Error Messages

Description: The following message appears when performing an action in Oracle CPQ that triggers an integration with Salesforce:

"An error occurred while communicating with the partner site."

You will want to check the integration associated with the action, and take a look at the SOAP Generator XSL file.

Let's say we have the following code in XSL:

<xsl:variable name="MNamount" select="$sub_doc/relatedMaintenance/>
<Maintenance_Amount__c>
<xsl:value-of select="$MNamount"/>
</Maintenance_Amount__c>

If the value for relatedMaintenance does not exist in the XML Document, MNamount will be undefined, and the generated SOAP XML Input will be:

<Maintenance_Amount__c></Maintenance_Amount__c>

Salesforce does not accept SOAP XML with attributes containing no value. Therefore we will receive the following error:

An error occurred while communicating with the partner site.

Solution: To resolve this, put in a check to make sure the attribute is defined:

Example 1:

<xsl:if test="$MNamount">
<Maintenance_Amount__c xmlns="">
<xsl:value-of select="$MNamount"/>
</Maintenance_Amount__c>
</xsl:if>

Example 2:

<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$MNamount">
<Maintenance_Amount__c xmlns="">
<xsl:value-of select="$MNamount"/>
</Maintenance_Amount__c>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<Maintenance_Amount__c xmlns="">
<!-- Default value -->
</Maintenance_Amount__c>
</xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:choose>

Description: An error occurs when printing output: FO to RTF or FO to PDF. This usually occurs when a change has been made to any custom text that is displayed on the printed output, or a change has been made to the Document Engine. It may also happen on sites that still use the Proposal Editor, which is a legacy version of the Document Engine.

Solution: The first step is to track back through any recent changes you have made, and verify that there aren't any invalid characters or incorrect HTML formatting in the edited section. Remember to never paste from Microsoft Word into Oracle CPQ fields, and if you suspect that someone has, remove the offending section completely and reenter it, using the controls on the browser text editor to format the text.

If you still cannot find the source of this error, follow these steps:

1. Open the problem quote in the Quote Manager.
2. View Source, and locate the BS_ID by searching for "id (open quote, id).

3. Navigate to the Printer Friendly/History XSL Views  page.

   1. Click Admin to go to the Admin Home Page.

   2. Click Process Definition in the Commerce and Documents section.

      The Processes page opens.

   3. For the Process you are interested in, select Printer Friendly History/XSL Views in the Navigation drop-down and click List.

      The Printer Friendly/History XSL Views page opens.

4. For the view you are interested in, click the link in the XSL View Name column.

   If you're not sure which view it is, look under the Action Admin for the button you pressed to see the error, under the XSL tab.

   The Add/Update XSL View page opens.

5. Paste the BS_ID into the Transaction ID field.
6. Choose No Converter from the Process Output Through drop-down.
7. Click Apply.

8. When the page stops loading, select Preview Document.

   This spits out a pure XSL file now, because you turned off the converter.

9. Make sure you are viewing the XSL file in Internet Explorer.

   If you're in Firefox, just save it to the desktop and view it in Internet Explorer.

10. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.

    There should be an XML error, and it will be right next to some text that should help you identify where exactly the problem is happening.

    Remember to turn the converter back on in the "Process Output Through," or the next deploy will cause the users to see the bare XSL.
    Never copy/paste directly from Microsoft Word into Oracle CPQ fields.

Description: A user gets an error that they do not have permission to view a page. This error occurs when a user does not have the User Access Rights in a specific step of a quote.

Solution: The User Access Rights are managed in the Process page for that Process.

1. Navigate to the Process page.

   1. Click Admin to go to the Admin Home Page.

   2. Click Process Definition in the Commerce and Documents section.

      The Processes page opens.

   3. For the Process you are interested in, select Steps in the Navigation drop-down and click List.

      The Process page for that Process appears.

2. In the tree navigation panel on the left, double-click the name of a step and then the name of a user profile.

3. Click the User Access Rights tab in the panel on the right.

   Confirm that the user has the necessary access rights.

You may also need to check which group the user is in, on the User Detail page.

1. Navigate to the User Detail page.

   1. Click Admin to go to the Admin Home Page.

   2. Click Internal Users in the Users section.

      The Users page opens.

   3. Click a name in the Login column.

      The User Detail page opens.

2. Review the Associations section.

   The user will be placed into the first Participant Profile, from top to bottom, which has granted him access. For more information, see the topic Participant Profiles.

What: A null exception error occurs when you refer to an array index that is not populated. It will show an error to the users, and appear in the application error logs.

Why:  Null pointer exceptions are common, so dealing with and avoiding them will save a lot of time and avoid bad user experiences.

Where: Any BML function.

How: Avoiding a null-pointer exception is simple and straight-forward; test that the array index exists before accessing it. You can do this with the sizeofarray function. You should also do this when working with dictionaries, even though the dictionary will not return the null pointer error. The containskey function allows you to check for the existence of a dictionary element before accessing it.

Example

result = "";
delimiter="!_-_!";
delimited_string = "discount_value"+delimiter+"10.0"+delimiter+"discount_percent"+delimiter+"0.5";
//parsed_array will only contain 4 items
parsed_array = split(delimiter, delimited_string);
//test for length before accessing!
if(sizeofarray(parsed_array) > 10) {
result = parsed_array[10];
} else {
// deal with unexpected data transparently, don't just hide it
result = "Error parsing string in util library: " + delimited_string;
}
return result;