Oracle Apps 11i Tutorials : Oracle Flex fields This chapter provides you with a conceptual overview of flexfields.

The chapter covers the following topics The general features of flexfields, Flexfields terminology , The benefits of flexfields and Descriptive Flexfields. Overview of Flexfields Oracle flexfields is one of the most important parts of Oracle Applications. It is because of the flexfields that the Oracle Applications is so generic in nature and can be used to suit any industry or organi ation. A flexfield, as the name suggests, is a flexible data field that your organi ation can customi e to your business needs without programming. A flexfield is a field made up of sub!fields, or segments. "hile flexfields do not re#uire programming, they do allow you to perform significant customi ations to the Oracle Applications, so they do re#uire enough explanation for you to get the most out of the features they provide. Oracle Applications uses two types of flexfields, $ey flexfields and descriptive flexfields. A $ey flexfield is a field you can customi e to enter multi!segment values such as part numbers, account numbers, and so on. A descriptive flexfield is a field you customi e to enter additional information for which your Oracle Applications product has not already provided a field. Basic Business Needs Oracle Applications flexfields let you satisfy the following business needs: %ave &intelligent fields'(fields comprised of one or more segments, where each segment has both a value and a meaning. )ely upon your application to validate the values or the combination of values that you enter in intelligent fields. %ave the structure of an intelligent field change depending on data in your application. *apture additional information if you so choose. *ustomi e data fields to your meet your business needs without programming. +uery intelligent fields for very specific information. Key Flexfields $ey flexfield is a field made up of segments, where each segment has both a value and a meaning. ,ou can thin$ of a $ey flexfield as an &intelligent' field that your business can use to store information represented as &codes.' -ost organi ations use 'codes' made up of meaningful segments to identify general ledger accounts, part numbers, and other business entities. .ach segment of the code can represent a characteristic of the entity. For example, consider an account number for a ban$. A

complete ban$ number may consists of various segments li$e the country code, area code, city code, branch code, account type, account number etc.

/an$ 0umber 1 2345.23365.2375.285. 24699:;5

*ountry *ode *ity *ode /ranch *ode Account Type<8avings=*urrent> Account ?

The number of segments a ban$ re#uires to identify an account number uni#uely is a re#uirement specific to the ban$. Another ban$ might not re#uire a country code if its presence is there only in one country. @ey flexfields are used to identify such information uni#uely. A $ey flexfield is flexible enough to let you use any code scheme you want to describe an entity. "hen your organi ation initially installs an Oracle Applications product, your organi ationAs implementation team customi es all the $ey flexfields in that product to use meaningful code segments to describe each $ey flexfield entity. ,our organi ation decides for each $ey flexfield, how many segments an entity has, what each segment means, what values each segment can have, and what each segment value means. ,our organi ation can also define rules that govern what combination of segment values are valid <cross!validation rules>, or define dependencies among the segments. The result is that your organi ation can use the codes it needs rather than change its codes to meet someone elseAs re#uirements. The Accounting Flexfield in your Oracle Burchasing application is an example of a $ey flexfield that identifies a uni#ue chart of accounts. One organi ation may choose to customi e the Accounting Flexfield to have three segments called *ompany, Department, and Account, while another organi ation may choose to customi e the flexfield to have five segments called *ompany, *ost *enter, Account, 8ub!Account, and Broduct.

A $ey flexfield appears on your form as a normal text field with an appropriate prompt. In figure 4 below, the Account field is actually the Accounting @ey Flexfield.

Figure 1

Key Flexfield in a for!

A window popsCup when you navigate to the $ey flexfield as shown in figure 6 and it would re#uire you to enter the various segments defined for the $ey flexfield.

Figure "

Key Flexfield #op$up

Key Flexfields in Oracle Applications The Oracle Applications products provide many $ey flexfields as integral parts of the products. %ere is a table listing all the $ey flexfields in Oracle Applications, ordered by the application that 'owns' the $ey flexfield. 0ote that other applications may also use a particular flexfield Flexfield %ode @.,? *AT? DO*? ED? E)D FO/ B.A BO8 8*D -D8B

Owner Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle

Assets Assets Assets Eeneral Dedger %uman )esources %uman )esources %uman )esources %uman )esources %uman )esources Inventory

Key Flexfield Na!e Asset @ey Flexfield *ategory Flexfield Docation Flexfield Accounting Flexfield Erade Flexfield Fob Flexfield Bersonal Analysis Flexfield Bosition Flexfield 8oft *oded @eyFlexfield Account Aliases

Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle

Inventory Inventory Inventory Inventory Inventory Bayroll Bayroll Bayroll

Oracle )eceivables Oracle )eceivables Oracle 8ervice Oracle Training Administration &escriptive Flexfields

Item *atalogs Item *ategories 8alesOrders 8toc$ Docators 8ystem Items /an$ Details @eyFlexField *ost Allocation Flexfield Beople Eroup Flexfield 8ales Tax Docation Flexfield Territory Flexfield Oracle 8ervice Item Flexfield Training )esources

-I*E -*AT )DO* -TDD -8T@ /A0@ *O8T E)B -@T8 *T? 8.)G ).8

Descriptive flexfields li$e the $ey flexfields provides further scope of customi ation in Oracle Applications. Descriptive flexfields provide customi able 'expansion space' on your forms. Though the fields on an Oracle Applications form are more than enough to capture all the possible information from the user perspective, but still the users can feel the need of capturing additional information. A descriptive flexfield gives you room to expand your forms for capturing such additional information. A descriptive flexfield appears on a form as a single!character, unnamed field enclosed in brac$ets <2 5> as shown in figure H below.

Figure '

&escriptive Flexfield on a for!

Oracle Applications has provided space for descriptive flexfields on almost all the forms. Fust li$e in a $ey flexfield, a pop!up window appears when you move your cursor into a customi ed descriptive flexfield. And li$e a $ey flexfield, the pop!up window has as many fields as your organi ation needs. .ach field or segment in a descriptive flexfield has a prompt <figure 9>, Iust li$e ordinary fields, and can have a set of valid values. The popCup as shown in the figure 9 comes up when you clic$ on the 2 5 icon on the form in the figureH above.

Figure (

#opup for &escriptive Flexfield on a for!