HELP WITH CREATING A VIEW USING PL/SQL

Question

Hello,
I have two tables, one is simply an audit version of the other and anytime data is updated, modified, or deleted the data is copied to the audit table (via a trigger) and the audit table records who made the changes and when.
Here is the description of one of the archive tables:
AUD_OBLIGATION_ID NOT NULL NUMBER(10)
OBLIGATION_ID NUMBER(10)
COMMUNICATION_ID NUMBER(10)
COMMUNICATION_ID_OLD NUMBER(10)
OBL_DESC VARCHAR2(4000)
OBL_DESC_OLD VARCHAR2(4000)
OBL_TYPE VARCHAR2(20)
OBL_TYPE_OLD VARCHAR2(20)
ORIGINAL_TARGET_DATE DATE
ORIGINAL_TARGET_DATE_OLD DATE
TARGET_DATE DATE
TARGET_DATE_OLD DATE
ACTUAL_DATE DATE
ACTUAL_DATE_OLD DATE
STATUS VARCHAR2(20)
STATUS_OLD VARCHAR2(20)
DOCLINK VARCHAR2(200)
DOCLINK_OLD VARCHAR2(200)
SERIAL_NUMBER NUMBER(10)
SERIAL_NUMBER_OLD NUMBER(10)
REMARKS VARCHAR2(200)
REMARKS_OLD VARCHAR2(200)
CREATED_BY VARCHAR2(10)
CREATED_BY_OLD VARCHAR2(10)
CREATION_TS DATE
CREATION_TS_OLD DATE
MODIFIED_BY VARCHAR2(10)
MODIFIED_BY_OLD VARCHAR2(10)
MODIFICATION_TS DATE
MODIFICATION_TS_OLD DATE
UPDATED_BY VARCHAR2(10)
UPDATED_TS DATE
ACTION_TYPE VARCHAR2(10)
I now need to create a view of this audit table, but do not want to list all the columns from the audit table, instead I would like it to look like this:
Modification_TS ** Action_Type ** Updated_By ** CHANGES
Where CHANGES would be a variable that stores the concatenated new & old values (if they are different).
I assume I need to create a stored procedure using PL/SQL to find these values then insert the values into a view...but all of my efforts do not seem to work.
Here is the procedure I've written:
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE proc_AUD_OBLIGATIONS AS
modData VARCHAR2(2000) :=' ';
emp VARCHAR2(200);
actType VARCHAR2(100);
actDate DATE;
obUser VARCHAR2(500);
CURSOR cur_AUD_OBLIGATION IS
SELECT o.UPDATED_TS, o.UPDATED_BY, o.OBLIGATION_ID, o.COMMUNICATION_ID,o.COMMUNICATION_ID_OLD,o.OBL_DESC,o.OBL_DESC_OLD,
o.OBL_TYPE, o.OBL_TYPE_OLD, o.ORIGINAL_TARGET_DATE,o.ORIGINAL_TARGET_DATE_OLD,o.TARGET_DATE,o.TARGET_DATE_OLD,
o.ACTUAL_DATE,o.ACTUAL_DATE_OLD,o.STATUS,o.STATUS_OLD,o.DOCLINK,o.DOCLINK_OLD,o.SERIAL_NUMBER,o.SERIAL_NUMBER_OLD,
u.FNAME || ' ' ||u.LNAME AS EMPLOYEE,o.ACTION_TYPE
FROM AUD_OBLIGATION o, TRAC_USER u, OBLIGATION_USER ou
WHERE o.OBLIGATION_ID = ou.OBLIGATION_ID
AND
ou.TRAC_USER_ID = u.TRAC_USER_ID;
i_AUD_OBLIGATION cur_AUD_OBLIGATION%rowtype;
BEGIN
for i_AUD_OBLIGATION in cur_AUD_OBLIGATION loop
actType := i_AUD_OBLIGATION.ACTION_TYPE;
actDate := i_AUD_OBLIGATION.UPDATED_TS;
emp := i_AUD_OBLIGATION.UPDATED_BY;
IF i_AUD_OBLIGATION.OBL_DESC != i_AUD_OBLIGATION.OBL_DESC_OLD
THEN modData := 'OBL. DESC. was: ' || i_AUD_OBLIGATION.OBL_DESC_OLD
|| 'It is now: ' ||i_AUD_OBLIGATION.OBL_DESC;
ELSE modData := modData;
END IF;
IF i_AUD_OBLIGATION.OBL_TYPE != i_AUD_OBLIGATION.OBL_TYPE_OLD
THEN modData := modData || 'OBL. TYPE. was: ' ||i_AUD_OBLIGATION.OBL_TYPE_OLD
|| 'It is now: ' ||i_AUD_OBLIGATION.OBL_TYPE;
ELSE modData := modData;
END IF;
IF i_AUD_OBLIGATION.ORIGINAL_TARGET_DATE != i_AUD_OBLIGATION.ORIGINAL_TARGET_DATE_OLD
THEN modData := modData || 'ORIG.TRGT DATE was: ' || i_AUD_OBLIGATION.ORIGINAL_TARGET_DATE_OLD
|| 'It is now: ' ||i_AUD_OBLIGATION.ORIGINAL_TARGET_DATE;
ELSE modData := modData;
END IF;
INSERT INTO vw_AUD_OBLIGATIONS VALUES
(actDate,actType, emp,modData);
END LOOP;
END;
Here is the view I've created, based on this procedure (it does not compile):
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW vw_AUD_OBLIGATIONS
(Action_Date, Action_Type, Action_User, Modified_Data)
AS
SELECT actDate,actType, emp,modData
FROM proc_AUD_OBLIGATIONS
END;
Any thoughts on how to make this work - it seems like such a simple concept....
Thanks in advance
Tony

Answer 1

You have a couple of misconceptions here. First, you cannot SELECT from a procedure. You need to write a PROCEDURE that INSERTs these columns into a TABLE, then simply SELECT from the TABLE. There are of course many variations, but I hope you get the general idea here.
Greg