Results for “ff_database_items_vl2”

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

Overview

FF_DATABASE_ITEMS_VL2 is a view owned by the APPS schema in Oracle E-Business Suite, defined in the FastFormula (FF) product family. Its documented purpose is to support the FastFormula user interface. In EBS 12.1.1 and 12.2.2, FastFormula provides a flexible expression language used to define calculation rules, validation logic, payroll formulas, accrual plans, and compensation rules across multiple modules. The view exposes metadata about database items (DBIs) — the named values FastFormula can reference — in a translated, UI-ready form.

The "VL" style naming in Oracle EBS typically denotes a view that merges a base table with its translation table. FF_DATABASE_ITEMS_VL2 conforms to this pattern: it presents list-of-values style data combining base column values with translated user names. From a reporting and integration standpoint, the view allows developers, support analysts, and reporting tools to query database item definitions, including whether a given item may be null, without accessing multiple underlying tables directly.

Underlying Base Objects

The documented base objects referenced by this view are FF_DATABASE_ITEMS (exposed as a SYNONYM) and FF_DATABASE_ITEMS_TL (also exposed as a SYNONYM). FF_DATABASE_ITEMS holds the base (untranslated) database item definitions, while FF_DATABASE_ITEMS_TL stores translated user names keyed by USER_ENTITY_ID and USER_NAME. The view text is a UNION of two SELECT statements:

• The first SELECT reads base rows directly from FF_DATABASE_ITEMS (aliased DI).
• The second SELECT joins FF_DATABASE_ITEMS_TL (DBITL) to FF_DATABASE_ITEMS (DI) on USER_ENTITY_ID and USER_NAME, substituting the translated user name.

This UNION pattern is characteristic of Oracle's seed-data translation strategy: base rows provide the default-language values, and the translation table supplies locale-specific names where available.

Key Columns

The view exposes six columns. Each serves a specific role in the UI and in downstream queries:

• USER_NAME — the display name of the database item as seen by the user. In the translated branch this is TRANSLATED_USER_NAME; otherwise it is the base value.
• USER_ENTITY_ID — the internal identifier linking the item to its definition context, and the key used to join to the translation table.
• DATA_TYPE — the data type of the database item (for example, number, date, or text), which determines how FastFormula evaluates and casts values.
• DEFINITION_TEXT — the SQL or definition expression that resolves the item to an actual value at runtime.
• NULL_ALLOWED_FLAG — indicates whether the database item may return null. This is the column most relevant to the user's search term "null_allowed_flag." It governs whether a formula referencing the item must handle a null result, and is frequently inspected when diagnosing formula compile or runtime errors caused by unexpected nulls.
• DESCRIPTION — free-text description of the item's purpose.

Common Use Cases and Queries

Typical uses include auditing database item definitions, identifying which items permit nulls, supporting localization checks, and feeding metadata into custom reports or migration scripts. A simple query to identify nullable items is:

• SELECT user_name, user_entity_id, data_type, null_allowed_flag FROM apps.ff_database_items_vl2 WHERE null_allowed_flag = 'Y';
• SELECT user_name, definition_text FROM apps.ff_database_items_vl2 WHERE data_type = 'N';
• SELECT user_name, description FROM apps.ff_database_items_vl2 WHERE user_entity_id = :entity_id;

Because the view is a UNION rather than a standard translation join, duplicate logical items can appear where translated names differ from base names; callers should account for this when counting or aggregating. Access is restricted to the APPS schema context, and the object is documented as VALID in the ETRM 12.2.2 metadata, confirming availability across the supported 12.1.1 and 12.2.2 releases.