Search Results define_interface_column_type

Overview

APPS.ECE_FLATFILE_PVT is a private PL/SQL package within the Oracle E-Business Suite E-Commerce Gateway (ECE) module. Its principal business function is the assembly, formatting, and writing of flat-file output for outbound EDI transactions. E-Commerce Gateway processes trading-partner documents such as purchase orders, invoices, and advance ship notices; ECE_FLATFILE_PVT supplies the low-level machinery that converts rows retrieved from ECE interface tables into the positionally defined, fixed-width or delimited records expected by the receiving translator.

The package is classified as PVT, meaning it is an internal implementation package rather than a public API. It exposes a set of type definitions — including attribute_rec_type, attribute_tbl_type, interface_rec_type, and interface_tbl_type — along with a global transaction attribute table, t_tran_attribute_tbl, which caches attribute metadata for the transaction type currently being processed. Global constants such as G_MAXCOLWIDTH (400), G_COMMON_KEY_LENGTH (100), and the record-number positioning constants (G_RECORD_NUM_START = 92, G_RECORD_NUM_LENGTH = 4) reflect the fixed layout conventions applied when records are rendered into the output file.

Key Procedures and Functions

The package documents sixteen procedures and functions. The user search term define_interface_column_type corresponds to the DEFINE_INTERFACE_COLUMN_TYPE procedure, which determines the data type characteristics of a given interface column so that values are correctly formatted before being placed into the output record. INIT_TABLE prepares and populates the working table structures used during a run. GET_TRAN_ATTRIBUTES loads transaction-level attributes for the active transaction type into the global attribute table, and PRINT_ATTRIBUTES emits those attributes, typically for diagnostic purposes. SELECT_CLAUSE builds the dynamic SQL selection clause used to retrieve interface data, returning an external table reference and an interface table collection; its use of DBMS_SQL and DBMS_UTILITY confirms dynamic query construction.

The MATCH_* family of functions — MATCH_XREF_CONV_SEQ, MATCH_DATA_LOC_ID, MATCH_INTERFACE_COLUMN_ID, MATCH_CONVERSION_GROUP_ID, and MATCH_RECORD_NUM — resolves mapping, cross-reference, conversion sequence, and record-number details for each interface column. FIND_POS and POS_OF determine positional offsets within a record, while ASSIGN_COLUMN_VALUE_TO_TBL moves a resolved value into the appropriate position of the in-memory table. WRITE_TO_ECE_OUTPUT performs the final step of writing formatted lines to the ECE output tables.

Tables Accessed

The package operates against the core E-Commerce Gateway configuration and output tables through APPS synonyms. ECE_INTERFACE_COLUMNS and ECE_INTERFACE_TABLES supply the column-level definitions, data types, and layout metadata that drive DEFINE_INTERFACE_COLUMN_TYPE and the positional logic. ECE_MAPPINGS provides the mapping and cross-reference rules evaluated by the MATCH_* functions. ECE_OUTPUT and ECE_OUTPUT_LINES_S are the target tables into which WRITE_TO_ECE_OUTPUT inserts the generated flat-file records and line data. The package additionally depends on the Oracle-supplied DBMS_SQL, DBMS_UTILITY, and PLITBLM packages for dynamic SQL execution and PL/SQL table management.

Usage Notes

ECE_FLATFILE_PVT is not intended for direct invocation by end users or custom code. It is called internally during outbound E-Commerce Gateway processing, typically from the concurrent programs that generate outbound interface files. With twenty-eight dependent packages, it functions as a shared formatting utility across multiple ECE transaction flows. Customizations should be avoided; extensions should instead target the ECE setup tables (interface columns, tables, and mappings) upon which the package relies. The reference to DBMS_SQL indicates that behavior is sensitive to the interface column definitions configured in the instance, and any change to those definitions directly affects the clauses built by SELECT_CLAUSE and the type handling performed by DEFINE_INTERFACE_COLUMN_TYPE.