Custom.PLL

Customizing Oracle Applications with the CUSTOM Library


The CUSTOM library allows extension of Oracle Applications without modification of Oracle Applications code.
You can use the CUSTOM library for customizations such as Zoom (such as moving to another form and querying up specific records), enforcing business rules (for example, vendor name must be in uppercase letters), and disabling fields that do not apply for your site.

You write code in the CUSTOM library, within the procedure shells that are provided. All logic must branch based on the form and block for which you want it to run. Oracle Applications sends events to the CUSTOM library. Your custom code can take effect based on these events.

Attention:
The CUSTOM library is provided for the exclusive use of Oracle Applications customers. The Oracle Applications products do not supply any predefined logic in the CUSTOM library other than the procedure shells described here.

Writing Code for the CUSTOM Library

 The CUSTOM library is an Oracle Forms PL/SQL library. It allows you to take full advantage of all the capabilities of Oracle Forms Developer, and integrate your code directly with Oracle Applications without making changes to Oracle Applications code. The as–shipped CUSTOM library is located in the AU_TOP/resource directory (or platform equivalent).

 After you write code in the CUSTOM procedures, compile and generate the library using Oracle Forms. Then place this library into $AU_TOP/resource directory (or platform equivalent). Subsequent invocations of Oracle Applications will then run this new code.

 The specification of the CUSTOM package in the CUSTOM library cannot be changed in any way. You may add your own packages to the CUSTOM library, but any packages you add to this library must be sequenced after the CUSTOM package.

Coding Considerations and Restrictions

Be aware of the open form environment in which Oracle Applications operate. Also, each running form has its own database connection.

The following considerations and restrictions apply to the CUSTOM library and any libraries you attach to CUSTOM:

• You cannot use any SQL in the library. However, you can use a record group to issue SELECT statements, and you can use calls to stored procedures for any other DML operations such as updates, inserts, or deletes.

• Oracle Forms global variables in your code are visible to all running forms.

Attaching Other Libraries to the CUSTOM Library

You may attach other libraries to the CUSTOM library. However, you cannot attach the APPCORE library to CUSTOM because it would cause a recursion problem (because CUSTOM is attached to APPCORE).

As of Oracle Applications Release 11i, you may attach the APPCORE2 library to CUSTOM. The APPCORE2 library duplicates most APPCORE routines with the following packages:

• APP_ITEM_PROPERTY2
• APP_DATE2
• APP_SPECIAL2

These packages contain the same routines as the corresponding APPCORE packages.

Within the CUSTOM library, you are free to write almost any code supported by Oracle Forms Developer.

Attention:

To invoke another form, use the function security routines in the FND_FUNCTION package. Do not use the CALL_FORM built–in since the Oracle Applications libraries do not support it.

Events Passed to the CUSTOM Library:

The CUSTOM library receives two different kinds of events, generic and product–specific. Generic events are common to all the forms in Oracle Applications. These events are:

• WHEN–FORM–NAVIGATE
• WHEN–NEW–FORM–INSTANCE
• WHEN–NEW–BLOCK–INSTANCE
• WHEN–NEW–RECORD–INSTANCE
• WHEN–NEW–ITEM–INSTANCE
• WHEN–VALIDATE–RECORD
• SPECIALn (where n is a number between 1 and 45)
• ZOOM
• EXPORT
• KEY–Fn (where n is a number between 1 and 8)