About Flex Fields

Oracle Transportation Management provides extra columns, referred to as flex columns, on some of the main business objects. There are:

• 20 varchar2 flex columns with 150 length
• 10 date columns
• 10 number columns

Flex columns can be used for configuring the user interface and business logic to extend core functionality by allowing you to add flex fields.

Flex fields are designed to be used in addition to reference numbers and remarks. These enable faster query performance and should be used for fields that you will query often. In other cases, continue to use reference numbers.

For example, you may have dispatchers that want to regularly query their regions, but there is no "Dispatch Region" field in OTM. You could use one of these additional columns available in the shipment table for the "Dispatch Region" attribute. This attribute could then be added to the Shipment View/Edit/Finder screens and queried through all of the normal methods. This minimizes the number of tables involved in such a query.

Modification of flex columns can be performed manually through the user interface or automatically via XML interface or Direct SQL Update agent actions. These fields are not on the screen by default, however, you can add them via the Finder Set and/or Manager Layout.

Flex Columns	Data Type
ATTRIBUTE1 ... ATTRIBUTE20	VARCHAR2 (150)
ATTRIBUTE_NUMBER1 ... ATTRIBUTE_NUMBER10	NUMBER
ATTRIBUTE_DATE1...   ATTRIBUTE_DATE10	DATE
ATTRIBUTE_CURRENCY1... ATTRIBUTE_CURRENCY3*	NUMBER
ATTRIBUTE_CURRENCY1_GID... ATTRIBUTE_CURRENCY3_GID*	VARCHAR2 (101)
ATTRIBUTE_CURRENCY1_BASE... ATTRIBUTE_CURRENCY3_BASE*	NUMBER

 

Note: Flex Dates will be based off of the User Preference time zone.

Note: You are responsible for adding indexes to these columns as appropriate.

* Currency fields exist on CLAIM, INVOICE, INVOICE_LINEITEM, OB_ORDER_BASE, ORDER_RELEASE, SHIPMENT, and Sourcing P_PROJECT tables.

Supporting Tables

The following tables support flex columns:

ACCESSORIAL_COST

CLAIM

CONSOL

CONTACT

CR_ROUTE

DEVICE

DRIVER

EQUIPMENT

EQUIPMENT_GROUP

GTM_CUSTOMS_SHIPMENT_LINE

GTM_TRANSACTION

GTM_TRANSACTION_LINE

IE_SHIPMENTSTATUS

INVOICE

INVOICE_LINEITEM

ITEM

ITINERARY

JOB

LOCATION**

OB_LINE

OB_ORDER_BASE

OB_SHIP_UNIT

ORDER_MOVEMENT

ORDER_RELEASE

ORDER_RELEASE_LINE

PACKAGED_ITEM

POWER_UNIT

P_BID

P_LANE_ATTRIBUTES

P_PROJECT

QUOTE

RATE_GEO

RATE_GEO_COST

RATE_OFFERING

RESOURCE_SCHEDULE

RESOURCE_SCHEDULE_INSTANCE

ROUTE_INSTANCE

SERVPROV

SHIP_GROUP

SHIP_GROUP_RULE: The parameter "COPY SHIPMENT GROUP RULE FLEX FIELDS AUTOMATICALLY" indicates if flex fields defined on the shipment group rule are to be copied on to shipment group automatically.

SHIP_UNIT

SHIPMENT

SHIPMENT_COST

SHIPMENT_STOP

TRACKING_EVENT

VOUCHER

WORK_ASSIGNMENT

**Service Provider also includes flex fields since the service provider assumes a one-one relationship with location.

Note: The XML Schema has been extended to contain the new flex fields on all business objects which have a corresponding inbound and/or outbound interface.