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Welcome to the ApplTop Solutions December Newsletter

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December 2003 – Issue 3

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Welcome to the third 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.

 

 

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In this issue

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1. ApplTop News

2. Product Updates

3. Product Tips

4. Oracle Tips

5. Oracle News

 

 

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=== ApplTop News ===

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UKOUG Conference/Exhibition 2003

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We are delighted to inform you that we will be exhibiting at the UK User Group Conference/Exhibition 2003 on the 8th, 9th and 10th of December 2003.

 

Fast Facts

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UKOUG 2002 attracted over 2,300 highly skilled Oracle professionals from the UK and Europe over a three day period – the largest gathering of Oracle customers in the UK in 2002!

 

This event continues to be the largest conference and exhibition held in the UK for the Oracle community. UKOUG 2003 aims to attract over 2,500 pre-qualified Oracle customers.

 

Try for Yourself

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You will be able to see both our main products, CS*Form and CS*Accelerate in action. During the exhibition you will be able to take a hands-on view of our products and witness for yourself just how powerful and beneficial our products are to your business.

 

Productivity with our products can be achieved within a matter of minutes and you will have the opportunity to test this claim. Visit our stand and have a go at building an extension for the Oracle E-Business Suite using CS*Form or try your hand at enhancing the Oracle E-Business Suite using CS*Accelerate; you will be amazed at the results. After only a few minutes you will realise that our products open doors normally considered welded shut and allow you to embark on a program of continual improvement.

 

Discount Vouchers

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Visit our stand and talk to one of our consultants who will be able to advice you on how our products can help streamline your applications, users and business and ultimately help you make the most out of your investment in the Oracle E-Business Suite.

 

If you feel that there are potential benefits then claim your Discount Voucher. We are offering all visitors to our stand who qualify, a discount voucher that is valid for a full 12 months that entitles your business to the following...

 

*     25% discount on CS*Form if purchased standalone

*     25% discount on CS*Accelerate if purchased standalone

*     35% discount on both CS*Form and CS*Accelerate if purchased together

*     2 for 1 pricing on CS*Form Solution Licenses (HUL Pricing Model Only)

*     2 for 1 pricing on product training

 

Come and see us at stand 10 and see how ApplTop Solutions can help your business.

 

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CS*Form Product Review in Oracle Scene

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With the kind permission of the Oracle UK User Group, we have published on our website the product review of CS*Form that appeared in issue 14 of their quarterly publication, Oracle Scene.

 

Although the review does cover an earlier release of CS*Form it is certainly an informative read. Here is an extract of the review...

 

For years I have been involved in implementing the Oracle e-business suite, when users want a bespoke form or report my eyes usually glaze over and I call for a team of developers. Have you ever noticed they usually talk in a different language almost unintelligible to business users? Before you know it you have lost what you originally required and are left with techno mumbo-jumbo. No more, I have just been introduced to ASL which simplifies the development process enabling the business user to get more hands-on in the process.

 

For the full product review, please click here.

 

Be sure to checkout the latest news and media coverage sections on our website.

 

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Pricing/Licensing Guide

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

 

 

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=== Product Updates ===

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CS*Form

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Powerful New PRECOMPUTE Directive

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CS*Form/R2i v2.3.1 introduces a very powerful new feature called the PRECOMPUTE Directive; this enables the results of the driving SQL behind an CS*Form to be evaluated at a predetermined time or interval. This is very useful for situations where your SQL takes a very long time to run and/or you need to summarise very large volumes of data.

 

This feature is intended to be used for core Applications BI solutions and Data Warehouse Front ends as well as many other types of solution where extremely fast data access is required.

 

Improved Security Model

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Deploying CS*Form Builder tools to power users is now even easier in the latest release. We have introduced the concept of “User Types”, basically an CS*Form user (developer, not end-user) can be an Administrator, Developer or Power User.

 

When deploying the CS*Form tools, if the person using them is considered a “Power User” and outside of the I.T department rather than a developer within I.T then you can now set them up as an CS*Form Power User. This new user setting allows you to safely and securely deploy the CS*Form builder tools to non I.T personnel, thus allowing the user to create their own solutions.

 

Furthermore, CS*Forms created by Power Users (referred to as Power CS*Forms) do not use any Solution Licenses. All Power CS*Forms MUST be based on a Base CS*Form that an CS*Form Developer has previously created, many of the Power CS*Forms properties are inherited directly from the Base CS*Form and cannot be overridden. This ensures strict security of data and it also ensures that I.T are still heavily involved in all CS*Form development.

 

This new functionality along with a number of other new features and improvements are available in CS*Form/R2i v2.3.0 or above.

 

 

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CS*Accelerate

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CS*Accelerate/R1, for Oracle Applications 11.0.3 is almost ready for release. We are currently finalising the release and expect a production version to be available within the first few weeks of January 2004.

 

CS*Accelerate/R1 is a very powerful and easy to use product that enables its users to enhance Oracle Applications 11.0.3 in ways ordinarily considered impossible due to undue risk, long development times and high costs. Enhancements can be made in minutes without requiring the skills of a highly experienced technical consultant. 

 

Please ensure you visit our website for more product updates.

 

CS*Accelerate/R2i for Oracle E-Business Suite 11i has been available since July 2003. The current version is v2.2.1 and was released on the 14th of October 2003. It is available for download from our online support centre.

 

 

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=== Product Tips ===

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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.

 

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CS*Form/R2i – Prompt Justification

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Item/Field prompts can easily be justified on non free format style CS*Forms by prefixing the prompt as follows…

 

     Centre = Prefix with C:

     Right  = Prefix with R:

     Left   = Prefix with L:

 

For example, to right justify a prompt of Total use...

 

     R:Total

 

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CS*Form/R2i – PRECOMPUTE Context

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Using the PRECOMPUTE Directive is very simple and very powerful. The query your form is based upon is executed at a predetermined time or interval by the database, but because this occurs outside of an Application session, how do you ensure the current context with regard to the current organization is correctly set?

 

To set the organization for the PRECOMPUTE Directive you need to use the CONTEXT Directive. Somewhere in the SQL for your CS*Form add the following...

 

/**CONTEXT ORG=x**/

 

Where x is the organization ID. Alternatively you can use a SQL statement to determine the organization, for example...

 

/**CONTEXT ORG=SELECT TO_CHAR(organization_id) org FROM org_table**/

 

If you use a SQL statement, ensure that the SQL only returns 1 column and 1 rows. Also, the column returned must be a character column names ORG.

 

At PREVOMPUTE time, the organization is first set to whatever this CONTEXT directive specifies before the query is evaluated.

 

 

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CS*Accelerate/R2i – Add Newlines to Message CS*Action

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If you are using the “Message” CS*Action to display a message at a specified time on a form, you can add newlines to the message simply by embedding #NL# in the message, for example...

 

Your entry is invalid.#NL##NL#Please try again.

 

Will display as...

 

     Your entry is invalid.

 

     Please try again.

 

 

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=== Oracle Tips ===

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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.

 

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11i Colour Scheme

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You can change the colour scheme of Oracle E-Business 11i very quickly by altering the URL you use to start 11i. Simply add the following to the end of the URL...

 

     lookAndFeel=ORACLE&colorScheme=<colour>

 

Where <colour> is...

    

     BLAF

     BLUE

     KHAKI

     OLIVE

     PURPLE

     RED

     TEAL

     TITANIUM

    

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11i Application Window Title

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In 11i you can easily change the Applications Window Title by setting the profile option “Site Name”. The actual profile name is “SITENAME”.

 

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=== Oracle News ===

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Free Oracle ERP Software

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Oracle is to give away free Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software modules to small and medium-sized enterprises in an apparent attempt to combat Microsoft's challenge.

 

Oracle announced recently that it would offer manufacturing, sales and service management components at no extra charge to new customers investing in its e-business suite of applications.

 

The move is being interpreted as an attempt by Oracle to secure a major share of spending on ERP applications prior to the release of Microsoft's Longhorn product, expected around 2005

 

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Still Committed to Peoplesoft Bid

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Oracle executives said recently that the world's number two software company will keep up its fight to acquire rival PeopleSoft, despite questions about whether its $7.3 billion hostile takeover bid would clear anti-trust hurdles.

 

"We remain committed to acquiring PeopleSoft," Oracle executive VP Charles Phillips told reporters and analysts on a conference call. There is "no merit" to the view -- suggested by PeopleSoft executives that the proposed deal is dead, he added.

 

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HP and Oracle 10g Benchmarks

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HP has taken the top two spots in the Transaction Processing Council's benchmarks with the new Oracle 10g database, making the combination a viable alternative to Fujitsu and IBM.

 

The latest TPC benchmarks rated the Oracle 10g, running on an HP Integrity Superdome, at 1,008,144 transactions per minute at a cost per transaction of £4.94.

 

The HP/Oracle system gained the highest performance in the TPC's results for non-clustered servers, although the system costs were higher than Microsoft's entry, which came third.

 

The Microsoft's 64-bit SQL Server running on Integrity hardware performed 786,646 transactions per minute, which was 28% slower than HP/Oracle, but the cost per transaction was 28% cheaper at £3.85.

 

 

Next Month

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This is the last issue of the ApplTop Solutions Newsletter for 2003. Everyone here at ApplTop wishes you all a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year. See you in January 2004.

 

We hope you have enjoyed this month’s issue of the ApplTop Solutions newsletter and we look forward to the January 2004 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.

 

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© 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.