EBS Custom Applications using Forms Listener Servlet

I was verifying a custom application installation in E-Business Suite for a customer lately. While looking for the documentation the installation was done with, I came across Metalink Note 70276.1, which is a Release 11.0 version of this task. Because my customer is using E-Business Suite 11.5.10.2 (11i in short), I wanted to verify whether this procedure still holds in 11i. To say it in short, it does, under most circumstances. However, after some googling around, I also found a somewhat shorter version specifically for 11i: Note 216589.1 will give you the essential details. One of the instructions in this Metalink Note goes as follows:

"If using Forms Listener Servlet, you may also need to add $CUSTOM_TOP to formservlet.ini in $APACHE_TOP/Jserv/etc"

This is an absolute necessity when using a custom forms application. Failing to do so, will give you troubles when opening custom forms in Applications. The typical error message you will see in such a case however, is somewhat misleading:

"Function not Available to this Responsibility. Change responsibilities or contact your System Administrator."

Please keep in mind that adding the $CUSTOM_TOP to $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Jserv/etc will only work as long as you don’t run autoconfig. As soon as you run autoconfig, you will have to add it again manually. One way to overcome this, is to add a new line in your applications context file ($APPL_TOP/admin/CONTEXTNAME_hosthame.xml): Look for the string "ZX_TOP" (this should be the last APPS PRODUCT_TOP) and create a new line similar to this underneath it containing the information about your CUSTOM_TOP. The text should look similar to this:

<CUSTOM_TOP oa_var="s_customtop" oa_type="PROD_TOP" oa_enabled="TRUE">/apps/vis/appl/custom/11.5.0</CUSTOM_TOP>

Save the file and run autoconfig. You will see that autoconfig adds the appropriate path to the formservlet.ini in $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Jserv/etc. This will make your change permanent.