Useful sites for oracle apps

for oracle apps:

http://www.exforsys.com/tutorials/oracle-apps.html
http://www.aboutoracleapps.com/
http://www.oraclearea51.com/
http://www.oracleappshub.com/
http://www.oracle.anilpassi.com/
http://erpschools.com/
http://sureshvaishya.blogspot.com/2008/10/item-import-item-conversion.html
http://apps4freshers.blogspot.com/2008/11/item-import-item-conversion.html
http://venu-oracleapps.blogspot.com/2010/05/item-import-item-conversion.html
http://oracleappsuserguide.blogspot.com/search/label/4%20way%20matching

for sql,pl/sql:

http://www.techonthenet.com/
http://www.java2s.com/Tutorial/Oracle/CatalogOracle.htm
http://plsql-tutorial.com/

RICE components

Mostly an oracle apps technical consultant will be working on RICE components.
R--Reports
I--Interfaces
C--Conversions
E--Extensions(Forms personalization)

Reports:
For suppose I'm running a business named 'vnk' which is wide spread across the globe.Now,I want to know how my business is running across the globe.I will ask a tech guy(oracle apps technical consultant) to develop a report.In that report I ask him to simply print the details of profit or loss,of every branch of my business across the world.He(tech guy) will come up with the report to me then I will come to know whether my company is running fine or not.Thereby, I can take necessary decisions to run my business fine.
Clearly we have seen that report will be developed by technical person,who must know the report building.
We build a report using sql,pl/sql.So,if your are strong in sql,pl/sql then its not a big deal to learn the report building.Its enough to learn the report developer tool.

Conversion:
As I said earlier I'm running a 'vnk' business(which is fictious).Suppose I,m using excel sheets to store the data.Now I want to install oracle apps(E-Business Suite) in my company. So,What ever data that is present in my excel sheets must also be present in my oracle apps tables(A table is a collection of rows and columns).Now I ask a tech guy to write a code such that my excel sheet data will get into oracle apps base tables.Then that tech guy will use 'conversion' to get the data from the legacy system(in our case it is excel sheet) into oracle apps base tables.

Interfaces:
Interfaces are similar to conversions.Conversion is a one-time process where as Interface is on-going process every now and then.We run interfaces daily or periodically.
Interfaces are of two types
1)Inbound Interface
2)Outbound Interface
Inbound Interface:Transferring the data from the legacy system(in our case it is excel sheet) into the Oracle apps base tables.
Outbound Interface:Transferring the data from the Oracle apps base tables into the legacy system(It might be any of these SAP,Peoplesoft etc).

Extensions:
Extensions are nothing but persionalizing the forms.In oracle e-business suite we have some where around 5000 to 6000 forms.In my 'vnk' business i want to customise the po(purchase order) form of the oracle apps then i ask the tech guy to do that.He will use form builder tool to do that.

Oracle apps technical consultant

Oracle Apps is an ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning),nothing but effective planning of the resources in an Enterprise.An Enterprise is  'A business organization' like Ford,Reliance...etc.
An insight into the organization for the higher level authorities(in that organization) always make them to take decisions for the development of the organization.ERP makes the details of the organization available to the managers at the click of a mouse.Thereby,Managers and the employees in the organization can collaborate for the success of the company by taking effective decisions.
Without ERP It would be possible to run the business effectively but its a tedious process coz there are many departments involved in an organization.Gathering all that data and suming up it for the result is a nightmare.
ERP comes with the facility that it puts all the data of an organization at one place,and also we can get the result of its functioning at the click of a mouse.
So,many organizations are using ERP for their business.Some of the ERPs in the market are SAP,JDedwards,Siebel,Peoplesoft.
As we are now learning the basics of Oracle apps for a technical consultant,We will only discuss about the ERP,Oracle apps.
In oracle apps we have three roles
1)Apps technical consultant.
2)Apps functional consultant.
3)Apps DBA(Database Adminstrator).
In order to start your career as oracle apps technical consultant,you must have a good command on sql,pl/sql.And a little bit of knowledge on unix commands.
For an organization to use this ERP,it has to first install the Oracle apps later on according to the company's requirement it asks the tech guys(We the oracle apps technical consultants) to customize the application.This is how we(Oracle apps technical consultants) get the work to do.