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Overview
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Overview

PER_PHONES is a Human Resources (PER) module table owned by the HR schema in Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.1 and 12.2.2. It stores phone number records associated with current and ex-employees, current and ex-applicants, and employee contacts. As a shared repository for telephony data across the PER product family, it supports contact management, HR self-service, and downstream integration scenarios where multiple parties within the HR data model require one or more phone numbers to be recorded and tracked over time.

The table is documented as VALID and carries a primary key, PER_PHONES_PK, defined on the PHONE_ID column. From a Data Vault modeling perspective, the heuristic classification derived from the foreign-key structure is standalone, meaning it is not strongly joined by declarative FK constraints to other tables in the HR schema. In practice, however, the presence of the PARENT_ID, PARENT_TABLE, and PARTY_ID columns indicates that this table functions largely as a link or satellite-style structure, associating phone numbers with a parent entity through a polymorphic reference rather than a fixed foreign key. This classification should be treated as a modeling suggestion rather than a binding architectural fact.

Key Information Stored

PER_PHONES contains 46 documented columns spanning identity, dating, classification, extension, and audit attributes. The most significant columns include:

  • PHONE_ID — the surrogate primary key, uniquely identifying each phone record via PER_PHONES_PK.
  • PARENT_ID — the identifier of the parent entity (employee, applicant, or contact) to which the phone number belongs.
  • PARENT_TABLE — the name of the parent table, enabling the polymorphic association used to link a phone record to its owning entity.
  • PARTY_ID — the identifier of the associated party, supporting the TCA/HZ party model integration common in EBS releases.
  • PHONE_TYPE — the classification of the phone number (for example, home, work, or mobile).
  • PHONE_NUMBER — the actual telephone number value.
  • DATE_FROM and DATE_TO — the effective dating range defining the validity of the phone record.
  • VALIDITY — a validity indicator governing whether the record is currently active.
  • ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY and ATTRIBUTE1 through ATTRIBUTE30 — a set of descriptive flexfield columns used for customer-specific extensions.
  • CREATED_BY, CREATION_DATE, LAST_UPDATED_BY, LAST_UPDATE_DATE, LAST_UPDATE_LOGIN — standard audit columns.
  • OBJECT_VERSION_NUMBER — the optimistic locking column used by the Oracle Applications framework.

The only documented unique index and business-key candidate is PER_PHONES_PK on PHONE_ID; no alternate unique index on the natural phone attributes is documented.

Common Use Cases and Queries

Typical use cases include retrieving all phone numbers for an employee or applicant, filtering by phone type, and identifying currently valid numbers. A common query pattern selects phone details for a given parent and phone type:

  • Joining PHONE_NUMBER and PHONE_TYPE with PARENT_ID and PARENT_TABLE to build a contact directory for a specific person.
  • Filtering on DATE_TO IS NULL or VALIDITY = 'Y' to obtain active phone numbers for HR reporting.
  • Using PARTY_ID to reconcile phone data with the HZ party model for CRM or TCA-related reporting.
  • Extracting ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY and ATTRIBUTE columns when customer-specific phone attributes have been configured.

A representative SQL pattern is: SELECT phone_number, phone_type FROM per_phones WHERE parent_id = :person_id AND parent_table = 'PER_ALL_PEOPLE_F' AND (date_to IS NULL OR date_to > SYSDATE);

Related Objects

Because the documented relationship structure is standalone, PER_PHONES is not bound by explicit foreign keys to other tables. It is nevertheless associated at the application level with the following significant objects, joined primarily through PARENT_ID, PARENT_TABLE, and PARTY_ID:

  • PER_ALL_PEOPLE_F — the primary source of employee and ex-employee records referenced by PARENT_ID.
  • PER_ALL_ASSIGNMENTS_F — assignment data often retrieved alongside employee phone details.
  • PER_APPLICANTS and PER_ALL_APPLICANTS — applicant records that may own phone entries.
  • HZ_PARTIES — the party model table linked via PARTY_ID.
  • PER_CONTACT_RELATIONSHIPS — employee contact relationships that may carry associated phone numbers.
  • PER_PHONES_PK — the primary key constraint enforcing uniqueness on PHONE_ID.

These objects form the principal integration surface for phone data within the PER and TCA/CRM domains.