Search Results acquire_lock

Overview

WF_ITEM is the Workflow Item API package within the Oracle Workflow engine (product code OWF), owned by APPS and classified as an OTHER API in ETRM for EBS 12.1.1 and 12.2.2. Its stated purpose, per the embedded header comment, is to allow an application program or a workflow function to communicate with the Workflow engine during the runtime phase and to change the status of individual activities. It is a private-scope package whose business entity is WF_ENGINE, and it is marked with an active lifecycle and "S" (supported) compatibility.

The package therefore sits at the lowest layer of the Workflow runtime: it manipulates workflow item instances, their parent/child relationships, ownership, user keys, locks, and on-demand attribute values. Because it operates on the items themselves rather than on process definitions, its callers are typically other Workflow engine components, seeded workflow packages, and specialized application code rather than end users.

Key Procedures and Functions

ETRM documents twelve callable units in 12.2.2. Several are explicitly annotated as private in the source header and should not be treated as public extension points:

• CLEARCACHE — Purges cached workflow item or engine metadata so subsequent reads are refreshed.
• SET_ITEM_PARENT — Establishes a master/detail or parent-child relationship between two workflow items, taking item type, item key, and the parent's type, key, and context.
• SETITEMOWNER (private) — Assigns a role as the designated owner of an item.
• SETITEMUSERKEY (private) — Sets the user key associated with an item.
• GETITEMUSERKEY (private, function) — Returns the user key of a specified item.
• ITEM_EXIST (function) — Boolean test for whether a given item type and item key combination exists.
• ROOT_PROCESS — Returns the top-level workflow process name and version for an item, via OUT parameters.
• CREATE_ITEM — Creates a new runtime item instance for an item type and key.
• ACTIVE_DATE — Relates to the active/effective date semantics of an item instance.
• ACQUIRE_LOCK — Obtains the engine lock on an item to serialize concurrent processing.
• ATTRIBUTE_ON_DEMAND — Retrieves an item attribute value dynamically (on demand) rather than from preloaded cache, which is the behavior the searched term attribute_on_demand references.
• SETENDDATE — Sets or adjusts the end date recorded against an item.

Tables Accessed

The package works against the core Workflow runtime tables through APPS synonyms. WF_ITEMS holds the item instances themselves and is the primary target of CREATE_ITEM, ITEM_EXIST, and the owner/user-key routines. WF_ITEM_ATTRIBUTES stores item-level attribute definitions, while WF_ITEM_ATTRIBUTE_VALUES stores the corresponding runtime values written and read by ATTRIBUTE_ON_DEMAND. WF_ACTIVITY_ATTRIBUTES provides activity-scoped attribute metadata consulted during attribute resolution. PLITBLM is an Oracle Forms/PL/SQL internal table synonym used to handle bulk or array-style parameter passing, reflecting the package's integration with client-side and engine-side callers.

Usage Notes

WF_ITEM is invoked at runtime by the Workflow engine, by workflow function activities executing inside a running process, and by application code that needs to programmatically start, relate, lock, or query items. Typical entry points include Workflow-related forms, concurrent programs that launch or manipulate workflow processes, and custom PL/SQL that performs engine-level operations. Because the package is marked private scope and several procedures are labeled PRIVATE in the source, customizations should prefer documented public Workflow APIs and treat direct calls to SetItemOwner, SetItemUserKey, GetItemUserKey, and similar internals as unsupported. Given that WF_ITEM is referenced by 32 other packages, any modification or wrapping of this package carries broad regression risk across the Workflow and dependent product modules in both 12.1.1 and 12.2.2.