Controlling list of Absence Types displayed in Self-Service

I recently wrote an article for POIT Support news letter, which you can find here. The article is reproduced below:

Prior to R12.1.3, all absence types created using Oracle HRMS were displayed to users in Self-Service HR (of course, the Absence Category has to be defined on Absence Type; otherwise the Absence Type will not appear in SSHR). 

With R12.1.3, a package called HR_ABSENCE_RESTRICTED can be used to restrict the absence types displayed to users. This feature ensures that employees enter only those absences for which they are eligible, and managers do not have to verify the validity of the absence type of employee requests. So, for example, list of Absence Types visible could be based on gender or organisation that the employee belongs to. 

Technically, the above package.function is called from the AbsenceTypeVOImpl java file and the return value is appended to the AbsenceTypeVO, which controls the list of Absence Types displayed in SSHR.

This was practically implemented at one of the clients and an example is as follows: 

1. Under Add'l Absence Type Details, a DFF segment called "Display in Self-Service" was configured. This segment appears on the "Absence Type Definition" form. 

2. The business requirements is coded in the function: HR_ABSENCE_RESTRICTED.ABSENCES_RESTRICTED. This function should return a concatenated list of absence_type_id (separated by comma) that should NOT be displayed on self-service. In our case, the code could reference the DFF segment created in step 1 above. At the minimum, this function should return a value of '-1'. The function should NOT return a NULL value, otherwise, the self-service page will throw an error.

3. Since this restriction is based on VO implementation, changes are immediately visible in SSHR without the need for bouncing webserver or clearing cache.