"To Define an Item Type or Activity Attribute (Oracle Workflow Help)


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To Define an Item Type or Activity Attribute

1. To create an item type attribute, select an item type in the navigator tree, then choose New Attribute from the Edit menu.

To create an activity attribute, select an activity in the navigator tree and choose New Attribute from the Edit menu.

An Attribute property page appears in both cases.

2. Provide an Internal Name in all uppercase with no spaces. All Oracle Workflow APIs, SQL scripts, and PL/SQL procedures refer to the internal name when identifying an attribute.

Attention: You cannot update the internal name for an attribute once it is defined.

Caution: Do not include colons ":" or spaces in your internal name.

3. Enter the Display Name. This is the name that appears in the navigator tree.

4. Enter an optional description.

Select the data type of the attribute.

6. Depending on the Type of your attribute, provide the following information:

Text	Specify the maximum length of the text attribute.
Number	Optionally provide a format mask for your number.
Date	Optionally supply a format mask for the date.
Lookup	Choose the name of a predefined Lookup Type from which to draw values.
URL	Specify a Universal Resource Locator (URL) to a network location in the Default Value field.
Form	This attribute is relevant only with the version of Oracle Workflow embedded in Oracle Applications.
	Specify the developer function name of a form and any optional form parameters in the Default Value field. See: Overview of Menus and Function Security, Oracle Applications Developer's Guide. The default value must be entered using the following format:
function_name:parameter1=value1 parameter2=value2 ... parameterN=valueN
valueN	can be a text string, enclosed in quotes (" ") or can be token substituted with the value from another predefined item type or message attribute in any of the following ways:

parameterN="&item_type_attribute"

parameterN="Value &item_type_attribute" where &item_type_attribute represents the rest of the value.

Document Enter the name of the document management system and a document reference. In the future, you can specify any one of the following document types in the default value field:

PL/SQL--a document representing data from the database, generated from a PL/SQL procedure. Specify as <procedure>/<document_identifier>. The PL/SQL procedure must follow a standard API format. See:Standard API for a "PL/SQL" Document.

Http--a standard URL. Specify as http://<host>/<document_path>.

File--a file accessible from the Oracle Workflow server filesystem. Specify as <file_path>.

External document management system--a document managed by an external document management system. Specify as <doc_management_system>:<document_reference>.

Attention: Currently, only the PL/SQL document type is supported.

Role Specify a role name. You must initially load the roles from the database to display a list of roles to choose from. See: Roles.

Attribute Specify the name of an item type attribute that you want to maintain references to in a process by choosing from the list of existing item type attributes.

7. For item type attributes, you may specify a default value that is a constant.

For activity attributes, the default value may be a constant or an item type attribute. If the default references a value from an item type attribute, choose Item Attribute, then use the poplist field to choose an item type attribute. The item type attribute you select must be associated with the same item type that the activity itself is associated with. The item type attribute you select must also be of the same data type as the activity attribute.

Note: An activity attribute type of 'Text' is compatible with any item attribute type, but all other activity attribute types must match the item attribute type exactly.

Note: For attributes of type Lookup, the default value must be a lookup code belonging to that lookup type.

8. Choose Apply to save your changes, OK to save your changes and close the property page or Cancel to cancel your changes and close the property page.

If you are defining an item type attribute, select the Access tab page to set the access levels allowed to modify this attribute. Activity attributes assume the access/protection level of their parent activity. See:

Allowing Access to an Object

10. Choose Apply to save your changes.

11. Any item type attribute you create appears beneath the Attributes branch in the navigator tree. Any function activity attribute you define appears beneath the function activity you defined it for in the navigator tree. You can review or edit the properties of an attribute at any time by double-clicking on the attribute in the navigator tree or by selecting the attribute and choosing Properties from the Edit menu.

Attention: The order that you list these attributes in the navigator tree correlate to the order in which they appear in any list of values that draw upon these attributes. You can use the drag and drop feature of the navigator tree to reorder a set of attributes, or select an attribute and choose Move Attribute Up or Move Attribute Down from the Edit menu.

Role	Specify a role name. You must initially load the roles from the database to display a list of roles to choose from. See: Roles.
Attribute	Specify the name of an item type attribute that you want to maintain references to in a process by choosing from the list of existing item type attributes.

To Define an Item Type or Activity Attribute

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