FINDINI 4.0.16 Release - Upcoming November System Outages for Oracle Financials Systems

October 17, 2019

The Fall 2019 FINDINI 4.0.16 release will be available to users on Monday November 18, 2019.

Please continue to review updated release messages and outage information that will be posted in the October & November e-News articles, on the Oracle Financial splash pages, on https://oracle.fss.finance.harvard.edu/oracle-ebs-findini-4016-release-notes, and on the sites listed below.

Short Summary:

The focus during this release timeline continues to be with our collaboration, development, testing, and rollout for our next phase of the ITCRB project, Buy-to-Pay, which will be delivered to Production in the Spring of 2020. We have worked on several new CAPs enhancements during this release timeline that have already been delivered to Production, and a few more will be delivered by the end of October. We have also been working on the new individual digital disbursement payment process during this release timeline, and we will be delivering that functionality in the month of October as well. In addition, within FINDINI 4.0.16, we are addressing the standard security and compliance software and database patching to keep EBS, CPATH, and our automated testing platform OATS, up to date with many industry security regulations and requirements.

Oracle Financials Outage - 6:00pm on Friday, November 15th until 7:00am on Monday, November 18th to accommodate the installation of this release. CPATH (Capital Planning at Harvard), DMS Financial Data Warehouse, & HART Reporting will also be offline during this outage window. CPATH & DMS Financial Data Warehouse are also having a release during this weekend.

Please review the Detailed Summary below for much more pertinent information regarding what this release may mean to you.

Detailed Summary:

Key deliverables of the Fall 2019 FINDINI 4.0.16 Release include:

Collaboration, development, & testing for some of the foundational interfaces for the Buy-to-Pay project that will lead to the rollout of the new Jaggaer ePro & AP modules next Spring
Several new CAPs enhancements that have been worked on during our Release timeline and have already been delivered or will be delivered within our Monthly release process before this FINDINI release goes live
Delivery of the new individual digital disbursement payment process (Zelle) was also accomplished during this release timeline and delivered to Production in our July Monthly. Formal Business rollout will take place later in October
Continued Improvements with Java Web Start to allow multi instance use
Addressing performances issues with Fixed Asset reports & CPATH with several software patch fixes
Upgrade of the Oracle EBS APEX software
Upgrade of CPATH application software
Enhancements for final Leg of the Citibank TS2 upgrade which addresses how we need to handle data element changes passed from Citibank in the new Global Billing File (GBF) PCARD transaction interface (Development & Testing will be completed, however the rollout needs to be coordinated with CitiBank in a Monthly release in March 2020)
Applying the standard software security patching, weblogic upgrading, and database patching in order to keep the EBS, OATS, & CPATH systems up to date with many industry security regulations and requirements. These will include the January-2019 updates for PSU, CPU, JDK, JRE, Weblogic middleware, & Linux Operating System patching.

SYSTEM OUTAGES:

The University's financial systems will be unavailable from Friday, November 15 at 6:00pm until Monday, November 18, 7:00am to complete the installation of this release. The Oracle EBS Financial systems that will be offline during this time include:

Accounts Payable
Accounts Payable Adjustment Form for Assets
Accounts Receivable
iReceivables & Collections
Bottomline
CAPS
Cash Management (CMRA)
Chart Security Maintenance Application (CSMA)
Chart of Accounts GL Validator
FedEx
General Ledger
Oracle Assets
HCOM & iProcurement
PCard
Web ADI
Web Reimbursement

Also, CPATH (Capital Planning at Harvard), DMS Financial Data Warehouse, & HART Reporting will be offline during this same outage of Friday, November 15 at 6:00pm until Monday, November 18 7:00am. CPATH & DMS Financial Data Warehouse are having a release during this weekend.

ADDITIONAL RELEASE DETAILS FOR FINDINI 4.0.16:

The FINDINI 4.0.16 release will include a Java JRE update to 1.8.0_221. For Mac desktop users only, when logging in for the first time after November 18, those users will be required to download this updated Java JRE. This is needed for Mac users who rely on the Safari 11 browser using Java JRE plug-in to open Oracle Forms. Please note, that Safari 12 and higher used on the Mac, no longer supports Java JRE plug-in, thus Oracle forms will not open using this browser. Any Safari browser can be continued to be used for any Web-pages/HTML based modules in Oracle EBS, however, Safari browsers on the Mac are currently incompatible with Java Web Start Technologies. Also, for Mac users, with this release, Firefox version 60.x and greater will now allow Oracle Forms to open using Java Web Start Technology as long as the base level of JRE 1.8.0_201 is installed. The Firefox browser can also be used for any Web-pages/HTML based modules in Oracle EBS. If users receive a popup message that a more recent version greater than 1.8.0_221 is available, they should NOT act upon the request.

Windows PC desktop users will no longer have to install Java JRE updates for Oracle Financials due to the Java Web Start technology. Oracle Forms will no longer prompt Windows PC users to update their Java JRE. All universal browsers, including Safari, will successfully open Oracle Forms on a windows PC using the Java Web Start technology. At a minimum, they must have JAVA JRE 1.8.0_141 which was pushed to them several FINDINI releases ago. If needed for other applications, there is no harm for those users to update to JAVA JRE 1.8.0_221.

When using FireFox version 68.x with Oracle Financials Forms, you will begin to notice an Open Executable File pop up message that will happen each time a user attempts to launch a Form. This message cannot be suppressed. The user will need to click OK in order to launch the needed Form. The message will state: frmservlet.jnlp is an executable file. Executable files may contain viruses or other malicious code that could harm your computer. Use Caution when opening this file. Are you sure you want to launch frmservlet.jnlp?

In order to take advantage of allowing multiple instance usage of Oracle Financial Forms via Java Web Start, users will need to install Java JRE 1.8.0_181 at minimum, or just install JAVA JRE 1.8.0_221 to their desktop. Users will need to open one session in one type of browser, and the second session in another type of browser. For example, if a user wants to be searching a GL entry and has a need to compare that GL entry to another, and would like to do so and display both at the same time, then one session could be open with FireFox, and the other session would need to be open with Internet Explorer. Finally, users, once logged in, will need to go to the Oracle Home Page, navigate to Preferences, and select Always Launch New Forms Session TIP Select this check box to launch Forms in a new Forms session when using Java Web Start. This is a onetime setting.

Further information regarding Java Web Start Technologies can be found at https://oracle.fss.finance.harvard.edu/user-resources.

OTHER RESOURCES

Refer to https://oracle.fss.finance.harvard.edu/oracle-ebs-findini-4016-release-notes for links to:

The summary of changes in the FINDINI 4.0.16 Release
The Oracle Financials desktop standards
Helpful tips & release information
HUIT Applications and the Applications Status page

FINDINI 4.0.16 Release - Upcoming November System Outages for Oracle Financials Systems

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