New to JD Edwards?

Executive Summary

Are you brand-new to JD Edwards in your role as a Business Analyst in the JD Edwards system? If so, you’re in the right place. In a recent presentation at the BLUEPRINT 4D conference in Dallas, TX, Tammy Gaston, Senior IT Specialist and JD Edwards Manager at Stoner, Inc. shared all you need to know to be successful on your new JD Edwards system.

JDE is highly customizable, which means each business gets to organize the system according to its unique needs. While these differences complicate things if you are new to JD Edwards and trying to learn the new system, we’ve focused this blog post on the most basic information you need to get started with JDE.

Over the next few paragraphs, you’ll learn about:

• Basic JDE terminology
• Navigation screens
• Configurable Network Computing
• Object types
• Data structure
• Favorites
• And additional support

Quick Tips & Tricks for Users Who are New to JD Edwards

Navigator Menu

When you launch JD Edwards, you’ll begin with the Navigator menu. This menu will look different depending on your security access and company preferences, but you should see a compass icon at the top of the page. When you press on that compass, you’ll open a tree view that goes several nests deep. This is where the JDE Standard Menu can be found.

As you use the Navigator Menu, the system will create a breadcrumb to show how many levels deep you’ve gone into the menus. This way, you can keep track of your exact steps. See the highlighted line  in the image below. If you click the dropdown to the left of the current breadcrumb, you will see your past breadcrumbs. This is the simplest form of navigation.

Another item in the Navigator Menu is Fast Path, which you can use to search for applications, tasks, and other information.

To use Fast Path, click the Compass icon and select Fast Path. Then, type your search term into the search box. You can search an application number or an application and version with a space in between. Additionally, if you have Task Search in your environment, you may enter something like “order” for various results. Results might include work orders, sales orders, purchase orders, etc.

Carousel Menu

Depending on your JDE version, you may have a Carousel Menu with Open Applications, Recent Reports, and Favorites. You can also set up Custom Sub-Menus. The Carousel Menu may live on the side of the screen, or you can pull it to the bottom display as icons.

Composed Pages

You may also see Composed Pages (or E1 Pages) in your system. These are part of UDOs (User Defined Objects). Composed Pages may take the form of watchlists, graphs, and/or launchpad.

Favorites

On the top navigation bar, you will see a star icon. This is where you can add and manage your favorites.

As an admin or user support, you may want to include the following tools in your favorites:

• Business Object Reservations – P00095
  • If your database didn’t release a token or a reservation, you may delete the record here.
• Printers – P98616
  • Set up printers and define default printers.
• Role Relationships – P95921
  • Add users to roles or roles to users.
• Interactive Versions (IV) – P983051
  • Make minor modifications or see what versions you have. (Changing those versions is in a different place.)
• Batch Versions (BV) – P98305W
  • Find out what versions of reports you have.
  • Example: If you run invoicing and a certain order didn’t invoice, you can go look at the version and check processing and data selection to see if that order was selected out for a certain reason.
• Work Center (WC) – P012503
  • Uncover errors in employee’s work centers.
  • When you run a report in JD Edwards, it will write to each user’s work center and typically say “job has completed normally.” If there’s an error, you can look at that employee’s work center, find the report that didn’t run, and drill down into the job, batch number, or document number to find troubleshooting information.
  • If the information you receive doesn’t solve the issue, send the information to support saying, “I received this message—what do I do now?”
• Order Line Types – P40205
  • If an order isn’t working like you expect it to, check that it has a line type and trace that back to what the process should be doing.
• Order Activity Rules – P40204
  • Find out the status flow for any kind of order and line type combination.
  • JD Edwards provides standard status flows, but your company may also set up customized status flows.

Configurable Network Computing (CNC)

Oracle’s JD Edwards CNC is an application architecture that enables interactive and batch applications, composed of a single code base, to run across a network of multiple server platforms and databases. The applications consist of reusable business functions and associated data that can be configured across the network dynamically.

In other words, CNC allows several programs to interact, and they can be configured in Settings.

For instance:

• Applications can be edited via Report Design Aid/Form Design Aid or Event Rules.
• Changes are tested and promoted through Statuses in Object Management Workbench (OMW) located on the Fat Client.
• Changes are applied using Package Builds, with everything managed on the Deployment Server.
• Servers are managed on an application called Server Manager.

Object Types

As a business analyst, you will primarily use Interactive Applications (IV) or Batch Applications (UBE or BV). Each object is designated by a letter and some numbers.

• Interactive Applications begin with P
• Batch applications (reports) begin with R
• Tables begin with F
• Business Views begin with V
• Business Functions begin with B

Data Structure

If you need to know which table or view is behind an application you’re looking at, go to the Tools Menu and then Data Browser. This will open the Business View that’s behind that form.

You can do a Direct Query on a few fields, so even if you don’t have database access, this gives you answers. You will see all the fields on that Business View, which may be more than what’s on your form grid.

Key Takeaways

When you become a JDE Business Analyst and are new to JD Edwards, you’re signing up to learn a new language. But don’t get overwhelmed—take your training step by step, and everything will click into place before you know it.

Start out by getting familiar with your Navigation Menu, Composed Pages, Objects, and Data Structure. And remember—it’s okay if your environment looks different from the screenshots above. JDE is highly customizable, so you will need to get closely acquainted with your personal system.

As you encounter questions about JDE, know that you’re not alone. There are several resources available to you, including:

• My Oracle Support
  • Submit cases to support, and research answers as you wait for a response.
• JDE Resource Library
  • Find roadmaps, documentation for all applications, and a wealth of information on all things JDE.
• Quest Oracle Community
  • Learn with blogs, recorded presentations, whitepapers, webinars, etc.
• Quest Special Interest Groups (SIG)
  • Find a relevant group, like Business Analysts SIG, to network and connect with others in your role.
• Regional User Group
  • Ask Quest if your local area has a networking group.
• JDETables.com
  • Find implementation guides for adding new features to your environment.
• JDEList
  • Read past conversations and engage in a public forum.
• YouTube
  • Watch videos on the Oracle JD Edwards channel.

To watch the full BLUEPRINT 4D session recording, click here: New to JDE? Business Analysts start here!