TCC: Handling Encoding

 

Aahh…multilingual. That word increases the complexity of any project intantly. When your enterprise application is multilingual, it means users will be able to add and edit data in different languages, and that the data can no longer be stored in ASII/ANSI format. East Asian, and Middle Eastern and some European languages require more than one byte for a single charachter, so it has to be stored in Unicode format. While working on Taleo’s TCC scripts, I recently hit a roadblock with multilingual data, but the fantastic folks at Taleo had already solved the problem. © cleartext.blogspot.com 2016

TCC’s pipelines handle data in UTF-8 format, but many enterprise systems will produce output in UTF-16. So which one is better ? There is a common misconception that UTF-8 can not store all language charachters, and that UTF-16 is required. That’s not true. UTF-8 has an amazing awesome format, and it can depict every Unicode charachter, same as UTF-16. Here is a spectucular explanation of this miracle.

So if you get data in UTF-16 (or any of the other formats), how do you load them via TCC ?  In the configuration  file, TCC provides an option to set the encoding of the source file. © cleartext.blogspot.com 2016

If you know the encoding of the source, you enter it here.  This will work for standard Import files. There is also an option to set the response encoding.

But some complicated TCC configurations, like NetChange, require the pipeline data to be in UTF-8. So how do you get around that ?

The encoding can be changed in the configuration file. Go to Pre-Processing tab, and add a new step.

There is an option to add an ‘Convert Encoding’ step. © cleartext.blogspot.com 2016

Choose the source encoding, and set the target as UTF-8. This step has to be the first step in your NetChange configuration file.

Thats it ! cleartext.blogspot.com

Aaron’s Blog for TCC

 

There are not much sites/blogs that discuss Taleo’s Connect Client (TCC), the only documentation is on Oracle sites. But I ran into this really helpful blog, the most unlikely place you could find TCC tips. Aron Asberry’s blog has tonnes of TCC tips and fixes for standard errors.  This guy has 6 monitors running for his Taleo related work, surely a heavy weight.

Hope that helps !

TCC: Complete list of Filters and Functions

 

The Taleo Connect Client has a lot of filters to form queries, and a bigger bunch of functions which can be used in the export definition. Knowing the complete list of supported filters and functions will help when one has to write complex projections. Some of the functions are documented in the official TCC developers guide.

Here is the complete list of all filter criterion which TCC understands:

cleartext.blogspot.com

and
between
contains
containsIgnoreCase
customFilter
customLogicalOperator
customOperator
equal
equalAllowNull
excludedFrom
greaterThan
greaterThanOrEqual
hierarchicalContains
hierarchicalContainsOrWithin
hierarchicalWithin
includedIn
isFalse
isNotNull
isNull
isTrue
lessThan
lessThanOrEqual
like
likeIgnoreCase
matches
matchesIgnoreCase
not
notEqual
or
predefinedFilter
returnsResults
textuallyMatches
lrd

cleartext.blogspot.com

And here is the complete list of TCC Functions cleartext.blogspot.com

 

add
addDays
addMonths
addWeeks
addYears
allCustomFields
amount
anyQuery
average
boolean
castAsDate
castAsNumber
castAsTimestamp
classType
column
concatenate
count
currency
customFunction
customValue
date
decode
divide
double
field
firstValue
float
greatest
integer
key
lastValue
least
list
lobCompare
lobIndexOf
lobLength
lobSubstring
locale
long
maximum
minimum
multilingualColumn
multiply
nextValue
overRows
overValues
parameter
power
predefinedValue
previousValue
projection
replace
replaceNull
replaceNullOrNot
round
string
substring
subtract
subtractDate
sum
switchByCriterion
switchByValue
toChar
textAbout
textAnd
textCustom
textInPath
textNot
textOr
textWeight
textWithin
toEndOfTheDay
toLowerCase
toStartOfTheDay
toUpperCase
trim
truncate
undefined

 

Enjoy. cleartext.blogspot.com

TCC: Prevent Duplicates in Exports

 

 

Sometimes while running TCC exports with some complex filters, the same record might turn up more than once in in the final export file. The reason for this is that Taleo has a fixed datamodel, the relationships between various entities is pre-configured and cannot be overriden. So and M:M relationship cannot be converted to 1:M. Due to this, some records might be exported multiple ones.

Turns out, there is an easy way to fix this in the export process itself In the General tab of the Export file setup ,click on Advanced.

 

 

On the popup window, check the "Prevent Duplicates" option. This will ensure that records get exported only once in an export file.

TCC: Transition Attachments need to be unzipped twice

 

TCC (Taleo Connect Client) is Taleo's (Enterprise Edition) official data export/import tool, but it does not allow manipulations on files uploaded/attached into the Taleo system.  To work with files attached, you need the TCC Custom Steps library. But again, it appears though stores files uploaded into some modules differently on their system.

For documents in the Recruiting module, Taleo first compresses, and then encodes the file in Base64. This is because internally it uses webservices for TCC, and Base64 seems like the only way to send binary attachments over SOAP XMLs. So while using TCC Custom Steps to export the attached files, you have to first decode the Base64 content, and then unzip it. Fortunately, the library's com.taleo.integration.client.customstep.xml.ExtractAttachedFilePostStep class does this automatically.

But when I used the same step to export documents from the Transitions module, the final files appeared corrupted, they would not open up in file viewers for PDF or Doc format. Turns out, the files exported are still in zip format. They need to be unzipped once more to get the final file.

So for Transition module, Taleo Zips it twice, then Base64 encodes it once. For exporting the files using TCC, the need to be unzipped twice. The above mentioned class does not do this automatically.

Answer: Different Class

The Custom Library documentation mentions another class in the same library ,com.taleo.integration.client.customstep.xml.ExtractFilesPostStep , which has more options.

 

According to the documentation, for documents, this step needs to have an operation value of "DecodeBase64,Gunzip". It does not mention whether operations can be chained.

They can. For transition documents, the operation has to be "DecodeBase64,Gunzip,Gunzip"

Here is the final configuration:

The final files generated by this sequence perfectly opened up in a PDF reader, so all transition forms are stored in PDF format in Taleo.

TCC: Changing Entity Tree Depth

 

While working with the Taleo Connect Client, sometimes you will need to work with complex hierarchy levels in the Entity tree. I am talking of this tree structure on the right side of your TCC Designer:           Cleartext.blogspot.com

If you start opening up the levels in the entity, you can go down to four levels. That is the default setting after installation. To go further down, you will need to increase the depth of this entity tree. This is done via Window-> Preferences   Cleartext.blogspot.com

Try increasing the value of Depth , under the Client -> Design option. And restart the TCC exe. But do be careful, entering large values can cause your TCC client to crash.  When I entered a value of 10 and restarted, the exe would not open up. And it started throwing java heap related errors. The change you make is global , and will reflect in all the products in the Installation Pack.

This article first appeared on Cleartext.blogspot.com

TCC - Exporting Attachments

 

This is something I struggled a lot with, and I am posting this in the hope that the next person struggling with this will find it helpful.

Taleo Enterprise Edition has a complex data model, and this becomes a problem when it comes to mass updates/exports. They provide a windows tool called the Taleo Connect Client (TCC) for this purpose. But the tool does not provide any out-of-box option to export/import files and attachments. For this purpose, consultants were using a custom library called TCCCustomSteps. But there is very little documentation around the subject area, and automating it requires bat files.

cleartext.blogspot.com

1:First, download the TCCCustomSteps library. This used to be hosted on Taleo's knowledge exchange forum, but the links no longer work. You can download a copy from here.

2:Extract the jar files into the \extensions\exernaljars\ folder under your TCC installation.

3. There is a product defect in current releases of TCC, you will get jar files when you try to use the TCCCustomsteps library. The fix is to replace commons-lang-2.0.jar with commons-lang-2.6.jar [TCC installation folder]\lib\endorsed.

4. Restart your TCC client.

5. Set up your TCC export and configuration files. Choose XML as the output type in both the files, CSV won't do. In the Projections tab of the export file, map the filename and file contents fields.

6. Create your TCC config file now, you can choose to create it from the  export file created in the previous step. In the projections tab, remove the StripSoap step, and add an XSL transformation step. cleartext.blogspot.com

The XSL step is to filter out only the tags required for the ExtractFile step. Here is the contents of the XSL file:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    xmlns:to="http://www.taleo.com/ws/integration/toolkit/2005/07"
    xmlns:util="http://www.mavixconsulting.com/2013/XSL/transform"
    exclude-result-prefixes="to util">
<xsl:output method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>

<xsl:template match="to:record">
<xsl:element name="file">
    <xsl:attribute name="path">
        <xsl:value-of select="./to:field[@name='FirstName']"/><xsl:value-of select="./to:field[@name='LastName']"/>_<xsl:value-of select="./to:field[@name='AttachedFiles,FileName']"/>
    </xsl:attribute>
    <xsl:element name="content">
        <xsl:value-of select="./to:field[@name='AttachedFiles,FileContent']"/>
    </xsl:element>
</xsl:element>

</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is the content of the XML file: cleartext.blogspot.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<files>
[RECORD_OUTPUT]
</files>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. Add the TCCCustom Step in the config file. For this, add one more "Custom Step" in the "Post-Processing" tab, and select Custom step and "Default custom step" as options.

8. For Java Class, enter "com.taleo.integration.client.customstep.xml.ExtractAttachedFilePostStep". Add the remaining values are below:

9. Save the config file and run it. The first time you run the export, you might want to change the filter to select a single record and text the export. When the run completes, the file attached will be exported into the output folder.

cleartext.blogspot.com

And that is all. There are other classes in the JAR which can be used to change filters , convert to PDF, and further manipulate the xml file.

 

This article first appeared on cleartext.blogspot.com

TBE: CSS fix for login area in CWS

 

Ok, a little expansion first. This is a CSS fix for the login area of the Career Website using Taleo Business Edition (TBE). The Careers Web Site (CWS), is Taleo's portal to get job-searching candidates to register and enter their information. TBE provides options to set up multiple CWS pages for different job types, but they will all inherit styles from TBE's cloud service. The login area is one such place in the page which cannot be customized. Due to an existing product defect, the text in the login area is misplaced and misaligned.

cleartext.blogspot.com

Eg: this is from one of many TBE CareerSites.

Some other examples:

 

 

and so on…..cleartext.blogspot.com

Do you see the pattern ? In all of these sites, the text "Re-type new password" appears misaligned. The placement of this text cannot be controlled from within TBE, the login id and password fields are always together.  This is because this form layout is downloaded from TBE's public web servers, like most cloud applications, and thus the layout will be similar for any TBE user. Only minor UI enhancements like font type and size is inherited from the base parent website.

Now for the fix:

This simple form issue can be fixed with a minor CSS tweak into the CWS header itself. Just insert the following into the header enclosed inside text/css sections:

Save the header and try the CWS again, you should see the login area move into place something like this:

Now the labels all appear in alignment on the left side, and the gap above the third field is removed.

To see a complete Career Web Site designed by me, see here.

 

 

 

 

This article first appeared on cleartext.blogspot.com

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils.defaultIfEmpty(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/String

 

While using the Taleo Connect Client (TCC) for some advanced configurations , for instance for attachments, you might run into some weird java related errors.

 

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils.defaultIfEmpty(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/String;
    at com.taleo.integration.client.customstep.BaseCustomStep.init(BaseCustomStep.java:120)
    at com.taleo.integration.client.customstep.xml.ExtractAttachedFilePostStep.init(ExtractAttachedFilePostStep.java:424)
    at com.taleo.integration.client.step.BaseCustomStep.init(BaseCustomStep.java:58)
    at com.taleo.integration.client.step.CustomStepWrapper.init(CustomStepWrapper.java:111)
    at com.taleo.integration.client.workflow.WorkflowManager.addSteps(WorkflowManager.java:1006)
    at com.taleo.integration.client.workflow.WorkflowManager.addPostProcessSteps(WorkflowManager.java:977)
    at com.taleo.integration.client.workflow.WorkflowManager.createWorkflow(WorkflowManager.java:172)
    at com.taleo.integration.client.workflow.WorkflowManager.execute(WorkflowManager.java:328)
    at com.taleo.integration.client.rcp.job.ConfigurationExecutionJob.run(ConfigurationExecutionJob.java:109)
    at org.eclipse.core.internal.jobs.Worker.run(Worker.java:76)

 

 

It turns out that the issue was with the TCC installer itself. The fix is to replace commons-lang-2.0.jar with commons-lang-2.6.jar [TCC installation folder]\lib\endorsed

Oracle Sucks !

TBE: Enabling General Application in Career Web Site

 

Taleo Business Edition (TBE) is Oracle's recruiting application offering for small to mid-sized companies. It does not have the full feature set available in Tale Enterprise Edition, and the system is deliberately watered down to allow quick setup and faster go-live. The system is also not well documented, and sometimes you have to hunt across the application to implement the simplest settings.

Like when we tried to turn on General Application in the Career Web Site.

1: Go to Administration -> Customize Recruit. Click on "Careers Website Pages"

2:  Edit the Job Search Pages.

3: In the next page, just unhide the two entries for "General Application" and its header section.

 

This is weird, because we expected some kind of global parameter which can be set to turn on such features. Instead, this configuration change is the only way to turn this on.

Oracle Cloud Support

 

Now that Oracle is a full fledged Cloud company, certain changes can be seen across their sites, letting visitors known that they tend to move to the cloud full on. If you are using an Oracle cloud product, you will see changes in their supportweb system. Logging into Suppotweb with the OPN of your cloud service takes you a new site, with the text "Oracle Cloud Support" on the top.

 

This new site has a minimalistic design, even the process of creating a Service Request is easier.

 

Clicking on the "Knowledge" tab , the search page is toned down. Users can choose to search in the realm of their cloud product, or search in "All Knowledge" for fill supportweb content.

Getting started with Taleo Connect Client (TCC)

 

 

I have recently switched tracks to the cloud world of enterprise computing, and am going through Taleo. It is Oracle's recruiting/onboarding HR system, which has still not been fully integrated to HCM Cloud. Taleo Enterprise Edition runs on the web in any browser, however for batch integration purposes, it provides a standalone executable program called the Taleo Connect Client ie; TCC. (The last TCC I knew was the Turbo C Compiler from Borland Systems). If you need to import/export records in Taleo in bulk, TCC is the way you go.

 

1: First, log on to Oracle eDelivery, and choose the Taleo family of products. I am choosing the 32 bit windows version, because I can.

 

 

2: The current & latest version of Taleo, as of writing this, is 14A. You see, Taleo pushes three fixes in a year, and call them A,B and C. Be sure to click the link "Oracle Taleo Enterprise Editoin 14A", the other links are for older releases. The latest release came out just yesterday !

 

3) On the next page, you will see multiple links, and have to choose only two. Choose the windows version of the Application Installer and Data Model.

 

 

4) Now unzip the files and run the installers. I am going to run the top two installables in the screenshot above.

 

5) First install the data model. The Application installer requires the path were the data model is installed.

 

 

 

6) After running both installers, start the Taleo Connect Client.

 

 

 

7) OK, you will now get this window to start using the Tool. All the fields above need to be filled.

 

8)  Choose a product name from the latest version, don't worry, you can always change the product later.

The Protocol will be HTTPS.

The Host will be the address of your cloud instance. You need to register with Oracle to get this. It is also the place where you will configure and use the Taleo Application. Choose 443 as the port value.

Authentication:  I chose User Name Token authentication.

Now enter the credentials of the user allowed to use Taleo Integration Services, usually the administrator login.

 

9) Ahaa…Finally. The TCC window opens up.  But there is still lot of steps involved to start exporting/importing data to the system.