Search Results get_release

Overview

FND_RELEASE is a core Oracle E-Business Suite PL/SQL package owned by the APPS schema and classified under the API classification "OTHER." Its principal business function is to expose the identity of the currently installed EBS release to any calling program that requires it. The package derives its information from the FND_PRODUCT_GROUPS table, which holds a single row describing the deployed Applications product group, including the RELEASE_NAME column. Rather than forcing every caller to query that table directly, FND_RELEASE provides a stable, cached-style interface that returns the release name together with any supplementary release information.

The package is central to version detection across the E-Business Suite. It is referenced by 36 other packages, reflecting its role as the canonical source for "what release am I running" logic. Custom code, diagnostics, and Oracle-supplied utilities all rely on this package to determine release identity consistently, avoiding divergent interpretations of the same underlying data.

Key Procedures and Functions

The package exposes seven documented procedures and functions:

• GET_RELEASE — The primary retrieval routine. It returns the release name and any other release information as output parameters, along with a Boolean success indicator. When FND_PRODUCT_GROUPS.RELEASE_NAME contains no embedded spaces, the full value is returned in the release name output and the supplementary output is null. When embedded spaces exist, the portion before the first space is returned as the release name, and the remainder is returned as other release information. On failure it returns FALSE and both outputs are set to 'Unknown'.
• RESULT — Returns the Boolean outcome of the initialization or prior release retrieval, mirroring the success status reported by GET_RELEASE.
• RELEASE_NAME — Returns the release name obtained by GET_RELEASE. It returns null if no rows exist in FND_PRODUCT_GROUPS.
• RELEASE_INFO — Returns the supplementary release information captured alongside the release name.
• MAJOR_VERSION — Returns the major version component derived from the release identity.
• MINOR_VERSION — Returns the minor version component derived from the release identity.
• POINT_VERSION — Returns the point version component derived from the release identity.

Tables Accessed

The package reads a single table, FND_PRODUCT_GROUPS, accessed through its APPS synonym. This table is expected to contain exactly one valid row. GET_RELEASE reads RELEASE_NAME from that row and parses it into release name and other release information as described above. The version component functions (MAJOR_VERSION, MINOR_VERSION, POINT_VERSION) rely on the same release data to decompose the version string.

Usage Notes

FND_RELEASE is typically invoked from PL/SQL within forms, concurrent programs, and custom extensions whenever the running release must be identified. The package is governed by the RESTRICT_REFERENCES pragma (wnds), confirming it performs no database writes and is safe for use in SQL and read-only contexts. Because GET_RELEASE is called frequently and its result treated as effectively static, Oracle notes that failures are a performance concern rather than a functional one: if FND_PRODUCT_GROUPS contains no rows, or more than one row, GET_RELEASE returns FALSE and the outputs are set to 'Unknown'. Populating the single correct row, or deleting all but the correct row, resolves the condition on the next call. Developers writing custom code should therefore expect the release name to be stable across a session and should not treat retrieval failure as a fatal error, but rather as an indicator that the product group table requires administrative correction.