Oracle User Productivity Kit

Setup and Use of UPK

Author: Larry Sherrod
 What is UPK
• UPK Developer – Single-source platform for
developing and customizing content. Recording
technology that enables content creation by
simply doing the task in the Oracle application.
• UPK Usage Tracking – allows organizations
to measure user competency and user adoption
of their organizations applications. Also used to
identify areas in the application where users
require additional training and support.
(included with the UPK Developer)
 UPK Basics
• UPK Developer records screenshots from
software applications GUI (Graphical User
Interface) forms. They can be web forms
to any form that runs on a PC. The tool
allows you to caption and annotate the
content and then play it back for users. It
can also support different modes of
playback to capture the users competency
of the content.
 Server Structure

User
UPK
Developer
User
UPK
Server
UPK
User Developer

The UPK Server can also function

as a Developer Station and multiple
Developer Stations are supported.
User
 Installing the Application
• Go to http://edelivery.oracle.com/. Enter your name and company
name if asked. (You must have Oracle approved access to this
site)
• Click Continue at the bottom of the page.
• Choose User Productivity Kit from the Select a Product Pack
drop down menu.
• Choose Microsoft Windows (32-bit) from the Platform drop
down menu.
• Click Go.
• This downloads a ZIP file to your drive, extract it and look for the
file named Setup.
• Open this file and follow the prompts to install the application.
• If you are installing the application to a PC NOT intented to be a
Server and only for the use of developing content, you must
select Single User in the install options.
Running the Application
 This is the
basic Start
Screen.

Under the Tools menu, you can

select Options and set your
preference options for the
application.

Under the View menu, you can set the startup screen to access content when the
application opens.
Your Screen Resolution settings are
very important. Ideally, you will want
to set your screen resolution option to
match your Windows Display Options.
This should also match your expected
user settings as well. This is to say
you should edit in the same resolution
you expect your user to use.
This isn’t always possible. Some
farsighted users still like the old 800 x
600 setting. The 1024 x 768 setting will
still work for them but they will have to
use screen bars to move around the
image.
Setting up your Module, Section,
and Topic Hierarchy
The first thing you will want to do is lay out your training
structure. For instance, content is broken down into
Modules, Sections and Topics.
An example might be you wan to do a Module on
Inventory with a Section on Cycle Counting and one of
the Topics would be “Entering Cycle Counts”.

The screen to the left shows the process to create the

above example. You can embed modules within
modules and sections within sections.

Once you have

established your structure,
you can begin recording.
You will want to have the
application you intend to
record already open or at
least ready to open.
The image below shows the UPK recorder application superimposed over an
Oracle Applications screen. Because the UPK application is the current active
application, place your curser in the application you wish to record and click to
make it the active application. Now you can press your ScreenShot record key
(in this case F1) to capture the active application screen.

Don’t be afraid to capture too many screens at first. You can always delete
them. Don’t worry that your first try at this may not be as professional as you
would expect. It takes a little time to get used to the application. Press the
Finish button once the recording is completed. This will take you to the Topic
Editing Screen.
Topic Editing
This is your topic editing screen. I opened the HELP screen to show how much help
content is available in this application. You will use it a lot at first. Use this screen to
edit all your captured frames.
Editing Bubble and Action
Properties
This depicts how you can modify the recorded and default properties of actions
captured during the recording process. You should use this to add additional
instructions to the user or modify any additional actions required by the user.
Adding Recorded Speech
You can add audio (speech)
to any of the frames by editing
the sound properties under
the View menu.

This will display the dialog

box shown. Press the
RED record button to
create an empty sound
file. You can then use
any PC sound recording
program application to
record your audio.
If you have a sound recorder application
installed, it will bring up the recorder as shown.
You can then perform the recording and then
SAVE the file. UPK will associate the file to the
Bubble properties.
Working with Frames
 Using our Frame Tool we can
manage the frames of the topic.
You can use this feature to control
the path a user takes through the
application to complete the task.
Let’s insert a Decision Frame.

You now must enter the Decision

Path

This will cause the

Decision Path dialog
box to open. Enter the
name for the path.
Copying Content within Developer
When you are in the Library view, you can drag and drop content into various
folders. In the above example, we are moving our cycle count content to the cycle
count folder. The application has many of the same features as seen in windows
for moving content such as right-click copy and paste.
If you intend to make several topics with many of the same frames, you may wish
to copy and paste the topic several times to generate them. If you do this, you
must use the PASTE SPECIAL option. It allows you to copy the entire contents
and not just the link. Then you only need to edit or add additional frames to
complete the topics. In this manner you are using the topic as a template to
generate others.
Editing Introduction and Content
Areas
The first Bubble Text in your
Topic will contain the text
used in the Introduction area.
It is important you use this to
explain the purpose of your
Topic.
In this example I have used the
concept area to add an image
and hyperlink to Google News. I
created a web page in
Developer called Cycle Count. I
then edited the page to insert an
image and hyperlinked the
image to Google News. You
can use this for internal Intranet
content as well but it means the
user must be on a PC where
they have access to it.
Publishing Your Content
In order to publish your content, you must select a section, module or topic. If
you select a section with embedded sections, modules and topics, all the
content embedded will be published. The image above shows the process for
selecting the publish feature.
Here you can enter your path for the publishing you content files. This can be a
network location or a local path.
Here are the publish settings. These are the setting I like to use. You will have to
review some of the content produced to determine which content you like and will
use.
Depending on how much content you have selected, publishing can take quite a
while.
Once the publish routine is complete, you can finish the process and the
application will open the published file folder.
The published content that contains the Player is under the Player Package folder.
Within that folder, you will find a application program called PLAY. Open this file to
play the developed content.
Import and Export
In order to export your documents for other UPK developers to use or to archive your
content, you must use the TOOLS > Export > Documents feature.
Here you will select or create the file used to contain the contents of the archive. It is
best to export your selection and related documents. This will insure you get all the
documentation you generated during your content development. The generated files
can be quite large if you have several UPKs in your section.
Once you have created a export archive file (.odarc), any other UPK developer can
import it. This is a handy way to share content. Simply use the TOOLS > Import >
Documents feature.
Here you can specify the file to import from and where to import the contents too. Once
the operation is complete, you can open the imported content and incorporate it into your
own.
This content has been developed and provided by Larry Sherrod. Please do not
duplicate, redistribute or change any of the content without my permission.
Author: Larry Sherrod
Website: www.larrysherrod.com