self service implemetation setps for specific purposes

Implementing Oracle Self Service HR V4.2 on R12

ADIC (Abu Dhabi Investment Company)

This document includes a step by step demonstration of how to implement Oracle® Self Service for Human Recourse. Not all steps are essential; it depends on the customer requirements. This document will give you a good knowledge of the Oracle® Self Service functionalities and other modules that you’ll be using to help you in your implementation.

By: Akram Madkour

ADIC Oracle Self Service HR Implementation Steps

Prepared By: Akram Madkour of 66 For Inquires: [email protected] [email protected]

Oracle ® Self Service Human Resource (SSHR 4.2) ADIC Implementation Steps Release 12 March 2008



Contents

Overview of Oracle Self Service HRMS ........................................................................................................................... 5

Who should read this document .................................................................................................................................... 5

Prerequisites ............................................................................................................................................................... 5

Applications covered in this document .......................................................................................................................... 5

Other Softwares used for setting up SSHR ..................................................................................................................... 5

Implementation Steps .................................................................................................................................................... 6

Main Human Resource Self Service Responsibilities .................................................................................................. 6

Profile Options ............................................................................................................................................................ 7

Supervisor Hierarchy................................................................................................................................................... 8

Run Request .............................................................................................................................................................. 10

Common Problems ................................................................................................................................................... 11

Testing Self Service seeded functionalities ................................................................................................................... 12

Hire a new employee ................................................................................................................................................ 12

Using Special Information Types in Oracle Self Service ................................................................................................ 20

Overview of Approvals .............................................................................................................................................. 20

Approvals Process ................................................................................................................................................. 20

Configuring Approvals in the Workflow Builder ................................................................................................... 20

Approvals Mechanisms in SSHR ............................................................................................................................ 22

Oracle Approvals Management (AME) ................................................................................................................. 22

Configuring SSHR Functions to Use Oracle Approvals Management (AME) ........................................................ 24



Changing the approval flag using workflow builder ................................................................................................. 25

Create a new function and link with new workflow ................................................................................................. 29

Link the new function with the menu ...................................................................................................................... 30

Add the custom function to "Global Self Service Functions Custom" menu ............................................................ 31

Link the new process using Oracle Approval Management ..................................................................................... 32

Setting up Oracle® Approval Management (AME) ............................................................................................... 32

Using AME to create rules .................................................................................................................................... 39

Testing Approvals of the customized Special Information Types ................................................................................. 44

Web Page Personalization ............................................................................................................................................ 50

Setting Up Oracle Personalization Framework ......................................................................................................... 51

Personalization for the Special Information Types ................................................................................................... 54

Enabling a Descriptive FlexField in a web page ........................................................................................................ 58

Common Problems ............................................................................................................................................... 63

Notifying the requestor with request status ................................................................................................................ 65

References .................................................................................................................................................................... 66



Overview of Oracle Self Service HRMS Oracle Self‐Service Human Resources (SSHR) extends the functionality of standard Oracle HRMS by enabling both employees and managers to participate in Human Resources management via a web browser. SSHR offers secure self‐service business transactions and easy‐to‐use functionality driven by Oracle’s proven web and workflow technologies. These technologies enable the data, views, stored procedures, validation routines, and Application Programmatic Interfaces (APIs) used in the standard Oracle Applications to be shared, thus providing seamless integration between Oracle HRMS and Self‐Service HRMS.

Who should read this document This Document target application implementers, it helps them in understanding the main functionalities and mandatory steps required for implementing Oracle SSHR according to your business needs.

Prerequisites Before you can start with the Oracle Self Service for Human Resources implementation, you should be familiar with navigating both Form Based and Web‐Based applications. You should have good knowledge of how to use security using the Oracle System Administrator like profile options, responsibilities, menus, and managing users. You should also have a proper installation of Oracle HR‐Core and Payroll on you instance.

Applications covered in this document This document covers more than one Oracle E‐Business Suite application.

• Oracle HR‐Core

• Oracle Payroll

• Oracle System Administrator

• Oracle Self Service Human Resources

• Oracle Approvals Management (AME)

• Oracle Personalization Framework We will not use all the features of the above applications, only the functions that will help us in implementing the ADIC self service requirements.

Other Softwares used for setting up SSHR • Oracle Workflow Builder



Implementation Steps Main Human Resource Self Service Responsibilities We have two main responsibilities that contains all the Human Resource Self Service functions

• Employee Self Service – Contains Employee level Self Service functions

• Manager Self Service– Contains Manager level Self Service functions

Application Path: System Administrator > Responsibility > Define

• Create new menus for these two responsibilities if required, containing the self service functions that the customer required. Application Path: System Administrator > Application > Menu

• Copy these Responsibilities and create new then link them with the predefined menus or the customized menus that you created



Profile Options Application Path: System Administrator > Applications > Profile

The main profiles options that we will use are:

• HR: Self Service HR Licensed Yes

• HR: Security Profile Select the Security profile that’s liked to your Business Group

Profile Option Name Site Disable Self-Service Personal No HR: Free text school name allowed in Self Service HR: Payroll Payments Self-Service Enable Run Types No HR: Self Service HR Licensed Yes HR: Self Service Hire and Placement Default Values HR:Allow Approver updates to Self Service actions No HR:Allow concurrent Self Service actions No HR:Allow processing of ineligible Self Service actions No HR:Allow use of eligibility for Self Service actions No HR:Manage Self Service actions when future-dated changes exist Stop with an Error HR:Payroll Payments Self-Service Enable Multiple Assignments No HR:Payroll Payments Self-Service Payments List Mode HR:Refresh Self Service actions with data from intervening actions No HR:Run BENMNGLE when processing a Self Service action No HR:Self Service Save For Later Yes IGF: Award Acceptance By Term via Student Self-Service IGF: Don't Display Cancelled Awards on Student Self-Service IGF: View-only Awards via Student Self-Service IGS: Self Service Administrator MSC: Batch Size for Self Service Loads 1000 MSC: Number of Workers for Self Service Loads 3 MSC: Self Service Loads Delimiter ~ OAB: Enable Self-Service Benefits Trace OAB:Self Registered User Responsibility Self Registered New User

Default Responsibility OKL: Display Contract Additional Information in Customer Self Service OKL: Display Contract Additional Information in Vendor Self Service PV:Self Service URL with Workflow Notification Personalize Self-Service Defn No QA:Self-Service Buyer Notification Oracle Quality Self Service Accessibility Features None Self Service Named Account Proxy User Role Self Service Personal Home Page mode Framework only Self-Service Oracle Files Enabled No

The Above Table Demonstrates the Profile options used in Self Service (Default Values)



Supervisor Hierarchy Oracle Self Service for Human Resources is a Web‐Based application; it’s based on sending and receiving notifications, approvals, rejections and other types of messages. For now; we will use supervisor approval level, so we have to build a supervisor hierarchy. Go to the employee and assign a supervisor for this person then link both the supervisor and the person with a user name and password in Oracle System Administrator.

User Name Password Person

ssemp1 welcome Self Service Employee1

sshs welcome Self Service Housing Section Manager

sshrd welcome Self Service HR Department Manager

sscfo welcome Self Service CFO

• Creating supervisor hierarchy and employees

Application Path: Human Resources Responsibility > People > Enter and Maintain

o Entering employee details

Repeat the above step for the rest of the employees

ssemp1 sshs sshrd sscfo



o Assigning a supervisor to the employee and create supervisor hierarchy

Repeat the above step for the rest of the employees By doing this, you are building the supervisor hierarchy

In case you have payroll installed on your instance, you have to choose a payroll for an employee in the assignment window so you can use the self service functionalities related to the payroll. Some payroll functions that could be handled from the self service are “Absence Management” and “Manage Payroll Payments”. After creating the employees and assigning supervisors to them, we must create user names and passwords for them and give them the Self Service Responsibilities you’ve just created, according to business requirements (who should do what?)

Repeat the above step for the rest of the employees



Run Request To avoid any problems that could happen to the self service application, problems related to the supervisor hierarchy, you should run the “HRI Load All Supervisor Hierarchies” request. It’s not a mandatory step; it depends on your instance.

Application Path: Human Resource Responsibility

On the Menu Bar ‐ View > Request > Submit a New Request > Single Request



Common Problems • In case you didn’t link the created person to a user name and password and tried to open any of the Self

Service functions, an Error Message will appear. This person should also be even a supervisor or an employee that has a supervisor.

Error message that could generate

• In case the Self Service Responsibilities didn't work after all the above setups (It gave you the above error again), this means that there is something wrong with the database cache files.

Solution:

1. Clear the cache. How To:

• Add "Functional Administrator" responsibility • Go to the Core Services "TAB" • Caching Framework • "Tuning" on the left side bar • Select in the Application Names "Application Object Library" • Press the "Go" button • Select all the caches (next 10, next 10,next 10, …) • Press the "Clear Cache" button

2. Restart the Apache Server

3. Wait until its automatically refreshed (it will take about 15 minutes according to your instance)



Testing Self Service seeded functionalities

Hire a new employee Log in with a user you’ve created that has the Manager self service responsibility. This user must be assigned to a person who has a supervisor because the hire function will send a notification to this supervisor and the supervisor will even reject, approve or perform other functions.

Application Path: Manager Self Service > Hire



Fill in required data

Fill in required data



This is the People Group FF segments we’ve defined before



Assigning a supervisor to this new Employee

This Page is the “Review Page”, after you submit the transaction, it even goes for approval or the data is transferred to the Human resources tables directly, it depends on the approval management

and the workflow assigned to this function



The “Review Page” it’s very important. You can modify this page in the Oracle Workflow Builder. For example, if you don’t need this transaction to be approved, go to the Workflow Builder and modify the “HR_APPROVAL_REQ_FLAG” to “No”, you’ll find this flag after opening the required process name then selecting the “REVIEW_PAGE” node.

More details will be covered for Oracle Workflow Builder and Oracle Approval Management (AME) in later sections of this document.

Now we’ve tested the Hire function, filled in the required data and the notification was sent to the direct approval (Supervisor). We will log out with this user and login with as the supervisor and check for the notifications. In the notification or action list, we’ll find the request for hire that we’ve just made. Once the supervisor approves the transaction, the data will be transferred to the Human Resource tables on the database. If he rejects the data will not be transferred, this is how approval works.

In case you’ve attached something to the self service, the attachments will be available on the web‐based application only; it will not be transferred to the Form based application. For example, if you attached a C.V. and a picture for the employee you need to hire, once the supervisor approves, all the data will be transferred to the HR Tables but the attachments (C.V. and picture) will not.



Logging is as the approver to see the received notifications



This is the notification received from the person who requesting to hire an employee



Once the data is approved from the top‐most supervisor, the data will be transferred to the HR tables.

Request Details

The Manager is supposed to approve, reject …

Note: if this person has a supervisor, once he approves that request will go to his supervisor until there are no more supervisors; in the case data will be transferred to the HR Tables



Using Special Information Types in Oracle Self Service If the customer requested functionalities or forms that are not seeded in the application, you can make any customized form as a SIT (Special Information Type). In case this customized form has to be approved; you have to make some customization on the Oracle® Workflow builder and with the Oracle Approval Management (AME).

Overview of Approvals Approvals processes enable you to decide whether transactions carried out by SSHR users need approval before they are submitted to the HR tables. You can define different approval requirements for different transactions and vary the approval requirements as required. For example, you can configure the workflow processes so that the Address part of Personal Information requires approval but the Phone Numbers part does not. Alternatively, you can vary the Approvals requirements by responsibility so that records changed by employees would need approval but records changed by managers would not. All approvals mechanisms used in SSHR follow the basic approvals loop shown below. The logic checks whether the current approver is the final approver in the hierarchy. If the current approver is not the final approver, the application fetches the next approver who then receives the approval notification. The next approver can either reject the transaction, approve the transaction, or return the transaction for correction.

Approvals Process Approvals with Correction V4.0 is the default behavior for modules in SSHR 4.0 and above. Within the approvals process, the application uses rules to generate a list of approvers for the SSHR transaction. The way in which the list is generated depends on the approvals mechanism you are using (see Approvals Mechanisms in SSHR). The default approvals process also includes dynamic approvals as standard. The dynamic approvals functionality works in two parts. One part is the self–service user interface which enables the initiating manager to add additional approvers and/or notification recipients. You can also display the approvers and limit the number of approval levels. The second part is an application which generates the default approvers. This is either Oracle Approvals Management (AME) or a customizable PL/SQL package. The dynamic approval workflow process then sends notifications to approvers and/or notification recipients based on the approver list. Configuring Approvals in the Workflow Builder If required, you can configure the predefined approvals processes in the Workflow Builder. You set up the approvals process using workflow attributes. To configure approvals in the Workflow Builder:

1. Open the workflow item type. 2. Navigate to the process you want to modify and double click to open the workflow diagram. 3. Open the Review Page V4.0 activity for your workflow process.

Note: You may have to drill down through several subprocesses until you reach the correct Review Page V4.0 activity.



4. Make a copy of the process and any affected subprocesses. For example, if you are modifying the approvals for the Process Personal Information V4.0 process, you would have to copy the Process Personal Information V4.0 process, and the related subprocesses, for example, the Process Basic Details subprocess.

5. Select the Review Page V4.0 activity for your process/subprocess and set the Approval Required workflow attribute (HR_APPROVAL_REQ_FLAG) to YES. This activates approval for your process/subprocess.

6. Decide how a process should pass through the entire approval chain, in other words, how many levels of approval are required. Set the approval level using the Approval Level attribute (HR_DYNAMIC_APPROVAL_LEVEL). Add an approval level value to the Default Value field. A value of 1 for example will pass the approval one level up the supervisor chain.

7. Save your work.

Note: The default number of level is 0, meaning that the number of levels is unlimited.

Review and Confirm:

Most functions display the Review and Confirm pages. The Review page displays a corresponding region for each Web page section that you have updated as part of the preceding transaction. Inside each region is a list of current database and proposed transaction data. If you have configured approvals, you can enter approvals comments in this page. If you have enabled the Dynamic Approvals function, the user can see the default approval chain and add further approvers and notifiers. When the user chooses the Submit button from the Review page, the transaction is committed to the Human Resources system or sent for approval. The Confirm page is then displayed. The Confirm page contains a confirmation message describing the status of the transaction. The user can print a copy of the submitted transaction for their records if required. You can set up the approval properties for a process by changing the activity level attributes for the Review workflow functions.

HR_DYNAMIC_APPROVAL_LEVEL: This attribute is used to specify the number of levels to which this transaction needs to be forwarded for approval in the approval hierarchy. For example, if the value is 1, the transaction is submitted for approval to one level higher than the initiating person. When the transaction has been approved, it is committed to the HRMS application. By default, this attribute reads the approval level from the APPROVAL_LEVEL (Approval Level) item level attribute. If you specify a value for the item level attribute, you can control the approval level for all the processes. If you specify a value for the HR_DYNAMIC_APPROVAL_LEVEL attribute, it overrides the item level attribute for the process for which you have specified the value.

HR_APPROVAL_REQUIRED_FLAG: This attribute is used to specify whether the current transaction requires an approval. The valid values are:

• No: the process does not require approval

• Yes: the process requires approval but the dynamic approval user interface will not be shown in the review page. This means that the initiator cannot add additional approvers or notifiers.

• Yes – Dynamic Approval: the process requires approval and the dynamic approval user interface will be shown in the review page. The initiator can add additional approvers and notifiers.



Confirm Instruction Application Short Name In addition to the standard confirmation message shown in the confirmation page, you can also configure messages that are specific to the process. You can specify one for a scenario for which approval is required and one for a scenario for which no approval is required. Processes can be set to either Approval Required or Approval Not Required, but not both, using the HR_APPROVAL_REQUIRED_FLAG. For example, you can define a message for Confirm Save Instruction Name and Confirm Send for Approval Instruction Name. You register this message under your custom application. Confirm Send for Approval Instruction Name The text associated with this message name is displayed in the confirmation page immediately after the standard confirmation message. This text is only displayed when the process does not require approval. The text associated with this message name is displayed in the confirmation page immediately after the standard confirmation message. This text is only displayed when the process requires approval.

Approvals Mechanisms in SSHR SSHR 4.1 uses the Oracle Approvals Management (AME) application to define and manage approval logic. For more information on AME, see: Implementing Oracle Approvals Management (available on Metalink).

Note: If you are an existing SSHR customer, the customizable PL/SQL package for approvals, which was the default approvals mechanism in previous releases of SSHR, is still supported in this release as an alternative to AME.

All delivered SSHR version 4 functions are now linked to AME. If required, you can also link any existing custom functions that you may have based on earlier version 4 functions to AME.

Note: You cannot link SSHR version 3 functions such as Appraisals, Apply for a Job, Succession Planning, or Suitability Matching, to AME.

Oracle Approvals Management (AME) Oracle Approvals Management (AME) is a web–based application which is integrated with Oracle Workflow and which enables you to define business rules to control your approvals processes. With AME, you use the following components to define your approvals processes. They are associated with a transaction type for a particular application.

• Attribute – this is a business variable, for example, a salary amount, user ID, or workflow process name

• Condition – a condition compares an attribute value with a set of allowed attribute values. For example, a condition could look at a salary amount. If the salary is greater than a specified value, a particular approver list is created

• Approval type and approval specifications – these components define the type of approver list that is generated. For example, to generate a supervisor–based approver list with 5 levels, you use the ’supervisory level’ approval type with the ’requires approval up to the first 5 approvers’ approval specification.

• Rules – a rule links the other components together by associating one or more conditions with the approval type and approval rule.



Default Use of AME Configuration in SSHR Oracle SSHR delivers AME configuration which has been designed to emulate functionality delivered in the PL/SQL package. The default behavior is to use a supervisor–based approvals hierarchy which is now delivered using AME rules. The default AME configuration consists of:

• A single AME transaction type ’SSHRMS’ with

• A single condition WORKFLOW_PROCESS_NAME

• A single rule which requires approvals to the top of the approval hierarchy or to 10 levels above the initiator, whichever comes first. This is based on the standard AME approval type ’chains of authority based on number of supervisory levels’

Configuring SSHR Approval Levels in AME To meet your business needs, you may add additional rules, conditions, or attributes within the delivered SSHRMS transaction type, or you can define a custom transaction type. It is relatively easy to make minor changes to the delivered AME configuration and some examples are provided below. To define a different approval level for all SSHR workflow processes: For example, to specify two approval levels: The approval level is currently defined in the rule ’SSHR Rule for at most 10 approvers in Supervisor chain’. You would edit this default rule and change the approval level for the supervisory level approval type to ’requires approval up to the first two superiors at most’. To define a different approval level for a specific workflow process:

• First you create a new condition with the attribute WORKFLOW_PROCESS_NAME and enter the workflow processes which will have the different approval level as the attribute values.

• Then you create a new rule, for example, ’2 approvers in supervisor chain’. o Use the ’supervisory level’ approval type with the ’requires approval up to the first two superiors

at most’ approval o Finally, attach your new condition to the rule.

To define a new approval level (if the delivered approvals do not meet your requirements):

• You create a new approval (for example, ’requires approval up to the first 15 superiors at most’) in the ’supervisory level’ approval type.

To define a particular user as the final approver, or final authority (even if they are not the last person in the approval chain):

• You create a List Modification Condition and specify a user, for example, a manager, as the final approver • You would add this list modification condition to your rules so that the approval chain would stop at this

specified approver. Alternatively, you could create a new rule, add the approval type for final approver and add the WORKFLOW_PROCESS_NAME condition so that this final approver rule would apply to selected processes



Configuring SSHR Functions to Use Oracle Approvals Management (AME) Any custom functions you created prior to release 4.1 will use the customizable PL/SQL package as the default approvals mechanism. However, you can modify any custom SSHR 4.0 functions to point to AME by adding two new function parameters. You define the additional parameters in the Form Functions window. You should also check the workflow attributes for your workflow process using the Workflow Builder. The AME rules and conditions always override any other workflow attribute settings that apply to approvals, for example, the attribute settings for the Review activity. If the Approvals Required workflow attribute is set to Yes for a workflow process but AME does not return any approvers, the process completes without requiring approval. As a general set–up recommendation, you should set up processes that currently do not require approval as follows:

• Set the Approvals Required workflow attribute to Yes • Configure AME so that no approvers are returned

Note: If you subsequently need to add approvals to your process, you can simply use a different AME condition.

To link your function to AME in the Form Functions window (required) 1. Query your function 2. Navigate to the Form tabbed region 3. Add the following parameter information to the Parameters field for your function

• pAMETranType=SSHRMS

• pAMEAppId=800 4. Save your work

To add your custom workflow process to the list of values for the condition attribute for the SSHRMS AME transaction type (required if using the delivered SSHR transaction type):

1. Log on to Oracle Approvals Management Note: You need to use one of the following AME responsibilities:

• AME Application Administrator

• AME General Business User

• AME Limited Business User 2. Select the SSHRMS transaction type 3. Select the Conditions tab and click on the WORKFLOW_PROCESS_NAME condition 4. Choose the Add Text Value button and enter the name of your new workflow process as an attribute value 5. Save your work

To set the Approvals Required attribute in the Workflow Builder

1. Display your function in the Workflow Builder. 2. Display the attributes for the Review function. 3. Set the Approvals Required attribute to Yes or Yes – Dynamic Approvals.



Changing the approval flag using workflow builder Now, we need to make some customization on the SIT workflow. The seeded workflow does not support supervisor approval, so we have to make another workflow (a copy of the original) that supports approval. First we must install Oracle® Workflow builder on computer (Note: Workflow builder doesn’t come as a stand‐alone software, it comes with the Oracle Client Installation) and put in the TNSNAMES to access workflows from the database.

• System Path for TNSNAMES will be something like this: C:\OraHome\network\ADMIN\ tnsnames.ora (It depends on how who’ve installed the database client)

• Put in the tnsnames.ora something like this: (according to the database installation) prod= (DESCRIPTION=

( ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=abcs.xyz.local)(PORT=1529) )

( CONNECT_DATA= (SID=PROD)

) )

After installing the Workflow builder, follow these steps: 1. We must know the Process Name (Workflow Name) that you need to make a copy of. To do this, you have

to know the name of the menu liked to your responsibility, and from the menu go to the function you want (Special Information Type) then to the “Form Tab”, you’ll find your workflow there under “Parameters”.

Contact the DBA and ask for TNSNAMES details for your instance



pAMETranType=SSHRMS&pAMEAppId=800&pProcessName=HR_SIT_JSP_PRC&pItemType=HRSSA&pCalledFrom=HR_SIT_SS&pPersonID=&pFromMenu=Y

2. After knowing the process name (workflow name), we will open the workflow builder and search for the Special Information process so we could modify the approval method

Note: DO NOT modify any predefined process; instead COPY the desired process and paste it with different name (give it “_XX” at the end for example) do the same with all the seeded process.

Workflow Name that you’ll use in workflow builder

The workflow name should end with "_JSP_PRC" (the one that will be duplicated)

Connection according to the instance

Select “HR” then Press OK

Press search and search for the process name, make sure that you’ve checked the “Display Name”, “Internal Name” and “All Objects” then press search. It will then take you to the process

that you have to COPY



3. Follow the steps in the below screen shots for modification details

Copy and paste an existing process

Removes the existing sub‐process and replaced them with new (copied) sup‐processes and re‐link

them again with same values

The Internal Name is VERY IMPORTANT. It is then linked to the FUNCTION in the application



Now we are done with the Oracle® Workflow builder. As you can see, we’ve made all these steps to:

a. Create a new “Internal Name”. We will use this in linking between the new workflow (process) and the application

b. Modify the ‘HR_APPROVAL_REQ_FLAG’ from “No” to “Yes – Dynamic”

We don’t need the workflow builder in anything else.

Double click on the “REVIEW” then go to the "Node Attributes" tab

Then change the HR_APPROVAL_REQ_FLAG to “Yes – Dynamic”

Save your settings

Workflow Setup is DONE



Create a new function and link with new workflow 1. Log in to the application and go to SIT function (predefined)

2. Create a new SIT function and change the parameters

a. Change Function Name, User Function Name and Description

b. Go to the “Properties” tab and give the same values

c. Go to the “Form” tab and change the workflow (process) name and the CalledFrom parameter, from the old one to the one we’ve created

Before: pAMETranType=SSHRMS&pAMEAppId=800&pProcessName=HR_SIT_JSP_PRC&pItemType=HRSSA&pCalledFrom=HR_SIT_SS&pPersonID=&pFromMenu=Y

After: pAMETranType=SSHRMS&pAMEAppId=800&pProcessName=HR_SIT_JSP_PRC_XX&pItemType=HRSSA&pCalledFrom=HR_SIT_SS_XX&pPersonID=&pFromMenu=Y

d. Go to the ”Web HTML” tab and change

From: OA.jsp?akRegionCode=HR_CREATE_PROCESS_TOP_SS&akRegionApplicationId=800&OAFunc=HR_SIT_SS

To: OA.jsp?akRegionCode=HR_CREATE_PROCESS_TOP_SS&akRegionApplicationId=800&OAFunc=HR_SIT_SS_XX

e. Save your work



Link the new function with the menu After creating the function and linking it with the newly created Workflow process, we have to link this function to the self service menu we are using.

1. Go to the desired menu

2. Add the new function you’ve just created

3. Save your settings

IMPORTANT: The setup is not done yet, if you tried to log in with the user and then open the function, the

system will give you an error. You have to add the custom function to "Global Self Service Functions Custom" menu and setup the approval process in the AME (Oracle® Approval Management). This is covered by details in the coming pages.

Error

The selected action is not available. The cause may be related to security. Contact your system administrator to verify your permission level for this action.

Click Home menu or choose a different menu option to navigate out of this page.

Logging in with one of the employees’ Username and password

Navigation to the customized “Special Information Types” function that is

linked with the customized workflow



Add the custom function to "Global Self Service Functions Custom" menu For custom functions that has been created as a copy of a seeded function, we have to add the same function to the “Global Self Service Function Custom” menu. If we didn’t make this stem, the following error on launching the function will appear. Error: "The selected action is not available. The cause may be related to security. Contact your system administrator to verify your permission level for this action." Custom function was not added to Global Self Service Functions Custom menu. All SSHR custom functions need to be added into this menu. The following steps must be preformed:

1. Add the custom function to "Global Self Service Functions Custom" menu. ‐ Application Path: System Administrator > Application > Menu ‐ Query for “Global Self Service Functions Custom” in the “User Menu Name” ‐ Add the custom function

2. Restart web server (Perform Step ‘a’ or ‘b’) a. Using Functional Administrator responsibility

i. Go to the Core Services "TAB" ii. Caching Framework iii. "Tuning" on the left side bar iv. Select in the Application Names "Application Object Library" v. Press the "Go" button vi. Select all the caches (next 10, next 10,next 10, …) vii. Press the "Clear Cache" button

b. Restart Apache



Link the new process using Oracle Approval Management After performing the previous steps, you have to tell the system that once the user clicks on the customized SIT function (the one we created – page 28) the transaction has to go for approval. If this step isn’t done, the system will generate an error, so we have to setup Oracle® Approval Management to create this condition.

Setting up Oracle® Approval Management (AME) Setting up Responsibilities

This section gives a step‐by‐step illustration of adding the two AME responsibilities to the user. 1. Login as SYSADMIN user. 2. Create a New user account and give an appropriate effective date. Do NOT add any responsibility 3. Save the record

4. Switch the responsibility to User Management and Navigate to the Users function



5. Query for the newly created user 6. Click on the update action from the result table

7. In the Update User page, click on the Assign Roles button



8. In the search window, query for Approval% 9. Following seven roles will be displayed (they may be less than seven) 10. Select all seven roles

11. After selecting the Roles, provide the Justification for the role and the effective date



12. Press apply 13. After completing the action, you can query back the same user and can verify the list of roles being

attached to the user by pressing update again

14. Now switch the responsibility to Functional Administrator 15. Click on create grants under the grants sub‐tab



16. Enter a Grant Name and provide an effective date 17. Navigate to the Security Context region and select the Grantee Type as ‘Specific User’ 18. In the Grantee field select the newly created User 19. In the Data Security region select ‘AME Transaction Types’ as the Object

20. Clicking Next will take you to the ‘Select Object Data Context’ page 21. You have a default value of ‘All Rows’ in the Data Context Type, leave it as it is, and navigate further

Make it today’s date; don’t change it because it may give an error at the end of setup



22. In the ‘Define Object Parameter and Select Set’ page, enter ‘AME Calling Applications’ as the value in the Set field

23. Click Next

24. Now you are in the Review page, then click finish



25. Now switch the responsibility to System Administrator and navigate to System Profiles. 26. Query for the profile ‘AME:Installed’ at the application level and set the value to ‘Yes’. 27. Save the data.

28. Now you can login as the newly created user (ame_admin) 29. You should be able to see the following responsibilities automatically

a. Approvals Management Administrator b. Approvals Management Business Analyst



Using AME to create rules After setting up the Oracle® Approval Management (AME), now we can link between the customized workflow we’ve created in the workflow builder and a rule. We need to make a rule that will enable supervisor approval after the user submits the SIT.

To do this, get the workflow name (process name) of the SIT function and put it in the WORKFLOW_PROCESS_NAME attribute, then link this attribute to a condition and this condition is then linked to a rule. After the rule is triggered an action will be taken, this action tells the system to take this transaction for supervisor approval or perform other actions. Steps of doing so:

1. Login with a user that has AME responsibilities (ame_admin) 2. Go to “Approvals Management Business Analyst” responsibility

3. Type in “Oracle Self Service Human Resources” in “Select Transaction Type” 4. Click on “Conditions” 5. Create a New condition (press – "Create") 6. In the attribute search for " WORKFLOW_PROCESS_NAME " 7. Type in the name of your Workflow (Take it from the Workflow Builder – The one you just created) 8. Press Apply 9. Now go to the "Rules" tab 10. Create a new rule 11. Enter Rule Details 12. Press next 13. Add a condition (By this you're linking the workflow in the WF builder with the application) 14. Select the condition you just created and press Continue 15. Press Next 16. Now You'll add an ACTION (What will happen if this rule happens or if the workflow is triggered) 17. Press Next then Finish



Date can’t be in the past



Note: AME comes with many predefined action types and actions for them. The predefined action types currently support three types of approvers: HR employees (in the HR supervisory hierarchy), HR positions (in the HR position hierarchy), and Oracle Applications (FND) users. The predefined action types ascend the HR hierarchies in many different ways.

Preparing to use the Job-Level approval types

If your organization plans to use one of the job‐level action types, it must first assign a job level to each job defined in HRMS (that is, it must first populate the approval_authority column of the HRMS table per_jobs). Your organization should also have a business process for maintaining job levels.

AME Setup is DONE



Testing Approvals of the customized Special Information Types Okay, we’re done with setting up and implementing approvals for the customized SIT function we’ve created; now it’s time to test our approval process.

1. Login as an employee (the one that we created in page 8)

2. Go to the Employee Self Service Responsibility

3. As we can see, we now have two Special Information Types function

a. Special Information (Predefined Function – Does not support approval)

b. Customized Forms (A copy from the original function but with different parameters – Approval up to the First Level)

No Approval Approval



4. We will use the function that we customized to check for the approval that we made

Fill in the details then press Apply

This is the new data, now press Next to go to the Review page



This Review page

Press Submit so the data could be for approval

Now, the request has been sent to the direct approver



See next page

Logging in as the approver to see the request

Notification/ Request

Short‐Cut



Notification/ Request

After Approving the transaction, it will automatically go from you action list (previously there was only one action that we’ve approved, so now there’s no available actions)

Now the data has been transferred to the HR tables



5. Login to the Form Based application and check that the requested data has been transferred to the HR tables after being approved

The requested data has been transferred to the HR Tables after approval

Approvals for SIT’s is DONE

In case the data hasn’t been transferred yet Run request: Workflow Background Process

From System Administrator



Web Page Personalization What do you do in case you need to rename one of the segments in a web page, if you need to add a descriptive FlexField that is available in the form based application but doesn’t appear in your web page layout, if you need to hide some segments and show others?

All the above requirements and more could be handled using the Oracle Personalization Framework. It’s also known as web page layout customization. This is not a module or a responsibility that you can add to your user, it’s actually framework that is linked to your user after setting it up. It provides you with additional links on your web page that will help you in the personalisation process.

Personalization Framework • Enables configuration of self‐service web pages to meet business requirements. • Easy point‐and‐click access to configuration options. • Allows configurations at different levels:

– Developers define configurations at the localization level – Administrators define configurations at site, responsibility and function levels – SSHR users can define configurations at user and portlet levels

Configuration Options within the Personalization Framework Basic Column Properties

• Display or hide columns • Change display order of columns • Change flex settings

Advanced Settings

• Change prompts • Specify required and/or updateable flags • Specify a default value • Change tip type • Change tip message name • Create items • Adding User Instructions

Additional Options for Tabular Regions Sort Settings

• Specify sort columns (up to 3) • Specify sort order (Ascending, Descending)

Query Conditions

• Specify column name, condition, value



Setting Up Oracle Personalization Framework Profile Options for Personalization Framework (ON USER LEVEL)

Application Path: System Administrator > Responsibility > Define

1) Personalize Self‐Service Defn Yes

• Set to Yes or No at the user or responsibility level

• Displays Personalize Page links on web pages

• Default is No

These are the links that will appear after applying the 1st profile option



2) FND: Personalization Region Link Enabled Yes

• Set to Yes or No at Site, Application, Responsibility, User

• Displays Personalize Region links in web page regions

• Default is No

These are the links that will appear after applying the 2nd profile option



3) Disable Self‐Service Personal No (At Site Level)

• Set to Yes or No at the site, application, or user level

• If set to Yes, any configurations are suppressed regardless of level

• Useful when debugging

• Default is No

Login with the user that you’ve linked the above profile options to and you’ll find the personalization links added automatically to his web pages.

If you have any problems like the personalization links didn’t appear after setting up the above profile options than you may have to “Clear Cache”

• Clear the cache. How To:

• Add "Functional Administrator" responsibility (or go directly to it if it’s already added) • Go to the Core Services "TAB" • Caching Framework • "Tuning" on the left side bar • Select in the Application Names "Application Object Library" • Press the "Go" button • Select all the caches (next 10, next 10,next 10, …) • Press the "Clear Cache" button

• Restart the Apache Server

• Wait until its automatically refreshed (it will take about 15 minutes according to your instance)

Oracle Personalization Framework Setup DONE



Personalization for the Special Information Types As per the customers’ requirements, not all the Special Information Types should appear in the Self Service web application. By default, any SIT you add to your business group in the form based application will be added to the self service web based application as well, so we have to make some personalization on the web based SIT. By using the Oracle Framework Personalization features we can show only the SIT’s that we want, also we can show specific segments within each SIT.

Self Service SIT before personalization

Self Service SIT After personalization



Here’s how to do it:

1. Take the parameters of the SIT’s you want to appear in self service

• Application Path: System Administrator > Application > Flexfield > Key > Segments

• Query Flexfield Title: Personal Analysis Flexfield

• We only need Three SIT’s to appear in the self service o Request for Certificate/Letter (with all the segments within) o Conference Request (with only the first 11 segments within) o Medical Reimbursement Claim (with only the first 6 segments within)

2. To tell the system that we only need the above requirements, we have to write it in a specific format, the format is described as follows:

• Code Name (ex: Request for Certificate/Letter)

• Followed by: ‘’ | “

• Then Segment Name (ex: Designation, Type of Letter Requred, …)

• Separate with “ || “ in case you need to add another Code (SIT)

• You must write “ || “ at the end

• Do not leave spaces between the separators “|” or “||” and the segment name ‐ Double pipes separating one structure from another and single pipes separating segments. ‐ It is case sensitive so needs to match what is in the FelxField setup exactly

Take all segments

Take 11 segments

Take 6 segments



For the above example, the format should be as follows

3. Login with the user that can perform personalization (the one that has the additional links in his web pages)

4. Go to the web page that you need to personalize (for this case we’ll go to the customized SIT function)

5. After opening the SIT, click on the Personalize "Special Information Type” link

This will be copied and pasted in personalization

Request for Certificate/Letter|Designation|Type of Letter Requred|Salary Information|Language|Passport Number|Purpose|Bank Name & Address|Account Number|Payroll Approval/Comment|Embassy Name|Other Details (1)|Other Details (2)|Other Details (3)|Other Details (4)|Other Details (5)||Conference Request|Description of Conference|Expexted Job Benefits|Program Title|Number of Days|Program Fee|Location|Travel Sector|Organizer|Accommodation provided by host|Ticket provided by host|Remarks||Medical Reimbursement Claim|Treatement Date|Name of Hospital/Clinic|Invoice No.|Description of Services|Amount|Remarks||



6. In the Search, select “Flex” in the Style then press “Go”

7. In the result you’ll find “Flex: Key Flex for Sit”, click personalize for that

8. Now comes the interesting part, we will copy the code in page 55 and paste it in the “Segment List” instead of “Inherit” in the required level (I made it on the responsibility level)

9. Press “Show” to make sure that your values are in the Result

10. Press the “Apply” button

11. Now get back to your SIT , you’ll find only the data you’ve request (see page 53 for screen shot)

Paste code here

Personalization for the SIT’s DONE



Enabling a Descriptive FlexField in a web page How to add/show a Descriptive Flexfield that appears in the Java Forms but not in the Web Based Application?

• What we will do is some personalization in the Web Based Functions. Personalizing the web page is VERY EASY but you first have to make some setup

1. Setting Up Oracle Personalization Framework – (see page 50 to 52) 2. The user should be a system administrator

We will add (personalize) a Descriptive Flexfield that appears in the Java Forms but doesn't appear in the equivalent Web Based Function (In Self Service)

• First, after completing the Self Service setup properly, and after adding the Employee Self Service Responsibility to the user, you'll open it

Choosing the Self Service Responsibility



• Search for the function you need to work on

• We'll personalize the "Work Preferences" Function (Because it doesn't include the descriptive FF as in the Java Form equivalent function, so we need to personalize it to ADD this missing DFF)

Note: The Work preference Function in the Java Forms can be accessed from the following path Application Path: Human Resources Responsibility > People > Enter and Maintain Search for any Employee then: Others (Button) > Work Preferences When you open it, you'll find that it contains a descriptive Flexfield that we already defined its segments before.

• “Work Preferences” self service function

Before No Descriptive Flexfield found, it’s

not enabled (rendered)

Work Preferences Self Service Function

After Descriptive Flexfield is enabled (rendered)



• To enable (render) the DFF, we’ll go to – Personalize “Work Preferences”

By doing this, you are personalizing the current function

• Choose “Flex” from “Style” then press go

• Click on the pen to personalize



• In the Render – Choose “True” instead of “Inherit”

• In the Segment List – Choose the segments you want (see page 54 ‐ 56 ) or leave blank for all segments to appear

• Press “Apply”

Values Before

Values After



• The Descriptive Felxfield is now displayed

• Click on “Return to Personalization Structure” or “Return To Application”

Enabling a DFF is DONE

The Descriptive Felxfield is now displayed



Common Problems In case you couldn’t find the correct personalization link which includes the Flexfield you’re searching for, or in case you didn’t find the Flexfield while searching for it, first make sure that you are on the correct webpage that is required to be personalized. If you still couldn’t find the correct personalization link or the desired Flexfield while searching, then perform the following steps.

For example, in the “Absence Management” self service function, we need to add the descriptive Flexfield related to it, so we will go to the correct webpage which is: Application Path: Employee Self Service > Absence Management > Create Absence

• Click on the “Personalize Page” on the top right of the page instead

• After the personalization page is displayed do the following o Choose “Complete View” o Then click on “Expand All”

• Manually search for your Felxfield within the provided list

• While searching, your Felxfield will begin with “Flex”

• Personalize it –Render it to True (see Enabling page 60 for details)

No Personalize “Create Absence” was found

No Descriptive Flexfield

Not Rendered



• Now return to the application, you’ll find the Flexfield have been added successfully

The Flexfield have been added successfully



Notifying the requestor with request status Let’s say that I’m an employee, and I’m logging in on self‐service. I need to add/change“Special information” (i.e. Conference Request). After I perform the required action, I need the system to notify me either I’ve been approved or rejected. There are several ways of doing this; one of the simple methods is to add the “Notifications” function to the menu that this employee is accessing. The notification function will enable the employee to see the status of his request; even he has been approved or rejected with reason if the approver provided such information.

Adding the “Notifications” function to the employees’ menu:

• Go to “System Administrator” responsibility

• Application Path: Security > Responsibility > Define

• Query for “System Administrator”

• Copy the Menu “Navigator Menu ‐ System Administrator GUI”

• Go Application Path: Application > Menu

• Query for “Navigator Menu ‐ System Administrator GUI” in the User Menu Name

• You’ll find the function under the “Workflow Administrator Navigator Menu” which is under “Workflow Administrator” submenu, so query that

• Function name is “Workflow Administrator Notifications”

• Now go to the menu that the employee access and add this function to it

• If you log in as an employee, and clicked on the newly added function, you’ll see something like this

• You can click on the notification for details



References 1. Oracle® Self–Service Human Resources

(SSHR 4.2) Implementation Guide Release 11i May 2003

2. Oracle® Approvals Management Implementation Guide Release 12 Part No. B31622‐02 December 2006

3. Oracle® Approvals Management Implementation Guide Release 11i Part No. B25324‐01 May 2006

4. Approvals Management Responsibilities and Setups in AME.B An Oracle White Paper May 2007

5. Oracle® Self‐Service Human Resources Deploy Self‐Service Capability Guide Release 11i Part No. B13523‐04 November 2005

6. Oracle® Academy Self‐Service course material

self service implemetation setps for specific purposes

Documents

customizable

pprocessnamehrsitjspprcamp

pitemtypehrssaamp

akregioncodehrcreateprocesstopssamp

pametrantypesshrmsamp

service loads

service actions

item level