Welcome to the ApplTop Solutions February 2004 Newsletter

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

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

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

February 2004 – Issue 5

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

Welcome to the 5^th 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

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

4. Oracle Tips

5. Oracle News

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

=== ApplTop News ===

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

For all the very latest ApplTop news, articles and information, please checkout our latest news and media coverage sections on our website.

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

Pace Micro Make Most out of Oracle E-Biz 11i

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

Pace Micro Technology, the world's largest dedicated developer of digital set-top boxes uses products from ApplTop Solutions to help enhance, extend and streamline their Oracle Enterprise Applications.

Pace were introduced to ApplTop Solutions and were given a demonstration of their flagship product, CS*Form along with a demonstration of CS*Accelerate. Pace instantly recognised that CS*Form and CS*Accelerate would give them what they needed; the ability to very rapidly develop extensions and enhancements for the Oracle E-Business Suite that are 100% integrated with the exact same Oracle look and feel without the extremely high costs and unwanted risks normally associated with such practices.

See the full release here.

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

UKOUG Reporting Tools Special Event

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

We are pleased to inform you that we will be exhibiting at the one day Reporting Tools Special Event organized by the UK Oracle User Group. The event is to take place on March 18^th 2004 at the Renaissance Hotel, Heathrow.

We will be demonstrating the concept of Ri2 Reporting for Oracle Applications using CS*Form.

Come and see us at and see how ApplTop Solutions can help your business. We look forward to seeing you there.

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

UKOUG Business Intelligence & Reporting Tools SIG

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

ApplTop Solutions will be attending the UKOUG Business Intelligence & Reporting Tools SIG Meeting on May 13th 2004. The presentation introduces the concept of Ri2 Reporting using CS*Form.

Bacrest Group, a user of CS*Form will be joining us on the presentation to give their view of CS*Form and how it is helping them get more out of the Oracle E-Business Suite 11i. The presentation finishes with a live demonstration of Ri2 Reporting using CS*Form.

We look forward to seeing you there.

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

ApplTop Extending Global Reach

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

We are currently in the process of forming a technology alliance with a software house based in the US. This alliance will allow us to reach our US market more effectively and also strengthen our position as a leading player in the Oracle E-Business extension and enhancement market. We are looking at forming several alliances with US based businesses.

If you are interested in forming a technology alliance with ApplTop Solutions then please email us at alliances@appltop.com.

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

Pricing/Licensing Guide

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

If you would like us to email you a copy of our current Pricing/Licensing Guide then please email us at info@appltop.com.

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

=== Product Updates ===

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

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

CS*Form/R2i

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

The latest release of CS*Form/R2i is v2.3.2 and was released on the 11^th of February 2004. This release includes a number of enhancements and new features; most notably it includes a major improvement to the new PRECOMPUTE functionality. Previously, the PRECOMPUTE was limited by the kind of SQL that could be used by Materialised Views, this limitation has now been lifted and now almost any SQL statement, regardless of complexity is supported. We have also added the capability to create stored PL/SQL packages directly within CS*Form, this can help keep solution wholly within CS*Form.

We are continually improving and adding to the product and work closely with clients in this regard. If you would like to see something added or have any suggestions for future improvement then we would like to hear from you. Please email your suggestions and ideas to aslform@appltop.com.

Like CS*Form/R2i, CS*Form/R1, for Oracle Applications 11.0.3 is constantly improving. The latest release (v1.6.0) is now available for download from our support centre and it includes a number of great features that have been ported from R2i.

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

Ri2 Reporting for Oracle E-Business Suite (CS*Form)

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

The first Ri2 Reporting related information is now available from our website, visit our documents sections and download the document titled Ri2 Reporting for Oracle E-Business Suite.

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

CS*Accelerate

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

CS*Accelerate/R1, for Oracle Applications 11.0.3 is now available worldwide.

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.

We will shortly add more information about CS*Accelerate/R1 to our website, keep checking for updates.

CS*Accelerate/R2i for Oracle E-Business Suite 11i has also had a new release, v2.2.2 released on the 16^th December 2003. It is available for download from our online support centre. The latest release is currently being worked on (v2.2.3) and is expected to be released in the next few days.

We are continually improving and adding to the product and work closely with users in this regard. If you would like to see something added or have any suggestions for future improvements then we would like to hear from you. Please email your suggestions and ideas to aslaccelerate@appltop.com.

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

=== Product Tips ===

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

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

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

CS*Form – Code Banks

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

CS*Form/R2i v2.3.2+ support the use of PL/SQL code banks. A PL/SQL Code bank is the ability to define functions and procedures and then use that function or procedure directly within the CS*Form.

As a simple example, suppose we want a function that returns the employee last name concatenated onto the end of the employee first name. We could create a code bank function as follows…

FUNCTION full_name(p_first_name IN VARCHAR2,p_last_name IN VARCHAR2)

BEGIN

RETURN p_first_name || ‘ ‘ || p_last_name;

END full_name;

Assuming the CS*Form is called EMP_FORM, we could then call this function directly within the main driving SQL statement as follows...

SELECT code

, XASL_EMP_FORM_CODE.full_name(first_name,last_name) full_name

FROM xasl_employees

The functions and procedures can be called anywhere within the CS*Form, i.e. Event Tags, Validations, Default Values,..etc.

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

CS*Form – Record Level Validation

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

Need record level validation in CS*Form, no problem, just use a VALIDATE_RECORD Event Tag to enforce your validation. For example, if the sum total of fields A and B must be less than field C then you could validate this as follows...

<<VALIDATE_RECORD:

[ :a + :b >= :c ]

ABORT “A” + “B” MUST be less than “C”

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

=== Oracle Tips ===

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

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

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

External Tables (Oracle 9i+)

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

Oracle tables are a flexible and elegant method of accessing external flat files from with the database. This can be particularly useful when data needs to be loaded from external sources.

Firstly we need a flat file to process:

% /tmp >cat test.csv

4,Record 4

1,Record 1

3,Record 3

2,Record 2

The next step is to allow Oracle access to the directory where the file is stored. You could use a standard place for all file uploads so this step need only be done once.

SQL> create or replace directory upload_dir as '/tmp'

Directory created.

Next up we create a table definition consistent with the flat file.

SQL> CREATE TABLE test_ext_table

2 ( rec_key NUMBER (3)

3 , rec_desc VARCHAR2 (35))

4 ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL

5 (

6 TYPE oracle_loader

7 DEFAULT DIRECTORY upload_dir

8 ACCESS PARAMETERS (fields terminated by ',')

9 LOCATION ('test.csv')

10* );

Table created.

And that's it. The table can now be queried much like a standard database table.

a) Records can be sorted

TEST> select * from test_ext_table order by rec_key

REC_KEY|REC_DESC

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

1|Record 1

2|Record 2

3|Record 3

4|Record 4

b) The data can be loaded into a normal table using CTAS.

SQL> create table normal_table

2 as

3 select * from test_ext_table;

Table created.

c) Or the data can be loaded into a normal table using a normal insert statement.

SQL> insert /*+ append */ into normal_table

2 select * from test_ext_table;

4 rows created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

If the external file is changed then the internal representation of it will also reflect the changes.

% /tmp >echo "5,Record 5" >> test.csv

SQL> select * from test_ext_table;

REC_KEY|REC_DESC

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

4|Record 4

1|Record 1

3|Record 3

2|Record 2

5|Record 5

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

=== From the Forum ===

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

Each month, we will take a couple of posts from our public forum and include them in the newsletter.

CS*Form Building Tools?

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

Are the CS*Form building tools Windows based that need to be deployed on each Windows machine that requires access to them?

See the response here.

Skills Required?

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

What kind of technical skills are needed to be able to develop solutions using CS*Form?

I myself am an end user with some basic SQL skills I picked up reading a book; could this be put to use with CS*Form?

Thanks in advance

See the response here.

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

=== Oracle News ===

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

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

Oracle 10g Now Available

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

Several months after its initial announcement, Oracle database 10g is finally here.

New, low pricing makes Oracle Database 10g the best choice for large enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses alike. Only Oracle offers the benefits of clustering, high availability and scale out on-demand with Oracle Real Application Clusters.

Oracle Database 10g is the industry's first designed for grid computing. Grid computing reduces the cost of IT by clustering servers together to act as a single large computer, shifting resources dynamically between applications.

How many feel though that this release is too soon after 9i; many have not got to grips with 9i yet and in fact are only just starting to take full advantage of all the features in 8i.

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

EU to rule on Oracle/PeopleSoft deal by May 11

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

The EU's executive commission would issue a ruling on a bid by US business software giant Oracle to acquire rival PeopleSoft by May 11, sources said yesterday.

The competition authority was to have announced its findings by March 30 but said it was waiting for additional information.

The transaction would reduce the number of players in the European software sector from three to two - Oracle and SAP of Germany. PeopleSoft said it had been told by the justice department that antitrust division staff had recommended filing suit to block Oracle's $9.4 billion (R61.66 billion) proposed acquisition. Oracle, which improved its offer by nearly $2 billion on February 4 only to be rejected by the PeopleSoft board five days later, refused to give up on the bitter, drawn-out struggle.

Next Month

==========

We hope you have enjoyed this month’s issue of the ApplTop Solutions newsletter and we look forward to issue 6.

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 newsletter@appltop.com.

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@appltop.com.

CS*Form, CS*Accelerate and CS*Application 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.