Many a times a PL/SQL program in Oracle apps need to map certain values or retrieve a value based on certain condition. For example, an employee id which has a certain privilege for a responsibility, or to find out whether the responsibility in which the program is running allows for a certain operation, etc.
I have seen many developers disregard the usage of a Lookup or a custom Profile option. A Lookup in Oracle apps can hold a set of values mapped to each other, against which the PL/SQL code can get a corresponding value if it is mapping with a set value.
A custom Profile option gives developers the option of setting different values at various levels of Oracle, like site, application, responsibility, user.
I have seen developers use independent Value sets more often and that might tend to make the program lengthy in certain cases. The advantage of using a Lookup is that the Code column is always unique and it has an index on it. If there is a very big set of values then the PL/SQL will turn out to be faster for a Lookup against and Independent Value Set.
I always suggest developers to use either a Lookup, Value Set or a Profile Option to store or look up values instead of hard coding even though the value required may be just 1 to enhance flexibility of the code.
Create a custom Profile Option
Login to Oracle and go to
Responsibility: Application Developer
Navigation: Profile
 |
| Create profile option |
Enter the values and save the form. The profile option is created. Now the values need to be entered at various levels, i.e. Site, Application, Responsibility,User.
Switch responsibility to
Responsibility: System Administrator
Navigation: Profile > System
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| Query profile option |
Enter the Profile Option name, i.e. the User Profile Option Name that was entered during creation time. Press Find.
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| Enter value in profile option |
Now you can enter the values at all the required levels.
Creating a Lookup
Go the following responsibility in Oracle,
Responsibility: Application Developer
Navigation: Application > Lookups > Common
Enter the values as required. Keep in mind that Code column has to be unique as the table FND_LOOKUP_VALUES table, that stores the lookup values, has a unique index on this column. Meaning column cannot be null as it is supposed to be mapped with Code column. Description and Tag column can be null.
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| Lookup |
Connect to the database as APPS. Execute the following SQL.
SELECT flt.lookup_type, flt.customization_level, flt.view_application_id, flv.lookup_code, flv.meaning, flv.description FROM fnd_lookup_types flt, fnd_lookup_values flv WHERE flt.lookup_type = flv.lookup_type AND flt.view_application_id = flv.view_application_id AND flv.enabled_flag = 'Y' AND SYSDATE BETWEEN NVL (flv.start_date_active, SYSDATE - 1) AND NVL (flv.end_date_active, SYSDATE + 1) AND flt.lookup_type = 'XXCH_STATUS' -- Lookup Type Name
We can retrieve the value of the lookup directly from the database using this query.
There are many kinds of Lookups, e.g. Application Utilities, Payables, Purchasing, Common etc. All lookups are stored in the FND_LOOKUP_TYPES table. The lookups are distinguished by a different value of VIEW_APPLICATION_ID column on FND_LOKUP_TYPES table. For custom lookups it is always better to use Common Lookups.
Cheers!
