Oracle, Apple & Other Tech...

OTM EBS Customer Integration

2010-06-25T02:13:00.001-07:00

I have got a couple of queries on the otmfaq.com site at: http://www.otmfaq.com/forums/f24/customer-information-616-new/

Thus I’ve provided the queries here:

select 'CUS-'||rac.customer_id customer_XID, rac.customer_name, 'ZAF' customer_country, 'CUS-'||rac.customer_id||'-'||arv.party_location_id customer_location_XID, rac.customer_name||','||substr(arv.city,1,10)||','||substr(arv.province,1,4)||','||nvl((SELECT b.iso_territory_code FROM FND_TERRITORIES_VL b WHERE UPPER(b.territory_code) = UPPER(arv.country)),'TBA') location_name, arv.address1, arv.address2,arv.address3, arv.address4, arv.city, arv.province, arv.postal_code, nvl((SELECT b.iso_territory_code FROM FND_TERRITORIES_VL b WHERE UPPER(b.territory_code) = UPPER(arv.country)),'TBA') country from ra_customers rac left join ar_addresses_v arv on rac.customer_id = arv.customer_id;

select 'CUS-'||rac.customer_id customer_XID, rac.customer_name, 'ZAF' customer_country, 'CUS-'||rac.customer_id||'-'||arv.party_location_id customer_location_XID, rac.customer_name||','||substr(arv.city,1,10)||','||substr(arv.province,1,4)||','||nvl((SELECT b.iso_territory_code FROM FND_TERRITORIES_VL b WHERE UPPER(b.territory_code) = UPPER(arv.country)),'TBA') location_name, nvl(arv.address1,' ') address1, nvl(arv.address2,' ') address2,nvl(arv.address3,' ') address3, nvl(arv.address4,' ') address4, nvl(arv.city,' ') city, nvl(arv.province,' ') province, nvl(arv.postal_code,' ') postal_code, nvl((SELECT b.iso_territory_code FROM FND_TERRITORIES_VL b WHERE UPPER(b.territory_code) = UPPER(arv.country)),'TBA') country from ra_customers rac left join ar_addresses_v arv on rac.customer_id = arv.customer_id;

--Customers

select 'CUS-'||rac.customer_id customer_XID, rac.customer_name, 'ZAF' customer_country from ra_customers rac;

--Customer locations

select 'CUS-'||rac.customer_id||'-'||arv.party_location_id customer_location_XID, rac.customer_name||','||substr(arv.city,1,10)||','||substr(arv.province,1,4)||','||nvl((SELECT b.iso_territory_code FROM FND_TERRITORIES_VL b WHERE UPPER(b.territory_code) = UPPER(arv.country)),'TBA') location_name, arv.address1, arv.address2,arv.address3, arv.address4, arv.city, arv.province, arv.postal_code, nvl((SELECT b.iso_territory_code FROM FND_TERRITORIES_VL b WHERE UPPER(b.territory_code) = UPPER(arv.country)),'TBA') country, 'CUS-'||rac.customer_id customer_parent from ra_customers rac left join ar_addresses_v arv on rac.customer_id = arv.customer_id;

For some of this you will need to set the environment first:

begin dbms_application_info.set_client_info(<your_org_id>); end;

Traveling to USA Tips

2010-05-10T12:39:00.001-07:00

Note: Yes, this is normally a technology blog, but I guess I can blog on whatever I want hey?

General

Oasis

Starbucks is your travel oasis, not only can you get a cup of coffee and a sandwich, but there is also a restroom in most of them as well as Boingo (see staying on the grid) internet.

Hot tip: A cup of coffee is about $1.50, but if you give them your cup back you can get a refill for 0.45 cents. You can even refill a different kind, like refill a regular with a decaf, or even with a ice coffee! And since it's Americans most of the time they even give you a new paper cup.

Staying on the grid

Boingo (www.boingo.com) wifi is your best friend while traveling. You can get a month-to-month unlimited data mobile subscription from them for $7.95 (works worldwide) and a laptop subscription for $10 (US only). They have hotspots at all Starbucks coffee shops, Mc Donald's and loads of hotels and airports. They have apps to make it easy to connect for just about any platform including Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, Symbian & Windows mobile.

Hot tip: Even if you're not a geek, in conjunction with Skype it's a much better option to phone home. If you really need a phone, a AT&T prepaid sim card alone with no credit loaded will cost you $20. You can then add credit, and load SMS and data bundles like a100mb data bundle for $20.

But the price tag says $1?

Something to remember when shopping in the US (or even when comparing prices to their prices online) is that the price that is listed does not include tax, and that will only be added when you pay. Tax varies in different states and cities but are usually around 8-9%.

Hot tip: Basic food and clothes below $100 are not taxed.

New York City

The city that never sleeps

It has been said a lot that New York is the city that never sleeps. That however is not true, it sleeps in the morning.. ;-) Most shops only open at 10am in the morning, but they do close at 10pm which is very nice.

Free Stuff.. In New York? Really?

Probably the best travel tip in New York is the Staten Island Ferry. Not only is it a free ferry to Staten Island, but it's route takes you right past the Statue of Liberty!

Hot tip: With all the queues, stopping at Ellis Island and airport style security checks, going to the Statue of Liberty will take a whole day, so if you have limited time, the Staten Island ferry is a must!

The best views

While the most obvious views of the city (from the top of Rockefeller Centre & Empire State building) are probably still the best, a great and not so talked about view from the skyline is from Roosevelt Island. Just take the F train and you will be amazed at the views as soon as you exit the station.

Hot tip: Go at night!

Los Angeles

The stars shine to much

When doing the Hollywood walk of fame, to take pictures of the stars in direct sunlight is not good due to the reflection of the star, thus rather go at night or when it's not to sunny.

Hollywood sign

You don't need to go on a bus trip (that they want to sell to you on every corner) to see the Hollywood sign, you can just go to the shopping centre on Hollywood Blvd and get a perfect view. You can even eat at one of the restaurants.

Hot tip: Go to California Pizza Kitchen and sit outside!

This is your best security? Really?

There are a lot of bus / bakkie tours to the actors's & actresses homes, however don't expect to see much. Even though most of their homes's security is not on par with a typical house in South Africa, most of them are covered with high walls or plants, making it highly unlikely you will see anyone or anything. (It's still a fun ride though)

Silicon Valley

If you are very geeky you might want to visit all the IT company's headquarters. If only a little geeky, only the ones with merchandise shops. ;-) Those include:

Apple
Microsoft
eBay
Intel (They have a museum also)

Oracle BPEL - Invoking a Partner Web Service through a Proxy Server

2009-12-01T05:08:00.001-08:00

When trying to call a web service through a proxy server (or trying to avoid using the proxy server for certain hosts) the BPEL Process Manager Administrator’s Guide have steps to edit a file, but I found doing this alone don’t work. The guide basically states to modify the following file: $ORACLE_HOME/bpel/bin/obsetenv.sh

And then modify the line set OB_JAVA_PROPERTIES= as follows:

set OB_JAVA_PROPERTIES="-Dhttp.proxySet=true"
"-Dhttp.proxyHost=myproxy004.company.com"
"-Dhttp.proxyPort=8090" "-Dhttp.nonProxyHosts=internal123.company.com"

After rebooting the BPEL server, it still didn’t work. What I had to do was also modify the following file: ORACLE_HOME/opmn/conf/opmn.xml

Look for the piece of XML that looks like this:

<process-type id="oc4j_soadev" module-id="OC4J" status="enabled">
<module-data>
<category id="start-parameters">
<data id="java-options" value="
-server
-XX:MaxPermSize=128M –ms512M
-mx1024M -XX:AppendRatio=3
-Djava.security.policy=$ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/oc4j_soadev/config/java2.policy
-Djava.awt.headless=true
-Dhttp.webdir.enable=false-Doraesb.home=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.3/soad/integration/esb -Dhttp.proxySet=false -Doc4j.userThreads=true -Doracle.mdb.fastUndeploy=60
-Dorabpel.home=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.3/soad/bpel
-Xbootclasspath^/p:/u01/app/oracle/product
/10.1.3/soad/bpel/lib/orabpel-boot.jar -Dhttp.proxySet=false"/>
</category>

Then modify the Dhttp.proxySet=false and change it to Dhttp.proxySet=true, add -Dhttp.proxyHost for your proxy server, Dhttp.proxyPort for your proxy server port and Dhttp.nonProxyHosts for hosts that should not go through the proxy. The end result should look something like this:

<process-type id="oc4j_soadev" module-id="OC4J" status="enabled">
<module-data>
<category id="start-parameters"> <data id="java-options" value="-server –mx1024M
-ms512M -XX:MaxPermSize=128M
-XX:AppendRatio=3-Djava.security.policy=$ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/oc4j_soadev
/config/java2.policy
-Djava.awt.headless=true
-Dhttp.webdir.enable=false-Doraesb.home=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.3/soad
/integration/esb
-Dhttp.proxySet=false -Doc4j.userThreads=true
-Doracle.mdb.fastUndeploy=60
-Doc4j.formauth.redirect=true
-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
-Dorabpel.home=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.3/
soad/bpel-Xbootclasspath^/p:/u01/app/oracle/product
/10.1.3/soad/bpel/lib/orabpel-boot.jar
-DHTTPClient.disableKeepAlives=true
-Dhttp.proxySet=true
-Dhttp.proxyHost=10.10.10.1
-Dhttp.proxyPort=8080 -Dhttp.nonProxyHosts=10.10.10.2"/>
</category>

Now you can call webservices through a proxy server. ;-)

Oracle SQL Developer 2.1 User Snippets

2009-11-17T23:42:00.000-08:00

If you are like me and installed the new Oracle SQL developer 2.1 Early Adopter edition on your mac you might have noticed that your user snippets are gone. Also that the directory where you could normally back them up from is no longer working. Well, its only stored in a new location and you can find all your SQL developer settings like your UserSnippets.xml, UserReports.xml and SqlHistory.xml in there.

SQL Developer 1.x location:
/Users/youruser/Library/Application Support/SQLDeveloper/

SQL Developer 2.1 EA location:
/Users/youruser/.sqldeveloper/

Also note that the new directory is a hidden folder so you might need to use the terminal (or any other way you access hidden files) to access it.

Launch Apex from Oracle eBusiness Suite Release 12

2009-08-16T07:57:00.001-07:00

From eBusiness Suite Release 12, we can't use the SSWA plsql function any more. Thus we have to use a jsp function to launch a web page. Here's how to launch a Apex report from a function:

1. Download the xx_launch_apex.jsp file here.

2. Copy xx_launch_apex.jsp to the $OA_HTML folder on the APPS application server. (Something like /u02/DEV/apps/apps_st/comn/webapps/oacore/html)

3. Compile the JSP.
- You can turn on autocompile: Metalink Note: 458338.1.
- Or you can run the following command as user applmgr:
perl -x /u01/app/oracle/TRAIN/apps/apps_st/appl/fnd/12.0.0/patch/115/bin/ojspCompile.pl --compile -s xx_launch_apex.jsp -conf /u01/app/oracle/TRAIN/inst/apps/TRAIN_trn82301/appl/admin/ojspCompile.conf –-flush

4. Set up function to use JSP. (Example below)

(hostname=mssoa11.bytes.local&port=7777&appnum=141&pagenum=1)
(hostname=apex_hostname&port=apex_port&appnum=apex_application_number&pagenum=apex_application_page_number)
Note: If you have no port number use 'null' for the port number.

5. Add function to menu and launch!

Is Microsoft really Evil?

2009-04-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

No I don’t hate Microsoft, in fact in areas where they have good competition I love their products. I own a X-Box 360 and purposefully decided on one over the PS3. After buying a new Logitech mouse I went back to my comfortable Microsoft one within a week.

But yes, I will admit in areas where Microsoft has a monopoly, I have always had a huge grudge against them and thought they were evil. Yes you guessed it I don’t like Windows. In fact I’m not alone, many other people all around the world will constantly complain about the dominant operating system but yet somehow Microsoft managed to keep Windows as the only real choice for most people. Or did they? Many people might believe Windows's monopoly is due to Microsoft’s good marketing or maybe their strategy to lock you into their products, and I have no doubt that they try to get people in every way possible to use their products, but lately I don’t think that Windows has monopoly because of Microsofts own cunning plans, no I rather think its because of other companies and developers who is in no way affiliated with Microsoft. Read further to hear my story and I’ll explain why..

I am an Oracle developer, and about 10 months ago I took the big step and bought a Macbook Pro. The experience so far has been awesome, the hardware is stunning, and all the software by Apple, or software made for the Mac are all incredible. The problem I have is with multi platform software, or the lack of certain software.

One of the biggest reasons that made it possible for me to move away from Windows was the fact that Oracle Jdeveloper and Oracle SQL developer (the 2 major applications I use for work) both have a Mac version. After already buying my new notebook I realized that the Mac version of Jdeveloper has a major known bug in the BPEL module (which I use a lot) which forces me to either use the Windows version in a virtual machine, or have to use many workarounds to get by. (See http://marinussnyman.blogspot.com/2009/03/usingoraclebpelonmacosxleopard.html) On Oracle’s support site under this bug logged the response from the developer is something like “can’t look at problem since he has no Mac hardware to reproduce the error on”). The bug has been there for more than 2 years. Oracle SQL developer is much better, but even so when my network connection drops, the application just hangs, something that never happens on the Windows version.

Ok, so that’s Oracle, but that’s just one company, but there are many more examples. Lets look at a few. Skype is a great example, their latest official release for the Mac is 2.7 (Windows is 4.0) and even though it has all the major features, its still way behind the Windows version on things like games, screen sharing and more. This is quite strange to me since all Mac’s come with a build in webcam I would think it’s quite a big audience for them? Another application that’s missing from the Mac is from the big Microsoft hater, Google. Yes even though you can use Google Talk through iChat or Adium, if you want to transfer files with your Windows buddies on you have to look elsewhere. In fact, I turned to Messenger for Mac to send files to a lot of friends since even Microsoft’s IM worked better on the Mac than Google’s!

Now, lets look at the open source world. Big Microsoft hater’s right? Well, I have a problem with a bug in Firefox where the Home / End key’s don’t work in certain sites (including Gmail) and it’s a known bug on the Firefox site since 2006! (I have to use a external tool to fix it) I’m sure if there was a bug like this in the Windows version, it would have been a mayor priority to get it fixed right away!

Now, I’m in no way saying I will go back to Windows, and I still love Mac OS X. But for most people its just pain easier to stick to Windows, and know their software will work, and when a bug arrives in the Windows version it will get priority over other OS version’s. Sad, but true.. :-( What do you think?

SQL*Plus command history on Mac OS X

2009-03-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has tried and use SQL*Plus on Unix would have seen that its quite frustrating since it does not have a command history function under Linux and Unix. When you try to use the ‘up’ key, you get something like this:
However there is a utility called rlwrap that can help us fix this problem. rlwrap is a readline wrapper for shell commands which uses input from the controlling terminal. It adds a persistent input history for each command and supports user-defined completion.

Here are the steps to install rlwrap on Mac OS X:

1. Download Macports from http://darwinports.com/ (If you don't have it already)
2. Install macports.
3. Update macports. Go to /opt/local/bin and type the following:

sudo ./port -d selfupdate

4. Install rlwrap with the following command (You will see it will install some dependencies too):

sudo ./port install rlwrap

5. Add the following line to your .bash_profile:

alias sqlplus='/opt/local/bin/rlwrap sqlplus'

6. Launch SQL*plus as usual and use rlwrap to access your sql history!

Using Oracle BPEL on Mac OS X Leopard

2009-03-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

There is some irritating bugs in Jdeveloper 10134 and the use of BPEL on Mac OS X - Leopard. Here is what they are, and how I fixed / or got workarounds for them:

The first and biggest problem is not being able to drag a Service from the Component Palette into the BPEL Process diagram. You also can't drag in functions in your transformations. This is quite frustrating since it is a known bug on metalink, but not yet fixed. (Bug Number 6924432) Well there is a easy workaround for the BPEL process diagram. You can rightclick on any of the Process Activities and go to Insert After > Activities > Activity.

But what if you created a Empty BPEL process? Whell then you'll have to go to the source and add a empty node (<empty/>) to get you started.

Its just as easy to add a Partnerlink. Right-click in the Services area of the screen, and select Create new Partnerlink.

On the transformation side of things it's not quite that easy to work around. The best solution I could come up with is to add the functions directly to the source code in the source tab.

You can then switch back to the Design view and see your code.

This might not be the best solution, but will centainly work and enable you to create BPEL processes without VMware or Parallels. And will definitely improve your xsl knowledge.. ;-) You can also rightclick ->Help on a function to get information on how to use it.
The second problem I experienced was that my jdeveloper kept crashing when I wanted to edit a partnerlink. I tried changing the JDK versions it used with no luck. What I found was, as soon as I open jdeveloper I "create a partnerlink" but click cancel right afterwards. Why this worked for me, I don't know, but it certainly solved my problem.
The third and last issue I had was that when launching jdeveloper it doesn't close the terminal

window. What I did to fix that was to add the JDeveloper directory to my PATH environment variable and then launch jdeveloper with the following command:

jdev &exit

This will exit the terminal window after opening JDeveloper. To add the JDeveloper ditectory to your path open your .bash_profile file and add the following line:

export PATH=$PATH:"/Applications/jdevstudio10134/jdev/bin"

Hope this post will help you use BPEL on Mac OS X Leopard!

Setting an environment variable in Mac OS X

2009-03-01T10:32:00.000-08:00

Setting the environment variable in files like .bash_profile won't work (unless you launch the application from the terminal) because in OSX the applications are not started as in other UNIX'es, they don't inherit the parents shell variables.

Applications like Oracle JDeveloper for mac also don't work by just setting .bash_profile. The only way is to edit /etc/launchd.conf to contain a line like this: "setenv VAR value" and then reboot the system.

Oracle JDeveloper anti aliased text

2009-02-21T07:07:00.001-08:00

I don't know about you, but I love anti aliased text. Here's how to add it to Jdeveloper.

Add this to your jdev.conf file:
"AddVMOption -Dswing.aatext=true"

Using Toad with Oracle Instantclient 10.2.0.4.

2009-02-16T10:45:00.000-08:00

1. Install the Oracle instant client from here. Make sure you download version 10.2.0.4 and not any of the 11.x.x.x versions, they didn't work with my version of Toad. (9.1)

2. Extract the zip somewhere. Say C:\instantclient

3. Add this directory to the PATH environmental variable. To do this, right click on My Computer, go to the Advanced tab, and click 'Environment Variables'. Under System variables, find Path. Select it, and click edit, and add to the end. (Example: %SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;C:\instantclient)

4. In the same window, under 'User variables for …', Click the New button. Call the variable 'TNS_ADMIN' and point to your instant client directory. (C:\instantclient)

5. Create a file called 'TNSNAMES.ORA' in your instant client installation directory. In this file designate the connection parameters for your database. Mine looked something like this:

BYMS_DEV =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 10.0.0.11)(PORT = 1526))
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVER = DEDICATED)
(SID = DEV)
)
)

6. You can also create a sqlnet.ora file but its not neccesary.

7. Restart your computer and fire up toad.

You can use other clients like Oracle Sqldeveloper as well.

--
Done on Windows XP & Toad 9.1

Windows not Windows?

2009-02-15T09:21:00.000-08:00

If this isn't enough to make you ditch Vista I don't know what is.. Lets hope Windows 7 is a least "Windows".. ;-)

A typical Vista error:

2009-01-05T08:22:00.001-08:00

Install & Use Oracle SQL Developer 1.5.x on a Mac
To install Oracle SQL Developer on a Mac is as easy as installing any application on a Mac. Just unzip the downloaded archive (download it from here), and drag the file to your applications folder. SQL Developer is a great SQL tool for the mac, but there are quite a few things I didn't like with its default settings, so here's what I changed:

1. Line Terminator – If you work like me in a Windows dominant office, you'll be sure to change your line terminator from “Platform Default” to “Windows”. This will insure that your newline caracters you add also show up on a Windows, Linux and Mac computer so you can't go wrong with that setting.

2. Fontsize – On my Macbook pro 15” the fontsize is way too small for me. To do this go to Tools -> Preferences -> Code Editor -> Fonts. I changed mine from the default 12 to 15 on Monospaced.

3. Colors – Coming from Toad, the default SQL Developer text color's are downright ugly. I liked the Toad color scheme, so I changed mine to the same colors. To do this go to Tools -> Preferences -> Code Editor -> Syntax Colors. Change the following colors:

Default Keyword –> Blue. Also turn off Bold.
Default Comment –> Green.
Default String –> Red.
Default Number –> Dark red.
Selected Text – Foreground -> Black. Background –> Light Grey.

You can even save your new scheme as “Toad” ;-) Your colors will then go from this first image to the second one.. :-)

Another few changes I have made is to the accelerators.You can find them under Tools -> Preferences ->Accelerators.

1. Popup Describe – I made this F4. (The same as Toad)
2. Execute Statement – I made mine Cmd+Enter and CTRL+Enter.
Done!

2008-11-18T01:33:00.001-08:00

Calling a WS-Security secured web service from Oracle BPEL

Oracle provides a nice guide to show you how to secure a web service using the Oracle Web Service Manager here. So how do you call this WS-Security enabled web service? Easy, just follow the following steps:

1. Import the secured wsdl as a partner link.

2. Go to the properties tab, and add the following properties:

wsseHeaders - Property Value : credentials
wsseUsername - Property Value : your_webservice_username
wssePassword - Property Value : your_webservice_password

3. Click ok.
4. Thats it, you can now call the partner link with an invoke and map all the fields you require.

5. The BPEL process can now be deployed.

Update:
If the source service uses http for authentication method, use in your properties tab:

basicHeaders - Property Value : credentials
basicUsername - Property Value : your_webservice_username
basicPassword - Property Value : your_webservice_password

2008-11-08T23:42:00.001-08:00

Installing Subversion on Windows for use with Oracle Jdeveloper.

Versions I used (Note that these versions are certified by Oracle. Using other versions might not work):

Jdeveloper : 10134 (10.1.3.4.0.4270)
Subversion VCS Extension: 10.1.3.42.70
Subversion: 1.3.2.
Subversion JavaHL: 1.3.2

1. Download the following files:

svn-1.3.2-setup.exe
svn-win32-1.3.2_javahl.zip
subversion_bundle.zip from above links.

2. Install subversion (svn-1.3.2-setup.exe).

3. Extract the contents of svn-win32-1.3.2_javahl.zip to a temporary folder, and copy libsvnjavahl-1.dll & svnjavahl.jar to the subversion bin folder. (Mine was C:\Program Files\Subversion\bin)
4. Edit environment variables svn_editor to point at a text editor of your choice.

Mine was:

“c:\windows\notepad.exe”

5. Create a directory for your repo, and your repo.

svnadmin create "c:\repos\mynewrepo"

6. Within that newly created folder, uncomment the following lines in the conf/svnserve.conf file by removing the pound character from the start of each line and change to:

anon-access = none
auth-access = write
password-db = passwd

7. Edit passwd file.

Remove the default users.
Add users in the format uname = password one per line.

8. Start Subverstion. Run (and keep window open)

svnserve --daemon --root "c:\repos\mynewrepo"

You can also write a .bat file and put it in your system startup to start the svn automatically. Mine looked something like this: (Note you might want to add your svn's bin folder to your path environment variable)

start svnserve.exe --daemon --root "c:\repos\mynewrepo"

@echo SVNServe

9. In another command window type:

svn mkdir svn://localhost/myproject

Your svn_editor of choice should open so add a comment at the top, then save and close it.
In the command prompt window it should ask you to authenticate.
It defaults to the current logged in username so unless you created that user hit return to skip.
Enter the username of a user you added in the passwd file.
Enter the password.
You should see "committed revision 1". - This means your subversion is up and running.

10. Open JDeveloper.

Go to Help -> Check for updates -> Choose from file, and choose the subversion_bundle.zip you downloaded above.

Go to Versioning -&amp;amp;gt; Select Version System -> Subversion
Go to View -> Subversion Navigator
In the navigator, right click on Subversion -> New repository connection
Fill in your details and test your connection.

Click ok and start using subversion!

Create a US iTunes Account from South Africa (Or anywhere else)

2008-10-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

Many of you might have seen that the South African iTunes don't have any games for the iPhone, not even free ones.. :-( Well you can create a free US account to download them!

Here's how:

1. In iTunes, sign out of any other accounts you have. (By clicking on your account name in the top right corner, and then selecting "Sign Out".
2. Go to the botton of the page, and choose “United States” for the country.

3. Go to any free item to download. (A free game in the appstore will work well). Click "Get App".

4. When prompted to log in, choose “Create New Account”
5. Hit “Continue”
6. Agree & “Continue”

7. Fill in some details and click “Continue”. Note you'll need a real valid email address.

8. Select “None” for payment option, make your state “FL – Florida”, City “Tallahassee”, ZIP Code “32301”. (Put in any other street and telephone number)

9. You will receive a activation email, click on the link and your account will be activated!

Note, you will only be able to download free content. I you want to buy content you will need to buy a iTunes gift certificate. I think you can find some on eBay, or if you live in the Johannesburg area, I saw that WW Computers in Cresta shopping centre sell some.

Happy downloading!

Color Code Your Mac Terminal

2008-08-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

Something I realized on my Mac is that the terminal isn't color coded. It is however when you ssh to a linux machine but not locally. However there is a quick and easy fix..

From the terminal open the following file (create if it don't exist) in home directory with your favorite text editor (vi should work fine): "~/.bash_profile"
Add the following lines:

export TERM=xterm-color
alias ls='ls -G'
alias ll='ls -hl'

Your 'ls' command should now display some color like this:

Connect to a Windows Server VPN from Leopard

2008-08-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

Well I had some trouble connecting to a Windows Server VPN with Leopard, and found a very simple solution. I don't know if this will work in all cases, but here goes anyway..

Goto System Preferences -> Network. Then click on the little "+" sign at the bottom left saying Create a new service when you hover the mouse over it. Choose VPN for Interface, and PPTP for VPN Type. Add a New Configuration, type in your Server Address, Account Name (This is your VPN username), and under Authentication Settings your password.

When I did all of this I could connect, but couldn't access anything on the network. The fix was to go to "Advanced" and check the Send all traffic over VPN connection option.

After doing all this you should be able to connect and access the network.

Sqlplus on a Mac with Oracle Instant Client

2008-07-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

One of the things any Oracle developer uses is sqlplus, but getting it to work on Mac OS-X is not quite as easy as on Windows. Follow these steps to install sqlplus on your Mac.

1. Download the Oracle Instant Client Zip files:

Instant Client Package - Basic
Instant Client Package - SQL*Plus
Instant Client Package - JDBC Supplement (Optional)
Instant Client Package - SDK (Optional)

2. Launch the Terminal and unzip the files to instantclient10_2.

unzip instantclient-basic-macosx-10.2.0.4.0.zip
unzip instantclient-sqlplus-macosx-10.2.0.4.0.zip
unzip instantclient-jdbc-macosx-10.2.0.4.0 #Optional
unzip instantclient-sdk-macosx-10.2.0.4.0 #Optional

3. Move the directory to where you want it. I put mine in /usr/local/oracle/instantclient_10_2.

sudo mkdir /usr/local/oracle/
sudo mv instantclient_10_2 /usr/local/oracle/

4. Then go to this directory and make symbolic links for dynamic libraries.

sudo ln -s libclntsh.dylib.10.1 libclntsh.dylib
sudo ln -s libocci.dylib.10.1 libocci.dylib

5. I reccomend creating a tnsnames.ora file where you add all your connection details. I placed mine in /usr/local/oracle/network/admin.

Example of a tnsnames.ora file:

IDENTIFIER =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP) (HOST = userid.myhosteddb.net)(PORT = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA = (SID = odb))
)

6. Then you need to set up necessary environment variables. I added mine to my .bash_profile script so they are alway's set when I run the terminal.

In your home folder you can type:

vi .bash_profile

And then add the following lines at the end of the file (Make sure you set the PATH correctly otherwise sqlplus won't run):

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/oracle/instantclient_10_2"
export SQLPATH="/usr/local/oracle/instantclient_10_2"
export TNS_ADMIN="/usr/local/oracle/network/admin"
export NLS_LANG="AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8"
export PATH=$PATH:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH

7. You should now be able to run sqlplus. Close the terminal and re-lunch it. Now run:

sqlplus [username]/[password]@[service]

8. Sqlplus should now run and look something like this:

Oracle E-Business Suite on a Mac

2008-07-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

One of my first concerns as a Oracle developer when considering switching to a Mac was if I would be able to access Oracle E-Business Suite. (Or Oracle Applications as many may know it by) Even though the official Oracle E-Business suite blog (http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/2006/08/18/) clearly states that is supports it, I know from previous experience that it can be quite a mission to work with Jinitiator (the java tool required to access Oracle forms), especially if you are a consultant and move between different sites who uses different versions of E-Business, and more importantly different Jinitiator versions. From different versions of Jinitiators that clash, to Firefox that don't recognize it, to Internet Explorer crashing on me, I always had problems on Windows, so surely getting it to work on a Mac must be quite a mission right? Wrong! Since E-Business on a Mac only uses Java and no Jinitiator its a breeze to use, and I could access E-Business with Safari without doing anything, or installing any plugins!

Apps Login screen

Apps Navigation Menu

Find Concurrent Request

Shipping Transactions

Quoting Module

Workfow Monitor

After it was sooo easy to login to E-Business from Safari, I thought there is no chance of Firefox working so easily. I fired up Firefox and logged into E-Business again without having to install anything. Awesome!

Oracle Financials in Firefox

Something I did pick up though which is very annoying is the default assignments of the F-keys in Mac OS X. Since its the default way to search in E-Business with the F11-key, but in Leopard's System Prefrences its set to Desktop. The easiest way to get rid of this problem is to go to System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Desktop, and deselect it.

My conclusion is that it is even easier to work on Oracle E-Business suite on Mac OS X than on Windows, and I would recommend any E-Business user who is thinking of switching, to seriously consider it!

Applications Versions Used:
Mac OS X Leopard: 10.5.3
Safari: 3.1.1
Oracle E-Business Suite: 11i
Java: build 1.5.0_13-119
Firefox: 3.0