You can download data from your Oracle HRMS application to spreadsheets or word processing documents on your desktop using Web ADI.
You can query the data in a window, download the queried data to your desktop, and view the data in spreadsheet format or in a word processing document.
In some cases, you can manipulate the data you have downloaded and upload your changes to Oracle HRMS. Validation of the data takes place by the Application Programmatic Interfaces (APIs) used to upload the data, and any errors are flagged. If errors occur, no data is uploaded to the database.
You can create a mail merge by downloading the data directly into a template letter.
You can create an empty spreadsheet and enter new data or import data from a text file, and then upload the data to Oracle HRMS. The data is validated using the usual HRMS validation.
Standard Oracle security is maintained.
Note: Oracle Configuration Workbench provides a new framework to use spreadsheets. This framework provides additional capabilities such as customizing and downloading of spreadsheets to suite business requirements. See: Overview: Spread Sheets Framework
You can invoke Web ADI from an icon in an HRMS Professional User Interface window (including OLM windows), or you can launch it directly from a Web ADI self-service menu option.
You cannot invoke Web ADI from the People Management templates, nor the Self-Service HRMS (SSHR) pages, nor the following windows:
Absence Detail
Mass Update of Applicant Assignments
Mass Update of Employee Assignments
Mass Update of Assignments
Position Copy
Mass Position Update
In addition, you cannot invoke Web ADI from the Assignment window when you access it by task flow from the Person window.
Note: If you access the Assignment window by task flow from the Person window, you will not be able to invoke Web ADI from that Person window for the current person query. To restore Web ADI function, perform the query in the person form again.
You can invoke Web ADI from the Assignment window when you access it directly from the Navigator.
Your access to Web ADI depends on the access rights set up for your responsibility.
The functionality available with Web ADI depends on the information stored in an "integrator". Each integrator contains all relevant information about a particular data download, upload, or create process, such as whether you are downloading data from an HRMS window, from a Web ADI self-service window, or from the Request Letter window. It also specifies whether you can download one-way or whether you require the ability to upload edited data again, whether the data is being downloaded into a mail merge, and so on. The integrator details also indicate whether you can use it to create new data or just update existing data.
When you create your spreadsheet or word processing document using Web ADI, you select an appropriate integrator, and Web ADI handles the transfer and validation of data accordingly.
Oracle HRMS supplies some sample integrators that enable you to download data from the following windows and folders for reporting or analysis purposes:
| Window or Folder | Integrator |
|---|---|
| People Window | HR People Details Integrator |
| People Folder | HR People Folder Detail Integrator |
| Assignment Window (accessed directly from the Navigator) | HR Assignment Detail Integrator |
| Assignments Folder | HR Assignment Folder Detail Integrator |
| Salary Management Folder | HR Update Salary Proposals Integrator |
Using the HR Update Salary Proposals integrator, you can edit the downloaded data and upload it to HRMS. The remaining four sample integrators support data download only.
Note: These five predefined integrators demonstrate the supplied function but are not supported solutions, and you cannot create your own layouts for these integrators. However, you can create your own integrators to enable download and upload of HRMS data.
An understanding of the following terms may assist you in downloading and uploading data between Oracle HRMS and your desktop using Web ADI.
Application Programmatic Interfaces, used to upload data to the Oracle Applications database. APIs handle error checking and ensure that invalid data is not uploaded to the database.
When you create a spreadsheet or word processing document, the layout defines the columns that appear in the document and the content identifies the data in the document. Content is usually downloaded from the Oracle application database, so that the spreadsheet contains the data you have queried from a window in Oracle HRMS. You can also create a spreadsheet with no content, so that you can enter new data using the spreadsheet and upload it to the application. Another method is to bring in the content of the spreadsheet from a text file on your desktop. This enables you to upload the data from the text file to the application, for example to upload legacy data or information from third-party applications to Oracle HRMS.
This is the process of transferring data from the Oracle HRMS application to your desktop (the original data remains in the application database).
An integrator defines all the information that you need to download or upload from a particular window or database view or for a particular purpose (the type of integrator determines the purpose for which you can use it). Your system administrator can set up the appropriate integrators depending on whether you want to download for reporting or mail merge purposes, or in order to manipulate the data and upload it again.
A Web ADI term for the item that specifies the columns to be transferred from the Oracle applications database to your desktop or vice versa. In HRMS, interfaces can be views (for downloading data) or APIs (for uploading data). The integrator includes all the columns that are available in the interface, whereas the layout specifies only those that the user needs to see.
A layout identifies the columns to appear in a spreadsheet or Word document. A single integrator can have multiple layouts for different purposes. If more than one layout is available for an integrator, you select a layout when you create a document. If only one layout is available, the application selects it for you automatically.
If you are bringing in data from a text file to Oracle HRMS using a spreadsheet created in Web ADI, you need to map the columns in the text file to the application's tables and columns. When Web ADI creates the spreadsheet, it ignores any columns from the text file not included in the mapping.
This is a form letter or skeleton letter that acts as the basis for creating mail merge letters. The template letter contains the standard text, and also contains field codes, which are replaced by data from the application during the mail merge process.
This is the process of transferring the data from a spreadsheet on your desktop back to the Oracle HRMS application, overwriting the existing data in the application database. This process can take place only if Web ADI created the spreadsheet.
A view is an example of an interface that you can use to download data from the application to a spreadsheet. The integrator definition includes the name of the view. Views to access many windows are already available with Oracle HRMS. System administrators can create additional views if necessary.
A viewer is a desktop application, such as a spreadsheet or word processing tool, that you use to view the data downloaded from Oracle HRMS.