Results for “ff_user_entities”

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

Overview

FF_USER_ENTITIES is a core configuration table in the Oracle E-Business Suite FastFormula (FF) module, owned by the HR schema. It stores the combination of a database table (or view) and its associated selection criteria that together define a "user entity." A user entity is the foundational building block from which database items are derived: each database item that a FastFormula can reference must resolve back to a route, a table, and a set of selection parameters, and FF_USER_ENTITIES is the object that records this binding. In this sense the table acts as the catalog of allowable data sources that the FastFormula engine can query when evaluating a formula at runtime.

The ETRM metadata classifies this object, using heuristic analysis of its foreign key topology, as hub-leaning in a Data Vault model. It is referenced by many downstream tables (archive items, database items, route parameter values, and error tables) while itself referencing only FF_ROUTES, which is consistent with the role of a central hub that other satellites and links attach to. This classification should be treated as a modeling suggestion rather than a documented Oracle designation.

Key Information Stored

The table contains 14 documented columns. The surrogate primary key is USER_ENTITY_ID, defined by the unique index FF_USER_ENTITIES_PK. The most significant columns are:

• USER_ENTITY_ID — Surrogate primary key; the value propagated to every child table that references this entity.
• USER_ENTITY_NAME — The business-facing name of the entity, and the principal candidate for a natural business key.
• ROUTE_ID — Foreign key to FF_ROUTES, identifying the route through which the entity is reached.
• BUSINESS_GROUP_ID — Multi-tenant discriminator that scopes the definition to a specific business group.
• LEGISLATION_CODE — Restricts the entity to a particular legislative context.
• ENTITY_DESCRIPTION — Free-text description of the table and selection criteria combination.
• NOTFOUND_ALLOWED_FLAG — Indicates whether a missing row is tolerated during database item evaluation.
• CREATOR_ID and CREATOR_TYPE — Identify the user or process that authored the entity definition.
• CREATED_BY, CREATION_DATE, LAST_UPDATED_BY, LAST_UPDATE_DATE, LAST_UPDATE_LOGIN — Standard audit columns for change tracking.

Common Use Cases and Queries

Typical use cases include auditing which database items depend on a given entity, diagnosing "database item not found" errors in FastFormula, and reconstructing the routing path for a payroll or HR formula. A representative join to the child database items table is:

• SELECT ue.USER_ENTITY_NAME, di.DATABASE_ITEM_NAME FROM FF_USER_ENTITIES ue, FF_DATABASE_ITEMS di WHERE di.USER_ENTITY_ID = ue.USER_ENTITY_ID;
• SELECT ue.USER_ENTITY_ID, ue.ROUTE_ID, ue.NOTFOUND_ALLOWED_FLAG FROM FF_USER_ENTITIES ue WHERE ue.BUSINESS_GROUP_ID = :bg AND ue.LEGISLATION_CODE = :leg;
• Join to FF_ROUTES on ROUTE_ID to trace the full data-access path for a formula.

Related Objects

The following objects are most significant in relation to FF_USER_ENTITIES:

• FF_ROUTES — referenced via FF_USER_ENTITIES.ROUTE_ID; the parent route definition.
• FF_DATABASE_ITEMS and FF_DATABASE_ITEMS_TL — reference USER_ENTITY_ID; the translatable database items built on this entity.
• FF_ROUTE_PARAMETER_VALUES — reference USER_ENTITY_ID; parameter bindings for the entity.
• FF_ARCHIVE_ITEMS — references USER_ENTITY_ID for archival of entity definitions.
• PAY_DBITL_UPDATE_ERRORS — references USER_ENTITY_ID and records errors arising from database item updates.
• HR_S_USER_ENTITIES, HR_S_DATABASE_ITEMS, HR_S_ROUTE_PARAMETER_VALUES, and HR_S_REPORT_FORMAT_ITEMS_F — the HR seed-data shadow tables that carry the same USER_ENTITY_ID lineage.