WCF LOB Adapter SDK and BizTalk Adapter Pack : Oracle E-Business

Why does the OracleEBS adapter say “Could not retrieve User ID, Responsibility ID, and Application ID”?

Murali Narumanchi — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:59:00 GMT

Sometimes, the Oracle EBS adapter throws this error while invoking artifacts like Concurrent Programs, Interface Tables, Interface Views and a few PL-SQL APIs.

The message in the event viewer looks like the following (snipped some portions to improve readability):

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: BizTalk Server 2009
...

Description:
The adapter failed to transmit message going to send port "<your_send_port_name>" with URL "oracleebs://<YourURI>". It will be retransmitted after the retry interval specified for this Send Port.

Details:"Microsoft.ServiceModel.Channels.Common.ConnectionException: Could not retrieve User ID, Responsibility ID, and Application ID. These values are required to set the application context. Make sure that you have specified correct values in the binding properties or the message context properties for setting the application context.

---> Microsoft.ServiceModel.Channels.Common.MetadataException:

---> Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleException ORA-01403:

....

at Microsoft.Adapters.OracleEBS.OracleEBSConnection.InitializeApps(...)
at Microsoft.Adapters.OracleEBS.OracleEBSConnection.OpenConnection(...)

The Oracle adapter throws this error when it is not able to set app context using the Responsibility-Name (or responsibility-key), application-short-name and apps-user provided by the user. You can read up on app-context in earlier blogs posts (http://blogs.msdn.com/adapters/archive/2008/10/14/oracle-ebs-adapter-application-context.aspx and http://blogs.msdn.com/adapters/archive/2008/10/17/precedence-while-setting-application-context-in-oracle-ebs-adapter.aspx).

One of the commonly asked questions is "How do I determine the correct responsibility name to be used?".

Here is a tool that you can use to determine the responsibility that you need to set app context. The tool will prompt will prompt you for relevant details like credentials, application short name etc.

Usage: CheckAppContext [/Responsibility:<Responsibility>]

- If the responsibility name is not provided, the tool lists the valid responsibilities that could be used for the apps user <AppsUserName> in the application <AppsShortName>.

- If the responsibility name is provided, the tool checks whether the provided combination of <AppsShortName> and <Responsibilty> can be used to set app context for the Apps User <AppsUserName>.

NOTE: The responsibility should be enclosed in quotes if it has spaces else quotes are not required .

Using Oracle Database or Oracle EBS adapter for Oracle AQ (Advanced Queuing)

manasg — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:31:00 GMT

Here is a simple way to get started on Oracle AQ (Advanced Queuing) using the Oracle Database and/or Oracle E-Business Suite adapters. Here is what I did, right from defining my queue - one step at a time.

Step 1 - Define the queue payload type
CREATE TYPE AQ_MESSAGE_TYPE AS OBJECT (ID VARCHAR2(30), INFO VARCHAR2(200));

Step 2 - Define the queue table
EXEC DBMS_AQADM.CREATE_QUEUE_TABLE(QUEUE_TABLE => 'INFO', QUEUE_PAYLOAD_TYPE => 'AQ_MESSAGE_TYPE');

Step 3 - Create the queue
EXEC DBMS_AQADM.CREATE_QUEUE(QUEUE_NAME => 'AQ_MESSAGE_QUEUE', QUEUE_TABLE => 'INFO');

Step 4 - Start the queue
EXEC DBMS_AQADM.START_QUEUE(QUEUE_NAME => 'AQ_MESSAGE_QUEUE');

Step 5 - Create a function to enqueue
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION ENQUEUE_AQ_MESSAGE_QUEUE(PAYLOAD IN AQ_MESSAGE_TYPE) RETURN RAW
AS
PROPERTIES DBMS_AQ.MESSAGE_PROPERTIES_T;
MSGID RAW(16);
OPTIONS DBMS_AQ.ENQUEUE_OPTIONS_T;
BEGIN
DBMS_AQ.ENQUEUE('AQ_MESSAGE_QUEUE',
    OPTIONS,
    PROPERTIES,
    PAYLOAD,
    MSGID);

RETURN MSGID;
END;

Step 6 - Create a function to dequeue
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION DEQUEUE_AQ_MESSAGE_QUEUE(PAYLOAD OUT AQ_MESSAGE_TYPE) RETURN RAW
AS
PROPERTIES DBMS_AQ.MESSAGE_PROPERTIES_T;
OPTIONS DBMS_AQ.DEQUEUE_OPTIONS_T;
MSGID RAW(16);
NOTHING_TO_DEQUEUE EXCEPTION;
PRAGMA
EXCEPTION_INIT (NOTHING_TO_DEQUEUE, -25228);
BEGIN
OPTIONS.WAIT := DBMS_AQ.NO_WAIT;
DBMS_AQ.DEQUEUE('AQ_MESSAGE_QUEUE',
    OPTIONS,
    PROPERTIES,
    PAYLOAD,
    MSGID);
RETURN MSGID;
EXCEPTION
WHEN NOTHING_TO_DEQUEUE
  THEN RETURN NULL;
END;

A word on dequeue and enqueue functions - these are simplistic in this example. You might want to modify them to take more inputs (for example - more message properties or enqueue/dequeue properties as input). The dequeue function returns immediately if a message is not available for dequeue and returns null in that case. You could tweak that too.

Step 7 - Call the functions using the adapter!
It is easy calling these from the adapter now. The reason why the DBMS_AQ.ENQUEUE and DBMS_AQ.DEQUEUE cannot be called directly from the adapter is that they use complex data types that are not supported by ODP.NET. One can now even call the dequeue function in a polling context, and get messages delivered to them as they are pushed into the queue! The links to portions of the Oracle Database adapter help that will help you do this are:

Developing BizTalk applications http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd788030.aspx
Support for Oracle User Defined Types http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd788045.aspx

Thanks to Mustansir for suggesting this blog idea!

Oracle EBS/DB Adapter Changes in Beta

Sai Shankar — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:48:00 GMT

As the Beta release for the Adapter pack approaches, here's a list of changes in the Oracle EBS/DB Adapters so that you can prepare for it:

· Now support Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

· Based on Oracle ODP.Net 11.1.0.7

Both adapters now _require_ ODP.Net 11.1.0.7 installed on the client as compared to ODP.Net 11.1.0.6 which was the base for CTP 5 and earlier. Doing this enables us to deliver x64 support.

· Added Synonym support

Both adapters now support synonyms. Synonyms show up in the object tree wherever the underlying artifact (table/view etc.) of that type can occur. Synonyms are supported for the following types.

Tables
Views
Materialized views
Sequences
Procedures
Functions
Packages

Synonyms are not supported for:

Types
Synonyms

In addition, synonyms pointing to DB links are not supported.

· Added performance counters

We’ve added performance counters to both Adapters which are described in the online help.

· Added notification support, support for User Defined Types (UDTs) in the DB Adapter

Please note that this is not a complete list of changes. That list is available in the online documentation.

Using sequences inside Composite Operations with Oracle EBS adapter

manasg — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:37:00 GMT

Consider a scenario where I want to insert data into two tables in a single transaction. The tables have a field that should be populated using the same sequence - one using SEQUENCE.NEXTVAL, and the other using SEQUENCE.CURRVAL, so that both tables get the same key value in these fields – a typical scenario when inserting into Interface Tables that have a dependency on each other.

The adapter performs all the operations in the Composite Operation in a single transaction and in order - however that does not mean that they are performed in a single session or connection to the Oracle server.

Sequences in Oracle are designed in a way such that their value does not reflect across sessions unless NEXTVAL is called on them. If you put 'SEQUENCE.NEXTVAL' in InlineValue for the first table and 'SEQUENCE.CURRVAL' in InlineValue for the second table in the Composite Operation, the result will not be what you’d normally expect. To elaborate, I defined a sequence named MYSEQUENCE, and opened two SQL-Plus sessions. I performed the following steps side by side as shown below:

Session 1	Session 2
SELECT MYSEQUENCE.CURRVAL FROM DUAL; ORA-08002: sequence MYSEQUENCE.CURRVAL is not yet defined in this session
	SELECT MYSEQUENCE.CURRVAL FROM DUAL; ORA-08002: sequence MYSEQUENCE.CURRVAL is not yet defined in this session
SELECT MYSEQUENCE.NEXTVAL FROM DUAL; >>21
SELECT MYSEQUENCE.CURRVAL FROM DUAL; >>21
	SELECT MYSEQUENCE.CURRVAL FROM DUAL; ORA-08002: sequence MYSEQUENCE.CURRVAL is not yet defined in this session
	SELECT MYSEQUENCE.NEXTVAL FROM DUAL; >>22
SELECT MYSEQUENCE.CURRVAL FROM DUAL; >>21
SELECT MYSEQUENCE.NEXTVAL FROM DUAL; >>23

As you see, the current value of the sequence does not get updated in all the sessions, and so if you need to use sequences in your inserts, straightforward logic does not work. We came up with two workarounds to make this work:

1. Fetch the value of the SEQUENCE.NEXTVAL beforehand (you can use the generic operation ExecuteScalar), and populate the final value in your message – works well if you’re using an orchestration.

2. Create two stored procedures on the Oracle backend – one for NEXTVAL, and another for CURRVAL that store the value of the sequence in a table (see attached sample script), so that the latest value is available across sessions.

In general, if a value that is session dependent needs to be used in various inserts in a composite operation, it should either be pre-fetched, or stored in a temporary table and accessed using functions called from InlineValue.

When to use InlineValue attribute in Insert in Oracle EBS adapter?

manasg — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:25:00 GMT

In typical Oracle EBS scenarios, it is a common requirement to insert computed values into a table. For example, one might want to populate the key column using a sequence, or insert something like SYSDATE into a date column. However, if the adapter makes it mandatory to provide constant values to be inserted, this becomes impossible to achieve in a single operation.

We came up with a simple solution. Every element in an InsertRecord takes an optional InlineValue attribute, which if populated, is used as-is in the insert statement. Let me illustrate with an example.

Consider the following insert operation XML snippet:

<ENAME>SCOTT</ENAME>

</InsertRecord>

This results in an insert statement that is equivalent to:

INSERT INTO SCOTT.EMP VALUES (:P0, :P1, :P2, …);

Where P0, P1, P2 etc are OracleParameter instances bound to the OracleCommand. Now consider the following XML snippet:

<ENAME>SCOTT</ENAME>

</InsertRecord>

This results in an insert statement that looks like this:

INSERT INTO SCOTT.EMP VALUES(SCOTT.EMP_SEQ.NEXTVAL, :P1, :P2, SYSDATE, SOME_API_TO_GET_SAL(), :P3, …);

Now, it is tempting to provide data values in the InlineValue attribute, but we recommend against that. <ENAME InlineValue="SCOTT"/> would result in an error as SCOTT is not a valid identifier. You’d have to use single quotes around the name as adapter merely puts this string in the insert statement without any sanity check on the value. Therefore, as a thumb rule, avoid using InlineValue attribute for constant values.

Update: If you want to use a select query in an inline value, you should enclose it in brackets. For example <ENAME InlineValue="(SELECT NAME FROM NEW_EMPLOYEES WHERE ID=123)"/> of course, you'll have to make sure that the select query returns only one field from a single row.

Precedence while setting Application Context in Oracle EBS Adapter

manasg — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:45:00 GMT

The messages sent to Oracle EBS Adapter can take three message context properties (starting CTP4):

1. Application Short Name
2. Responsibility Name
3. Organization Id

We introduced these properties so that one can invoke operations on a single port with different Application Contexts for each message being passed to the port, enabling the same port to be reused.

Here is the precedence order in which the adapter reads values for properies when it sets the application context before invoking an operation:

Also note that the precedence order for application short name we’re talking about is used only to set the application context – it does not change the application to which the interface table, interface view, concurrent program, or request set belongs to.

Why have these settings in Message Context as well as the Binding Properties? Well, we don’t want you to have to set message context properties on a message every time you have to set Application Context. You can put your typically used settings in the Binding Properties, and messages will be processed with Application Context as per those settings. When you want to process a message with a different Application Context, just set the Message Context Properties on it and you can send it to the same port – Message Context Properties override settings in the Binding!

Oracle EBS Adapter: Application Context

manasg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:01:00 GMT

When the Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) Adapter performs an operation on an Interface Table, Interface View, Concurrent Program, or a Request Set (Coming in the CTP4), it compulsorily sets the application context. To set application context, the adapter calls the FND_GLOBAL.APPS_INITIALIZE API. However, to call this API, the adapter requires three values:

1. User Id
2. Application Id
3. Responsibility Id corresponding to the User Id and Application Id.

The adapter gets the Responsibility Name from the binding, EBS User Name from the binding (or from Client Credentials starting CTP4), and retrieves corresponding id's from the backend to use when initializing application context. As I mentioned, it also needs the application id. For Interface Tables, Interface Views, Concurrent Programs, and Request Sets, the action contains the application short name. The adapter uses this application short name and ignores the value in the binding property ApplicationShortName to get the application id from the back end.

So when is the ApplicationShortName in the binding property used? It is used for setting application context for artifacts which do not have the application short name in their action. This includes PL/SQL APIs, Procedures, Functions, DB Tables, and DB Views. The adapter does not 'know' which application these artifacts belong to (if they belong to one). The adapter does not enforce setting application context for these artifacts, but you can make the adapter set the application context for them by proving the EBS User Name as well as the application short name.

When the adapter sees that the operation is to be performed on a PL/SQL API, Procedure, Function, DB Table, or DB View, if the ApplicationShortName in the binding and the EBS User Name are available, it goes ahead and tries to set the application context. Of course - it requires a valid Responsibility Name in order to be successful.

When (and only when) the application context is being set, the adapter looks at the binding property OracleEBSOrganizationId. If this has been populated, the adapter sets the Organization Id, else it does not.

With CTP4, which is due in some time, we support specifying ApplicationShortName, ResponsibilityName, and OrganizationId using Message Context Properties which provides greater flexibility in choosing responsibility and Org Id, and even override the application short name in the action. That will be the topic of my next post.

Till then, Happy Coding!

Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) Adapter

nitinme — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:22:00 GMT

We are currently working on an Oracle EBS (aka Oracle Apps) Adapter for the next release of Adapter Pack, along with a SQL Server Adapter. The Oracle EBS adapter will be built using WCF LOB Adapter SDK. At a high-level, we are planning to have the following set of features in the adapter:

Ability to interface with PL/SQL APIs
Perform operations on the Interface tables/Views
Execute Concurrent programs
Support for Simple Data Types, UDTs, Table types, Boolean types.

Do you use XMLGateways and Business Events in your Oracle E-Business scenarios and want to see it as part of the Oracle EBS adapter? We would like to hear about any other specific features that you would like to see in the Oracle EBS adapter.

Please do let us know if you would like to enroll in the Technology Adapter Program(TAP). As part of the TAP program, you get a chance to work closely with the product team to identify features and requirements for the product, try out early drops of the adapter and help Microsoft validate the features for quality and production-readiness.

Getting LOB metadata from SAP, OracleDB and Siebel adapter using svcutil

Jayanthi S — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:56:00 GMT

The WCF based adapters that ship in the Biztalk Adapter Pack are WCF bindings. The svcutil tool can be used to get metadata for a LOB method using these bindings. The scheme in the URI determines which adapter binding is loaded by svcutil. However when using the svcutil tool, there is no easy way to specify the LOB credentials that should be used to get metadata from the LOB. One way to specify the LOB credentials to our adapters is to set it in the URI. However, by default (for security reasons) the adapters do not accept credentials in the URI.

To get around this, you need to set the binding property acceptCredentialsInUri to true and then specify the LOB credentials in the URI. To be able to set binding properties or other custom settings when using svcutil.exe, you should use the svcutil.exe.config file. This article describes how to use it.

Attached is a sample svcutil.exe.config which has the endpoint and binding configurations for all the three adapter bindings. Place this in the same folder as svcutil.exe.

The following are sample command lines to use to get metadata from our adapters.

SvcUtil.exe "sap://user=youruser;passwd=yourpassword;Client=800;lang=EN@A/adapsap47/00?op=http://Microsoft.LobServices.Sap/2007/03/Rfc/RFC_GET_FUNCTION_INTERFACE"

SvcUtil.exe "oracledb://User=MYUSER;Password=MYPASSWORD@ADAPTER/?op=http://Microsoft.LobServices.OracleDB/2007/03/SCOTT/Table/AEMP/Insert"

SvcUtil.exe "siebel://Username=MYUSER;Password=MYPASSWORD@mssebldemo:2321?SiebelObjectManager=SSEObjMgr_enu&SiebelEnterpriseServer=ent771&Language=enu&op=http://Microsoft.LobServices.Siebel/2007/03/BusinessObjects/Account/Agreement/Query"

Note the quotation mark around the URI. In the configuration for Siebel (in the attached config file) also note the idleConnectionTimeout without which it will take the default 1 minute for svcutil to terminate. Look for more details on the idleConnectionTimeout in a separate post on Siebel.

Note also that if you use the Add Adapter Service Reference tool (that gets installed with the WCF LOB Adapter SDK) to get metadata for a LOB method for use in a C# or VB project, the AcceptCredentialsInUri binding property will not be visible or settable. You can set the LOB credentials using the credentials tab in the tool.