Search Results hxt_timecard_api




Overview
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Overview

HXT_TIMECARD_API is a PL/SQL application programming interface owned by the APPS schema in Oracle E-Business Suite, classified as a public API within the Oracle Time and Labor (OTL) module. Its declared purpose is to expose the accrual-related business logic that underpins Oracle Time and Labor timecard processing to external callers, other Oracle modules, and custom extensions. An accrual in this context is the incremental entitlement — typically paid time off, vacation, or sick leave — that an employee earns based on hours worked or on a fixed schedule defined through Oracle Payroll accrual plans.

The package is declared with AUTHID CURRENT_USER, meaning its procedures execute under the privilege set of the invoking session rather than the definer. Callers must therefore possess the necessary grants on the underlying tables and on the package itself. The header carries a version marker dated 2002, reflecting the long-standing stability of this interface across the 11i and R12 code lines, including 12.1.1 and 12.2.2.

Functionally, HXT_TIMECARD_API bridges Oracle Time and Labor timecard data with Oracle Payroll accrual constructs. It allows a caller to determine which accrual plan applies to a given assignment on a given date, to retrieve the net accrual balance for an employee, and to compute total accrual hours associated with a timecard or a specific week. This makes the package central to self-service timecard entry, where employees and managers view accrual balances and accrual plan names while recording time.

Key Procedures and Functions

  • OBTAIN_ACCRUAL_BALANCE — Returns the net accrual balance for an employee as of a supplied calculation date, for a named accrual plan. It accepts identifying information for the employee and the plan context, and returns the computed net balance together with an OTM error string and an Oracle error string for diagnostic handling. This is the procedural backbone for displaying "available balance" figures on timecard and accrual inquiry screens.
  • ACCRUAL_PLAN_NAME — Resolves the accrual plan name that applies to a given element type, date worked, and assignment. It returns the plan name, a numeric return code, an OTM error message, and an Oracle error message. This procedure lets callers determine plan eligibility dynamically rather than hard-coding plan assignments.
  • TOTAL_ACCRUAL_FOR_WEEK — Computes the total accrual hours for a specified timecard and edit date, scoped to an employee. It returns the total hours, the associated accrual plan name, a return code, an OTM error message, an Oracle error message, and a lookup code. This procedure supports weekly accrual summaries used in timecard review and approval workflows.

All three procedures follow a consistent error-reporting convention, exposing both an OTM-specific error and an Oracle error so that calling code can distinguish business-rule failures from technical exceptions. Each procedure is self-contained; there are no documented functions in this package. The absence of a documented function list beyond these three procedures indicates the package is intentionally narrow in scope.

Tables Accessed

The package reads and writes data across a set of Oracle Time and Labor and Oracle Payroll tables, accessed through APPS synonyms. On the timecard side, it references HXT_TIMECARDS_F and HXT_DET_HOURS_WORKED_F, which hold the timecard header and the detailed hours worked lines respectively. These provide the worked-time input against which accruals are calculated and the timecard context for weekly totals.

On the payroll side, the package references PAY_ACCRUAL_PLANS, PAY_ELEMENT_TYPES_F, PAY_ELEMENT_LINKS_F, PAY_ELEMENT_CLASSIFICATIONS, PAY_ELEMENT_ENTRIES_F, PAY_INPUT_VALUES_F, PAY_NET_CALCULATION_RULES, and PAY_BATCH_HEADERS. These tables define accrual plans, the element types and links that map plans to assignments, element classification, the element entries and input values that carry accrual balances, the net calculation rules governing accrual netting, and batch headers for payroll processing context. Together they allow the API to resolve plan eligibility and compute balances from the same underlying data used by Oracle Payroll.

Usage Notes

HXT_TIMECARD_API is typically invoked from Oracle Time and Labor self-service forms and from concurrent programs that process timecards, recalculate accruals, or produce accrual reports. Custom code — including PL/SQL packages, database triggers, and Oracle Application Framework extensions — may call these procedures directly when integrating accrual logic into bespoke time entry or reporting solutions.

Because the package is declared AUTHID CURRENT_USER, callers must hold appropriate privileges on the referenced tables and on the package itself; wrapping calls in a privileged APPS context is the conventional approach. The ETRM metadata records that no other documented packages reference HXT_TIMECARD_API, so it is best treated as a leaf-level API invoked directly by forms and custom code rather than relied upon as an internal building block for other shipped APIs. The dual error outputs should always be inspected so that business-rule failures can be surfaced to users distinctly from technical exceptions.