Search Results question_code

Overview

MSC_QUESTIONS_VL is a bilingual (VL, "view language") database view owned by the APPS schema within the MSC - Advanced Supply Chain Planning product family in Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.1 and 12.2.2. It presents a language-translated, read-only projection of the question definitions used by Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning (ASCP) and its planning data collection engine. Rather than exposing the raw partitioned base tables directly, the view joins the translation table to the base table and filters rows by the session language, returning a single consolidated record per question that combines the internal question identifier with its translatable user-facing name.

In Oracle EBS reporting and integration contexts, this view is the standard access point for retrieving planning question metadata. Custom reports, concurrent programs, Discoverer workbooks, and outbound integration extracts reference MSC_QUESTIONS_VL instead of the underlying _B/_TL pair so that column names and language handling are simplified and future schema changes to the base tables are insulated. The ETRM metadata records the object as VALID in schema APPS, confirming it is a supported, deployable access path.

Underlying Base Objects

The documented view definition is a two-table join:

SELECT B.QUESTION_ID,
       B.QUESTION_CODE,
       B.QUESTION_TYPE,
       TL.USER_QUESTION_NAME
FROM   MSC_QUESTIONS_TL TL, MSC_QUESTIONS_B B
WHERE  B.QUESTION_ID = TL.QUESTION_ID
AND    TL.LANGUAGE = USERENV('LANG')

The view is defined over two synonyms that resolve to the base tables MSC_QUESTIONS_B (the language-independent, non-translatable attributes) and MSC_QUESTIONS_TL (the translatable attributes). The join key is QUESTION_ID, which is the primary key of MSC_QUESTIONS_B and the foreign key of MSC_QUESTIONS_TL. The translation table additionally carries a LANGUAGE column, and the view constrains it using USERENV('LANG') so that only the row matching the current session language is returned. This pattern is the standard EBS "_VL" construct: the _B table supplies the stable identifier and coded attributes, the _TL table supplies the descriptive text, and the view merges them into one row per question per session language.

Key Columns

• QUESTION_ID — The unique numeric identifier of the question. Sourced from MSC_QUESTIONS_B, it is the join key against the translation table and is the value other ASCP objects store when referencing a question.
• QUESTION_CODE — The language-independent, developer-facing code for the question. Because it is held on the _B table it does not change when the display language changes, making it the safe key for programmatic comparisons and interface mapping where the user searched term "question_code" applies.
• QUESTION_TYPE — The coded classification of the question (for example, defining its data type or functional category). Also sourced from MSC_QUESTIONS_B, so it is stable across languages.
• QUESTION — Listed in the documented column set; in the base tables this corresponds to the question text attribute used by the planning engine.
• USER_QUESTION_NAME — The translated, user-facing label for the question. Sourced from MSC_QUESTIONS_TL and dependent on the LANGUAGE filter, this is the value presented to end users in ASCP setup and inquiry screens.

Common Use Cases and Queries

The most frequent use is resolving a question code entered by a user to its identifier or display name, for example during report parameter validation or while investigating planning question setup:

SELECT question_id, question_code, question_type,
       user_question_name
FROM   apps.msc_questions_vl
WHERE  question_code = :p_question_code;

A second scenario produces a reference listing of all defined questions for a lookup or extract, ordered by code, which is useful when building mapping tables for integration with ASCP:

SELECT question_code, question_type, user_question_name
FROM   apps.msc_questions_vl
ORDER  BY question_code;

A third scenario joins the view to other planning setup objects by QUESTION_ID to report which questions are attached to a given planning configuration, using the stable QUESTION_ID rather than the translated name. Because the view applies USERENV('LANG') automatically, callers must be aware that a non-English session returns translated names; when a language-independent value is required for comparison, queries should use QUESTION_CODE or QUESTION_TYPE instead of USER_QUESTION_NAME.