Introduction to Oracle Configurator

       Oracle Configurator Overview

       Configurator provides a flexibility of custom configurations of products and services and is usually launched from a host application
                    
       

           Oracle Configurator Consist of three things:

                        

                                 1. Oracle Configurator developer

                                 2. CZ Schema

                                 3. Runtime Oracle Configurator
                                 4. Oracle Configurator Servlet 
                                            a) UI Server
                                            b) Configurator Interface Object (CIO)
                                            c) Configurator Engine
                            

         1. Oracle Configurator Developer

•         Oracle Configurator Developer is one of the oracle application product that helps to   develop configuration model and a configurator.
•         It allows to create, organize, manage and publish models(hierachical structure of data).
•         It is the thin development environment which can directly connect to CZ Schema
•         Includes tools for generating User Interface.
•         Define Configuration Rules.

          1.1. Configurator Models
                        Models are hierachical/categorized structure of data. Configuration Models contains the structure, rules and UI (optional) which allows the user to configure a valid orderable item.

                  Types of Configurator Model
                  
                    1. Developer Model/Non BOM Model
                 
                             Enables to create   

                                    - Standalone/prototyping configuration using structural elements (model, components, features, Options) 

                        - Custom Java Code connected to configuration models.

                    2. BOM Model

                              Enables to extend the imported ATO/PTO BOM Model.

        1.2.   Types of Responsibities

                        1. Oracle Configurator Developer
                        2. Oracle Configurator Administrator
                        3. Oracle Configurator Viewer


        1.3.  Launching OCD 
        
                   - Choose the appropriate responsibility that provide access to OCD.
                   - Oracle Configurator Developer consist of
                           -> Repository
                           -> WorkBench

              
                      Repository
                              Allows to organize models and manage objects such as Effectivity Sets, Usages, UI templates and Item Types.

                       
                   

                      Workbench
                              Provides tools for creating, modifying and testing model structure.

                          

                2. CZ Schema

                      Oracle Configurator stores data in its underlying schema called CZ Schema (ie) it contains all CZ tables  accessed by both Oracle Configurator developer and Runtime Configurator.

                      It is divided into subschema to hold
                           ->    Imported data from other oracle apps
                           ->    Control Settings (behavior of configurator processes)
                           ->    Data (defining model structures, rules and UI)
                           ->    Saved Configuration

             3. Oracle RunTime Configurator (RTC)

                     - Renders an UI configured using Oracle Configurator Developer
                     - Enables interactive user selection to configure orderable items in a web browser.
                     - It is usually launched by the hosted application like Order Mgmt or istore.

             4. Oracle Configurator Servlet.

                   - Responsible for rendering the configurator interface and acts as a communication broker between the configurator model, database and client browser.
                   - It consist of
                          1. UI Server
                          2. CIO (Configurator Interface Object)
                          3. Oracle Configurator Engine.

                   UI Server :
                       - Processes the user input from client UI based on the information received from Oracle Configurator Engine and renders back the UI for display to end users.

                  CIO :
                        - API layer that handles the communication between the Oracle Configurator engine and the UI. API methods of CIO can be used to access the model and its behaviors during runtime.

                 Oracle Configurator Engine
                      - Validates the user selections and provides result based on the compiled structure and rules of a configuration model.