Search Results fnd_api




Overview
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Overview

FND_API is the foundational Oracle Application Object Library (AOL) utility package body in the APPS schema, shipped with Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.1 and 12.2.2. Its documented classification is "API," and its status is VALID. FND_API does not own business data or execute a functional process of its own; rather, it supplies the shared low-level services on which thousands of other EBS APIs, concurrent programs, and forms-based transactions rely. It provides the standardized public API call convention, the common exception and message-handling scaffolding, and the standard transactional contract (including savepoint management and the "x_return_status" OUT parameter pattern) adopted across the EBS product family.

The package body is a compiled dependency of enormous reach. According to the ETRM metadata, it is referenced by 11,143 other packages, confirming its role as the most widely reused public API in the EBS codebase.

Key Procedures and Functions

The metadata documents two public procedures/functions:

  • COMPATIBLE_API_CALL — a procedure that enforces API compatibility between calling code and the target API, allowing a caller to declare the API version or behavioral compatibility level it expects. It is central to the EBS convention that new API versions remain backward compatible, and it raises the standard API exception when an incompatible call is detected.
  • TO_BOOLEAN — a conversion function that translates an EBS API boolean (typically the standard FND_API.G_TRUE / FND_API.G_FALSE character-based flags) into a native PL/SQL BOOLEAN. This supports the convention that booleans must be represented as characters across API boundaries to remain callable from forms and other technologies.

Parameter lists are not documented in the metadata and are therefore not reproduced here. Broader constants and exception definitions associated with the package are also not itemized in the provided extract.

Tables Accessed

The ETRM extract documents no tables referenced through APPS synonyms for this package body. FND_API is a stateless utility library; it does not read or write application data tables. Any message text used by the API convention is resolved through the FND_MESSAGE and FND_MSG_PUB message-handling packages, which are listed as dependencies rather than as table-level access.

Usage Notes

FND_API is typically invoked indirectly. Forms built against the EBS framework, concurrent programs, and custom PL/SQL wrappers call EBS public APIs that internally use FND_API for compatibility checks, boolean conversion, and message propagation. Because it is the shared contract layer, changes to it propagate widely: the metadata shows it is a dependency of 11,143 packages, and the body itself depends only on FND_MESSAGE, FND_MSG_PUB, and STANDARD. Oracle E-Business Suite documentation advises treating FND_API as a controlled, Oracle-supplied component. Custom code should call it rather than modify it, and should preserve the EBS convention of exposing character-based booleans and a standard return status so that calls remain compatible with the documented API interface across releases.