Special characters not returned correctly in Oracle Cloud services?

Special characters not returned correctly in Fusion Cloud services, that is the statement/question I recently got from a Cloud HCM customer. As you can see in de screenshots above, my last name contains a special character that get's returned incorrectly from Cloud HCM Rest Api.
But why does this happen, it is stored and displayed correctly in Cloud HCM?

Automate File Based Data Import using ErpIntegrationService

A lot of customers are past the point of adapting Oracle Cloud Applications and are moving to the next step of the lifecycle, being integrating Oracle Cloud Applications within their enterprise architecture. Oracle is currently providing a plethora of CRUD web services, REST and SOAP for integration.
But in some cases the only ability to interface data is still through File Based Data Imports (FBDI).

Nullify fields using Oracle Cloud HCM web services

Recently I got a question from an Oracle HCM Cloud customer, which is using SOAP services to interface HCM data. The question was: How do I clear field data using web services?
Using HCM Data Loader you specify the value #NULL to explicitly pass a null value to a field, also this is used throughout ERP services, however the WorkerService did not respond like that.

Fusion Cloud web services: Deprecated does not mean obsolete

During a Fusion Cloud implementation we had the task of creating the conversion to Enterprise Contracts. To load the conversion data we created a script that utilises Fusion Cloud web services. During the implementation also a release upgrade was planned from Fusion Cloud R10 to R11. This release brought and unexpected occurrence with it, being the web service we used to invoke in our conversion script being deprecated and resulting in the following response:

Integration with Oracle Fusion Applications Enterprise Contracts using web services

During our move at Profource from Oracle E-Business Suite R12 and Oracle Fusion R7 on-premise to Oracle Fusion ERP Cloud R10, we had the challenge to migrate projects and create Enterprise Contracts.
Although Oracle Fusion provides a way to create contracts using File Import Activities, the current functionality and scope of creating contracts was not sufficient for our line of business.

Complement your Oracle ERP conversion with CRM File Based Data Import

On a customer Fusion ERP implementing project and on our own Fusion ERP Cloud implementation, I had the privilege of creating and running the conversion of suppliers to Fusion ERP. Fusion provides to necessary File Based Data Import to load Suppliers, Supplier Addresses, Sites, Assignments and Bank Accounts.
To be able to load the Supplier Bank Accounts, the bank and bank branches need to be converted to Cash Managent first, for this the RapidImplementionForCashManagement sheet can be utilised.
Because these implementations have CGI validation enabled for SEPA payment files, it is enforced to have an address for the bank branches, al least a country code and this is where it's getting exciting.

Oracle HCM Cloud: Lessons learned and Tips & Tricks for a succesful implementation

The past couple of months, we worked on several global implementations of Oracle HCM and Talent Management Cloud. One of the projects (see press release) consisted of a Oracle HCM and Talent Management Cloud implementation in 40 countries as replacement of the current PeopleSoft HCM 9.0 environment. During this period we gained a lot of experience and expertise, that we would like to share with you as our lessons learned and tips & tricks.

Leverage the power of BI Publisher in Cloud integrations

By now we are all accustomed to running Applications in the Cloud and it has reached the next phase: extensibility and integrating of the Cloud Applications with other applications in our enterprise architecture. Oracle is investing a lot on this area with PaaS, IaaS, DBaaS, MWaaS, JaaS and everything else that ends with aaS. This will work fine if you are a Sales Cloud customer, where you have the ability to create custom objects, outbound calls, etc.

But what if you're a Cloud ERP or HCM customer? Integration here is currently limited to file based extracts, file based loaders, spreadsheet loaders and web services that have been made available to be consumed externally. In real-time integrations you may be confronted with data needs that are not (yet) available by the web services provided in Cloud Applications, but you also do not the tooling to create custom web services for these needs. Or do you?

Inspired by this blog of FA Developer Relations, I would like to demonstrate how you can create custom real-time data extracts on nearly any data that resides in Fusion, using the PublicReportService

Calling a Fusion Applications web service from SOA Suite 11g

More and more customers are moving to Fusion Applications and as with all ERP systems, the need to integrate Fusion Applications with other (on-premise) applications is key is the customer's architecture. Although a lot of blogs on invoking a Fusion Applications web services have been written bij the A-Team and Fusion Applications Developer Relations and others, I still felt that the blogs missed some elements on getting started with this type of integration.
In this blog I will explain on how to invoke a web service of Fusion Application using SOA Suite 11g. For this blog I will be using a pre-build SOA Suite 11g PS6 virtual machine, that you can download from the Oracle site.

SUI for PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Part 3

In previous post I described how to install the Fusion Middleware components and the SUI application.
In this post I will describe the steps you have to take to implement Authentication & Authorisation.

SUI for PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Part 2

In previous post, I described all sources that you need to download to enable SUI for PeopleSoft Campus Solutions. In this post we will install all required sources.

SUI for PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Part 1

In my previous post I announced to availability of the the Simplified User Interface for PeopleSoft Campus Solutions 9.0. In the next posts to follow I will describe the steps you need to take to get started with SUI.

Simplified User Interface for PeopleSoft Campus Solutions

As you probably have noticed User Experience (UX) is a major topic at Oracle for a while now. The PeopleSoft 9.1 and 9.2 releases are focussed on "changing the way we work".

Enabling HTML Email Approvals for HCM

A few months ago Oracle release HTML Email Approvals for Approval Framework. With this OOTB feature you can now easily enable Approvals that can be managed from your mail, without having to log into PeopleSoft first.
Although the technology for HTML Email Approvals have be part of AWE for years now and is also highly used in FSCM, this is the first email templates that are delivered in HCM. The following email templates are delivered:

• Job Opening
• Job Offer
• Absence Request
• Extended Absence Request
• Promote
• Transfer
• Reporting Change
• Performance Document

Oracle Fusion HCM Cloud Implementation Partner Bootcamp

I am pleased to announce that Oracle invites partners to participate in the Oracle Fusion HCM Cloud Implementation Bootcamp. And I am even more pleased to announce that I am personally attending this bootcamp.

This hands-on two week workshop is delivered by Oracle Fusion HCM Development.  It consists of presentations, live demos and hands-on laboratory exercises. The objective is to help delivery consultants understand how to implement the latest release (R7) of Oracle Fusion HCM’s Global Human Resources and common architecture features before embarking on an Oracle Fusion HCM Applications Cloud implementation project.

PeopleSoft Campus Self Service Mobile

Oracle extends it’s PeopleSoft Mobile Applications fleet yet one more time with Campus Self Service Mobile. What differs Campus Mobile from the mobile applications until now, is the that this it is not a mobile (web) application, but a true native mobile app, built using Oracle ADF Mobile.

PeopleSoft Mobile Time Entry

Oracle has recently extended it's PeopleSoft Mobile Applications fleet, Mobile Expenses & Approvals, Mobile Company Directory, Mobile eProcurement, Mobile Inventory, with yet another application: Mobile Time Entry.

As stated on the PeopleSoft Apps Strategy blog, Mobile Time Entry is now generally available on FSCM 9.1 as a single post with Resolution Id 898134 and will also be delivered with bundle 28 that will be available on 15th of November, 2013.

PeopleTools Automated Environment Configuration

Don't you just hate it whenever you create a new instance of PeopleSoft or clone a production environment, you have to take the same manual configuration steps, like renaming the default local node, settings portal URI, configuring Integration Broker, configuring SES, etc? Wouldn't it be great if this could be automated?

That is probably what someone at Oracle also thought ...

Training on Demand: Fusion Applications Extend Applications with ADF

Recently we followed the training Fusion Applications: Extend Applications with ADF in Training on Demand format.

What is Training on Demand?

"You train online via an Internet connection, 24/7. Access streaming lectures, whiteboarding and lab activities, with the ability to search video, pause or rewind. These courses are recorded. Courses are made available on a named user basis for a term of ninety (90) days from the effective date of your order." 

The training consists of a 5 day schedule and both of us were not able to schedule 5 consecutive days with all the projects that we are working on. This was exactly the training format we where looking for. We could follow the training whenever and wherever.

Although the recorded videos are available for 90 days, we were very surprised by the fact that we had to reserve lab time to execute the practices.

"As part of this course, you are eligible for 1 time, 5 days access to live Lab Environment. Please follow the steps below to test, configure, reserve and access your lab. You can click each section title to view each full step. We highly recommend testing and configuring your system before reserving your lab." 

In fact we still had 5 consecutive days to plan away from our projects to be able to execute the practices. This was number 1 of many disappointments to follow during this training.

Extending the PeopleSoft 9.2 virtual machine with GUI and GuestAdditions

In my previous post I described the steps for getting started with the PeopleSoft 9.2 virtual machine. Although I am still thrilled that Oracle has made this generally available, I am of the opinion that it would have even been greater if the virtual machine was pre-delivered with GNOME or KDE. I am sure that a lot of customers and partners will use this virtual machine, but is everyone comfortable  with just a Linux command prompt? I think not.

Fortunately you have the root account and full access to the virtual machine, so we can go ahead and extend the virtual machine with the GUI our self.

Note, this post is not part of the virtual machine deployment as intended by Oracle. It is my choice to extend the virtual machine and it is your choice to follow this post.