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Overview
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Overview

The CTXSYS.CTX_CONTAINS package is an Oracle Text (formerly interMedia Text) component owned by the CTXSYS schema and shipped as part of the Oracle database server, not as an Oracle E-Business Suite application object. Its role in an EBS 12.1.1 or 12.2.2 environment is to provide the underlying implementation of the CONTAINS SQL operator, which performs full-text and interMedia searches against a Text index. EBS uses Oracle Text in specific functional areas where indexed document, attachment, or descriptive text must be searched through a query predicate rather than a conventional column match.

The ETRM metadata records the object as VALID with the API classification OTHER, confirming that it is a technology-layer database package surfaced in the EBS technical reference rather than an application-owned API. There is no EBS business logic inside CTX_CONTAINS; it is the database service layer that the EBS CONTAINS operator invokes.

Key Procedures and Functions

ETRM documents a single exposed callable entry, TEXTCONTAINS, among the twelve total packaged routines recorded for this object. The documented member provides the text-search predicate entry point; the CONTAINS SQL operator resolves to this package so that a query of the form CONTAINS(column, 'search_term') > 0 can be evaluated against an Oracle Text index.

Because the metadata lists only TEXTCONTAINS explicitly, and because parameter signatures are not documented in the source excerpt, parameter lists are not reproduced here. The remaining packaged members are internal helper routines used by the text index and query machinery; they are not documented as public EBS interfaces and should not be called directly.

Tables Accessed

The metadata shows dependencies on DR$LIB, TEXTINDEXMETHODS, and ODCIINDEXCTX rather than on APPS-schema tables or APPS synonyms. This reflects the fact that Oracle Text maintains its own index storage, invoking the ODCIINDEXCTX interface through TEXTINDEXMETHODS to read the Text index structures created by CREATE INDEX ... INDEXTYPE IS CTXSYS.CONTEXT. No EBS application tables are documented as referenced by this package; the tables it touches at runtime are the Oracle Text index tables belonging to the schema that owns the indexed column.

Usage Notes

CTXSYS.CTX_CONTAINS and the CONTAINS operator it backs are typically invoked indirectly: from EBS forms and OAF pages that query Oracle Text-indexed columns, from concurrent programs performing bulk text search, and from custom PL/SQL or report SQL that includes a CONTAINS clause. It may also be reached through the CTX_CONTAINS schema-qualified form in ad hoc or custom code.

Because it is an Oracle-supplied package under CTXSYS, it must not be modified or repackaged. Implementers should treat it as read-only infrastructure, ensure the CTXSYS schema and Oracle Text options are installed and valid, and confirm that a Text index exists on any column being searched. Grants on the operator must be in place for the invoking schema, and index synchronization jobs must be maintained so that CONTAINS queries return current data.