Overview of Flexfields

A flexfield is a set of placeholder fields associated with business objects and placed on the application pages to contain additional data.

You can use flexfields to modify the business objects and meet enterprise data management requirements without changing the data model or performing any database programming. Using flexfields, you can capture different data on the same database table and modify the application features. For example, airline manufacturers may require specific attributes for orders that aren't predefined. Using a flexfield for the order business object, they can create and configure the required attribute.

When you first define your flexfields, you choose how many segments you want to use and what order you want them to appear in. You also choose how you want to validate each of your segments. The decisions you make affect how you define your value sets. When your user enters a value, your value sets validate that value. The value sets can be one of these types:

• List of valid values that aren't stored in any application table.

• Table-validated value sets that use a predefined list of values stored in an application table.

• Format only value sets that use any value as long as it conforms to your specified formatting rules. For example, the value must not exceed the maximum length you define for your value set.

You can assign a value set to a flexfield segment to define the valid values in that segment. While defining valid values in a segment, either reuse an existing value set or define a new value set. You can reuse a value set as often as you want across multiple flexfields or different segments within the same flexfield.

Flexfield Types

Here are the types of flexfields:

• Descriptive flexfields

• Extensible Flexfields

• Key Flexfields

Both extensible and descriptive flexfields provide an expansion space that you can use to configure additional attributes without additional programming. Descriptive flexfields are stored in additional columns on the same table as that of the object, whereas extensible flexfields are stored in a separate extension table.

Key flexfields consist of one or more segments, where each segment can have a meaning. You can use key flexfields to enter multipart values, such as a part number, a job code, or an account code. Users see the flexfields as fields or attributes on UI pages. To manage the flexfields, use any of these tasks in the Setup and Maintenance work area:

• Manage Descriptive Flexfields: To configure descriptive flexfield segments if you have enabled descriptive flexfields on a page.

• Manage Extensible Flexfields: To configure extensible flexfield segments if you have enabled extensible flexfields on a page.

• Manage Key Flexfields: To configure key flexfields, which is a configurable multipart key.

• Manage Value Sets: To create reusable value sets to validate values in flexfield segments.

  Note: You can manage value sets within the Manage Descriptive Flexfields or Manage Extensible Flexfields tasks.