Oracle EBS: Repairing the "XXX is not a valid responsibility for the current user" error in Oracle

This Knol covers how to "fix" a problem that can occur in Oracle when you have granted a user access to a new web-based responsibility but the middle-tier application servers have not picked up this change.

Below are detailed instructions on how to clear the cache on the middle-tier application server(s). As it says in the warning when you try and do it there will be a performance hit while it re-reads all the data from the database - use on Production Systems at you own risk!!

At the moment I'm currently configuring Oracle Internet Expenses (11, not 12) and several times we've granted a user the "Internet Expenses" responsibility, they've logged into Oracle, selected Internet Expenses and then received an error along the lines of "Internet Expenses is not a valid responsibility for the current user. Please contact your System Administrator". For example when trying to access "Function Administrator" privilege you get the message:

Figure 1: Sample error for "Functional Administrator" Responsibility

You only get this issue with Web-based responsibilities. If I'd assigned "Payables Manager" then it works without any issues, the reason for this error is that in order to improve performance Oracle caches some information on the web server. In order to "fix" this problem we need to clear the cache by following these steps;

Step 1: Log in and select the "Functional Administrator" responsibility
Now this is where we get a delicious taste of irony; this responsibility is web-based so if you are trying to fix a problem that's occurring now and you don't already have this responsibility then I'm afraid you're too late. You'll have to bounce the Apache server (something that will require a DBA). In short; you need to have granted yourself this responsibility BEFORE you run into problems!

Figure 2: "Functional Administrator" Welcome Screen

Step 2: Select "Core Services" (the tab at the top right)

Figure 3: "Function Administrator" > "Core Services"

Step 3: Select "Caching Framework" (second option from the right on blue bar)

Figure 4: "Core Services" > "Caching Framework"

Step 4: Select "Global Configuration" (bottom option on the left)

Figure 5: "Caching Framework" > "Global Configuration"

This page shows you the currently configured Caching Statistics and Policy. The bit we're interested in though is the "Clear All Cache" button the right-hand side.

Step 5: Click "Clear All Cache"

Figure 6: Clear Cache Warning Message

Read the message, it's there for a reason!

Step 6: Click "Yes"

Figure 7: Confirmation Message

And we're done, the user should now be able to log in with the new responsibility.