Using Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator

The Oracle E-Business Suite task you perform on the desktop is determined by the integrator you select in Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator. Each seeded integrator is delivered with the Oracle E-Business Suite product that provides the functionality being integrated with the desktop. Additional information specific to each seeded integrator can be found in the product-specific documentation. For additional information about any custom integrators developed at your site using Oracle E-Business Suite Desktop Integration Framework, consult your system administrator.

You can access Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator functionality through a Self Service link on your personal home page.

Prerequisites

The following are the prerequisites for Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator:

Using the Office Open XML Format

Beginning in Release 12.2.5, you can choose to create Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator spreadsheets according to the Office Open XML (OOXML) standard, an XML format developed by Microsoft to represent spreadsheets and other types of documents. When using the OOXML format, Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator creates the spreadsheet entirely on the Oracle E-Business Suite server, and the completed spreadsheet is then downloaded to the desktop. Upload processing is also performed on the server. With this option, no macros are used during document creation and limited macros are used during upload. Consequently, the Trust access to the VBA project object model security option is not required to work with OOXML documents. Also, because the processing is performed on the server, document creation and upload use minimal desktop resources.

Use the BNE: Enable OOXML Standard profile option to specify whether to use the OOXML format for your Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator documents. Beginning in Release 12.2.6, this profile option is set to Yes by default.

Note: Spreadsheets exported from Oracle Application Framework tables are always created as OOXML documents, regardless of the format your site uses for other spreadsheets.

Selecting Macro Security Settings in Microsoft Excel

In Microsoft Excel, you must select the macro security settings that you want to enable the macros used by Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator.

You can choose to set a medium macro security level, in which case you are prompted to enable the macros each time you open an Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator spreadsheet. Alternatively, you can set the BNE Enable Digital Signature profile option in Oracle E-Business Suite to have Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator affix a digital signature to the spreadsheets you create. In this case, you can select a high macro security level in Microsoft Excel. After you initially identify the Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator macros as coming from a trusted source, Microsoft Excel automatically allows the macros to run.

Note: If you do not enable macros with the appropriate setting, according to whether you use digital signatures or not, then the Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator features that use macros will not work.

Settings for Unsigned Spreadsheets

If you do not use digital signatures in Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator, then you must set your Microsoft Excel macro security to let you enable macros on a case by case basis. The steps to do so may vary depending on your version of Microsoft Excel. For example:

For Microsoft Excel 2007:

  1. Choose the Microsoft Office button, and then choose Excel Options. In the Trust Center category, choose Trust Center Settings, and then the Macro Settings category.

  2. Select the Disable all macros with notification option.

  3. If you are not using OOXML, then select the Trust access to the VBA project object model option.

    Note: If you are using OOXML, then this option is not required.

For Microsoft Excel 2010 and 2013:

  1. Choose the File tab, and then choose Options. In the Options dialog box, choose Trust Center and then Trust Center Settings. In the Trust Center, chooseMacro Settings.

  2. Select the Disable all macros with notification option.

  3. If you are not using OOXML, then select the Trust access to the VBA project object model option.

    Note: If you are using OOXML, then this option is not required.

Settings for Digitally Signed Spreadsheets

If you want to use digital signatures in Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator, set the BNE Enable Digital Signature profile option to Yes. When this option is set, Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator affixes a digital signature to the spreadsheets you create. You can then select a macro security level in Microsoft Excel that requires digital signatures. The steps to do so may vary depending on your version of Microsoft Excel. The following sections list example steps for some versions.

Note: Microsoft Excel 2007 also requires additional steps because the Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator digital signatures use SHA-256, and, as described in Microsoft KB Article 3090063, macro-enabled Microsoft Office documents that are digitally signed with SHA-256 may not be recognized when a user opens them in Microsoft Office 2007. Consequently, you must perform some additional steps to enable downloading digitally signed spreadsheets with Microsoft Excel 2007.

For Microsoft Excel 2007:

  1. Choose the Microsoft Office button, and then choose Excel Options. In the Trust Center category, choose Trust Center Settings, and then the Macro Settings category.

  2. Select the Disable all macros except digitally signed macros option.

  3. If you are not using OOXML, then select the Trust access to the VBA project object model option.

    Note: If you are using OOXML, then this option is not required.

  4. To work around the Microsoft Office 2007 SHA-256 limitation, use Trusted Locations as an alternative trusting mechanism. To specify a trusted location, in the Trust Center category, choose Trust Center Settings, thenTrusted Locations, and then Add New Location. If the macro-enabled file is kept on a network drive, you should also select the Allow Trusted Locations on my Network check box.

    Note: You may also have to disable the Require Applications to be signed by Trusted Publisher option.

  5. Ensure that you save spreadsheets signed with SHA-256 in the specified trusted location. When Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator downloads a spreadsheet, it saves the spreadsheet in the default download location specified for the web browser. Consequently, you should set the default download location of your browser to the trusted location you set in the previous step. The steps to set the default download location depend on the browser you are using.

    Note: Depending on the browser and browser settings you use, when you create an Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator spreadsheet, a dialog or pop-up window may appear with options to open or save the document. Choose Save to save the spreadsheet to the default download location you specified for your browser. After the spreadsheet has been downloaded and saved, choose Open.

For Microsoft Excel 2010 and 2013:

  1. Choose the File tab, and then choose Options. In the Options dialog box, choose Trust Center and then Trust Center Settings. In the Trust Center, chooseMacro Settings.

  2. Select the Disable all macros except digitally signed macros option.

  3. If you are not using OOXML, then select the Trust access to the VBA project object model option.

    Note: If you are using OOXML, then this option is not required.

Selecting Microsoft Internet Explorer Settings

If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer as your Web browser, select the following downloads setting so that you can download the spreadsheets created by Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator to your desktop.

  1. From the Tools menu, select Internet Options and then select the Security tab.

  2. Select the zone in which you are working, such as Trusted Sites, and select the Custom level button.

  3. In the Downloads settings, select Enable for the File download option.

Additionally, select the following scripting setting so that Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator can complete the spreadsheet creation process.

  1. From the Tools menu, select Internet Options and then select the Security tab.

  2. Select the zone in which you are working, such as Trusted Sites, and select the Custom level button.

  3. In the Scripting settings, select Enable for the Allow status bar updates via script option.

Setting the Reading Order for Right-to-Left Languages

If you use the OOXML format to create documents on the server, then Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator uses the current session language to determine the reading order. If the current session language is a right-to-left language such as Arabic or Hebrew, then the reading order is set to right-to-left in the spreadsheet.

However, if you do not use the OOXML format, then Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator creates the integrator document on the desktop. In this case, the reading order is determined by the language options set in Microsoft Excel. Ensure that you set the language options you want in Microsoft Excel before you create your document. For more information, see your Microsoft Excel documentation.

Selecting the Number Format Setting in Microsoft Excel

For consistency, ensure that the number format setting you select in Microsoft Excel matches the number format preference you specified in Oracle E-Business Suite.