Google Maps Integrated to Oracle Business Suite 12

Oracle announced that Google Maps has been integrated to Oracle Business Suite 12. Google Maps is placed in Oracle Field Service Release 12 which delivers advanced capabilities to help reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction with enhanced mobility, scheduling and spares management capabilities.

Integrating the Google Maps API with Oracle Field Service creates a high performance mapping experience for the field service dispatcher and field technician. Field service dispatchers are now able to quickly and easily identify technician routes and problem locations on the Google Maps based interface to track and manage resources and customer issues. They are able to zoom and navigate the map with ease and without having to reload an entire map image. In addition, field technicians can view their jobs easily on a map or satellite image from the Google Maps API.

According to Noah Doyle, Product Manager for Google Maps for Enterprise:

We are pleased to see the innovative ways in which Oracle is using Google Maps for Enterprise to deliver geo-based capabilities that are both powerful and easy-to-use. With Google Maps as context, service organizations can connect customers with the most appropriate technician, equipped with the right parts in a timely manner.

The Google Maps for Enterprise integration is currently available as a part of Oracle Field Service 11.5.10 and above. Oracle Field Service Release 12, part of the Oracle E-Business Suite, is also currently available.

Source[Oracle]

Russian Book Retailer Top-Kniga Choosed Oracle Retail Applications to Improve Inventory Management and Enhance Customer Service

Top-Kniga, a leading retailer and wholesaler in the Russian book market, chooses Oracle Retail Merchandising System, Oracle Retail Demand Forecasting and Oracle Retail Data Warehousing to help increase sales, performance and levels of customer service.

Top-Kniga expects the Oracle Retail platform to help improve forecasting capabilities, automate stock replenishment and provide management with valuable real-time data and analytics aimed at increasing inventory turnover and profitability, particular among its wholesale customers. According to Georgy Lyamin, general director of Top-Kniga:

We expect the Oracle Retail applications will improve the analysis of customer demand, the forecasting process and streamline the process of stock replenishment along the whole supply chain, from the suppliers to warehouses and stores. We anticipate this will result in long-term competitive advantages for our company, increasing both customer numbers and loyalty. We expect to see the first results at the beginning of autumn 2007

Top-Kniga is an existing Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne customer. They understood the value of a phased implementation path and simplifying the integration process to achieve a rapid return on investment.

Based from my experience as an Oracle Retail Applications Technical Lead for various retailers(btw, I’m not part of Top-Kniga), the Replenishment function of Oracle Retail Merchandising System relies on the predictive application to fully use it’s capability. Replenishment is the ability to maintain the quantity of items stored in warehouses and stores. This feature will create automatic orders for items below the specified quantity. The Oracle Retail Merchandising System itself has it’s own predictive functionality but with the implementation of Oracle Retail Demand Forecasting, it will provide Oracle Retail Merchandising System a better performance in predicting the amount of items needed to be ordered. The power of Oracle Retail Demand Forecasting will come if the collected historical sales data is at least one-year because the sales record will cover the whole year holiday, special events and normal daily sales. I would say that a whole three years of historical data will accurately predict the demands on the items for sale.

Oracle Retail Data Warehousing will provide reporting capabilities that will help the business in their planning for their company.

Source:[Oracle]

eHarmony and Millipore Migrated to Oracle

eHarmony and Millipore decided to migrate to Oracle because Oracle satisfied all their business needs.

eHarmony decided to migrate from Microsoft SQL Server to Oracle 10g infrastructure to meet their need for greater scalability and resolve locking issues which were encountered whenever multiple users is accessing the database.

According to Mark Douglas, eHarmony’s vice president of technology:

Scalability was the main issue with [Microsoft SQL Server]. We just physically outgrew it because it doesn’t have the same kind of functionality that [Real Application Clusters] provide with Oracle.The way locking works in SQL Server becomes a big scaling issue over time. We’re running anywhere [up to] 1,000 transactions per second, so that turns into hundreds of thousands of locks, and it just is not scalable

Now, eHarmony is operating a clustered Oracle Database 10g environment with Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Automatic Storage Management, and Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g on multiple Sun Fire X4600 servers running Windows. The company also implemented an Oracle data warehouse to support real-time and historical business intelligence reporting initiatives. Douglas said Oracle Partitioning software is being used in conjunction with the data warehouse to improve performance.

Millipore decided to migrate from SAP to Oracle because Millipore has long sought to standardize on Oracle applications throughout its many business units. According to Tom Roy, Millipore’s manager of application services:

We’ve been pleased with Oracle applications over the years and so it pretty much seemed a no-brainer that we would bring this acquisition onto Oracle.

SQL*Unloader - The Method of Unloading Data

Since Oracle provide SQL*Loader, you might think that there is a SQL *Unloader. The truth is there is no SQL *Unloader. The following script will do what your looking for unloading data from the database. The output file can be use as the control file for the SQL*Loader.

Oracle Documentations

Here are the list of Oracle documents

• Oracle Documentations

• Oracle Database documentation, 10g Release 2 (10.2).
  Installation manuals and platform-specific books are included in this search.
• Oracle Database Express Edition documentation, 10g Release 2 (10.2).
  This is a small library specifically for the free Express Edition product. It covers administering the database through Application Express, and developing modern web applications in PHP, .NET, Java, and PL/SQL. Installation covers Windows and Linux only. Books such as the SQL Reference are not included.
• Oracle Database documentation, 10g Release 1 (10.1) Installation manuals and platform-specific books are included in this search.
• Oracle9i documentation, Release 2 (9.2).
• Oracle9i documentation, Release 1 (9.0.1).
  Installation manuals and platform-specific books are included in this search, for 9.2 only.
• Oracle8i documentation, Release 8.1.7. Installation manuals and platform-specific books are not included in this search
• Oracle Identity Management documentation 10g (Release 10.1.4).
  Installation manuals and platform-specific books are not yet included in this search.
• Oracle Application Server documentation 10g (Release 10.1.3).
  Installation manuals and platform-specific books are not yet included in this search.
• Oracle Application Server documentation 10g (Release 10.1.2).
  Installation manuals and platform-specific books are not yet included in this search.
• Oracle Application Server documentation 10g (Release 9.0.4).
  Installation manuals and platform-specific books are not included in this search.
• Oracle9iAS documentation (Release 9.0.2).
• Installation manuals and platform-specific books are not included in this search
• Oracle Collaboration Suite documentation, Release 10g (10.1.2).
• Oracle9 Collaboration Suite documentation, Release 9.0.4.
• Oracle9 Collaboration Suite documentation, Release 9.0.3.
  Installation manuals and platform-specific books are included in this search

Oracle DBA Toolbar

The Oracle DBA Toolbar provides one click access to key DBA resources on OTN. I would say it is a must-have for DBAs.

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Explicit Cursor Vs Implicit Cursor

There are a lot of discussions in Oracle experts which is better between explicit cursor and implicit cursor. In Oracle Contractors, implicit cursors are sometimes recommended by Tom Kyte of Oracle Magazine’s ‘Ask Tom’ in contrary to Steven Feuerstein teaching that explicit cursors were the most efficient way of retrieving Data. Eddie Awads explained that implicit cursors will make the program shorter yielding the same result. On the other side of the river bank, Andrew Clarke explained the uses of explicit cursor.

Explicit cursor is the best way to use in PL/SQL programs in the following instance. If we are creating programs that will be use for a long period of time because many developers may come and go that will provide system development, production support and system enhancement. We must admit that noone can stay long that will handle your system. If your system has limited documentation, explicit cursor is much better because of the following reason.

Readability
The PL/SQL program is more readable because of the separation of data selection logic and program logic which involves data handling. Explicit cursors are defined in declaration section and cursor names are usually descriptive which helps other developers to understand the SQL statement. In the execution block, once the explicit cursor is open, the developer can only see the how the data is handled and not mixed up with any SQL statements from implicit cursors.

Flexible Error Handling
In error handling, explicit cursor provides more flexibility by using %NOT_FOUND, %ROWCOUNT, % IS_OPEN. This allows error handling logic done in the execution block and leave the Exception block for other unhandled error.
Debugging Error is Easier
Since explicit cursor is defined, the cursor names can be use in error message in error handling logic which makes it easier to determine where the error occurred.

When to use Implicit Cursor?
As a developer implicit cursor is the fastest way to retrieve records. Implicit cursors can be use in the following cases.

Creating supporting scripts Implicit cursor is applicable if you want to accomplish your task immediately such like creating support scripts. Support scripts is just an aid to help developers and usually a developer’s personal file. Only the developer himself knows the logic of the support script.

Creating One-Time Use Program
One-time use programs as usually data conversion and migration scripts. If you are migrating data from legacy system to the new system, data conversion scripts are used once and no longer needed anymore. You can also use explicit cursors for these type of programs.
No matter which is better between the explicit and implicit cursor. It’s up to the developer’s point of view which is readable, traceable and easier to use.

Comprehensive List of All Oracle Errors

In application and software development, it is a must to have access to resources that will help you resolve the issues encountered. In dealing Oracle errors, there are no books that containts the list of all oracle errors. Books may cover certaint types of errors but not all.

Online Oracle documentation can be access in Technet. This requires you to register but it's free. The list of all Oracle error can be found in the following versions.

• Oracle9i Database Error Messages Release 2 (9.2)
• Oracle® Database Error Messages 10g Release 1 (10.1)

Battling ORA-01841: (full) year must be between -4713 and +9999

I’m currently doing a custom development on an existing customized Oracle Retail batch programs for a large retailer in US. The batch program is uploading Return to Vendor transaction, initiated from an external system, to Oracle Retail Merchandizing System.The modification is to pickup records from the new staging tables. The modification is to include the new staging tables to the driving cursor of the batch program. The pseudo code for the driving cursor is:

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SQL *Loader Log File

Every loading execution of SQL *Loader, a log file is created. The log file contains the detailed summary of the loading and description of errors encountered.

Syntax

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