours. Many factors will affect your results,
including the amount of data in Oracle EBS, the hardware configuration of the computers
involvedthe Oracle EBS applications server, the Vista Plus server, and the Oracle
database serveryour network configuration and traffic, other programs being used on

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each server, and more. Your actual use may show either less or more improvement than
we found in our tests.
Other benefits from the re-architected software include:
More accurate data replication. Earlier versions of the interface sometimes included
non-report objects (for example, programs, menu items, and so on) when populating
the interfaces report table. Version 6.0 ensures that only reports are included.
Improved manageability and maintainability:
The .dat files containing the vadmin commands used during migration are now
easily recognizable, as the file names include the name of the vadmin command
they contain.
Each time an interface request is run, it creates only one request. The previous
version could generate many requests from a single operationfor example,
running migration created a separate request for each vadmin .dat file. The single
request ID makes it easy to know when the request is finished and to find the log
file for it afterward.
The log files for a request are not overwritten each time the request is run. They
stay on the disk until you choose to remove them. If an anomaly occurs, this can
greatly reduce the time needed to find and fix it.
See Chapter 7 of the Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite Users Guide for more
information about the log files created during migration.
Improved Vista Plus Folder Structure

A new level has been added to the Vista Plus folder structure that the interface creates.
Each Vista Plus user now has a personal folder (the folder name is the same as the user
name). This personal folder is the users Home folder in Vista Plus, and the folder for each
group the user belongs to is linked to it. This means the user can see the folders for all of
his or her Vista Plus groups (Oracle EBS responsibilities) at one time. In the previous
version of the interface, users saw only the folder for the group they were logged in under.
To see reports for a different responsibility, they had to log in under a different group.
Any private reports defined for a user are linked directly to his or her personal Home
folder. See the next section.
Weve also changed the top-level folders created for use by the Vista Plus Administrator.
There are now two folders created and linked directly to the Vista Plus MAIN folder:
ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE MAIN FOLDER contains all of the responsibility folders
created by the interface.
ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE PRIVATE FOLDER contains all of the personal folders
that the interface creates for each user.
The interface does not give any users it creates permission to see these folders. They are
linked only to MAIN, and can only be seen by the Vista Plus administrator or any other
user who uses MAIN as their home folder.

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More Flexible Private Reports

The private report feature has been improved and made more flexible. You can now
define any report as private for one or more individual users, while keeping it public for
others. When you make a report private for a user, a new report is created in Vista Plus
and linked directly to the personal folder for that user. When the user runs the report in
Oracle EBS, it is captured to the private report linked to the personal folder, so no one else
has access in Vista Plus. When a user for whom the report is not private runs it in Oracle
EBS, it is captured to the public Vista Plus report, which is linked to the folder for the
reports responsibility.
Removed System Profile Form

There is no longer a separate System Profile Settings form. These settings have been either
moved to the Server form, so you can set them as desired for each Vista Plus server,
moved to the Report form so you can set them for each migrated report, or removed
entirely, as some of them are no longer needed. Moving these options to the server or
report level greatly increases the flexibility of the interface: you are no longer forced to
have settings such as default access levels, user password formats, and so on, the same for
all Vista Plus servers.
More Meaningful Object Names and Descriptions

We have changed the format of object names and descriptions in Vista Plus. We have
added the application short name to the name of each group, folder, and report to
guarantee that all names are unique. (Previously, responsibilities with the same name in
different applications in Oracle EBS created identical Vista Plus objects). Descriptions are
now based on the Oracle EBS object description, if it has one. Specifically:
Group names and the names of folders created from responsibilities now include the
application short name. The group or folder description is the responsibility
description if it has one, or the responsibility name if the responsibility has no
description.
User names have not changed, except that, if the SID for the Vista Plus warehouse is
included, it is at the beginning of the name, as it is for the other object types, instead of
at the end. The user full name is now the Oracle EBS user name, while the description
is the user description if it has one, or the user name if the user has no description.
Vista Plus report names now include the full Oracle EBS report name followed by the
application short name. The Vista Plus report description is the Oracle EBS report
description, or the report name if the Oracle EBS report has no description.
FSG report names now include the FSG report name from Oracle EBS instead of the
report ID. The description is the report description if it has one, the title if it has no
description, or the report name if it does not have a description or title.

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The new name formats for each type of object are:

Group
RESP_NAME-APPL_SHORT_NAME
Folder
RESP_NAME-APPL_SHORT_NAME
User
USR_NAME
Report
RPT_NAME-APPL_SHORT_NAME-RESP_ID
FSG Report
FSG-RPT_NAME-RESP_ID
In addition, private reports include the users name at the end.

If you choose to include the SID for the Vista Plus server in object names, it is added at the
front of each object, including user names. The option to include the SID now affects all
object types, not just users. It is possible to assign an SID to a Vista Plus server, but not
include it in the names of objects created on that server.
See After the Upgrade on page 19 for a discussion of how these object name changes
may affect behavior after an upgrade.
Improved FSG Report Handling

FSG reports, both ad hoc and detail, are no longer treated differently than other reports.
You select them for replication and capture just like any other Oracle EBS report. Their
Vista Plus report names do use a different format than other reports, as described in the
previous section and in Chapter 2 of the Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite
Users Guide.
Synchronization and Migration Improvements

Weve made multiple changes and improvements to the process of synchronizing and
migrating your data:
The Synchronization request always copies information for all Oracle EBS
responsibilities into the interfaces schema. Previously, unless you chose to override it,
Synchronization included only those responsibilities you selected. Synchronizations
greatly improved performancesee Simpler, More Efficient Software and Database
on page 3makes it unnecessary to limit the responsibilities. This means you can
always include any responsibility, user, or report in the next migration.
You no longer have to select managed or full migration. At any time, you can
choose to perform either the one-step Synchronization and Migration process for
easiest use and fastest completion, or separate Synchronization and Migration
requests so you can choose the specific responsibilities, users, and reports to migrate.
You no longer have to select which responsibilities, users, and reports to migrate, then
go to a separate page to select which ones to send to each Vista Plus server. After the
Synchronization request and before Migration, you simply select which objects to
migrate to each Vista Plus server.

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For each Vista Plus server, you choose whether to migrate all responsibilities, users,
and/or reports by default. When you perform Synchronization and Migration as one
process, these selections determine whats included for each server. When you
perform them separately, you can override the defaults and select exactly which
objects to copy to Vista Plus.
More Efficient Report Capture

The internal process for capturing reports into Vista Plus after they are run in Oracle EBS
is completely different. The interface no longer adds a trigger to the Oracle EBS concurrent
request table. That method could cause problems if the concurrent request table was
customized, and violated the design precept that the interface should not modify any
standard Oracle EBS tables.
Instead, the interfaces report capture process now uses a custom view to compare the
concurrent request table, the interfaces table containing reports to be captured, and the
interface capture queue. Any requests for reports which are selected for capture are added
to the interface capture queue, then immediately captured to Vista Plus with an rcapture
command (unless the request has already been captured).
Any concurrent request which is sent to an immediate capture printer, and is for a report
selected for capture, immediately creates an entry in the interfaces report capture queue,
which in turn creates and executes the rcapture command.
Note
In both types of capture, if the interface is configured to use Vista Plus Output
Manager, it configures and executes a qr command to send the report output
to Output Manager instead of using rcapture.
Removed Features
Version 6.0 does not contain some peripheral features which existed in the previous
version. None of these features are part of the core functionality of the productcopying
responsibilities, users, and reports from Oracle EBS into Vista Plus. Each one has been
removed from this release for one of two reasons: either the function it filled was more
logically provided elsewhere, or, while it was a useful feature, it was not widely used and
the time required to implement and test it would have delayed the release of 6.0. We feel
the performance and reliability improvements in this version are very important, and we
did not want to make customers wait for them while we finished these other features. We
plan to re-implement some of these features in future versions of the interface.
The features which are not included in version 6.0 are:
You cannot force a user into a Vista Plus group that does not correspond to one of
their Oracle EBS responsibilities. The purpose of the interface is to replicate the Oracle
EBS responsibility, user, and report structure in Vista Plus. We decided that including
this feature was not consistent with that purpose, as it allowed users access to reports
that they could not access in Oracle EBS. If desired, you can use Vista Plus features
(the Server Admin client or vadmin) to add users to other Vista Plus groups after they
have been replicated to Vista Plus. See Assign Vista Plus Folders on page 17.

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The interface does not replicate page-level security from Oracle EBS to Vista Plus. This
feature did not function correctly in all situations and was not widely used. You can
create and assign page securities as desired in Vista Plus after replicating users and
reports. We are planning on re-introducing an improved, more efficient, version of
this feature in a future release of the interface.
You cannot replicate Oracle EBS sales representatives or employees to Vista Plus as
users. This feature was not widely used. We plan to re-implement it in a future
version.
Note
If you replicated employees or sales reps to Vista Plus with an earlier version
of the interface, those users are converted to the new naming format during
the upgrade procedure, and personal groups and folders are created for them.
You will need to relink them to the folders for the desired responsibilities after
the upgrade. See Assign Vista Plus Folders on page 17.
Because of the changed implementation for report capture, you can no longer remove
a report from the interfaces report capture queue before it is captured into Vista Plus.
In the new implementation, reports are not added to the capture queue until the
report capture request runs, and are then captured immediately. If, after running a
report in Oracle EBS, you decide you do not want to capture it into Vista Plus, you can
clear the Cap box for the report in the interfaces Select Report page before the report
capture request runs.
The interface does not contain a way to delete the information created on a Vista Plus
server by the interfacethe delete warehouse request has been removed. If you want
to delete all the information from a Vista Plus server, you can do so using a Vista Plus
administration client. We are planning on re-introducing this ability in a future
release.
You cannot recreate all data on a Vista Plus server. We are planning on reintroducing this ability in a future release.

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Known Issues
Updates to the Documentation

The Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite Users Guide has been extensively revised
to match the improved user interface. This new version of the Users Guide is provided as
an Adobe Acrobat PDF file in the Doc folder of the installation directory. It is not
available in printed form.
Note
Previous versions of the documentation used either synchronization or

migration to refer to the entire process of copying information from Oracle
EBS into the interfaces schema, and from there to Vista Plus. The
documentation for version 6.0 uses replication to refer to this process. This
has two advantages:
Replication is more accurate, as a copy of the selected data is added to
Vista Plus, while the original data in Oracle EBS is unchanged.
It eliminates the possible confusion caused by using either
synchronization or migration to refer to both a part of the process and
the entire process. Synchronization now always refers only to the actions
performed by the Synchronization request, while migration refers only to
the actions performed by the Migration request.
Known Issues
In addition to the features which have been removed (see Removed Features on page 7),
version 6.0 of the interface contains this known limitation:
Text Reports Only: You can capture reports through the interface only if they are run
as text reports in Oracle EBS. The interface cannot capture reports generated as PDF
files or in other formats.

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Upgrade Instructions
Version 6.0 of the Vista Plus Interface for Oracle EBS has been completely rewritten. It
uses a newly-designed database structure. In fact, it does not re-use anything used by
previous versions of the interface: its folder structure, programs, and user schemas are all
new, with different names than those used by previous versions.
This means that upgrading to version 6.0 of the interface does not modify any existing
interface objects or data, or replace them with revised versions of the same objects.
Instead, upgrading consists of these general procedures:
1.
Installing version 6.0.
2.
Using the provided programs and scripts to take data from the existing interface
schema and Oracle EBS, populate the new tables in the new interface schema, and
create Vista Plus users, groups, folders, and reports which use the new naming
conventions.
3.
Removing the old interfaces data and programs.
There is a more detailed overview below, followed by complete instructions for each step.
Note
If you are installing the interface for the first time, do not follow these
procedures. Instructions for a first-time installation are in Chapter 3 of the
Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite Users Guide.
Before Upgrading
Warning
Perform the upgrade in a test environment before updating your production

instance of the interface. Parts of the procedure are complex; any error during
them could keep the interface from working properly after the upgrade.
Before installing version 6.0 of the interface and starting the upgrade procedures below,
you must do the following:
If you are not already running version 5.1 of the interface, upgrade to version 5.1 by
performing the procedures in the Vista Plus Interface for Oracle Applications 5.1 Release
Notes. You cannot upgrade from any earlier version directly to 6.0; the data conversion
will not work.
Perform a migration from the interface to Vista Plus. There should not be any data in
the interfaces schema, waiting to be migrated, when you copy the data to the new
interface schema.
If any of the programs for version 5.1 of the interface (for example, report capture or
synchronization) are scheduled to run automatically, cancel the requests so the
programs will not run again.
Back up all of the data in the old interfaces tables: everything in the QV schema. Once
you have copied this data to the new interface schema and confirmed that the new
interface is working, you will delete the QV schema. It is a good idea to have a backup
of the data in case you need to return to the old interface.

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Back up your Vista Plus database. While upgrading to the new interface does not
delete any of the existing Vista Plus data, the names of many of the objects (reports,
folder, users and groups) that were created by the interface will be changed. It is
always recommended to perform a complete backup before any procedure that makes
large database changes.
Note
You do not need to back up the programs from version 5.1 of the interface.
The programs for version 6.0 are installed in a different folder structure and
do not overwrite the existing programs.
Procedure Overview
As described above, the upgrade consists of installing version 6.0 of the interface,
converting the data, then removing the old version (5.1) of the interface. These are the
procedures involved:
1.
Installing the Vista Plus Interface for Oracle EBS, version 6.0. If your Vista Plus server
uses Vista Plus 5.5.0, you also need to install an updated version of vadmin.
2.
Compile the upgrade programs which were installed with the 6.0 software.
3.
Run the first upgrade program. This takes information from the old interfaces
schema and the Oracle EBS schema and places it, in the new, more efficient format, in
the new interface schema.
4.
Run the second upgrade program. This reads the data from the new interface schema
and creates a series of vadmin batch files. These files contain the commands to
convert the objects created by the interface in Vista Plus to the new naming format.
5.
Run a shell script which executes a series of vadmin commands to update the Vista
Plus database. If you use the interface with multiple Vista Plus servers, there is a
separate shell script for each server.
After you have performed this step, the data used by version 5.1 of the interface no
longer exists in the Vista Plus databaseall the objects have been renamed to follow
the new conventions. After this step, if you want to return to using version 5.1 of the
interface, you must restore your Vista Plus data from a backup.
6.
Set the internal server ID for each Vista Plus server in the interface database.
7.
If desired, manually link the personal folders for Vista Plus users created during the
conversion to additional Vista Plus folders create from responsibilities. You may need
to do this if you used the forcing users into groups features or migrated employees
or sales reps. with the previous version of the interface.
8.
Unregister the old version of the interface from Oracle EBS and drop all of its objects
from the database.
9.
Drop the upgrade programs from the database. This step is optional.
10. Remove the $QV_TOP environment variable and folder. This step is optional.

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Install Vista Plus Interface for Oracle EBS Version 6.0

Follow the instructions in Chapter 3 of the Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite
Users Guide to install the version 6.0 software. There is no separate procedure for
upgrading the software. Because the software is installed into a different folder structure
than earlier versions, installing it has no effect on the existing interface.
If the version of the remote capture tools installed on your Oracle EBS server is from Vista
Plus 5.5.0, you must install an updated version of the vadmin command. This is needed
only for Vista Plus 5.5.0. Versions 5.5.1 and later already have the necessary version of
vadmin. To update vadmin:
1.
Download the updated vadmin file for your operating system. For your convenience,
you can find it in the same Knowledge Center folder as the rest of the interface
software.
2.
Copy the file to the folder where the remote capture tools are installed, replacing the
existing copy of vadmin.
Compile the Upgrade Programs

Installing version 6.0 of the interface following the procedures in the Users Guide installs
the programs needed to convert data from version 5.1 to the proper format for version 6.0.
However, before you can run these programs, you must compile them. To do so:
1.
Log on to the Oracle EBS server as applmgr.
2.
Change directory to $VPI_TOP/upgrade/upg5160.
3.
Enter these commands:

sqlplus vpi/vpi_pwd @vpdupg1.sql
sqlplus vpi/vpi_pwd @vpdupg2.sql
sqlplus apps/apps_pwd @vpdupg3.sql
Where vpi_pwd is the password for the vpi user and apps_pwd is the password for the
apps user.
Run the First Upgrade Program

The first upgrade program populates the tables in the database schema for version 6.0. To
do so, it takes information from both the schema for version 5.1 of the interface and
directly from the Oracle EBS database:
It places the Vista Plus server definitions from the 5.1 databases into the new server
definition table.
It takes information for all Oracle EBS objectsresponsibilities, users, and reports
from the Oracle EBS database. This is the same function that the initialization request
performs after a new installation.
It takes information about what has been migrated, which reports have been marked
as private, and so on, from the 5.1 interfaces schema and stores it in the new schema.

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The upgrade program stores all of the data in the new structure and format used by
version 6.0. See Simpler, More Efficient Software and Database on page 3 for a general
description of how the database structure has been improved.
To run the first upgrade program:
1.
Log on to the Oracle EBS server.
2.
3.
Enter this command:

sqlplus vpi/vpi_pwd @vpxupg1.sql
Where vpi_pwd is the password for the vpi user.

Before proceeding to the next step, you should verify that the data has been properly
copied to the schema for the new interface. It is particularly important to make sure that
the paths defined for each Vista Plus server are correct. To check the data:
1.
Log into Oracle EBS and select the Vista Plus Interface responsibility.
2.
From the Navigator, select Define Vista Plus Server, Define Vista Plus Server.
3.
Make sure the entry in the VP Remote Capture Tools Path points to the directory
where the Vista Plus remote capture tools are installed on the Oracle EBS host.
4.
Make sure the VPI_TOP Path points to the VPI_TOP directory defined when you
installed the software.
5.
If the server captures through Vista Plus Output Manager, make sure the VPOM
Command Path field points to the directory where the VPOM commands are installed
on the Oracle EBS host.
6.
If any of the paths shown are not correct, type the correct path and save your changes.
7.
If you have more than one Vista Plus server defined, select the next one in the VP
Server Name field. Repeat steps 3 though 6 for each server.
8.
Return to the Navigator and expand Inquiry Information.
9.
Use the ... Already Migrated features to make sure that they list the correct
responsibilities, users, and reports as having already been migrated to Vista Plus. The
upgrade program reads the old interfaces schema to mark the items that already exist
in Vista Plus.
Once you have verified the data in the interface forms, you can proceed with the second
upgrade data conversion program.

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Run the Second Upgrade Program

The second upgrade program reads the data that was created in the new interface schema
by the first program and uses it to create vadmin commands to update the Vista Plus
database. (Most of these commands modify the Vista Plus objects created by the earlier
version of the interface so that they use the new name and description formats, as
described in More Meaningful Object Names and Descriptions on page 5.) It places
these commands in a series of .dat filesone file for each vadmin command typeand
creates a shell script to run the commands in each file.
To run the second upgrade program:
1.
2.
3.
Enter this command:

sqlplus vpi/vpi_pwd @vpxupg2.sql
Where vpi_pwd is the password for the vpi user.

This command creates two types of files in the $VPI_TOP/dat directory:
Data files, each containing a series of vadmin commands. The files names are in the
format SID_CommandAbbreviation.dat.
SID is the SID for the Vista Plus server the commands are for and ShortCommand is
the short form of the type of vadmin commands the file contains. For example,
test_mu.dat contains ModifyUser commands for the server with the SID test.
Shell scripts, each of which executes all of the data files for a particular Vista Plus
server. The script file names are in the format SID_vpadm.sh. SID is the SID for the
Vista Plus server the file is for.
Execute the vadmin Commands

Warning
This procedure changes the names and descriptions of the Vista Plus reports,
folders, users, and groups created by the previous version of the interface. Be
sure you have a good backup of your Vista Plus database before performing
these steps. After you have performed this procedure, if you want to return to
using version 5.1 of the interface, you must restore your Vista Plus data from
a backup.
The vpxupg2.sql command creates data files containing vadmin commands and the script
files to execute them in the $VPI_TOP/dat directory. However, the commands should not
be executed from that directory. They need to be moved to the upgrade directory,
$VPI_TOP/dat/upg5160. To move and execute the files:
1.
Log in as applmgr.
2.
Change directory to $VPI_TOP/dat.

cd $VPI_TOP/dat

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3.
Move all the data files to the upg5160 subdirectory with this command:
mv *.dat upg5160
4.
Copy all the shell script files into the upg5160 subdirectory, then remove them from
$VPI_TOP/dat:
cp *.sh upg5160
rm -f *.sh
Note
5.
You need to copy and remove the shell script files, instead of moving them,
because they are owned by the Oracle database user, not by applmgr. When
you copy them, the copies are owned by applmgr, so you can make them
executable and run them in the following steps.
Change directory to $VPI_TOP/dat/upg5160:

cd upg5160
6.
Make the shell script files executable:

chmod 500 *.sh
7.
You can now execute the vadmin commands by running the shell script file for each
Vista Plus server. However, before you do, we recommend you open the data files and
read the vadmin commands so you can see and understand the changes the
commands will be making.
8.
Once you are satisfied that you know what changes will be made to your Vista Plus
data, execute the shell script for each Vista Plus server:
./ SID-vpadm.sh 2>>
SID-vpadm.log
SID is the SID of the Vista Plus server the script file is for.
If you have more than one Vista Plus server, repeat this for each script file.
9.
View the SID-vpadm.log file to make sure the script executed successfully.
10. Use the Vista Plus clients to check that the folders, reports, users, and groups were
changed successfully. It is probably easiest to do this with the Server Admin client.

Page 15
Update the Server ID

Each Vista Plus server defined in the interface has an internal ID assigned to it. The
interface programs use this ID to identify the server and objects which belong to it in the
interface schema. For technical reasons, version 5.1 used prime numbers for these IDs;
version 6.0 assigns them sequentially. The earlier conversion programs are not able to
change the ID assigned to a server. To complete the data conversion, you need to
determine the old server ID, then run a script to change the server ID in the proper places
in the new interface schema.
To find and change the internal server ID:
1.
2.
Call the SQL Plus tool and log in as the vpi user:
sqlplus vpi/vpi_password
3.
In SQL Plus, enter this command:

Select QV_HOST_NAME, ATTRIBUTE3 from QV.QSVP_ENV;
This lists the name and ID of each Vista Plus server defined in the 5.1 interface.
4.
Now, enter this command:

Select SVR_NAME, SVR_ID from VPI.VPI_SVR;
This lists the name and ID of each Vista Plus server defined in the 6.0 interface. It
should match the results of the previous command.
If there is only one server defined, you will change its ID to 1. If there is more than one
server, you will change the lowest ID to 1, the next to 2, and so on.
5.
6.
Again, call the SQL Plus tool and log in as the vpi user.
7.
In SQL Plus, enter this command:

@vpxsvrid.sql;
8.
When prompted for the current server ID, enter the server ID from version 5.1 of the
interfacethe one you found in step 3 of this procedure. If there is more than one
server, enter the lowest server ID.
9.
When prompted for the new server ID, enter 1.

The command changes the server ID from the old value to the new value, based on
the values you entered, everywhere it appears in the interfaces schema.
10. If you have another Vista Plus server defined, repeat steps 5 through 9 for the next
one. In step 9, enter 2 for the second server ID, 3 for the third, and so on.
vpxsvrid.sql logs all of its actions in the file $VPI_TOP/log/vpxsvrid.log.

Page 16
Assign Vista Plus Folders

Tip
If you did not migrate employees or sales reps, and did not use the force
users feature, you can skip this section.
Version 6.0 of the interface does not include two peripheral features which allowed you to
use the interface to give users access to reports they did not have access to in Oracle EBS
the ability to migrate employees and sales reps and the ability to force users into Vista
Plus groups even if they do not belong to that responsibility in Oracle EBS. (See
Removed Features on page 7.) If you used either of these features, you need to perform
actions in Vista Plus if you want to maintain these users access to Vista Plus reports. Here
is why:
The upgrade process creates personal folders for all Vista Plus users created by the
previous version of the interface, including any users created from employees and
sales reps. (See Improved Vista Plus Folder Structure on page 4 for information
about these personal folders.) However, because the new interface schema does not
link employees or sales reps to any responsibilities or groups, their personal folders
are not linked to any responsibility folders in Vista Plus. To see the reports for a
responsibility, they will have to switch groups to the corresponding Vista Plus group.
Similarly, the Vista Plus personal folder for each migrated Oracle EBS user is linked
only to the folders for the responsibilities the user was selected for migration from.
The new interface does not maintain the links to forced responsibilities. To see the
reports for a forced responsibility, the user will have to switch groups to the
corresponding Vista Plus group.
In either of these cases, to make it easier for the Vista Plus users to have access to reports
outside their Oracle EBS responsibilities, you can use the Vista Plus Server Admin client
or the vadmin LinkFolder command to link each personal folder to the desired
responsibility folders (the personal folder needs to be the parent folder). Links you create
in this way will not be affected by the interface.
Unregister the Old Interface

After the interface data has been copied to the version 6.0 schema and you are comfortable
using the new interface, you can unregister version 5.1 of the interface and drop all its
objects from the database. To do so, follow the procedure below.
Warning
Do not use the uninstall program from the 5.1 version of the interface to do
this! You must use the program provided with 6.0 and described here. If you
use the version 5.1 uninstall program, it will also unregister some objects
needed by 6.0.
1.
Make sure no one is logged into Oracle EBS using the Vista Plus Responsibility
responsibility. Also, make sure that the interface's database is not being accessed via
SQL Plus or any other method.
2.
Log in as applmgr.

Page 17
3.
Change directory to $VPI_TOP/upgrade/upg5160:

cd $VPI_TOP/upgrade/upg5160
4.
Make the shell script executable:

chmod 500 vprm51.sh
5.
Run the shell script:

./vprm51.sh
6.
Type 1 to continue with the uninstall.

You now see a series of prompts. Respond to each one as described in the following
steps.
7.
When asked for the SYSTEM user password, enter it.
8.
When asked for the apps user password, enter it.
9.
Enter the name for the data tablespace for version 5.1 of the interface. By default, it is
qvd.
Warning This is the name for the version 5.1 tablespace. Do not enter the name for the
version 6.0 tablespace!
10. Enter the name for the index tablespace for version 5.1 of the interface. By default, it is
qvx.
Warning This is the name for the version 5.1 tablespace. Do not enter the name for the
version 6.0 tablespace!
11. The script drops the tablespaces and unregisters the old version of the interface.
Check its log file, $VPI_TOP/log/vprm51.log, to make sure it completed successfully.
Drop the Upgrade Programs

Once the upgrade is complete, you do not need to keep the upgrade programs in the
Oracle database. You can use the procedure below to drop them.
1.
2.
Call the SQL Plus tool and log in as the vpi user:
sqlplus vpi/vpi_password
3.
In SQL Plus, enter these commands to drop the first two upgrade programs:
Drop package VPI_UPG1_PKG;
4.
Call the SQL Plus tool and log in as the apps user:
sqlplus apps/apps_password
5.
In SQL Plus, enter this command to drop the third upgrade program:

Page 18
After the Upgrade
After the Upgrade

After completing the upgrade process, there is one area where you may need to take
action before you start using version 6.0 of the interface, and another area where you may
want to make some changes to take advantage of one of the improvements in the new
version. The sections below discuss these areas.
Effects of Changed Object Names

As described in New Features and Changes in Version 6.0 on page 3, we have changed
the name format for the objectsusers, groups, folders, and reportsthat the interface
creates in Vista Plus. Because Vista Plus identifies all objects by their unique object IDs,
not by their names, this does not cause any problems in Vista Plus. All page securities,
permissions, SmartAlarms, and migration rules that were associated with a user, group,
report, or folder before you upgraded will still be associated with it afterward, even
though the name of the object will be different.
One change that your users will need to be aware of immediately is that, if you use an SID
for the Vista Plus server and include it in object names, their user names will be different
after the upgrade than they were before, because the SID will be at the beginning of each
user name, not the end. Be sure that everyone knows about this change or they will not be
able to log in to Vista Plus after the upgrade.
The only other difference in behavior you can expect in Vista Plus viewer clients is that the
sort order of objects, especially report and generation lists, will change because of the new
names. There may be an adjustment period while your users become familiar with the
new order.
However, if you have any scripts, either vadmin command scripts or external scripts, that
identify Vista Plus objects, especially reports, by their names, you will need to modify
them to use the new naming conventions. We recommend you test all scripts carefully
after making the changes.
More Flexible Private Reports

In previous versions of the interface, any report that you designated as private became
private for all users who had private folders. For example, if users A, B, C, D, and E had
private folders, and reports 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were marked as private, then all five reports
were treated as private for all five users. If user A only needed reports 1 and 2 to be
private, and user B only needed reports 3 and 5, there was no way to configure that
behavior.
Version 6.0 is much more flexible. You select specific combinations of private users and
private reports. In the above example, you can select reports 1 and 2 for user A, 3 and 5 for
user B, 2 and 4 for user C, and so on, or any other combination you want.
During the upgrade process, all private reports and private users defined in the previous
version of the interface are preserved. In our example, that means that each of the five
reports becomes private for each of the five users. If not all of your users who had private

Page 19
After the Upgrade
folders need access to all the reports marked as private, after the upgrade you can use the
interfaces Select Private Report feature to remove the combinations that you do not need.
To do so, just clear the Priv checkbox for each report/user combination to remove, and
select either Unlink or Delete as the delete option. Your changes will take effect the next
time the Migration request is run. See the sections Defining Private Reports and
Selecting the Information to Update in Chapter 5 of the Users Guide for more
information.
Note
All users created in Vista Plus, not just those selected for private reports, now
have personal folders. Selecting a private report for a creates a private version
of the report and links that report to the users personal folder. It does not
create a new folder. See More Flexible Private Reports on page 5.

Page 20

Oracle E-Business Suite Interface 6 0 Release Notes

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Vista Plus Interface for Oracle E-Business Suite

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

Efficiency and space requirements

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

New Features and Changes in Version 6.0

New Features and Changes in Version 6.0

Simpler, More Efficient Software and Database

Initialization of the entire database was over four times faster.

Synchronization of the entire database was over 10 times faster.

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

New Features and Changes in Version 6.0

Improved manageability and maintainability:

Improved Vista Plus Folder Structure

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

New Features and Changes in Version 6.0

More Flexible Private Reports

Removed System Profile Form

More Meaningful Object Names and Descriptions

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

New Features and Changes in Version 6.0

The new name formats for each type of object are:

In addition, private reports include the users name at the end.

Improved FSG Report Handling

Synchronization and Migration Improvements

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

New Features and Changes in Version 6.0

More Efficient Report Capture

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

New Features and Changes in Version 6.0

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

Updates to the Documentation

Previous versions of the documentation used either synchronization or

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

Installing version 6.0.

Removing the old interfaces data and programs.

Perform the upgrade in a test environment before updating your production

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

Install Vista Plus Interface for Oracle EBS Version 6.0

Compile the Upgrade Programs

Log on to the Oracle EBS server as applmgr.

Change directory to $VPI_TOP/upgrade/upg5160.

Enter these commands:

Run the First Upgrade Program

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

Log on to the Oracle EBS server.

Change directory to $VPI_TOP/upgrade/upg5160.

Enter this command:

Where vpi_pwd is the password for the vpi user.

Return to the Navigator and expand Inquiry Information.

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

Run the Second Upgrade Program

Log on to the Oracle EBS server.

Change directory to $VPI_TOP/upgrade/upg5160.

Enter this command:

Where vpi_pwd is the password for the vpi user.

Execute the vadmin Commands

Change directory to $VPI_TOP/dat.

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

Change directory to $VPI_TOP/dat/upg5160:

Make the shell script files executable:

Copyright Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

Update the Server ID