Oracle Built-in Packages

Oracle AQ Nonprogram Elements

Oracle AQ defines a number of data structures, exceptions, and other nonprogram elements you’ll use when creating and manipulating queues. In addition, there are several data structures you will create and pass to Oracle AQ programs. In many cases, you will find yourself creating and manipulating objects, index-by tables (formerly known as PL/SQL tables), and records. If you are not familiar with these programming constructs, you should review the appropriate chapters in the second edition of Oracle PL/SQL Programming.

Constants

Oracle AQ predefines a set of constants that you then use in various calls to procedures and functions. The following two lists break out these constants into those that are used for administrative tasks and those that figure into operational actions. In both cases, I intentionally do not show the values assigned to these constants. You should never hard-code those values into your code. Instead, always rely on the constants.

Administrative tasks

When you are performing administrative tasks in AQ (such as creating queue tables and queues), you may need to use one of the following constants:

Task	Constant
Specify the type of payload	DBMS_AQADM.OBJECT_TYPE_PAYLOAD DBMS_AQADM.RAW_TYPE
Enable or disable a queue for multiple consumers	DBMS_AQADM.SINGLE DBMS_AQADM.MULTIPLE
Request that messages on a queue never expire	DBMS_AQADM.INFINITE
Specify type of message grouping for a queue table	DBMS_AQADM.TRANSACTIONAL DBMS_AQADM.NONE ...