To use the Forecasting Open Interface effectively, you need to perform these steps in the following sequence. Each step has substeps that are explained in the referenced section.
1. For each external source transaction type, you define its name, such as External Payments, or External Receipts. Then identify the valid selection criteria. See: Define External Source Types and Selection Criteria: page 2 – 58.
2. Define value sets to be used for the selection criteria segments. See:
Define Value Sets for Selection Criteria: page 2 – 59.
3. Define the Forecast Selection Criteria Descriptive Flexfield segments for each selection criteria. See: Define Forecast Selection Criteria Descriptive Flexfield Segments: page 2 – 59.
4. Define the external forecast source transaction database views. See:
Define External Source Views: page 2 – 60.
5. Associate the external source types with the views, and if necessary, the name of the database link. See: Associate External Forecast Source Types with Views: page 2 – 61.
Define External Source Types and Selection Criteria
See Also
Planning Your Descriptive Flexfields (Oracle Applications Flexfields Guide) Defining Descriptive Flexfield Structures (Oracle Applications Flexfields Guide)
Descriptive Flexfield Segments Window (Oracle Applications Flexfields Guide)
Context Field Values (Oracle Applications Flexfields Guide)
Define Value Sets for Selection Criteria
You need to define value sets that determine the values users can enter for selection criteria for open interface inflow and outflow source types when defining forecast templates.
1. Navigate to the Value Sets window (Descriptive Flexfield Segments window > Segments button > Value Sets button).
2. Define your value set and give it a validation type, and enter the appropriate validation information to suit your selection criteria.
See Also
Defining Value Sets (Oracle Applications Flexfields Guide)
Define Forecast Selection Criteria Descriptive Flexfield Segments
1. Navigate to the Descriptive Flexfield Segments window.
2. Enter Oracle Cash Management in the Application field, and Forecast Selection Criteria in the Title field.
3. Uncheck the Freeze Flexfield Definition check box.
4. Refer to the worksheet you filled out in designing your descriptive flexfield.
• Include the common selection criteria that are applicable to all external source types.
• Specify external source types in the Context Field region.
• For each external source type defined as a context field value, define the criteria segments that are used by the specific external source type as the context–sensitive segments. These are the selection criteria that depend on the external source types.
• All segments must be enabled and non–required.
• Choose the value sets that you predefined in the Value Set field.
• Do not update any existing default entries.
5. Check the Freeze Flexfield Definition check box and save your work.
Define External Source Views
Define the External Source Transaction View as a view that will access your proprietary application’s database to include all open interface transactions that you want to select for cash forecasting.
Alternatively, if your proprietary application system does not support real–time access from an Oracle database, you can create a table for the External Source Transaction View, and use SQL*Loader or another batch mechanism to populate the table with information from the non–Oracle system transactions.
Column specifications for the External Source Transaction View are outlined in the following table:
Column Name Type Required? Description/Value
ROW_ID ROWID Yes Row ID
TRANSACTION_AMOUNT NUMBER Yes Amount in transaction currency
FUNCTIONAL_AMOUNT NUMBER Yes Amount in functional currency
CURRENCY_CODE VARCHAR2(15) Yes Transaction currency code, must be valid
currency code defined in FND_CURRENCIES
FUNCTIONAL_CURRENCY VARCHAR2(15) Yes Functional currency code, must be valid currency code defined in
If your environment includes a distributed source transaction type, either you must import remote data to the local database, or you must establish a database link from the local database to the remote database.
See: Associate External Forecast Source Types with Views: page 2 – 61
Using Remote Databases
If you are planning to use Cash Forecasting Open Interface in a distributed database environment, your database administrator must install the necessary Cash Forecasting objects to each of the remote databases with your Cash Forecasting sources in your APPS account.
These objects are located in the $CE_TOP/sql directory:
• CE_FORECAST_EXT_TEMP (table) – cefextmp.sql (physical file)
• CE_FORECAST_EXT_TEMP_N1 (index) – cefextmp.sql (physical file)
These objects are located in the $CE_TOP/admin/sql directory:
• CE_FORECAST_REMOTE_SOURCES (package) – cefremts.pls and cefremtb.pls (physical files)
If any of the above objects are patched for Release 11, the patched objects will be located in $CE_TOP/patch/110/sql. Therefore, apply the objects from the $CE_TOP/patch/110/sql directory instead of from the
$CE_TOP/admin/sql and $CE_TOP/sql directories.
Use of Indexes on Views
To maximize performance when generating cash forecasts that collect data using the Forecasting Open Interface, we recommend that you create appropriate indexes on the tables accessed by the views you create. The columns that are frequently used as selection criteria, such as cash activity date, should be defined as indexes.
Associate External Forecast Source Types with Views
You need to associate your external source types with an external source transaction view, and if that view is on a remote database, then you need to specify the database link as well.
" To associate external forecast source types and views:
1. Navigate to the External Forecast Sources window.
2. Choose an external forecast source Type. The list of values is the context field of the Forecast Selection Criteria Descriptive Flexfield.
3. Enter an external forecast source View. This field is not validated until you submit a forecast that uses the associated external forecast source type.
4. (Optional) Enter a Database Link Name if the source type is on a remote database. The list of values includes currently available links, but you can enter others as this field is not validated until you submit a forecast that uses the associated external forecast source type.
See Also
Creating Cash Forecast Templates: page 5 – 3