Value Sets

Value-set is a group of values. It can also be thought of as a container of values. The values could be of any data type (Char, Number etc.) A value set is used in Oracle Applications to restrict the values entered by a user. For example, when submitting a concurrent program, we would like user to enter only valid values in the parameter. This is achieved by associating a value set to a concurrent program parameter.

A Value Set is characterized by value set name and validation. There are two kinds of validations, format validation and Value validation. In the format validation, we decide the data type, length and range of the values. In the value validation, we define the valid values.

The valid values could be defined explicitly, or could come implicitly from different source (like table, another value-set etc.)

Uses

Value-set is an important component of Oracle Applications used in defining Concurrent program parameters, Key Flex field and descriptive flex field set of values.

Some of the scenarios where value-set is used are given below:

1. In a concurrent program, we may want users to enter only number between 1 and 100 for a particular parameter.
2. In a concurrent program, we may want users to enter only Yes or No for a particular parameter.
3. Suppose a concurrent program has two parameters. First parameter is department and second parameter is employee name. On selecting a particular department, we want to show only those employee names which belongs to the selected department.
4. In a descriptive flex field enabled on a particular screen, we want to show only a designated list of values for selection by a user.
5. In case of accounting reports, we may want users to enter a range of key flex field values (concatenated segments).

How to create Value-Set in Oracle Applications

Go to System Administrator Responsibility and Navigate to Application => Validation => Set.

The following screen shows the Value-Set definition screen:

The various fields are explained below:

Value Set Name:  Any user defined unique name

Description:  Description of the value set

List type:  Three choices are available for this field:

· List of Values

· Long List of Values

· Pop-List

The list type defines how the values will appear when this value set is used. Choosing ‘List of values’ displays the values as LOV (showing all the values at once). Choosing ‘Long List of Values’ displays the values as Long List where Search facility will be available. This is used when numbers of values are expected to be large. Choosing pop-list displays the values as pop-list.

Security type: Three choices are available for this field:

§ No Security

§ Hierarchical Security

§ Non-Hierarchical Security

Format Validation

Format Type

 Possible values for this field are:

 Char

 Date

 Date Time

 Number

 Standard Date

 Standard Date Time

 Time

Maximum Size: Maximum size of the value

Precision: Applicable when format type is number

Numbers Only: When this is checked, only numbers are allowed

Upper Case Only: This is applicable when Format type is Char

Right Justify and Zero-Fill Numbers: Applicable only for Numbers

Min Value: Min Value allowed

Max Value: Max Value Allowed

Value Validation

Possible values of the value validations are as follows:

None: when this is chosen, no value-validation is done, only format validation is done. For example, we want a user to enter a value between 1 and 100. In this case, we can set the format validation (by setting format type as Number and Min and Max value of 1 and 100 respectively).

Independent: When this is chosen, the individual values are defined using the navigation system administrator => Application => Validation => Values. For example, suppose we want user to select values of Yes or No for a parameter. We can define Yes and No values for this case.

Table: When table validation is chosen, the values for the value-set comes from an oracle application table. After choosing this value, click on ‘Edit Information’ button to enter table name, column name and WHERE condition as show in the below screen:

Dependant: This type of validation is chosen when value of this value-set is dependant on some other independent value set. After choosing this validation type, click on Edit Information button to enter the independent value-set as given in the below figure.

Special: Special validation value sets allow you to call key flex field user exits to validate a flex field segment or report parameter using a flex field within flex field mechanism. You can call flex field routines and use a complete flex field as the value passed by this value set.

Pair: Pair validation value set allows user to pass a range of concatenated Flex field segments as parameters to a report.

Translatable In-dependant and Translatable dependant Value Sets: These value sets are similar to in-dependant and dependant value sets respectively. Only difference is that this type allows values to be translated and shown to the user in the user’s language.

Technical Details of the Value-Sets

Value-set definition is stored in FND_FLEX_VALUE_SETS table. The independent values are stored in the FND_FLEX_VALUES. The two tables can be joined together by FLEX_VALUE_SET_ID.

FNDLOAD utility can be used to migrate a value-set from one instance to another instance.