What Is Navigation Flow?
In an Oracle EPM Cloud application, Navigation Flow is where all navigation starts for both admins and end users: it's the structure behind the icons you see on the Home page. To see the same navigation in menu form rather than icons, open the Navigator icon (the three horizontal lines, sometimes called the "hamburger" icon) in the top-left corner of your environment. Both views point to the same underlying flow; one just displays it as icons and the other as an expandable menu.
Following along with screenshots? Rather than reproduce Oracle's copyrighted UI images, this walkthrough links to Oracle's official documentation for the current Navigation Flow screens. Oracle's Viewing and Working with Navigation Flows and Activating and Deactivating Navigation Flows references walk through the screens described below.
Purpose and Admin Control
Oracle built Navigation Flow to give every EPM Cloud application a consistent way to organize access to its modules, reports, and forms. As an admin, you control what each user or group sees and can reach: you can hide items entirely, or build a guided task flow using clusters, cards, and tabs so users land exactly where they need to be.
Navigation Flow Structure
The core structure is Navigation Flow > Clusters > Cards > Tabs > Sub-Tabs. A cluster groups a collection of cards together; each card can stand on its own or contain multiple tabs; and each tab can hold multiple sub-tabs, each pointing at an artifact (a form, report, or dashboard) or an external URL.
(If you've read an older version of this tutorial or similar guides referencing a "Folders" level above clusters, that terminology doesn't appear in Oracle's current documentation: the structure described above is what's officially supported today.)
Accessing Navigation Flow Settings
To view or edit Navigation Flow, either open the Navigator icon and select Navigation Flow, or from the Home page go to Tools > Navigation Flows. That page lists every navigation flow available in the application, along with the roles or groups it's assigned to and whether it's currently active. Service Administrators can see every navigation flow, including the predefined one; other users only see the flows they've been granted access to.
Making Changes to a Navigation Flow
An active navigation flow is locked down: you can't rename, delete, or edit it while it's active, unless the business process itself is in administration mode. To make changes, deactivate the flow first (click its Active/Inactive toggle), or activate a duplicate copy of it, which automatically deactivates the original (each business process only allows one active global navigation flow at a time). Once your working copy is inactive, click into it to start making changes.
Working with Clusters and Cards
Click into a cluster to expand it and see the cards it contains. To create a new cluster, use the plus (+) button, typically found in the top-right corner of the Navigation Flow editor.
Cards can hold dashboards, reports, and forms. Clicking into a card lets you add tabs, which can be arranged either vertically or horizontally depending on how you want the layout to read.
Adding Tabs and Sub-Tabs
Once a card has multiple tabs, each tab (or sub-tab) can link out to an external site, a form, or a dashboard. To add a new tab, use the "Add a new Tab" option and give it a descriptive name: users will see this name in the navigation, so make it something they'll recognize.
Each tab can hold multiple sub-tabs. When configuring a sub-tab, you'll choose whether it should be visible (a useful way to stage forms or reports that are still in development without giving users access yet), and pick an icon to represent it in the navigation. At the bottom of the configuration screen, choose whether the sub-tab points to a URL or an artifact; if you choose Artifact, you can search for it directly from the Data folder rather than needing to know its exact path.
Troubleshooting Missing Artifacts
If you see a red "X" next to an artifact in the navigation editor, it usually means that artifact no longer exists, or it's been moved or renamed since the tab was configured, and the navigation flow can no longer resolve it. Re-linking the tab to the artifact's current location clears the error.
Finalizing Changes
Once you're done editing, save and close out of every open tab until you're back at the main Navigation Flow list. From there, deactivate the duplicate (working) flow and reactivate your real navigation flow so it becomes the active one again. Users may need to log out and back in before they see the updated navigation: the flow that's active at login is generally what gets cached for that session.
Once everything is active, use either the Home page icons or the Navigator menu to confirm your changes look and behave the way you intended.