Search Results fnd_attachment_blocks_s

Overview

The APPS.HR_ATTACHMENTS_LOADER package body is a declarative setup utility within Oracle E-Business Suite, owned by the APPS schema and classified under the "OTHER" API category. Its principal business function is the programmatic provisioning of Oracle Attachments Framework configuration metadata. Rather than serving end-user transactional activity, the package populates the foundation tables that enable other forms and concurrent programs to associate documents with application entities, blocks, and categories. The package header comment (hratload.pkb 115.1, dated October 1999) indicates the object originated early in the 11i lineage and has been carried forward, largely unchanged, into EBS 12.1.1 and 12.2.2. It is invoked during attachment framework deployment or extension to create or reuse the attachment function, block, entity, and category definitions required by a target form. The ETRM metadata records five documented procedures and eleven referenced base tables, confirming the package's concentration on the FND_ATTACHMENT_* and FND_DOCUMENT_* configuration schema. It is referenced by zero other packages, confirming its role as a standalone initialization utility rather than a shared runtime dependency.

Key Procedures and Functions

The documented entry points cover the complete chain of attachment framework registration:

• CRE_OR_SEL_ATT_FORM_FUNCTION — Creates or selects the attachment function record. The excerpted source shows it resolving a form or function via FND_FORM_VL and FND_FORM_FUNCTIONS_VL, then checking FND_ATTACHMENT_FUNCTIONS and inserting a new row from FND_ATTACHMENT_FUNCTIONS_S when none is found.
• ASSOCIATE_CATEGORY — Associates a document category with the attachment configuration, recording the relationship in FND_DOC_CATEGORY_USAGES. This is the procedure implicated by a search for "category_exists," reflecting the internal existence checks performed before a category usage is created.
• CREATE_OR_UPDATE_BLOCK — Establishes or refreshes the attachment block definition in FND_ATTACHMENT_BLOCKS, forming the foundation for block-level entity linkage.
• CREATE_OR_SELECT_ENTITY — Creates or reuses a document entity registration, including its translated and base table rows.
• ATTACH_ENTITY — Binds an entity to a block, populating FND_ATTACHMENT_BLK_ENTITIES and completing the association required for runtime attachment display.

Tables Accessed

The package reads and writes the FND attachment configuration tables and their _S sequence-backed counterparts. FND_ATTACHMENT_FUNCTIONS and FND_ATTACHMENT_FUNCTIONS_S record which forms or functions offer attachment capability. FND_ATTACHMENT_BLOCKS and FND_ATTACHMENT_BLOCKS_S define the blocks in which attachments appear. FND_ATTACHMENT_BLK_ENTITIES and FND_ATTACHMENT_BLK_ENTITIES_S link blocks to entities. FND_DOCUMENT_ENTITIES, FND_DOCUMENT_ENTITIES_S, and FND_DOCUMENT_ENTITIES_TL hold entity definitions and their translatable names. FND_DOC_CATEGORY_USAGES and FND_DOC_CATEGORY_USAGES_S govern which document categories are available, and by extension drive the category existence logic the user searched for.

Usage Notes

Because it is an internal loader rather than a public API, HR_ATTACHMENTS_LOADER is typically invoked during implementation or extension of the Attachments Framework — for example, when exposing attachment capability on a custom or Oracle form. It is not called by other packages (0 referencing packages per ETRM) and is best executed by a technical consultant or DBA in a controlled environment, with a backup of the FND attachment configuration tables, since inserts are committed directly without an exposed rollback contract. In 12.1.1 and 12.2.2 the underlying table structures are stable, so the package remains valid for seeding attachment metadata, though any direct invocation should be preceded by an existence check to avoid duplicate rows.