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Overview
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Overview

HXC_TC_AP_LINKS_PKG is a PL/SQL package owned by the APPS schema in Oracle E-Business Suite. It is classified under the ETRM “OTHER” API category, indicating that it is an internal utility package rather than a formally published public API. Its business function is to maintain the association, or link, between timecards and application periods within the Oracle Time and Labor (OTL) module of Oracle EBS 12.1.1 and 12.2.2.

In Oracle Time and Labor, timecards are stored as time building blocks in HXC_TIME_BUILDING_BLOCKS, while application periods are defined in HXC_APP_PERIOD_SUMMARY. Because a single timecard can span or be applied to one or more application periods, and because application periods aggregate timecard data for downstream processing such as payroll, costing, and transfer to Oracle Projects or Oracle Payroll, a physical linking table (HXC_TC_AP_LINKS) is used to record these relationships. HXC_TC_AP_LINKS_PKG provides the programmatic interface for creating, removing, and summarizing these links.

The package is declared with AUTHID CURRENT_USER, meaning that its SQL statements execute with the privileges of the calling user rather than the definer. This is significant for security and for correct resolution of APPS synonyms at runtime.

Key Procedures and Functions

The package exposes six documented procedures. The two most relevant to summary processing are:

  • INSERT_SUMMARY_ROW — Creates a summary row for a given timecard and application period. This is the procedure that populates summary-level information derived from detailed timecard data, making it available for application period aggregation.
  • DELETE_SUMMARY_ROW — Removes the summary row associated with a specific timecard and application period. This procedure is typically invoked when a timecard is deleted, reversed, or when its application period assignment changes, ensuring that stale summary data does not persist.

The remaining four procedures manage the link records themselves:

Together these procedures provide symmetric operations along both the timecard and application period dimensions, supporting both row-level and bulk link maintenance. No parameter lists beyond those shown in the package header are documented; parameters are named and typed against HXC_TIME_BUILDING_BLOCKS and HXC_TC_AP_LINKS columns.

Tables Accessed

The package operates against four tables, resolved through APPS synonyms:

  • HXC_TC_AP_LINKS — The primary link table. It stores the association between timecards and application periods and is the direct target of the remove/create link procedures.
  • HXC_TIME_BUILDING_BLOCKS — The core timecard storage table. The package reads time_building_block_id values from this table to identify timecards requiring link or summary maintenance.
  • HXC_APP_PERIOD_SUMMARY — Holds application period definitions and summary aggregates. The summary row procedures read and write against this structure when inserting or deleting summary rows.
  • HXC_TIMECARD_SUMMARY — Stores timecard-level summary data used during application period processing.

Usage Notes

Because DELETE_SUMMARY_ROW and its companion procedures are not documented as public APIs, they are intended for internal use by Oracle Time and Labor components. They are typically invoked by concurrent programs such as the Time and Labor process for applying timecards to application periods, and by any internal logic that must reconcile links when timecards are modified or removed. Forms-based timecard entry, correction, and deletion in OTL rely on this package indirectly.

Custom code should be cautious about invoking this package directly, since the link and summary tables are managed by Oracle’s own processing logic and direct manipulation can cause data inconsistencies. Where customization is required, the recommended approach is to let the standard OTL processes invoke this package and to avoid deleting or inserting rows in HXC_TC_AP_LINKS or the summary tables manually.