Search Results pon_conterms_utl_grp




Overview
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Overview

PON_CONTERMS_UTL_GRP is a standard Oracle E-Business Suite PL/SQL utility package owned by the APPS schema and classified as a GRP (group/utility) API. In Oracle EBS 12.1.1 and 12.2.2 it belongs to the Oracle Purchasing / Sourcing (PON) product family and acts as the contracts terms integration utility layer that bridges the Oracle Sourcing modules with Oracle Contracts (OKC) terms and conditions functionality. Its principal business purpose is to determine whether the Contracts application is installed, resolve the correct contracts document type for a sourcing document, and extract and evaluate the article and variable values (terms and conditions variables) associated with a sourcing document so that they can be applied, persisted, or validated against Oracle Contracts.

The package is explicitly dependent on the FND_API error-handling framework (used throughout EBS PL/SQL APIs for the standard x_return_status / x_msg_count / x_msg_data pattern) and on the OKC_TERMS_UTIL_GRP package, which supplies the underlying Contracts terms utilities. This dependency confirms that PON_CONTERMS_UTL_GRP is an integration shim rather than a standalone functional unit; it does not re-implement Contracts logic but orchestrates it on behalf of Sourcing objects such as negotiations and auctions.

Key Procedures and Functions

The documented metadata lists six program units in the package specification and body. Purpose described below; parameter lists are not reproduced because they are not part of the documented metadata.

  • IS_CONTRACTS_INSTALLED — Returns whether the Oracle Contracts family is installed and licensed in the current environment, allowing downstream Sourcing code to conditionally enable or bypass contracts terms processing. This is the standard gating check used before any OKC-dependent call.
  • GET_CONTRACTS_DOCUMENT_TYPE — Resolves and returns the appropriate contracts document type identifier applicable to a given sourcing document, ensuring that the terms authored against a negotiation or auction are mapped to the correct Contracts document classification.
  • OK_TO_COMMIT — Signals whether the current transactional context may be committed, providing a controlled commit gate so that the terms-extraction and apply logic can be completed atomically before the caller performs a COMMIT.
  • GET_ARTICLE_VARIABLE_VALUES — Retrieves the resolved values of the article variables (substitution variables embedded in contract terms articles) for a sourcing document, so that terms text can be rendered with the correct runtime values.
  • GET_CHANGED_VARIABLES — Identifies which article variables have changed relative to their previously stored state, enabling incremental update of terms variables rather than a full rewrite, and supporting change tracking and re-validation.
  • GET_ITEM_CATEGORY — Returns the item category associated with the terms context, used by Contracts terms logic to select category-specific articles and clauses.

Tables Accessed

The package accesses the following tables via APPS synonyms, spanning Sourcing, Contracts, HR, and Trading Community (HZ) data sets:

  • PON_AUCTION_HEADERS_ALL and PON_AUCTION_ITEM_PRICES_ALL — auction header and auction item price data, providing the sourcing document context and the item/price variables to be substituted into contract terms.
  • PON_AUC_DOCTYPES — auction document type definitions, used to resolve the mapping between the sourcing document and the applicable Contracts document type.
  • PON_BID_HEADERS — bid header information, supporting supplier-facing terms resolution during the bidding lifecycle.
  • HZ_PARTIES, HZ_RELATIONSHIPS, and HZ_CODE_ASSIGNMENTS — party, relationship, and code assignment data used to resolve supplier, customer, and classification variables referenced by contract terms articles.
  • HR_ALL_ORGANIZATION_UNITS — organization unit data, used to resolve operating unit and internal organization variables.
  • FND_USER — application user data, supplying user-derived variables such as the initiating buyer or creator.
  • PLITBLM — the standard EBS PL/SQL table-of-strings utility, used for indexed string collections when assembling or parsing variable sets.

Usage Notes

PON_CONTERMS_UTL_GRP is not an end-user-facing entity; it is invoked programmatically. ETRM documents four referencing packages: OKC_PON_INT_GRP, PON_CONTERMS_UTL_PVT, PON_LARGE_AUCTION_UTIL_PKG, and PON_NEGOTIATION_COPY_GRP. This indicates that the primary invocation paths are the Sourcing negotiation and auction forms and their server-side processing (including the copy/duplicate negotiation flow), plus the private helper package that wraps these utilities.

Typical invocation occurs when a buyer authors or duplicates a negotiation or auction that carries contract terms, when terms variables must be rendered or refreshed, and when the document is progressed toward award or contract creation. Custom code that manipulates sourcing documents with terms and conditions should call this package rather than accessing the underlying OKC utilities directly, because it encapsulates the IS_CONTRACTS_INSTALLED gating and the FND_API error handling. As with all APPS utility packages, it should be treated as read-mostly orchestration; callers are responsible for transaction control, using OK_TO_COMMIT before issuing a COMMIT. The package is VALID in both 12.1.1 and 12.2.2, though the underlying OKC and Sourcing table structures differ between the two releases, so customizations must be release-tested.