This section describes user profile APIs you can use in your PL/SQL procedures. You can use these user profile routines to manipulate the option values stored in client and server user profile caches.

On the client, a single user profile cache is shared by multiple form sessions. Thus, when Form A and Form B are both running on a single client, any changes Form A makes to the client's user profile cache affect Form B's run-time environment, and vice versa.

On the server, each form session has its own user profile cache. Thus, even if Form A and Form B are running on the same client, they have separate server profile caches. Server profile values changed from Form A's session do not affect Form B's session, and vice versa.

Similarly, profile caches on the server side for concurrent programs are separate. Also, note that the server-side profile cache accessed by these PL/SQL routines is not synchronized with the C-code cache. If you put a value using the PL/SQL routines, it will not be readable with the C-code routines.

Any changes you make to profile option values using these routines affect only the run-time environment. The effect of these settings ends when the program ends, because the database session (which holds the profile cache) is terminated. To change the default profile option values stored in the database, you must use the User Profiles form.

 procedure FND_PROFILE.PUT
      (name IN varchar2,
       valueIN varchar2);

FNDSQF library and database (stored procedure)

Puts a value to the specified user profile option. If the option does not exist, you can also create it with PUT.

All PUT operations are local -- in other words, a PUT on the server affects only the server-side profile cache, and a PUT on the client affects only the client-side cache. By using PUT, you destroy the synchrony between server-side and client-side profile caches. As a result, we do not recommend widespread use of PUT.

 procedure FND_PROFILE.GET
     (name IN varchar2,
      value OUT varchar2);

FNDSQF library and database (stored procedure)

Gets the current value of the specified user profile option, or NULL if the profile does not exist. All GET operations are satisfied locally -- in other words, a GET on the server is satisfied from the server-side cache, and a GET on the client is satisfied from the client-side cache.

The server-side PL/SQL package FND_GLOBAL returns the values you need to set Who columns for inserts and updates from stored procedures. You should use FND_GLOBAL to obtain Who values from stored procedures rather than using GET, which you may have used in prior releases of Oracle Applications.

 FND_PROFILE.GET ('USER_ID', user_id);

 function FND_PROFILE,VALUE
     (name IN varchar2) return varchar2; 

FNDSQF library and database (stored function)

VALUE works exactly like GET, except it returns the value of the specified profile option as a function result.