Search Results get_concatenated_segments

Overview

ARP_DESCR_FLEX is a public PL/SQL package owned by the APPS schema in Oracle E-Business Oracle Receivables. In Oracle EBS 12.1.1 and 12.2.2 it is classified as an OTHER API, meaning it is not a formal interface or business flow API but a supporting utility package used internally by the Receivables application code base. Its stated purpose, as reflected in the single documented entry point, is to resolve descriptive flexfield (DFF) data attached to Receivables transactions and transaction lines into a single concatenated display string, together with the identifying context value for that flexfield structure.

The package is declared with AUTHID CURRENT_USER, so it executes with the privileges of the invoking session rather than the definer. This is consistent with its role as a low-level read utility called from within APPS-owned code and from customizations running as APPS. The header comment ($Header: ARPLDFSS.pls 115.3 2002/11/15) shows the specification has been stable since Release 11i and was carried unchanged into the 12.x code lines.

Key Procedures and Functions

The package exposes exactly one documented program unit:

• GET_CONCATENATED_SEGMENTS — Returns the concatenated segment string for a descriptive flexfield, along with the flexfield context that qualifies it. The user's search for "get_concatenated_segments" maps directly to this procedure. Its signature (per the excerpted specification) accepts the flexfield name, the underlying table name, the transaction identifier, the transaction line identifier, an IN OUT concatenated-segments value, and an IN OUT context value. In practice it resolves which DFF structure applies to the given transaction or line, reads the stored segment columns, and assembles the human-readable concatenation into the IN OUT parameter. No other procedures or functions are documented, so the package's entire public surface is this one DFF retrieval routine.

Tables Accessed

Metadata records four APPS-synonym references used by the package:

• FND_DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXS — the flexfield definition repository; supplies the structure and segment metadata needed to map the requested flexfield name to its columns.
• FND_DESCR_FLEX_COLUMN_USAGES — defines which physical columns in the transaction table hold each segment, enabling the concatenation to be built dynamically.
• RA_CUSTOMER_TRX — the Receivables transaction header table, source of header-level DFF segment values and the transaction identifier.
• RA_CUSTOMER_TRX_LINES — the transaction line table, source of line-level DFF segment values when a line identifier is supplied.

These are read-only lookups; the package performs no data maintenance.

Usage Notes

GET_CONCATENATED_SEGMENTS is a display-oriented formatter, not a validation or defaulting API. It is typically invoked from Receivables forms, from concurrent programs that print or export transaction detail, and from custom code that needs to render DFF information without duplicating the flexfield column-mapping logic. Because the concatenated segments and context are IN OUT parameters, callers must initialize them before the call, and the resolved values are returned through the same variables. The package is referenced by one other package in the ETRM inventory, confirming its role as a shared internal dependency. Developers should treat it as an unsupported internal utility: it is safe to call, but it is not governed by Oracle's public API compatibility guarantee, so custom code should be regression-tested against any patch or upgrade of the ARPLDFSS.pls unit.