===================================================

Welcome to the ApplTop Solutions October Newsletter

===================================================

 

======================

October 2003 – Issue 2

======================

Welcome to the second issue of the ApplTop Solutions newsletter, we hope you find the content of interest and we are always pleased to hear any feedback you may have regarding its content. To send feedback or to make suggestions for future content then please email to newsletter@appltop.com.

 

 

=============

In this issue

=============

1. ApplTop News

2. Latest Offers

2. Product Updates

3. Product Tips

4. Oracle Tips

5. Oracle News

 

 

=== ============ ===

=== ApplTop News ===

=== ============ ===

--------------

Media Coverage

--------------

Here is an extract from our latest press release...

 

ApplTop Solutions, a software vendor in the Oracle E-Business complimentary software market is steadily growing its product line and its client base but it faces a number of obstacles to overcome as do many pioneering software companies that offer new ideas and different approaches to solution development. ApplTop states that their main obstacle is the education of the Oracle E-Business community as to the full capabilities of their products.

 

ApplTop’s flagship product CS*Form, offers a radical new approach to solution development with regard to extending the Oracle E-Business Suite. The product provides what ApplTop calls “Rapid Application Extension” technology. It is a whole new way of thinking in terms the kinds of solutions that are possible using the product as well as the way in which the solutions are actually developed.

 

The usual mindset when it comes to extending Oracle E-Business Suite is...

 

“We’ve spent a lot of time and money implementing the Oracle E-Business Suite and therefore what you see is what you get. Only if a particular issue is a total showstopper will we consider extending or changing the applications.”

 

To see the full article, click the link below...

 

Oracle E-Business Community - Think Different – From I.T Toolbox

 

Be sure to checkout our media section for more media coverage.

 

-----------------

Newsletter Format

-----------------

Many people prefer to receive email based newsletters in a format similar to what you are looking at here, simple and to the point without any graphics that bloat the file size. Others prefer richer content that includes product screenshots and other graphics. To this end, we are conducting a survey to see what our subscribers think and we are giving you the opportunity to determine the formatting style of future newsletters. Simply respond using one of the links below...

 

I prefer simple text format

 

I prefer richer HTML format

 

We will let you know the outcome next month.

 

=== ============= ===

=== Latest Offers ===

=== ============= ===

---------------------------------------

Extended Product Trials & Payment Plans

---------------------------------------

We are currently offering extended product trials. You can trial all of our products completely free of charge for up to three months, the product trials all include full Premium Support that also includes our Assisted Development Service.

 

We now also offer various easy payment plans to help you spread the cost of ownership: -

 

1. 6 monthly payments for license spend over £5,000

2. 12 monthly payments for license spend over £10,000

 

There has never been a better time to give our products a try; you have absolutely nothing to lose and plenty to gain. Please contact us for more details about our product trials at info@appltop.com.

 

----------------

Product Discount

----------------

For clients who purchase CS*Form under the High Usage Licensing (HUL) model, we are currently offering CS*Accelerate with up to 25% discount.

 

We are also offering 50% free Solution Licenses under the HUL model, so if you purchase 100 HUL Solution Licenses, we give you another 50 for free.

 

CS*Query is now included with CS*Form free of charge.

 

-----------------------

Pricing/Licensing Guide

-----------------------

If you would like us to email you a copy of our current Pricing/Licensing Guide then please email us at Send Me Guide.

 

----

Note

----

The offers in this newsletter replace all previous offers and are valid for 1 month only.

 

 

=== =============== ===

=== Product Updates ===

=== =============== ===

--------------

CS*Enterprise

--------------

We have begun work on a suite of products called CS*Enterprise Packs. These products are pre-built solutions created using our very own CS*Form and CS*Accelerate.

 

For those who do not want to purchase our solution development tools but do like the idea of having many pre-built solutions that are fully integrated with your existing Oracle Applications then these products will fit perfectly. Our aim is to develop several CS*Enterprise packs aimed at specific areas of business.

 

We plan to release the following...

 

CS*Enterprise – Financials

CS*Enterprise – Manufacturing

CS*Enterprise – Procurement

CS*Enterprise – Order Management

CS*Enterprise – Customer Relationship Management

CS*Enterprise – System Administrators (AOL)

CS*Enterprise – Database Administrator & Tuning

 

Each pack will consist of many pre-built solutions (30 to 100) that solve common issues. The products themselves will be sold with the runtime component only of CS*Form and CS*Accelerate, although we do plan to offer a version that allows you to modify the pre-built solutions.

 

We will keep you posted on the progress of these products.

 

--------

CS*Form

--------

CS*Form, our flagship product goes from strength to strength. We continually improve and develop our product line to ensure we offer the very best solutions we can, to this end, CS*Form is an evolving product, since it’s initial release last year we have released a number of minor upgrades and patches that include minor bug fixes as well as a whole host of new features and enhancements.

 

The latest releases are as follows: -

R2i – Currently at version 2.2.0 released on the 4th of August 2003

R1 – Currently at version 1.5.1 released on the 8th of August 2003

 

A new R2i release containing minor improvements is expected to be available before the 17th of October.

 

--------------

CS*Accelerate

--------------

CS*Accelerate/R2i, for Oracle E-Business Suite 11i was released on the 21st of July and interest in the product is steadily growing. Like CS*Form, CS*Accelerate is an evolving product and we will continue to improve and add features over the coming months.

 

The latest releases are as follows: -

R2i – Currently at version 2.2.0 released on the 5th of October 2003

R1 – Currently at version 1.3.0 released on 19th July 2003

 

Note that the production release of CS*Accelerate/R1 for Oracle Applications 11.0.3 is not currently available, final stage testing of the product is still ongoing. We expect a production release before the end of the year. If you would like to join the beta program for this product or any other product then please contact us at Join Beta Program.

 

---------

CS*Query

---------

CS*Query, is a simple ad-hoc query tool that is basically a scaled down version of CS*Form. It allows anyone to issue a SQL statement directly into Oracle Applications and see the results displayed as a simplified CS*Form.

 

This product is now included free of charge with CS*Form.

 

If you currently have CS*Form/R1 or CS*Form/R2i and have not yet received your free CS*Query License Key then please let us know.

 

 

=== ============ ===

=== Product Tips ===

=== ============ ===

To have your own ApplTop product tips published in our newsletter, please email your tips to Send Your Tip. If we think it is suitable we will consider publishing it in a future newsletter.

 

--------------------------------

CS*Form/R2i – Hyperlinked Forms

--------------------------------

CS*Forms can be hyperlinked together. Simply specify an item level next form and suffix the next form name with a # symbol. At runtime, when the item with the next form is clicked, the specified CS*Form is invoked. This provides a great way to give fast drill down capabilities for your CS*Form solutions.

 

-------------------------------------------

CS*Form/R2i - Visit URL From CS*Form Item

-------------------------------------------

You can invoke your default browser and visit any URL via any item on an CS*Form. This is very useful for allowing users to invoke a web page or display a file stored on your system directly from an CS*Form. Use one of the following methods...

 

Method 1

--------

Simply ensure the data in a given item is in the following format...

 

URL:<actual URL>

 

for example,

 

URL:http://www.appltop.com

 

If an item contains the above then at runtime if the user clicks into the item with the mouse then a new browser window will open and the given URL is used.

 

Method 2

--------

This method allows you to display a label on the form for the URL rather than the URL itself.

 

Create two items, the first item name MUST be prefixed with URL_, for example, URL_APPLTOP, this should contain the actual URL you want to navigate to. This item can be set to not visible.

 

Create a second item that MUST be prefixed with URLL_ (for URL label), for example, URLL_APPLTOP. This will contain the label you want to use for the URL.

 

For example, if URL_APPLTOP is set to http://www.appltop.com and URLL_APPLTOP is set to "ApplTop Web Site" then when the user clicks into the label field, the given web site is opened in a new browser window.

 

Basically, the item name MUST be the same except one is prefixed with URL_ and the other is URLL_, the fact that the rest of the name is the same is what CS*Form relies upon to match the label with a URL.

 

 

---------------------------------------

CS*Accelerate/R2i – Condition Template

---------------------------------------

Having trouble creating conditions for your CS*Zooms and CS*Actions? If so why not use a Condition Template. Simply open the List of Values while focus is on the condition field and choose the required template. Then just fill in your own condition details and your condition will be working in no time.

 

------------------------------------------

CS*Accelerate/R2i – Additional Validation

------------------------------------------

Do you require additional record level validation to ensure complete accuracy of your data? If so then why use the new Validation Rule CS*Action. Simply enter a SQL statement and your values will be validated against the values produced by the SQL.

 

Prefix your SQL statement with “CLEAR:” and CS*Accelerate will automatically clear any fields that are invalid.

 

 

=== =========== ===

=== Oracle Tips ===

=== =========== ===

To have your own Oracle tips published in our newsletter, please email your tips to Send Your Tip. If we think it is suitable we will consider publishing it in a future newsletter.

 

-----------------------------------------

Go Faster Stripes For Your Look-up Tables

-----------------------------------------

If you have frequently accessed look-up tables in your system that are mainly accessed via their primary key then Index Organised Tables are a feature you may be able to take advantage of to squeeze that little bit more performance out of them.

 

As an example, we'll create two small look-up tables - one normal, heap, table and one index organized table...

 

SQL> create table look_up_heap as

  2  select table_name, num_rows, last_analyzed

  3  from all_tables

  4  where rownum < 50;

 

Table created.

 

SQL> alter table look_up_heap add constraint pk_look_up_heap primary key (table_name);

 

Table altered.

 

SQL> create table look_up_iot

  2  (table_name varchar2 (40) primary key

  3  ,num_rows number

  4  ,last_analyzed date)

  5  organization index;

 

Table created.

 

SQL> insert into look_up_iot

  2  select table_name, num_rows, last_analyzed

  3  from all_tables

  4  where rownum < 50;

 

49 rows created.

 

SQL> execute dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('MYDBA','LOOK_UP_HEAP');

 

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

 

SQL> execute dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('MYDBA','LOOK_UP_IOT');

 

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

 

Now if we query these tables by primary key some interesting results can be seen in our trace file.

 

First the normal table:

 

select num_rows

from look_up_heap

where table_name = 'ACC_STAT'

 

call     count       cpu    elapsed       disk      query    current        rows

------- ------  -------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------  ----------

Parse        1      0.01       0.01          0          0          0           0

Execute      1      0.00       0.00          0          0          0           0

Fetch        2      0.00       0.00          0          2          0           1

------- ------  -------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------  ----------

total        4      0.01       0.01          0          2          0           1

 

And now the IOT:

 

select num_rows

from look_up_iot

where table_name = 'ACC_STAT'

 

call     count       cpu    elapsed       disk      query    current        rows

------- ------  -------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------  ----------

Parse        1      0.00       0.00          0          0          0           0

Execute      1      0.00       0.00          0          0          0           0

Fetch        2      0.00       0.00          0          1          0           1

------- ------  -------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------  ----------

total        4      0.00       0.00          0          1          0           1

 

The IOT only required 1 read, the normal table required 2 - one for the index and one for the data.

 

Now as a one off query the saved read is negligible but scale this example up to a look-up table that is queried very often in a 500 user system and the saving could be significant.

 

----------------------

Finding Those Big SQLs

----------------------

No matter how well tuned a database is it only takes a few poorly tuned SQL statements to slow things down.

 

The following SQL statement can be used to find any statements that have recently been hitting your system hard.

 

SELECT  executions

,       buffer_gets

,       disk_reads

,       ROUND(buffer_gets/executions) get_per_exec

,       rows_processed row_cnt

,       sql_text

FROM    v$sql

WHERE   executions > 0

AND     buffer_gets > 0

ORDER BY buffer_gets/executions DESC

/

 

Example output...

 

EXECUTIONS|BUFFER_GETS|DISK_READS|GET_PER_EXEC|   ROW_CNT|SQL_TEXT

----------|-----------|----------|------------|----------|-----------------------

         2|    5168773|    146048|     2584386|   1011873|SELECT * FROM very_slow

...

 

 

While a proper database statistics and tuning strategy is the ideal it's nice to have a script to hand that can be run in an ad-hoc fashion throughout the day to help highlight any problem SQL statements.

 

You might even want to create an CS*Form using this SQL statement, that way, anyone with access to Applications can have access to the same information.

 

=== =========== ===

=== Oracle News ===

=== =========== ===

-----------------------------

Oracle Extend 8i DBMS Support

-----------------------------

Oracle has announced that it will extend Error Correction Support for its Oracle 8i DBMS (8.1.7.x) on a number of its major platforms until December 2004. Additionally, Extended Support will continue until December 2006 and Extended Maintenance Support until 2005.

 

-------------------------------------

Oracle Announces Entry-Level Database

-------------------------------------

Oracle has announced the Oracle Standard Edition Database, an entry-level database aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises. It is a single processor version of its Standard Edition Database.

 

The cost is £3,655; this is still more expensive than other competing entry-level offerings. But with Named User Plus licensing priced at £119 per user with a minimum of five users, Oracle's sales line is that you can now get the “world's most popular database software for under £1,000 in license fees”.

 

----------------------

Oracle 10g Almost Here

----------------------

If you were waiting for the release of Oracle 10i then you will be disappointed; they’ve dropped the “i” and opted for a “g”. Oracle finally announced its next generation database, Oracle 10g last month and is pinning its success on the concept of Grid Computing. Oracle defines Grid Computing as the coordinated use of many small servers acting as one large computer. Due for release in December, Oracle has yet to publish pricing details. It will be interesting to see how the new technology will be applied to Oracle E-Business products over the coming years. Grid Computing promises to revolutionise the way that computing horsepower is used within the enterprise.

 

On a lighter note, we would have named it “Oracle 10m - The Matrix”, sounds much better.

 

Oracle Extend PeopleSoft Offer

------------------------------

It seems that Oracle is not giving up on its takeover bid for rival company PeopleSoft, Oracle has now stated that it will extend its offer until the end of 2003. Based on what has occurred already, one would imagine that Oracle will continue to extend until either they get their way or other forces put a stop to the takeover.

 

Next Month

==========

We hope you have enjoyed this month’s issue of the ApplTop Solutions newsletter and we look forward to the November issue.

 

Next months issue will contain more product updates and offers as well and hints and tips with a little industry news. We will be including hints and tips for various Oracle products including, SQL, PL/SQL, Forms, Reports and Oracle E-Business Suite.

 

 

 

For more information about ApplTop Solutions, our products and services please visit us on the web at www.appltop.com.

 

For general enquiries please email info@appltop.com.

 

To cancel your newsletter subscription please email to CANCEL SUBSCRIPTION.

 

If you feel you have received this email in error then please accept our sincere apologies and to ensure you are completely removed from all future announcements please email to REMOVE ME.

 

 

© Copyright 1999 – 2003 ApplTop Solutions Limited

CS*Form, CS*Accelerate, CS*Query and CS*Enterprise are trademarks of ApplTop Solutions Limited.

 

Oracle, Oracle Applications and Oracle E-Business Suite are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation.

 

Any other names are used for reference and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

 

We make no warranties as to the accuracy of any information contained within this newsletter other than what is specifically related to ApplTop Solutions Limited.