How You Use Information Templates
An information template is used to gather additional information from a user. It can be assigned to an item, a category, or a request form.
Information templates are used in the creation of a Request Form to provide the flexibility to add additional attributes in a request form in order to gather required information from a user. Information templates are also applicable to item master items and purchasing categories.
The data entered for an information template, which is associated with a request form, item or category, is available as attachments in downstream products (such as Purchasing) after the requisition is approved. When creating an information template, the catalog administrator selects the attachment category that determines if the attachment will be available to the supplier or buyer.
How You Use Information Templates
Information Templates are created in a Procurement Business Unit and are available to Requisitioning Business Units serviced by that Procurement BU. In the event where a Requisitioning BU is serviced by multiple Procurement BUs, and more than one service provider had assigned an information template to an item or category, applicable information templates from all service provider Procurement BUs will be returned.
Information templates are available to the user if the items or request forms that the information templates are associated with are available to the preparer.
Procurement catalog administrators can define a unique information template name so they're easily identifiable in a request form. Information template header information provides users the ability to specify a non-unique Display Name, while creating information templates with unique information template names. For example, more than one procurement BU can maintain information templates to collect business card information. The same Display Name, Business card information, can be used on these information templates to indicate the purpose of these templates when displayed in Oracle Self Service Procurement. Procurement Catalog Administrators can also define an information template section description or instruction text providing users with specific instructions on how to fill out the form.
Information templates can only be deleted if they're not referenced. An information template is considered referenced if it's applied on any requisition lines, whether in completed or incomplete state. This is to prevent deletion of an information template that's currently in use.
Once an information template is deleted, it's no longer returned on the Manage Information Templates page.
How You Add Attributes
Information template attributes are maintained as Descriptive Flexfields.
Attributes first need to be set up in the Descriptive Flexfields application, and the catalog administrator specifies the descriptive flexfield context on the Create and Edit Information Template page to apply the list of attributes.
For example, the catalog administrator set up a context Business Cards Marketing, with the following context sensitive fields:
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Job Title
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Organization
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Office Location
When creating an information template, the catalog administrator can then specify in the Attribute List field the context Business Cards Marketing, which will associate the attributes to the information template.
Existing information attributes are maintained as attachments downstream, such as in Purchasing.
Attributes That Are Supported By Descriptive Flexfields
The following attribute types are supported by descriptive flexfields:
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Text: Text attributes can be setup using descriptive flexfield to be added to an information template. For example, the procurement catalog administrator can create an information template called Business Card Information USA to be used for collecting related information when ordering business cards. Examples of text typed fields are Name, Title, Address and so on.
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Number: Procurement catalog administrators can create number types attributes using descriptive flexfields, to be used in an information template. For example, region code, telephone, and area code.
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Standard Date, Standard DateTime and Time: Procurement catalog administrators are able to define date format attributes in descriptive flexfields, to be used in an information template. This allows for automatic date formatting according to globalization requirements, since 09/01/2007 may mean September 1, 2007 in the US, but January 9, 2007 in others.
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List of Values: Value sets can be added to Information Templates through descriptive flexfields as List of Values. Implementing attributes as List of Values allows enforcement of values that can be populated in these fields. For example, as part of an address, the Country field can be implemented as list of values containing only countries that are applicable.
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Choice Lists: Choice lists make use of value sets as well, similar to List of Values.
End Dates
Procurement Catalog Administrators can specify an End Date on an information template. An information template is inactive if the system date is more than or equal to the End Date.
When an information template is inactive, it will no longer be applied when items (to which this information template is assigned) are added to the requisition. Requisitions created with lines that are associated to this information template will continue to display the information template information.
For incomplete requisitions, the inactive information templates are no longer available at the time the requisition is retrieved.
For copied and withdrawn requisitions, information templates are also no longer available if the information template is inactive at the time the requisition is copied or resubmitted.