Considerations for Planning Descriptive Flexfields

Once you have identified a flexfield to configure, plan the configuration. Make a list of UI pages and other artifacts that are affected by the configuration. Verify that you have the appropriate roles to view and configure the flexfields.

You can locate flexfields on a page using the Settings and Actions menu. Click your user image or name in the global header to open this menu, and select Highlight Flexfields to locate flexfields on a page. Once you have configured the flexfields, plan to deploy them for test and production users. Review the tools and tasks available for managing flexfields to add and edit flexfield segments.

Planning a descriptive flexfield can involve the following tasks:

1. Identify existing parameters.

2. Identify existing context values and whether the context value is derived.

3. Identify user-defined attributes and plan the descriptive flexfield segments, segment properties, and structure.

4. Plan validation rules.

5. Plan initial values.

6. Plan attribute mapping to Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence objects.

Identify Existing Descriptive Flexfield Parameters

Some descriptive flexfields provide parameters that can be used to specify the initial value of a descriptive flexfield segment. The parameter is external reference data, such as a column value or a session variable. For example, if a flexfield has a user email parameter, you can configure the initial value for a customer email attribute to be derived from that parameter.

Review the list of available parameters in the Derivation Value field in the Create Segment page for a descriptive flexfield. If you decide to use one of the parameters to set an initial value, select that parameter from the Derivation Value drop-down list when you add the descriptive flexfield segment.

Evaluate Whether the Context Value Is Derived

The context value for a descriptive flexfield might have been preconfigured to be derived from an external reference. For example, if the context is Marriage Status, then the value might be derived from an attribute in the employee business object. When the context value is derived, you might need to take the derived values and their source into consideration in your plan.

To determine whether the context value is derived, access the Edit Descriptive Flexfield task to view the list of configured context values for the flexfield. The Derivation Value field in the Context Segment region displays a list of available parameters. If context values have been preconfigured, see Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Help for product-specific information about the use of those values.

Plan the Segments, Segment Properties, and Structure

Identify the user-defined attributes you need for a business object to determine the segments of the descriptive flexfield. Determine the segment properties such as the prompt, display type, or initial value.

The structure of the descriptive flexfield is determined by its global, context, and context-sensitive segments. Plan a global segment that captures an attribute for every instance of the business object. Plan a context for segments that depend on a condition of situation applying to a particular instance of the business object. Plan context-sensitive segments to capture attributes that are relevant in the context.

There's only one context segment available for descriptive flexfields. If you have more than one group of user-defined attributes where you could use the context segment, you will have to pick one group over the others, based on your company's needs and priorities, and add the other user-defined attributes as global segments.

Plan Validation Rules

Define each segment's validation rules and check if value sets exist for those rules or you must create new ones. If you must create a value set, you can create it either before configuring the flexfield or while creating or editing a segment.

When determining a segment's validation rules, consider the following questions:

• What is the data type - character, date, date and time, or number?

• Does the segment require any validation beyond data type and maximum length?

• Should a character type value be restricted to digits, or are alphabetic characters allowed?

• Should alphabetic characters automatically be changed to uppercase?

• Should numeric values be zero-filled?

• How many digits can follow the radix separator of a numeric value? In base ten numeric systems, the radix separator is decimal point.

• Does the value need to fall within a range?

• Should the value be selected from a list of valid values? If so, consider the following questions:

  • Can you use an existing application table from which to obtain the list of valid values, or do you need to create a list?

  • If you're using an existing table, do you need to limit the list of values using a WHERE clause?

  • Does the list of valid values depend on the value in another flexfield segment?

  • Is the list of valid values a subset of another flexfield segment's list of values?

Plan Initial Values

For every segment, list the constant value or SQL statement, if any, to use for the initial value of the user-defined attribute.

Plan How Segments Map to Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence Objects

You can extend descriptive flexfields into Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI) for ad hoc reporting purposes. Determine the descriptive flexfield segments to be made available for reporting, and select the BI Enabled check box accordingly on the Manage Descriptive Flexfields page. You must run a process to extend the BI enabled segments into OTBI.

Depending on the reporting needs, you may map similar context-sensitive attributes from different contexts to the same attribute in OTBI. For example, there may be a segment tracking the Product Color attribute in different contexts of a context sensitive descriptive flexfield. You can use segment labels to map these context-sensitive attributes together by defining a segment label and updating the BI Label list accordingly.