12.2.0.2 was renamed 18c following Oracle’s new naming convention. “18” for its 2018 release (cloud: 18.1.0 in 2/18 and on-premises: 18.3.0 on 7/18). In October of 2018, Ellucian rescinded support for 12.2.0.2, AKA 18c due to a severe defect. Some PL/SQL procedures in Banner including arguments based on table%rowtypes would no longer compile, complaining that a “PL/SQL package with user-defined type is throwing PLS-00801: [Unexpected Fragile External Reference.])”… and there was no workaround. Ellucian’s rescission of support for 18c with Banner came at a tricky time for schools. IT departments were already feeling pressure to stay on top of upgrades … Read More
“X” is for Extensibility, Ellucian XE for Banner
One choice that faced institutions implementing Ellucian’s Banner ERP was deciding between the proverbial “vanilla” install, where schools conformed their processes to Ellucian’s pre-packaged solution; and a highly customized environment that better suited existing business requirements, but required coding customizations not only at the outset, but on a recurring basis… because customizations needed to be re-coded each time Banner re-released a particular form. Ellucian is promising to take some of the pain out of this choice with Banner XE. The “XE” stands for eXtensible Ecosystem, and a key feature is a complete redesign of their administrative and self-service forms. Simpler … Read More