Oracle Advanced Pricing

Pricing Diagnostics and

Troubleshooting: Release
12
An Oracle White Paper
January 2007

Contents Section-A

Common Advanced Pricing Setup Issues

A.1 Multi-Org Access control for Pricing Security
A.2. Support For Hierarchical Categories
A.3. Price Book
A.4. Pricing Parameters
A.5. Continuous Price Breaks
A.6. Support TCA Party Hierarchy

Section-B

Getting Debug and Troubleshooting

Section-A
Common Advanced Pricing Setup Issues
This section summarizes the common errors encountered while using Advanced Pricing
R12 features and recommended troubleshooting tips. As you will notice that most of
these errors are valid pricing errors, the user may need to understand the cause or
required setup to change the behavior.

A.1 Multi-Org Access control for Pricing Security

Problem Symptom/Cause
Pricing security is not working Can
view/maintain a price list or modifier list
without a privilege

Recommendation
Please check the following:
1. Profile QP: Security Control is set to
On at Site level, is view only at Site
level, profile is not set at any other level
and is not updateable at any levels. If it
was updateable at any other levels, make
it view only at all levels and run the
Security Control concurrent program
from the Oracle Pricing Administrator
responsibility with desired value.
2. If QP: Security Control is set to Off,
run the Security Control concurrent
program with a value On, make sure it
completes successfully
3. If Multi-Org Access Control is set,
make sure that the Security Profile is
valid.

Pricing setups do not show the global

flag or operating unit fields

Please check the following:

1. Profile QP: Security Control is set to
On at Site level, is view only at Site
level, profile is not set at any other level
and is not updateable at any levels. If it
was updateable at any other levels, make
it view only at all levels and run the
Security Control concurrent program
from the Oracle Pricing Administrator
responsibility with desired value.
2. If QP: Security Control is set to Off,
run the Security Control concurrent
program with a value On, make sure it
completes successfully
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Unable to pick a given operating unit on

the pricing setup UIs.

Make sure that the MO: Security Profile

or MO: Operating Units are set to a
valid value at site/responsibility level.

Currency is not defaulted on the price list

Make sure that the SET_OF_BOOKS_ID

is set in the OM System parameters for
the default operating unit

Unable to view a price list or modifier list

Please check if the user-responsibilityoperating unit context you are in has a

view/maintain privilege. You may need
pricing administrator privilege to be able
to do that.

Price list does not appear on a

transaction list of values.

Ensure that the price list is active. If

Pricing Security is turned ON, ensure that
the price list belongs to the operating unit
of the transaction or is global.

The pricing engine does not qualify a Ensure that the price list or modifier is
pricing transaction for a specific price list active. If Pricing Security is turned ON,
or modifier or ask for promotion
ensure that the price list or modifier
belongs to the operating unit of the
transaction or is global.
Unable to view a secondary price list In release 12, the LOV for secondary
after the upgrade to release 12
price lists will show only those price lists
the user has view/maintain privileges. If
the primary price list is global, the user
can pick both global and OU specific
price lists as secondary price lists. If
primary price list is OU specific, the
secondary price list can be a global price
list or should belong to the same OU as
the primary price list.
Unable to update a free good benefit line
on a Promotional Goods modifier

In release 12, the LOV for picking price

lists to derive the list price of the benefit
item (free good) on the promotional
goods modifier will show only those price
lists the user has view/maintain
privileges. If the promotional goods
modifier is global, the LOV shows only
global price lists. If the promotional goods
modifier is OU specific, the LOV shows
both global price lists and those that
belong to the same OU as the
promotional goods modifier.

Not getting a price for an item

Check if the QP: Item Validation Org is

set to the right Item Master Org for that
responsibility.

A.2. Support Hierarchical categories

Problem Symptom/Cause
Unable to see an item category in the
product LOV in the price list or a modifier
UI

Recommendation
Check if the category set to which this
category belongs to is attached as a
default category set for one of the
functional areas.

The product value is displayed as null or

category ID is displayed when a
(upgraded) price list line or modifier or
limit or formula based on Item category is
queried.

Check if the category set to which this

category belongs to is attached as a
default category set for one of the
functional areas.

The pricing engine does not apply a

modifier or price list line based on a
specific item category.

There could be many reasons for this

problem:
1. Check if the pricing engine applies any
other item category based price list line or
modifier gets applied.
2. Check if the item belongs to the
category in the setup.
3. Check if the category set to which this
category belongs to is attached as a
default category set for one of the
functional areas.
4. Check if the functional area to which
the category set for that category is
mapped and enabled to the PTE-Source
system of the price list or modifier list.

A.3.Price Book

Problem Symptom/Cause
An error icon column appearing in the
price book search results table

Recommendation
It indicates that the price book has one or
more errors associated. These errors
could be at the price book (summary) line
level (pricing engine errors) or at the price
book level (publishing or concurrent
manager errors).

Not able to send price book to a specific

email.

Check if all required profile option values

are set appropriately. See if QP: E-mail From Address profile value has been set
correctly.

Not able to see or change Pricing

Perspective.

Check if the application user is an

internal or external user since some
functionality is different for these 2
different categories of users. To find out
if a user is an Internal or external user,
query the user definition from System
Administrator responsibility. A non-null
Customer Id field on the user definition
indicates an external user.

Not able to generate price book from an

external integrating application.

1. Check for Pricing Parameter Value

Price Book Pricing Events. Based on the
values specified in the profile QP: Pricing
Perspective Request Type, each calling
application (pricing perspective) has an
associated request type. The Price Book
Pricing Events parameter determines
which pricing event or events are used
for each request type to call the pricing
engine to generate a price book. For
example BATCH, BOOK
2. Check if the Multi-Org access control is
appropriately set for the applicable
responsibility.

Not able to e-mail or print price books

directly from the Price Book feature

Check the Oracle XML Publisher Delivery

Manager configuration (i.e.
xdodelivery.cfg configuration file in
Oracle XML Publisher 5.0). The printer
and e-mail servers must be registered
into the configuration before using this
functionality. Please refer to the Oracle
XML Publisher User's Guide for
instructions on how to configure Delivery
Manager.

Not able to successfully perform an XML

transaction.

View the error messages using the

Oracle XML Gateway Transaction
Monitor and/or Oracle Workflow Status
Monitor. For more information, please
refer to the documentation for these
modules.

A.4. Pricing Parameters

Problem Symptom/Cause

Recommendation

Updating the user values

If the parameter Name has the value set

id - QP: text attached to it, then please
read
the
Advanced
Pricing
Implementation Guide to define the user
value. Updating the user value in lower
text or any other text may lead to error or
affect the desired behavior.

When the entered value is not in

synchronous with level name

While updating the user value for a

parameter, check that you are updating
for the relevant level name.

Customers creating new parameters

The parameters can only be created in

the seed environment. Customers cannot
create new parameters.

Parameters not found in basic pricing

Parameters created for Advanced Pricing

will not be visible in basic pricing mode.

A.5.Continuous Price Breaks

Problem Symptom/Cause

Recommendation

Validation errors while defining price

breaks.

The user should ensure the correct

validation is performed by checking that
the price break is marked as continuous.
1. In Forms, go to Help ? Diagnostics
? Examine and verify that the
CONTINUOUS_PRICE_BREAK_FLAG
field has a value of Y.
2. In the HTML UI check that the Value
From field defaults to 0 (for a new price
break) or the previous break lines Value
To (when adding a new row), indicating
that the price break is continuous.

After copying an old price list or modifier Non-continuous

price
breaks
are
list (breaks created prior to Release 12), automatically migrated to continuous
the price breaks have changed.
price breaks. The user can view the
break details prior to and after migration
in the log file for the Copy Price
List/Modifier List concurrent program.
Continuous price breaks always start
from 0, and do not contain gaps between
the Value To of a break line and the next
lines Value From.

A.6. Support TCA Party Hierarchy

Problem Symptom/Cause

Recommendation

Available to Hierarchy checkbox disabled

in the Qualifier setup form.

1. Party_Hierarchy_Enabled_Flag needs
to be checked for the Qualifier Attribute in
use in the Attribute Setup.
2. Ensure that the Profile QP: Pricing
Party
Hierarchy
Type
is
set
appropriately.

Discount not applied for the hierarchy.

1. Party_Hierarchy_Enabled_Flag needs
to be checked for the Qualifier Attribute in
use in the Attribute Setup.
2. Ensure that the Profile QP: Pricing
Party
Hierarchy
Type
is
set
appropriately.
3. Ensure that the value stored in the
Qualifier_Attribute_Value column is a
valid TCA party id.
4.
Qualify_Hier_Descendents_Flag
(Applies to Party Hierarchy field) needs to
be checked for that Qualifier Attribute in
the Qualifier setup form.
5. Check engine debug file to make sure
that the data for the parents of the
Qualifier Attribute (one which is passed to
pricing engine and the one which has the
Qualify_Hier_Descendents_Flag
checked) is populated in the table
Qp_Preq_Line_Attrs_Tmp_T
6. Check whether the engine sources all
the parent qualifiers within the hierarchy.

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Section-B
Getting Debug and Troubleshooting
This section contains information about diagnosing and troubleshooting of problems in
the Order Management/Pricing integration).
The following table provides a summary of various methods of diagnosing and
troubleshooting the results of the pricing engine.

B.1 Generating OM/ QP Debug File

If the instance has Oracle Order Management Installed Set Profile OM: Debug Directory to directory listed in util_file_dir in init.ora.
Set Profile OM: Debug_Level to 5.
If the instance do not have Oracle Order Management Installed Set Profile QP: Debug to Yes.
Set Profile OM: Debug Directory to directory listed in util_file_dir in init.ora.
Search the output file in the directory mentioned in above profile based on time-stamp.
This debug is normally required by Oracle Support and Development to examine the
code flow and failure point if any.
Warning:
As enabling these debugs adds significant overhead on system performance, it is
highly recommended that these debugs are kept disabled unless debug file is being
captured for diagnostics. Profile QP: Debug should also be set to No unless it is
required.
B.2 Pricing Engine Request Viewer window
The Pricing Engine Request Viewer captures the pricing call from any calling
application and displays the inputs and outputs of the pricing call. This information can
help you to diagnose which price list lines were selected or rejected by the pricing
engine and to determine why certain prices and adjustments were or were not applied.
The navigation path is:
Sales Order window > Tools > Pricing Engine Request Viewer.
This method provides a subset of information as compared to the debug output file. It
provides information such as the list line selected and deleted by the engine during
processing, and the reason for deletion. It does not provide information on why the list
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line is not selected by the engine (qp_list_line_detail.sql is a useful mechanism for this).
This is a quick and useful method to verify the data passed to the pricing engine and
data that were returned by the pricing engine. This method determines whether the
expected qualifiers and pricing attributes are sourced. Since the Pricing Engine
Request Viewer requests are stored in the permanent pricing debug tables, users can
query previous pricing debug requests also.

Warning:
As the Pricing Engine Request Viewer consumes a large amount of system resources,
it is recommended that it be turned off unless debug is being generated.

B.3 Script qp_list_line_detail.sql

This script provides information about how the price list line or modifier is setup and can
be used when the engine has not selected the expected price list line/ modifier line.

How to use this script:

1. Step 1 is same as above to obtain the Price List line ID/ Modifier line ID
2. Navigate to PricingReports
3. Select the concurrent program Diagnostics: Performance Analysis
4. Provide the list_line_id obtained in step 1 and submit request.
5. After successful completion of concurrent request, click View Output.
B.4 Other Important Notes B.4.1 Important Setups and Parameters Much setup information has impact on pricing engine process. Verify that the following
columns have appropriate values:
Incompatibility Resolve Code in event phase, Search_flag in event phase,
Automatic_flag, active_flag in modifiers and price lists Pricing Phase in modifier.

Verify that the following important profiles are appropriately set:

QP: Get Custom Price Customized
QP: Blind Discount Option
QP: Verify GSA Violations
QP: Return Manual Discounts

B.4.3 Patch Application 12

Patches involving any operation on temporary tables are not applied correctly if any
user is holding a lock on the temporary table. While applying QP patches, verify that no
user has a lock on Oracle Advanced Pricing temporary tables by executing the
following sql statement (this statement should not return any rows) Select sid, sql_text from v$open_cursor where sql_text like '%QP_PREQ%';
Check the adpatch worker log to verify that the pricing patch application is successful
without any errors. If the patch failed with the following error then bounce the database
and reapply the patch.
ORA-14452: Attempt to create, alter, or drop an index on temporary table already in
use
Make sure that no concurrent program (example: Order Import) is started before
applying the patch.

White Paper Name: Pricing Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for Release 12.0
Version: 1.0

Written By:
Giri Tippireddy, Priya Gopal, Nirmal Kumar

Reviewed By:
Vivian Y Lee, Vivek Gulati

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