Just as for implementing any new application, planning is by far the most important (and probably the most time-consuming) phase of implementing flexfields, so you should give it careful thought. The planning phase can be broken into smaller, though still interrelated, steps:
Decide which flexfields to implement
Learning about a specific flexfield
Planning the structure
Planning the segments
Planning the segment validation
Planning to use additional features
Documenting your plan
Suggestion: We recommend that you plan your flexfields as completely as possible, including your potential segment values, before you even begin to define them using Oracle E-Business Suite forms. Once you begin using your flexfields to acquire data, you cannot change them easily. Changing a flexfield for which you already have data may require a complex conversion process.
Oracle E-Business Suite products rely on some key flexfields as central parts of the applications, so you must set up these key flexfields. For example, while the Oracle General Ledger products use only the Accounting Flexfield key flexfield, almost every Oracle E-Business Suite product uses the Accounting Flexfield for some part of its processing. So, you must almost always set up the Accounting Flexfield, especially if you have more than one of the Oracle E-Business Suite products at your site. In addition, many Oracle E-Business Suite products such as Oracle Inventory and Oracle Purchasing use the System Items Flexfield (Item Flexfield). Other Oracle E-Business Suite products use various key flexfields for various purposes, and defining those flexfields is usually mandatory for a particular application.
While most Oracle E-Business Suite products require that you set up particular key flexfields, many descriptive flexfields are optional. You need only set up optional descriptive flexfields for forms where you want to capture business data not otherwise captured by the form fields.
Because each key and descriptive flexfield has a different purpose, you should be sure to understand the purpose and requirements for the flexfield you want to define. Some flexfields, particularly the Accounting Flexfield, have restrictions on how you can define them. Most descriptive flexfields simply provide a certain number of segment columns you can use for whatever you need to fill your organization's needs.
For each flexfield you want to implement, plan your segment structure(s). You can completely customize the appearance of your flexfield pop-up window for each structure, including its title and the number, order, length, and prompts of its segments. Though you can always change the cosmetic aspects of your flexfield pop-up window, such as the title and prompts, you should never change the number, order, and maximum length of your segments once you have acquired flexfield data. So, you should plan your structures carefully and allow for future needs.
You must choose two lengths for each segment, the displayed length and the maximum length. The maximum length is the length of the longest value a user can enter into a segment. The largest maximum length you can choose must be less than or equal to the length of the underlying column that corresponds to the segment. Because these column sizes vary among flexfields, you need to know what column lengths are available for your flexfield.
The displayed length is the segment length a user sees in the pop-up window. If the displayed length is less than the maximum length, the user must scroll through the segment to see its entire contents.
For each segment, plan your validation. Consider what types of values you will be using in your flexfield segments. These decisions affect how you set up your value sets and values.
Do you want to provide a list of values for each segment? A list of values on a segment can make data entry faster and easier for your users and ensure that they enter valid values.
Do you want to share values among segments in different structures or among different flexfields?
Do you want the available values in a segment to depend upon what value a user entered in a prior segment?
Do you not want to validate a segment at all (that is, do you want to allow a user to enter any value in the segment, such as a license number that would not be predefined)?
Keep in mind that your values will change over time. Usually, an organization adds more values as the organization grows or reorganizes to use new values. For example, you might have a two-character long segment that holds a department number. Initially, a two-character department number (such as 01, 02, 15, and so on) may be sufficient. However, if you later need a department number larger than 99, such as 100, your segment cannot contain the larger values, and you would need to change the segment length and then convert any existing data. For example, your three-character department numbers may become 001, 002, 015, and so on instead of 01, 02, 15, and so on. You want to avoid such conversions if possible, so you should plan your values to allow for future needs.
You should also consider how you plan to acquire your values:
Do you plan to predefine each segment value manually using an Oracle E-Business Suite form?
Do you already have application tables that contain appropriate values you can use?
Do you plan to use non-validated segments (with no predefined values) where a user can enter any value in a segment?
If you have legacy systems, do you plan to derive flexfield values from those systems in some automated fashion?
Flexfields have several additional features that make flexfields easier to use or that provide extra capabilities such as restricting users from using certain values. For a full discussion of these features, see the Using Additional Flexfields Features chapter. These features include:
Flexfield value security
Cross-validation (for key flexfields)
Shorthand entry (for key flexfields)
You should fully document your flexfield plans before you sit down to define your flexfields using your Oracle E-Business Suite setup forms.
We provide worksheets and templates throughout the book that you can use to aid your decision and documentation process.