Archive for the ‘ICIS Applications’ Category

Apple’s Java for OS X 2012-006 update uninstalled the Apple-provide Java applet plug-in from all Mac web browsers. Mac OS X users running Java-based applications are now advised by Apple to download the latest Mac OS change, which will install the latest version of Java SE 6 (1.6.0_43).

Recent tests with the latest Java 7 applet plug-in from Oracle appear to work with ICIS forms. HOWEVER, Oracle do not yet support Java 7 with ICIS and we therefore recommend Mac users to rely on the Mac OS update provided via the Apple App Store

You can find information on this at http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572

Should you have any issue, please contact the ICT service desk and a Mac support specialist will be able to help you

You may experience issues logging into ICIS after the recent upgrade.

If you do get an error such as “The webpage cannot be found – HTTP 404″, this could be related to your browser caching an old link. To resolve this, please clear your browser cache (instructions here). Please close your browser and restart a new browser session. If you still can’t log in, please go via the ICIS Web Pages and click on the Login to ICIS Icon (example attached)

If the core form (using the Java Plugin) hangs when loading, this could be caused by some issue with your local Java Cache. To resolve this, please delete your local java files (instructions here)

If you get a message such as the one in this caption, please look to uninstall the Java Plugin JRE 1.7. As JRE 1.7 is not installed on College Machine’s standard build, you should be able to remove it with your current permissions. If not, please raise this with the Service desk to have it assigned to your desktop support team

If after attempting these, you still experience problems, please raise this with the ICT Service Desk

Background

There is a bug in iProcurement which means you will no longer be able to enter a supplier’s name directly into the ‘Supplier’s Name’ field in the ‘Non-Catalog Request’ screen and then either tab or click on the magnifying glass.  If you do so the following error message will then pop up:

In case you accidentally come across this pop-up error message, click on ‘X’ button in the top-right hand corner in the popup window, and follow the work around provided below.

Workaround

When you come to the ‘Supplier’s Name’ field when entering a ‘Non-Catalog Request’ requisition:

Click on the magnifying glass:

Enter the supplier name in the search box; use “%” if you need a wildcard:

Click ‘Go’:

Select the site that you want from the pick list by clicking on the radio button in the ‘Select’ column:

Click ‘Select’:

The system will then populate the ‘Supplier Name’ and ‘Site’:

Please Note:  If this error occurs anywhere within ICIS, closing the error window, then clicking on the magnifying glass or torch will resolve the error.

Background

One of the new features of Oracle Financials R12 in iProcurement is predictive searching for the ‘Non Catalogue Request’ screen when you type in fields which have a list of values; this will be familiar if you use the Google search engine:

Unfortunately because our database is so large, there are performance issues around this.  A ‘Loading…’ box may appear if you are typing directly into the fields with list of values:

Workaround

Unfortunately there is no work around for this; if you wait a few seconds, or click anywhere else on the page, the box will disappear.

Following a reported vulnerability with the Java Tools, Oracle are now recommending customers to upgrade to the latest release of the Java suite used (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/javacpufeb2012-366318.html)

Subsequently, a rise in Virus attack worldwide has been noted, with the computer virus called ‘Ransomware’ impacting some users within the college (http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/blog/ictfaq/2012/06/12/computer-virus-holding-your-files-to-ransom/)

ICT has therefore increased the speed at which the rollout of the Java Plugin Upgrade (to version 1.6.0_31, also known as 1.6u31) is pushed to Windows College Machine, and we aim to have the package received by all machines by the first week of July 2012

Please note that the package can only be applied when the machine is left switched on, but no user is logged in. Therefore, upon restarting your machine or logging off, we encourage users to leave the machine idle for a couple of minutes for the upgrade to work.

Should there be any problem with the install, please contact the ICT Service Desk.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT JRE 1.7 PLUGIN FROM ORACLE.

As of June 13, 2012, the time of Oracle bulletin’s publication, Oracle Forms (a key component of ICIS) is not compatible with Java 7.  Java 7 has not been certified with Oracle E-Business Suite (ICIS). Oracle E-Business Suite functionality based on Forms — e.g. Financials, Grants, HR — will stop working if you upgrade to JRE 7.

Please therefore do not install JRE 1.7 on your machine, or you will not be able to use ICIS

Following a reported vulnerability with the Java Tools, Oracle are now recommending customers to upgrade to the latest release of the Java suite used (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/javacpufeb2012-366318.html)

Mozilla, publishers of Firefox, have subsequently blocked the Java Plugins for the versions considered at risk (http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2012/04/02/blocking-java/ and https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/blocked/p80). You may have seen the following appearing in one of your session:

If you use applications such as ICIS, Discoverer, Blackboard or others which use the Java Plugins, you will find that the application will not work with Firefox until you have upgraded to the latest version of the Java Plugin.

ICT is looking to have all college Windows machines upgraded to Java Plugin JRE 1.6.0_31 as soon as possible, but this will take time, and we are monitoring the risks associated with the use of older JRE plugins.

In the meantime, you may want to consider one of the following options to enable you to continue using the application:

1 - Use Internet Explorer – Recommended option as this should not require any change to be made to your system’s configuration

2 – Download the latest version of the 1.6 plugin manually (this can be found at http://www.java.com/en/download/inc/windows_upgrade_xpi.jsp, but you would need to have administrative rights to do so, and would need to ensure the version is stating to be the Recommended Version 6 Update 31 (http://download.oracle.com/otn/java/jdk/6u31-b05/jre-6u31-windows-i586-iftw.exe) or any version of Jave 1.6 above 31).

Important note on 15/06/2012: Java 1.7 is not compatible and will not work with ICIS, so please only use versions of JRE from 1.6.0_31 up to 35.

ICT is looking to implement this upgrade to all College Windows machine as soon as possible. We recommend to wait until this is done unless there is a particular reason you need to use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. If you cannot wait, please contact the ICT service desk to have the upgrade carried out manually by your local ICT engineers. Please note that installing the latest version of JRE 1.6 yourself could lead plugin installation corruption, and in some cases, might require for ICT to assist with the machine’s installation, or rebuild the install.

We also advise you clear your Java cached files after upgrading from an earlier version of the plugin after a successfull plugin upgrade. To do so, follow the instructions at http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/blog/ictfaq/2011/01/13/i-have-been-asked-to-clear-my-javajre-cache-how-do-i-do-this/

We are aware of issues with Exporting from ICIS into Excel using Internet Explorer, if you experience this issue, please follow the instructions available at http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/blog/ictfaq/2011/11/21/problem-export…ffice-20072010/

This workaround is applicable following what appears to be a change in behaviour in browser/cookie handling, possibly following a Microsoft security change

Sign in as normal:

You will then be presented with your ICIS homepage, rather than the pick list of responsibilities.  It appears from the screen that you will not be able to upload a journal; however there is a work-around:

Select the responsibility “Web-ADI”:

Select “Document Management”:

Click “Go”:

Close the window:

Navigate to “Add-Ins” on the Excel ribbon bar, then to “Oracle” and “Upload”:

You will now be able to upload your journal as normal:

The URL for ICIS or the Student System, amongst others, will take you straight away to an authentication page, meaning you never see the page with the URLs http://icis.imperial.ac.uk/ (for ICIS) or http://ossprd.ad.ic.ac.uk:8400/oa_servlets/AppsLogin (for Student System), but instead when clicking on these URL, you land onto https://centsso.ad.ic.ac.uk/sso/pages/IClogin.jsp, which should not be saved as a favourite, as direct access to this URL is not allowed (error message: Error: Direct access to this page is not allowed.) and is not specific to the system you are accessing.

Instead, the easiest way is just to right click on the URLs above and select “Add to favorites”.

The second easiest way to save the ”ICIS Login Page” and/or “Student System Login Page”, go to the ICIS Pages (www.icis.ic.ac.uk), right click on the icon  or , as select “Add to favorites”.

Resgistering is simple, just visit http://imperial.ac.uk/icis and click the button to register for access.  You’ll be prompted for your College username and password and then need to complete the form.