Search Results create_attribute

Overview

APPS.PQH_ATTRIBUTES_API is a public PL/SQL API package belonging to the Oracle E-Business Suite HR/Payroll (PQH) product family, which governs Public Sector and global HR configuration objects. The package provides the supported programmatic interface for creating, maintaining, and removing attribute definitions stored in the PQH_ATTRIBUTES table. Within Oracle EBS, attributes represent configurable data elements — column mappings, display characteristics, decode functions, and region/attribute item names — that drive how dynamic regions and configurable forms render and interpret underlying table columns. The package exposes a formal API classification, meaning it is intended for direct invocation by external callers rather than being restricted to internal use. The header comment in the package body identifies the source file as pqattapi.pkb (version 115.13, shipped 2003/03/25), confirming the package has been part of the EBS code line since at least the 11i era and remains present in 12.1.1 and 12.2.2.

Key Procedures and Functions

The package body documents three public procedures, each corresponding to a standard DML operation against the attribute definition:

• CREATE_ATTRIBUTE — Creates a new attribute row in PQH_ATTRIBUTES. The procedure accepts a validation-only flag (p_validate) defaulting to FALSE, returns the generated attribute identifier and object version number as OUT parameters, and takes descriptive and structural inputs such as attribute name, master attribute and master table route identifiers, column name and column type, enable flag, width, effective date, language code, region item name, attribute item name, and decode function name. It issues a savepoint when running in validation mode, calls the user-hook before-processing routine PQH_ATTRIBUTES_BK1.CREATE_ATTRIBUTE_B, performs the documented process logic, and then calls the corresponding after-processing hook.
• UPDATE_ATTRIBUTE — Modifies an existing attribute definition. It follows the same validation and user-hook pattern as the create operation, updating the attribute's descriptive and structural properties while maintaining the object version number used for optimistic locking.
• DELETE_ATTRIBUTE — Removes an attribute definition from PQH_ATTRIBUTES, applying the same validation-mode semantics so that a caller can preview the effect before committing.

All three procedures use the naming convention of the package-level variable g_package for error location reporting and rely on hr_utility.set_location for instrumentation.

Tables Accessed

The package reads and writes the PQH_ATTRIBUTES table through its APPS synonym. PQH_ATTRIBUTES is the single documented table reference and holds the master definition of each attribute, including its identifier, name, associated master attribute and table route, source column name and type, width, enable flag, decode function name, region and attribute item names, language, and effective dating columns. The package also interacts with the companion business-logic package PQH_ATTRIBUTES_BK1, which implements the before and after user hooks invoked around each DML statement; this hook mechanism allows customers to extend attribute processing without modifying the seeded API.

Usage Notes

PQH_ATTRIBUTES_API is typically invoked from Oracle Forms (the configurable region and attribute maintenance windows in the HR/Payroll Public Sector module), from concurrent programs that seed or migrate attribute definitions, and from custom PL/SQL code during implementation or data conversion. Because the package is formally classified as an API and is not directly referenced by any other shipped package, callers invoke it directly rather than transitively through other application code. Developers searching for "create_attribute" should use the CREATE_ATTRIBUTE procedure signature documented above, supplying the required attribute name and effective date and, where applicable, the master relationship and column metadata. The object version number returned by CREATE_ATTRIBUTE should be retained by the caller for subsequent UPDATE_ATTRIBUTE calls. Validation mode (p_validate => TRUE) permits dry-run execution and rollback via savepoint.