Search Results get_segment_column

Overview

FND_FLEX_APIS is a foundational Oracle E-Business Suite PL/SQL package owned by the APPS schema. Its business function is to expose reusable APIs for interrogating and resolving Key and Descriptive Flexfield (DFF) metadata at runtime. Rather than forcing developers to query the underlying flexfield definition tables directly, FND_FLEX_APIS centralizes the logic for translating a flexfield structure into its constituent segments, identifying segment display order, resolving the application columns that store segment values, and determining the descriptive flexfield context and global segment configuration. The package is classified as an "OTHER" API, meaning it is a general-purpose utility rather than a business-object API tied to a specific transaction entity. Because flexfield configurations are highly instance-specific, this package allows forms, concurrent programs, and custom code to behave correctly regardless of how the flexfield has been defined in a given environment.

Key Procedures and Functions

The documented package exposes fourteen procedures and functions. Several are core "getter" routines returning information about Key Flexfield segments:

• GET_QUALIFIER_SEGNUM — Returns the segment number (the display order of the segment) corresponding to a unique qualifier name, distinguishing display order from the SEGMENT_NUM column of FND_ID_FLEX_SEGMENTS.
• GET_SEGMENT_COLUMN — Resolves the application column name associated with a given segment attribute type for a specified structure.
• GET_SEGMENT_INFO — Returns the application column, segment name, prompt, and value set name for a given segment number.
• GET_ENABLED_SEGMENT_NUM — Determines the number of enabled segments for a structure associated with a concurrent program name.
• GET_SEGMENT_DELIMITER and GBL_GET_SEGMENT_DELIMITER — Return the delimiter character used to concatenate segments; the GBL_ variant provides a globally cached equivalent.

Descriptive flexfield setup routines include IS_DESCR_SETUP and its GBL_IS_DESCR_SETUP variant, which report whether a descriptive flexfield is configured; IS_DESCR_REQUIRED and GBL_IS_DESCR_REQUIRED, which report whether context or segment values are mandatory; and DESCR_SETUP_OR_REQUIRED with its GBL_DESCR_SETUP_OR_REQUIRED variant, which combine both checks.

The two descriptive flexfield segment-information functions are GET_DFF_GLOBAL_REQ_SEGS_INFO, which returns information about globally required DFF segments, and GET_DFF_CONTEXT_REQ_SEGS_INFO, which returns required segment information for a specific DFF context and is the object referenced by the user's search term.

Tables Accessed

The package reads flexfield definition metadata through APPS synonyms. FND_ID_FLEX_STRUCTURES and FND_ID_FLEX_SEGMENTS supply Key Flexfield structure and segment definitions. FND_DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXS and FND_DESCR_FLEX_CONTEXTS provide descriptive flexfield and context-level configuration, while FND_DESCR_FLEX_COLUMN_USAGES defines how DFF segments map to application columns. FND_FLEX_VALUE_SETS resolves the value set assigned to each segment, and FND_SEGMENT_ATTRIBUTE_TYPES together with FND_SEGMENT_ATTRIBUTE_VALUES describe segment attributes such as display, required, and enabled flags. Together these tables let the package answer structural and validation questions without hard-coded knowledge of a specific flexfield definition.

Usage Notes

FND_FLEX_APIS is referenced by 128 other packages, reflecting its role as a shared dependency across Oracle EBS modules. It is typically invoked from Oracle Forms-based flexfield validation and navigation logic, from concurrent programs that must dynamically identify enabled segments or segment columns, and from custom PL/SQL code that needs to interrogate DFF context setup, such as calling GET_DFF_CONTEXT_REQ_SEGS_INFO to determine which segments are required for a given context before persisting descriptive flexfield data. Because the package holds WNDS and WNPS purity restrictions on its getter functions, those routines may be called from tightly constrained SQL contexts. Developers should treat the package as a read-only metadata access layer and rely on it rather than querying the flexfield definition tables directly, ensuring consistent behavior across Oracle EBS 12.1.1 and 12.2.2 environments. Note that the GBL_ variants are intended to leverage cached global values for performance in frequently executed paths.