Every API has 3 out parameters as x_return_status, x_msg_count and x_msg_data. Using these 3 parameters, one can use below code to log or debug error in API'sdbms_output.put_line (SubStr('x_return_status = '||x_return_status, 1, 255));dbms_output.put_line ('x_msg_count = '||TO_CHAR(x_msg_count));dbms_output.put_line (SubStr('x_msg_data = '||x_msg_data, 1, 255));IF x_msg_count >1 THENFOR I IN 1..x_msg_countLOOPdbms_output.put_line(I ||'.'|| SubStr(FND_MSG_PUB.Get(p_encoded =>FND_API.G_FALSE ), 1, 255));END LOOP;END IF;END;
Explain The API In R12
You can run the following script and get all
the packages related to API in Oracle applications, from which you can select
APIs that pertain to AP:
SQL>
select substr(a.OWNER,1,20)
, substr(a.NAME,1,30)
, substr(a.TYPE,1,20)
, substr(u.status,1,10) Stat
, u.last_ddl_time
, substr(text,1,80) Description
from dba_source a, dba_objects u
WHERE 2=2
and u.object_name = a.name
and a.text like '%Header%'
and a.type = u.object_type
and a.name like 'AP_%API%'
order by
a.owner, a.name;
Overview
- API In R12
1)
The Application Programming Interface or API is a PL/SQL packaged procedure
which can be used as an alternative entry point into the system to the
traditional online forms
2)
The advantage being that the same logic used by the seeded online forms can also
be used by other interfaces into the system, thus ensuring that the integrity
of the data remains intact
Calling
API
1)
Ensure it is appropriate to allow that particular business operation
2)
Validate the data passed to the API
3)
Each API has a number of parameters, most of them mapped with DB column. Every
parameter name starts with p_. If the parameter maps onto a database column,
the remaining part of the name is usually the same as the column name
4)
When calling the APIs, it is strongly recommended that you use Named Notation,
instead of Positional Notation
Private APIs
Private APIs are for internal, development use only. Details are
not provided to anyone outside of the immediate development environment, nor
are they intended for use by anyone outside of the e-Business Suite development
environment.
Public APIs are designed for customers and Oracle consultants to
integrate non-Oracle systems into Oracle e-Business Suite or to extend the
functionality of the base products. Oracle does not support public APIs unless
they are published in a reference manual such as this one. The user accepts all
risk and responsibility for working with non-published public APIs.
Public Published APIs are guaranteed by Oracle to remain valid
from release to release and that patches will not alter the API behavior.
Public, published APIs are supported by Oracle to the same extent as released
software.
For non-published
APIs, Oracle expressly does not provide any guarantees regarding consistency of
naming, usage, or behavior of any API (public or private) between releases. It
is also possible that a patch could alter any characteristic of any
non-published e-Business Suite API. As such, those who choose to use these APIs
do so at their own risk. However, Oracle does attempt to minimize all changes
to public APIs, even if not published.
Note: In Applications release 11.5.9, many of the
Applications' PL/SQL server side APIs have been enhanced to utilize the pass by
reference semantics of PL/SQL. This improves performance considerably and
reduces memory consumption. In the normal processing case (i.e. success), there
is no change of behavior, and callers of these APIs are not impacted. However,
in the case of exceptions, there is a behavior change which results in
assignments being exposed to the caller, which are made in the API prior to any
exceptions being raised. The previous behavior would rollback these assignments
made by the API if an exception occurred in this API. Developers writing custom
extensions to Oracle Applications, or third party integrators which use the
standard Applications' APIs should be aware of this change in semantics.
Each published API
provides an API specification, and definitions as for its parameters, data
structures, and status messages. Sample scripts and documented process flow
diagrams are included where applicable.
Note: The words procedure and API are
used interchangeably in this document.
API Version Numbers
Oracle APIs incorporate a mechanism called API version
numbers. This mechanism:
- Allows an API to differentiate between changes that
require you to change your API calling code and those that don't.
- Allows an API to detect incompatible calls.
- Allows you to quickly determine if calling a new
version of an API requires you to change any of your code.
- Allows you to easily figure out which version of an API
you need to call to take advantage of new features.
Format of API Version
Numbers
API version numbers
consist of two segments separated by a decimal point. The first segment is the
major version number; the second segment is the minor version number. The
starting version number for an API is always 1.0.
The following table
shows an example of an API Version number and the major and minor version
derived from the API version.
API Version Number
|
Major Version
|
Minor Version
|
1.0
|
1
|
0
|
2.4
|
2
|
4
|
If the major version
number has changed, then you probably need to modify your programs that call
that API. Major version changes include changes to the list of required
parameters or changing the value of an API OUT parameter.
If only the minor
version number has changed, then you probably do not need to modify your
programs.
Current API Version Number
for This Package
The API version number
for the APIs included in the current version of the CZ_modelOperations_pub
package is:
1.0
The local constant
that stores this version number is:
l_api_version
CONSTANT NUMBER
Checking for Incompatible
API Calls
To detect incompatible
calls, programs calling an API must pass an API version number as one of the
input parameters. The API can then compare the passed version number to its
current version number, and detect any incompatible calls.
The Oracle standard
parameter used by all procedures in this package to pass in the API version
number is:
p_api_version IN NUMBER
This parameter is
required, and has no initial values, thus forcing your program to pass this
parameter when calling an API.
If your call to the API results in a version incompatibility,
then an error message is inserted in the table CZ_DB_LOGS.
Parameter Specifications
The specifications for the public APIs provided by the Resource
Manager define four categories of parameters:
- Standard IN
- Standard OUT
- Procedure specific IN
- Procedure specific OUT
Standard IN and OUT
parameters are specified by the Oracle Applications business object API Coding
Standards, and are discussed in the following sections.
Procedure specific IN
and OUT parameter are related to the API being specified, and are discussed
with that individual API.
Standard IN Parameters
1) p_api_version IN NUMBER
This must match the version number of the API. An unexpected error is returned
if the calling program version number is incompatible with the current API
version number
2)
p_init_msg_list IN VARCHAR2
The valid values for this parameter are:
• True = FND_API.G_TRUE
• False = FND_API.G_FALSE
• Default = FND_API.G_FALSE
If set to true, then the API makes a call to fnd_msg_pub.initialize to initialize
the message stack. To set to true, use the value, "T". If set to
false then the calling program must initialize the message stack. This action
is required to be performed only once, even in the case where more
than one API is called. To set to false, use the value, "F".
3)
p_commit IN VARCHAR2
The valid values for this parameter are:
• True = FND_API.G_TRUE
• False = FND_API.G_FALSE
• Default = FND_API.G_FALSE
If set to true, then the API commits before returning to the calling program.
To set to true, use the value, "T". If set to false, then it is the
calling program’s responsibility to commit the transaction. To set to false,
use the value, "F".
The following table describes standard IN
parameters, which are common to all public APIs provided by Resource Manager.
Standard
IN Parameters
|
Parameter
|
Data Type
|
Required
|
Description
|
p_api_version
|
NUMBER
|
Yes
|
This must match the version number
of the API. An unexpected error is returned if the calling program version
number is incompatible with the current API version number (provided in the
documentation).
|
p_init_msg_list
|
VARCHAR2
|
Yes
|
The valid values for this
parameter are:
- True = FND_API.G_TRUE
- False = FND_API.G_FALSE
- Default = FND_API.G_FALSE
If set to true, then the API makes a call to fnd_msg_pub.initialize to
initialize the message stack. To set to true, use the value, "T".
If set to false then the calling program must initialize
the message stack. This action is required to be performed only once, even in
the case where more than one API is called. To set to false, use the value,
"F".
|
p_commit
|
VARCHAR2(1)
|
No
|
The valid values for this
parameter are:
- True = FND_API.G_TRUE
- False = FND_API.G_FALSE
- Default = FND_API.G_FALSE
If set to true, then the API commits before returning to
the calling program. To set to true, use the value, "T".
If set to false, then it is the calling program's
responsibility to commit the transaction. To set to false, use the value,
"F".
|
Standard OUT Parameters
1) x_return_status OUT NOCOPY VARCHAR2
Indicates the return status of the API. The values returned are one of the
following:
• FND_API.G_RET_STS_SUCCESS
Success: Indicates the API call was successful
• FND_API.G_RET_STS_ERROR
Expected Error: There is a validation error, or missing data error.
• FND_API.G_RET_STS_UNEXP_ERROR
Unexpected Error: The calling program can not correct the error.
2)
x_msg_count OUT NOCOPY NUMBER
Holds the number of messages in the message list.
3)
x_msg_data OUT NOCOPY VARCHAR2
Holds the encoded message if x_msg_count is equal to one
The following table describes standard OUT
parameters, which are common to all public APIs provided by Resource Manager.
Note: All standard OUT parameters are required.
Standard
OUT Parameters
|
Parameter
|
Data Type
|
Description
|
x_return_status
|
VARCHAR2(1)
|
Indicates the return status of the
API. The values returned are one of the following:
- FND_API.G_RET_STS_SUCCESS
Success: Indicates the API call was successful
Expected Error: There is a validation error, or missing
data error.
- FND_API.G_RET_STS_UNEXP_ERROR
Unexpected Error: The calling program can not correct the
error.
|
x_msg_count
|
NUMBER
|
Holds the number of messages in
the message list.
|
x_msg_data
|
VARCHAR2(2000)
|
Holds the encoded message if x_msg_count is
equal to one.
|
Verify the size of the column from the base table for that
column when passing a parameter of a specific length. For example, if you pass
a NUMBER value, first query to find the exact value to pass. An incorrect value
can cause the API call to fail.
Missing Parameter Attributes
The following table describes optional IN parameters which are
initialized to pre-defined values representing missing constants. These
constants are defined for the common PL/SQL data types and should be used in
the initialization of the API formal parameters.
Initialized
IN Parameters
|
Parameter
|
Type
|
Initialized Value
|
g_miss_num
|
CONSTANT
|
NUMBER:= 9.99E125
|
g_miss_char
|
CONSTANT
|
VARCHAR2(1):= chr(0)
|
g_miss_date
|
CONSTANT
|
DATE:= TO_DATE('1','j');
|
These constants are
defined in the package FND_API in the file fndpapis.pls. All
columns in a record definition are set to the G_MISS_X constant as defined for
the data type.
The following types of parameters are always validated during
the API call:
- Standard IN
- Standard OUT
- Mandatory procedure specific IN
- Procedure specific OUT
If the API encounters any invalid parameters during the API
call, then one of the following actions will occur:
- An exception is raised.
- An error message identifying the invalid parameter is
generated.
- All API actions are cancelled.
It is mandatory that every API call pass a version number for
that API as its first parameter (p_api_version).
This version number
must match the internal version number of that API. An unexpected error is
returned if the calling program version number is incompatible with the current
API version number.
Warning: The currently supported version at this time
is 1.0. Use only this for the API version number.
In addition, the
object version number must be input for all update and delete
APIs.
- If the object_version_number passed by
the API matches that of the object in the database, then the update is
completed.
- If the object_version_number passed by
the API does not match that of the object in the database, then an error
condition is generated.
Every API must return one of the following states as parameter x_return_status after
the API is called:
- S (Success)
- E (Error)
- U (Unexpected error)
Note: It
is not required that all status notifications provide a number identifier along
with the message, although, in many cases, it is provided.
Each state can be
associated with a status message. The following table describes each state.
Status
Message and Description
|
Status
|
Description
|
S
|
Indicates that the API performed
all the operations requested by its caller.
- A success return status may
or may not be accompanied by messages in the API message list.
- Currently, the Resource
Manager APIs do not provide a message for a return status of success.
|
E
|
Indicates that the API failed to
perform one or more of the operations requested by its caller.
An error return status is accompanied by one or more messages describing the
error.
|
U
|
Indicates that the API encountered
an error condition it did not expect, or could not handle, and that it is
unable to continue with its regular processing.
- For example, certain
programming errors such as attempting to divide by zero causes this
error.
- These types of errors usually
cannot be corrected by the user and requires a system administrator or
application developer to correct.
|
Warning and Information Messages
In addition to these
three types of possible status messages, you can also code the following
additional message types:
To create a warning
message, perform the following steps:
- Create a global variable to be used to signal a warning
condition. For example, this could be similar to the following:
G_RET_STS_WARNING := 'W'
This
global variable is not part of the FND_API package.
- Return this value if the warning condition is
encountered. For example, using the same example as in step one, set up
the following code in the API to process the warning condition:
x_return_status := G_RET_STS_WARNING
This
code replaces the more usual:
x_return_status :=
fnd_api.g_ret_sts_unexp_error for "U"
- If desired, perform a similar procedure to create
Information messages.
How to get log messages by using fnd_msg_pub.initialize API:
FND_MSG_PUB for error logging in Oracle Applications.
Use the following snipped of code while calling any seeded API in Oracle Applications, like CRM, or Financials.
Put this block exactly under the section where you invoke the private or
public API. The errors raised in the API are logged in the following
API. Use this code while error logging or while debugging. Comment out
the code before moving into production.
IF ( FND_MSG_PUB.Count_Msg > 0) THEN
FOR i IN 1..FND_MSG_PUB.Count_Msg LOOP
FND_MSG_PUB.Get(p_msg_index => i,
p_encoded => 'F',
p_data => out_message,
p_msg_index_OUT => l_msg_index_OUT );
dbms_output.put_line('l_msg_data :' ||out_message);
END LOOP;
END IF;
FND_GLOBAL.APPS_INITIALIZE for initializing session in Oracle Applications:
FND_GLOBAL.APPS_INITIALIZE is used for initializing the session before
calling any public or private API's in Oracle Ebusiness suite. Its not
required for all the API's but its recommended that you set this profile
before making any calls to either private or public API.
Listed below is a sample call to FND_GLOBAL.APPS_INITIALIZE function
fnd_global.APPS_INITIALIZE(user_id=>l_user_id,
resp_id=>l_resp_id,
resp_appl_id=>l_resp_appl_id);
- l_user_id is the fnd user ID which will be utilized during the call.
- l_resp_id is the responsibility ID
- l_resp_appl_id is the responsibility application ID.
You can use either sysadmin or use some user who has all the above listed responsibilities.
For SYSADMIN, utilize the following query to get the respective values
select fnd.user_id ,
fresp.responsibility_id,
fresp.application_id
from fnd_user fnd
, fnd_responsibility_tl fresp
where fnd.user_name = 'SYSADMIN'
and fresp.responsibility_name = 'Order Management Super User';
Another option is Help > Diagnostics > Examine and get the values from $profile session values
