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About Data Maps


Data maps are the logic defining the flow of data from one location to another. The DTU business service uses data maps to transfer data from one location in the Siebel application to another.

This section contains the following topics:

Data Map Objects

Data map objects indicate the data that is being transferred from the source business object to the destination business object. You can use the Administration - Application > Data Map Administration screen to define data map objects. Only Siebel administrators should have access to this screen. Data map objects are described in Table 27.

Table 27.  Data Map Objects
Object
Description

Name

The name of the data map object. Enter a unique name.

Source Business Object

The name of the source business object. You must define this name in the Siebel Repository file.

Destination Business Object

The name of the destination business object. You can specify the same business object as both source and destination business object.

Inactive

Check this box to make the data map object inactive.

TIP:   Data map objects are cached in memory. Whenever you make changes to an existing data map object, click the Clear Cache button to refresh the cache so that your changes appear.

Data map objects can be imported or exported as XML files through the Data Map Object applet menu items: XML Import, XML Export.

Data Map Components

Data map components define the mapping at the child business component level. Each data map object can contain multiple data map components. You can arrange data map components in a parent-child hierarchy, but you must specify a parent for all except one data map component. The parentless data map component is called the root data map component. Data map components are described in Table 28.

Table 28.  Data Map Components
Component
Description

Name

The name of the data map component. Enter a unique name for each data map component in a data map object.

Source/Destination Business Component

The name of the source or destination business component.

If you specify a parent for this data map component, you must define this business component in the Siebel repository file as a child of the source or destination business object to which the parent data map component is mapped.

Parent

The name of the parent data map component.

If you specify a parent, the parent is mapped to particular source and destination business components. Generally, you map the child data map component to a child of those source and destination business components.

If you do not want to specify a parent, leave it empty to indicate that this is the root data map component. Each data map object can have only one root data map component.

Inactive

Check this box to make the data map component inactive.

Data Map Component Advanced Options

Data transfer can be fine-tuned at the component level using Advanced Options multi-value fields. Data map components advanced options are described in Table 29.

Table 29.  Data Map Components Advanced Options
Component
Description

Source Search Specification/Source Sort Specification

To define the source Buscomp search spec and sort spec. The value can be a literal search spec/sort spec string. It can also contain a named parameter. See Using Named Parameters in DTU. For example:

[Id] = [&ContactId]

where ContactId is a named parameter. At run time, only named parameters are replaced by their string values.

Source Record Row Number

One can selectively transfer only a subset of source Buscomp records. This can be defined in three formats:

  • Start-End
  • Start-
  • Number

For example, 0-5, 4-, 0. Note that the row number starts at 0.

Operation Override

This option allows one to override the operation at the component level. For example, if the current operation is "Insert", you can use this option to set some component to operate "Update" instead.

No Association

Y/N. Applicable to buscomps that have association list. By default, it is Y. DTU will first try to locate the desired destination record in the associate list. If successful, the located record will be associated. Otherwise, a new record is created.

If N, association of existing records is not attempted. New record is created instead.

All advanced option values can contain named parameters. At run time, the named parameter is substituted by its run-time value.

If the source Buscomp has been well positioned, the source search spec, the source sort spec, and source record row number must be evaluated to be empty at run time, otherwise a wrong advanced option error is encountered. See Well-Positioned Buscomps for more information.

Advanced Options does not apply to mvg subcomponents.

Data Map Fields

Data map fields define the field-to-field mapping. Data map fields are described in Table 30.

Table 30.  Data Map Fields
Field
Description

Source Type/Destination Type

 

Type of the source /destination field. Can be: Field, Expression, or Parameter:

Source /Destination.

The contents of these fields depends on the source and destination type. If the type is Field, it should be a Buscomp field name. If the type is Expression, it should be a Siebel calculation expression. If the type is Parameter, it should be a named parameter.

If the destination field is a calculated expression, the record is not used to update the destination Buscomp. Instead, the result of the expression, evaluated at run time, is written back into the source field at the end of the data transfer operation of the component. If source is a Buscomp field, then source Buscomp is updated. If the source is Parameter, the corresponding named parameter value is updated. If the source is Expression, nothing happens.

Key

Matches destination records with source records.

For example, the Update operation updates the record in the destination business component whose key destination fields all match those of the corresponding source fields.

Each data map component in general should contain at least one key field. When there is no key defined, if the operation is Insert, DTU would proceed without checking if a duplicate record with the same key fields already exists. If the operation is Update, it would update the current destination record.

If the destination business component is populated with an associated list business component, at least one key field is required.

Source /Destination Multi-Value Link

This link indicates that the source and destination fields are multi-value fields.

Data is transferred from one multi-value field to another by dividing data map fields into several subcomponents. All entries with the same source and destination multi-value link constitute a subcomponent. Specify a key for each subcomponent.

NOTE:  Data transfer from a multi-value field to a single-value field is not allowed.

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