Search Results pa_util_categories_vl




Overview
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Overview

PA_UTIL_CATEGORIES_VL is a bilingual (VL, "view with language") database view owned by the APPS schema in Oracle E-Business Suite. In the Oracle Projects (PA) module, it exposes information about implementation-defined utilization categories — the classifications of the different types of work being carried out within Projects. Utilization categories drive how an organization categorizes and reports on the nature of project work, and this view presents that definitional data in the user's session language.

Because it is a "VL" view, PA_UTIL_CATEGORIES_VL returns the translated NAME and DESCRIPTION values appropriate to the language of the querying session, joined to the language-independent attributes of the same category. This makes it the natural reporting and integration surface for Projects utilization category data: concurrent programs, custom reports, and interfaces that need human-readable category names reference the _VL view rather than the underlying base and translation tables directly. It is a reporting view, not a transactional entry point; inserts and updates are performed against the base tables.

Underlying Base Objects

The view is defined over two documented base objects, both referenced through APPS synonyms:

  • PA_UTIL_CATEGORIES_B — the base table holding language-independent, implementation-level attributes of each utilization category, including the primary key, reporting order, effective dates, and descriptive flexfield (DFF) columns.
  • PA_UTIL_CATEGORIES_TL — the translation table holding the language-dependent NAME and DESCRIPTION for each category, keyed by UTIL_CATEGORY_ID and LANGUAGE.

The two tables are joined on UTIL_CATEGORY_ID, with the translation row restricted by T.LANGUAGE = USERENV('LANG') so that only the row for the current session language is returned. The view also surfaces B.ROWID as ROW_ID, preserving a base-table row identifier. The relationship is strictly one base definition to one translated name/description per language.

Key Columns

  • UTIL_CATEGORY_ID — primary key and the foreign key linking the base and translation records; used in all join and lookup logic.
  • NAME — the translated, user-visible name of the utilization category.
  • DESCRIPTION — the translated descriptive text for the category.
  • REPORTING_ORDER — controls the sequence in which categories are presented in reports and lists.
  • START_DATE_ACTIVE / END_DATE_ACTIVE — effective date range defining when the category is active; END_DATE_ACTIVE null indicates an open-ended category.
  • ROW_ID — the ROWID of the underlying base-table row, useful for tightly coupled updates or diagnostics.
  • ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY and ATTRIBUTE1–ATTRIBUTE15 — the descriptive flexfield context and segment columns, available for customer-defined extensions.
  • CREATION_DATE, CREATED_BY, LAST_UPDATE_DATE, LAST_UPDATED_BY, LAST_UPDATE_LOGIN — standard WHO audit columns.

Common Use Cases and Queries

Typical uses include populating list-of-values (LOV) queries in custom forms, feeding Projects reporting and analytics, and validating category references during interfaces. Filtering on the effective dates restricts results to currently active categories, and ordering by REPORTING_ORDER preserves the implementation's intended presentation sequence.

A representative query retrieving active categories in the session language:

SELECT util_category_id,
       name,
       description,
       reporting_order
FROM   apps.pa_util_categories_vl
WHERE  SYSDATE BETWEEN start_date_active
                   AND NVL(end_date_active, SYSDATE + 1)
ORDER BY reporting_order, name;

For a specific lookup, constrain by either the identifier or the translated name, for example WHERE util_category_id = :p_category_id. Because translation is applied automatically through USERENV('LANG'), no explicit language predicate is required in the calling SQL. When the flexfield segments are needed, select ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY and the relevant ATTRIBUTE columns; when a base-table row identifier is required for a correlated update, use ROW_ID.