Deep Links and their usage in BI/OTBI Reports

Deep Links can be accessed from Navigator > Tools > Deep Links

Once we click the Deep Links, it will show the complete list of Deep Links

How to use these Deep Links?

We need to prepare the hyperlink using the Deep Link Object Type and the Action that can be seen in the above image.

The format would be like:

https://<HOST>/fndSetup/faces/deeplink?objType=HIRE_AN_EMPLOYEE&action=NONE

Ex:

https://ekkt-dev1.fa.us2.oraclecloud.com/fscmUI/faces/deeplink?objType=HIRE_AN_EMPLOYEE&action=NONE

We can prepare the hyperlink manually or we can just right click and copy the link address.

Some of the Deep Links work and open up the respective pages. Some of them don’t work. Issue would be because of Classic/RUI or based on the data access for the user. There isn’t a clear documentation on the mapping for deep link and pirvileges required.

There isn’t proper documentation on passing the input values to the Deep Link to direct to the exact person page.

Now let’s look at the BI/OTBI way to achieve the direct link to the Person Management page of employees.

Steps for OTBI Report:

Construct the URL like below and the values highlighted in red are the series of parameters

https://<POD DETAILS>/hcmUI/faces/FndOverview?pEffectiveDate=@{Date}&_afrLoop=@{1}&fndGlobalItemNodeId=@{2}&pAssignmentId=@{Assignment_Id}&pPersonId=@{Person_Id}&fnd=/WEB-INF/oracle/apps/hcm/Femployment%252Fmanage%252Fui%252Fflow%252FManageEmploymentTF.xml%2523ManageEmploymentTF%2523ManageEmploymentTF;assignmentId=@{Assignment_Id}&effectiveDate=@{Date}&BManage%2BEmployment%3Bfalse%3B256%3B%3B%3B&pageParams=pPersonId=@{Person_Id};pAssignmentId=@{Assignment_Id};pEffectiveDate=@{Date}

Create a sample OTBI Report involving few columns including Person Id, Assignment Id and Date as these are essential for constructing and passing the variables to the deep link of Fusion Application Page.   You can hide these three fields from their ‘Column Properties’. 

Note: The value in ‘Date’ column will be used as Effective Date’ and so typically it has to be current date. Just select any date from the subject area and change the column formula to use NQ variable ‘current_date’ and set the format to ‘YYYY-MM-DD’. 

Sample Output:

Let’s set-up the deep link on ‘Person Number’ using the constructed URL like the above one.

1. Go to ‘Criteria’ -> ‘Person Number’ and click ‘Column Properties’ -> Interaction

2. Select ‘Action Links’ for ‘Value’

3. Copy the entire URL from above and then click ‘Define Parameters’

4. Click ‘OK’ -> ‘Results’ and click on ‘Person Number’ to navigate into Fusion Application Person Management screen and from there, you can perform various ‘Tasks’ for the selected person.

At the moment, deep links from the reporting are available up to ‘Person Management’ only and hopefully Oracle should allow more to navigate into different pages like Absence Records, Document of Records, Manage Employment, etc.

Steps for BI Publisher Report:

Let’s create a sample SQL-query to get the similar columns mentioned in the OTBI above including Person Id, Assignment Id and Date. 

Create a data-model to extract Person Number, Person Name and Legal Entity. The below is a sample query which includes the columns highlighted in red are required for deep link setup:

SELECT DISTINCT
	--columns for deep link
	papf.person_id,
	paam.assignment_id,
	to_char(sysdate, 'yyyy-mm-dd') CURRENT_DATE,
	papf.person_number,
	ppnf.full_name Employee_name,
	entity.name legal_entity
FROM per_person_secured_list_v papf,
	per_all_assignments_m paam,
	per_person_names_f ppnf,
	hr_organization_v org,
	hr_legal_entities entity
WHERE 1 = 1
	--assignment
	AND paam.effective_latest_change(+) = 'Y'
	AND paam.assignment_type(+) = 'E'
	AND paam.primary_flag(+) = 'Y'
	AND paam.assignment_status_type(+) = 'ACTIVE'
	AND sysdate BETWEEN paam.effective_start_date
		AND paam.effective_end_date
			--person name	
	AND papf.person_id = paam.person_id
	AND sysdate BETWEEN papf.effective_start_date
		AND paam.effective_end_date
	AND ppnf.person_id = papf.person_id
	AND ppnf.name_type = 'GLOBAL'
	AND sysdate BETWEEN ppnf.effective_start_date
		AND ppnf.effective_end_date
			--legal entity
	AND paam.legal_entity_id = entity.organization_id(+)

Create a reporting using Report Layout editor and enable deep link on Person Number by selecting ‘Person Number’ column, navigate to ‘Properties’ and ‘Misc’. You will find a property ‘URL’ and paste the below:

https://<your-cloud-environment-pod>/hcmUI/faces/FndOverview?pEffectiveDate={/DATA_DS/G_1/CURRENT_DATE}&_afrLoop=8103129331815164&fndGlobalItemNodeId=itemNode_workforce_management_person_management&pAssignmentId={/DATA_DS/G_1/ASSIGNMENT_ID}&pPersonId={/DATA_DS/G_1/PERSON_ID}&fnd=/WEB-INF/oracle/apps/hcm/Femployment%252Fmanage%252Fui%252Fflow%252FManageEmploymentTF.xml%2523ManageEmploymentTF%2523ManageEmploymentTF;assignmentId={/DATA_DS/G_1/ASSIGNMENT_ID}&effectiveDate={/DATA_DS/G_1/CURRENT_DATE}&BManage%2BEmployment%3Bfalse%3B256%3B%3B%3B&pageParams=pPersonId={/DATA_DS/G_1/PERSON_ID};pAssignmentId={/DATA_DS/G_1/ASSIGNMENT_ID};pEffectiveDate={/DATA_DS/G_1/CURRENT_DATE}

If you are using a different ‘Group Name’ for your data-set query, replace ‘G_1’ with an appropriate one.

Click on ‘Person Number’ to navigate into Fusion Application Person Management screen and from there, you can perform various ‘Tasks’ for the selected person.

If you want Person Number column to appear as a hyperlink, change the color to light-blue color.

Tip: Deep Links is an unexplored area and there isn’t a clear documentation by Oracle in Fusion Books on which ones have the parameters enabled and which ones can be accessed directly.

If you have some great content and want to share with larger audience check tout the Contribute section and you can reach out to me on Telegram Group/LinkedIn and get your content published.

If you have worked on Deep Links in Fusion and want to share your feelings, please comment.