Concurrent Programs in Oracle Apps

Question: What are the different types of scripts/programs that can be attached to concurrent programs?
Answer :
A sql script
A Sql*Loader program
Java program
Oracle Report
Pl/SQL program ( or call it a stored procedure/package procedure)
Host script, like a unix shell script
Pro*C/Spawned
Perl

Question: What are the basic steps when defining a concurrent program.
Answer: Broadly speaking there are three steps when developing a concurrent program in Oracle Apps
Step 1. Make Oracle Apps identify the executable
Step 2. Provide a handle to the executable by means of defining a concurrent program
Step 3. Make this concurrent program accesible to selected users via their responsibility.

Question: Please can you describe the above steps in detail
Answer:
Step 1. Make Oracle Apps identify the executable
In Oracle Apps we have something called as concurrent program executable. Concurrent program executable is defined to register a script or a procedure for its usage within oracle apps.

Step 2. Provide a handle to the executable by means of defining a Concurrent Program.
We need to define a concurrent program and attach that to the executable defined in above step.

Step 3. Make this concurrent program accesible to selected users via their responsibility.
We do this by adding the concurrent program to something called as request group. The request group is either associated with a responsibility or is passed in as a parameter to the function request form function. Don’t worry if you do not understand this step, I will be writing a dedicated article to explain this step.

Question : Please explain the steps for defining a pl/sql concurrent program, with screenshots and with almost real life example?
Answer:
1. Create a table and a stored procedure in pl/sql
create table xx_hello_world_tab
(
message_text VARCHAR2(100)
,creation_date DATE
) ;

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE
xx_register_user_prc(errbuf OUT VARCHAR2,retcode OUT VARCHAR2) IS
BEGIN
INSERT INTO xx_hello_world_tab VALUES (‘Hello World’ ,SYSDATE);
END xx_register_user_prc;

SELECT * FROM xx_hello_world_tab ;
–Zero records will be returned here
2. Note the two parameters, namely errbuff and retcode
These parameters for used for the interaction between the concurrent program and the pl/sql Program. I suggest to the beginners not to spend much time on these parameters.

3. Define an executable attached to this procedure.
This can be done by navigating to the responsibility “Application Developer”, and selecting the menu /Concurrent/Executable

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4. Define the concurrent program
This can be done by navigating to responsibility “Application Developer” and then selecting menu /Concurrent/Program

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5. Attach this program to a report group.
Go to System Administrator responsibility, and select
/Security/Responsibility/Request

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Now, we can navigate to the Receivables Manager and submit the concurrent request.

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After the completion of the request, we check the table

SELECT * FROM xx_hello_world_tab;