Search Results process_changes

Overview

WF_ENTITY_MGR is the Oracle Workflow Entity Manager package, owned by APPS and classified as an OTHER API within Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.1 and 12.2.2. Its business function is to provide a centralized, cache-based mechanism for managing attributes of workflow entities and for propagating changes made to those entities to interested subscribers. Rather than writing directly to interface or LDAP repositories, calling code registers attribute values in an in-memory attribute cache and then signals the entity manager to process any pending changes. The package is therefore the pivot point between transactional updates made by application APIs (for example, user, responsibility, or workflow configuration changes) and the downstream notification infrastructure built on Oracle Workflow Business Events. The header comment block identifies process_changes as the mechanism that checks the attribute cache, updates LDAP where present, and raises a change event on behalf of the modified entity. The package operates AUTHID CURRENT_USER, executing with the privileges of the calling schema.

Key Procedures and Functions

• PROCESS_CHANGES — Examines the attribute cache for modifications to a specified entity. If no changes are found the procedure exits immediately; otherwise it updates LDAP (when configured) and raises a change event, either the standard derived event or a caller-supplied event name. It accepts entity type, entity key value, change source, change type, and an optional event name, where the change source identifies the originator so that echoes of a caller's own change can be ignored, and the change type is typically LOAD or DELETE. It is normally invoked after a series of put_attribute_value calls.
• GET_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE — Retrieves an entity attribute value from the attribute cache.
• PUT_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE — Places an entity attribute value into the attribute cache, taking no action if the incoming value is unchanged.
• FLUSH_CACHE — Clears entries from the attribute cache, used to release or reset cached entity state.
• GET_ENTITY_TYPE — Returns entity type information used to resolve and classify the entity being managed.
• GEN_XML_PAYLOAD — Generates an XML payload representation of the entity, typically for the event raised by process_changes.
• ISCHANGED — Tests whether a given entity or attribute has been marked as changed.
• PURGE_CACHE_ATTRIBUTES — Removes stale attribute cache rows, supporting cache housekeeping.

Tables Accessed

The package reads and writes WF_ATTRIBUTE_CACHE, the persistent store that holds entity attribute values between registration and change propagation; this table underpins get_attribute_value, put_attribute_value, ischanged, and the cache maintenance routines. It also references WF_PARAMETER_LIST_T, the workflow parameter list type used to assemble parameter data passed to generated events or payloads. Access to DBMS_LOB and XMLDOM supports construction and manipulation of large object and XML content, particularly in gen_xml_payload. All underlying objects are reached through APPS synonyms.

Usage Notes

WF_ENTITY_MGR is an internal infrastructure package rather than an end-user API. It is invoked indirectly by application APIs and workflow-enabled forms whenever entity attributes must be registered or changes propagated, and it is referenced by nine other packages in the EBS code set. Custom code should follow the documented pattern: call put_attribute_value for each modified attribute, then invoke process_changes once with the entity type, key value, and a change source of the form <package>.<procedure> to avoid processing echoes of its own modifications. Direct manipulation of WF_ATTRIBUTE_CACHE is not supported; cache lifecycle should be managed through flush_cache and purge_cache_attributes.