Results for “ak_unique_keys”

AI-generated from documented ETRM metadata — verify critical details on the linked pages.

Overview

AK_UNIQUE_KEYS is a metadata repository table owned by the AK (Common Modules-AK) schema in Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.1 and 12.2.2. It stores the definitions of unique keys associated with registered database objects in the Oracle Application Object Library (AOL) / AK repository model. The AK module is the repository foundation that enables Oracle EBS to introspect its own schema — describing tables, columns, foreign keys, and unique constraints — which is essential for features such as multi-org validation, flexfield generation, and the Application Programming Interface (API) framework.

Each row in AK_UNIQUE_KEYS defines a named unique key that belongs to an object registered in AK_OBJECTS. The table therefore acts as a descriptive catalog: it does not hold application transaction data, but rather the structural metadata that answers the question "which column combinations uniquely identify a row in a given database object?" Because uniqueness semantics are stored centrally, downstream tooling can enforce or exploit them without hard-coding object-specific logic.

From a Data Vault modeling perspective, the FK topology (a single outbound reference to AK_OBJECTS and two inbound references from AK_FOREIGN_KEYS and AK_UNIQUE_KEY_COLUMNS) suggests a hub-leaning classification. AK_UNIQUE_KEYS behaves as a business-key hub: it is the anchor around which foreign-key and key-column descriptors cluster, making it the natural grain for a central entity in a metadata vault model.

Key Information Stored

The primary key is defined by AK_UNIQUE_KEYS_PK on UNIQUE_KEY_NAME, which serves as the surrogate identifier for each key definition. A second unique index, AK_UNIQUE_KEYS_U1, covers (UNIQUE_KEY_NAME, ZD_EDITION_NAME), reflecting the Edition-Based Redefinition (EBR) support added in 12.2.x through the ZD_EDITION_NAME column. This composite index is the business-key candidate for the table, allowing the same logical unique key to exist in multiple editions.

The most significant columns include:

• UNIQUE_KEY_NAME — the primary identifier and business key of the unique key definition; referenced by dependent child tables.
• DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME — the foreign key to AK_OBJECTS, indicating the database object to which the unique key applies.
• APPLICATION_ID — the owning Oracle application, enabling scoped querying and access control.
• ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY and ATTRIBUTE1 through ATTRIBUTE15 — the standard Oracle EBS descriptive flexfield (DFF) columns, providing an extensible attribute block for customer-specific or locale-specific metadata without schema changes.
• CREATED_BY, CREATION_DATE, LAST_UPDATED_BY, LAST_UPDATE_DATE, and LAST_UPDATE_LOGIN — the standard "WHO" audit columns present on nearly every EBS table, supporting change tracking and concurrent program auditing.
• ZD_EDITION_NAME — the edition discriminator for EBR, central to 12.2.2 edition-aware queries.

The table holds 25 columns in total, consistent with the audit, attribute, identity, and edition groups above.

Common Use Cases and Queries

The primary use case is metadata introspection: developers and DBAs query AK_UNIQUE_KEYS to discover the unique constraints of registered objects before building integrations or data migrations. A typical join enumerates the columns that make up each unique key:

• SELECT u.UNIQUE_KEY_NAME, u.DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME, c.COLUMN_NAME FROM AK_UNIQUE_KEYS u JOIN AK_UNIQUE_KEY_COLUMNS c ON u.UNIQUE_KEY_NAME = c.UNIQUE_KEY_NAME WHERE u.DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME = :object_name
• Scoping by application: WHERE u.APPLICATION_ID = :app_id
• Edition-aware lookups on 12.2.x: WHERE ZD_EDITION_NAME = SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','DB_EDITION') or filtering on a specific edition.
• Reverse-engineering which unique keys depend on a given object by joining to AK_OBJECTS on DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME.

Reporting scenarios include data dictionary reports, impact analysis before schema changes, and validation of key definitions during upgrades or patches. The DFF attribute columns allow site-specific annotations, useful for tagging keys that are deprecated or non-standard.

Related Objects

The FK relationships form the immediate dependency graph:

• AK_OBJECTS — the parent object registry; joined on AK_UNIQUE_KEYS.DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME = AK_OBJECTS.DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME (or object identifier). Defines what object the key describes.
• AK_UNIQUE_KEY_COLUMNS — the child that holds the member columns of each unique key; joined on UNIQUE_KEY_NAME. This is where the actual column list is materialized.
• AK_FOREIGN_KEYS — references AK_UNIQUE_KEYS via UNIQUE_KEY_NAME, enumerating foreign keys whose referenced unique key is this definition.
• AK_FOREIGN_KEY_COLUMNS — indirectly dependent through AK_FOREIGN_KEYS, providing the referencing column mapping.
• AK_OBJECT_ATTRIBUTES and AK_ATTRIBUTES — sibling metadata tables describing object-level properties and column attributes that commonly accompany unique-key definitions in dictionary reports.

Together these tables constitute the AK repository that underpins Oracle EBS metadata-driven features, making AK_UNIQUE_KEYS a small but structurally central node in the metadata dependency chain.