Fixed Assets - Security By Book
This is my first blog and I thought I would write about a recent issue that I encountered as I was exploring options for dealing with Fixed Assets in 11.5.10 and R12 for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) changes that are coming down the line. I am not sure how many people have dealt with Security by book and that functionality provided by Oracle in the Fixed Assets Module. However, I have set that up for clients on occasion as appropriate and thought this might be useful to provide.
In looking at different options, I set up several asset books in FA. I needed to secure the books in an effort to control access to the different books. Going through the normal motions of setting up the security by book (see below for those steps), I encountered an issue unexpectedly, at first. The client I was dealing with had already setup various custom responsibilities and when I went through the setup, the security setup did not work.
Steps to setup security by book:
1. Set up your organizations (assign the asset organization classification).
2. Attach your asset books to the organization(s).
3. Define your security profile(s)
4. Run the security maintenance program
5. Define necessary responsibilities
6. Assign your security profiles to your responsibilities
7. Assign responsibilities to your users.
I went through the process of reviewing the configuration for missed setups and attempted to identify the problem. I created my own custom responsibility, assigned the security rules and like clockwork, the security was working for that responsibility. However, it was not working for the other FA responsibilities that already existed. After much frustration, I began to question what I was missing.
Then I had an epiphany. The client had defined custom responsibilities and assigned them to their custom application as part of their initial implementation a few years back. Then it dawned on me what the problem was. Then, embarrassed, that I had overlooked the problem, I made the setup change.
The problem with security by book is that when you assign a security profile to the rule on a responsibility that is not assigned to the Asset application (APPLICATION_ID = 140), the security profile is not recognized. To correct this issue, you need to populate a system profile option called ‘Initialization SQL Statement - Custom’.
You need to populate the profile option (for the custom responsibility in question) with the exact pl/sql code:
Begin fa_security.set_fa_context(>); end;
Save your changes and then you will find that those custom responsibilities that are assigned to the custom APPLICATION_ID will now recognize the security profile and your security by book will function as intended.
I would encourage you to let me know if there are issues in the Oracle E-Business Suite that you are interested in knowing more about to drop me a line and let me know. I will be happy to provide you with information you, the reader, are interested in.
It would also be cool to get feedback from you the reader related to the information that I provide being useful to you.
December 21st, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Note that the pl/sql code should be:
Begin fa_security.set_fa_context(>); end;
where > is your custom application_id for the responsibility.
Thanks
Dave
December 21st, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Sorry - I am having technical difficulties in putting in my comments and the same with the blog entry. Let me try again –
the pl/sql code should be:
Begin fa_security.set_fa_context(custom application_id); end;
This is the correct code. In the blog, I was trying to use double less than signs to accent the custom application id but that is not being posted correctly.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
Thanks.
Dave