Best application design for LOV's with historical values

Question

Hi,
I'm trying to find a way to solve a standard LOV problem the best way in Apex.
All over my application I am using LOV's which I like to define on a UI defaults level so I can inherit these definitions on all pages I create on these tables.
If I disable entries in these LOV's because for example a product is no longer available the normal Apex behaviour is that you see the code of this LOV entry and not the description, since that one can no longer be found using the LOV query ( if you set the LOV to show extra values ).
I know there is a solution using the item value and include this in the LOV query, so you query all LOV entries which are enabled and also the one with the ID of the page item; but if you need the item value you have to reference to the page item which is not a generic name but something like :P22_LOV_ID. So the lov definition should then be on a page level and is no longer possible on a UI defaults level. This costs me lots of time and maintenance if I want to change a LOV definition and also when creating a new page.
Anybody knows of a nice generic solution to solve this (standard) problem ?
Regards
Bas
B.t.w. I disable LOV enties by setting a field called VALID to false so I know this value is no longer valid, so the entry is still in the LOV table but no longer valid.

Answer 1

Bas,
You might consider using a dynamic LOV, as follows:
SELECT NAME d,
ID r
FROM TABLE(CAST(emp_utils.Return_Emp_Names_LOV(:APP_SHOW_ALL) AS lov_table_type))
ORDER BY 1
The function emp_utils.Return_Emp_Names_LOV returns either all employees (:APP_SHOW_ALL=1) or just the active employees (:APP_SHOW_ALL=0). If a new record is being added, then APP_SHOW_ALL is set to 1. For existing records, APP_SHOW_ALL is set to 0.
The PLSQL types are:
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE "TABLE_ID_OBJ" AS OBJECT
table_id NUMBER(9) NULL
and
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE "TABLE_ID_TBL"
AS TABLE OF table_id_obj;
The Function is:
FUNCTION Return_Emp_Names_LOV(p_all IN PLS_INTEGER := 1)
RETURN lov_table_type IS
vt_data lov_table_type := lov_table_type();
BEGIN
CASE
WHEN p_all = 1 THEN
SELECT lov_obj(k.employee, k.empk_mkc_emp_id) BULK COLLECT
INTO vt_data
FROM employees k;
WHEN p_all = 0 THEN
SELECT lov_obj(k.employee, k.empk_mkc_emp_id) BULK COLLECT
INTO vt_data
FROM employees k
WHERE k.empk_emp_status =! 'Terminated';
END CASE;
RETURN(vt_data);
END Return_Emp_Names_LOV;
Cheers,
Jaime