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About Synchronizing Product Attributes, Product Classes, Products, and Promotions

This topic describes the synchronization of product attributes, product classes, products, and promotions (hereafter referred to collectively as product objects) with Oracle Product Information Management Data Hub. This topic includes the following topics:

• About Synchronizing Product Attributes
• About Synchronizing Product Classes
• About Synchronizing Products
• About Synchronizing Promotions

When Siebel CRM is integrated with Oracle Product Information Management Data Hub, and new product objects are defined in Oracle Product Information Management Data Hub, Oracle Application Integration Architecture integration publishes those objects to Siebel CRM. Additionally, when existing product objects are modified, Oracle Application Integration Architecture integration publishes the modifications to Siebel CRM.

One or more product objects can be synchronized at a time. For example, you can define 20 product attributes at once in Oracle Product Information Management Data Hub and release them all at the same time to Siebel CRM.

Because of the relationships among product objects, they must be synchronized in a certain order. For example, if you synchronize certain attributes that are items of a product and the product itself, then the attributes must be synchronized first. The order of synchronization is as follows:

1. Product Attributes
2. Product Classes (parent)
3. Products (parent)
4. Product Classes (child)
5. Products (child)
6. Promotions

When a product object is published from Oracle Product Information Management Data Hub to Siebel CRM, the information from Oracle Product Information Management Data Hub can include content in more than one language, or it can include content in only one language (not necessarily ENU). Any field value that belongs to translatable content (for example, definition name or display name), is mapped to the corresponding field in Siebel CRM. The input from Oracle Application Integration Architecture specifies the default language code.

A new product object that is synchronized from Oracle Product Information Management Data Hub is a workspace version, that is, a test version, in Siebel CRM. Oracle Application Integration Architecture passes the Auto Release parameter with one of the following settings:

• N. Siebel CRM does not automatically release the definition.
• Y. Siebel CRM automatically releases the definition.
• Default. The system setting within Siebel CRM determines whether or not to automatically release the definition. This is the value of the Workspace Release Flag system preference. For more information about the Workspace Release Flag system preference, see the overview chapter of Siebel Communications Guide.

When a product is released, the product cache in Siebel CRM is automatically refreshed, regardless of the Auto Release parameter setting.

If a product object is not automatically released in Siebel CRM, then that product object is released in Siebel CRM when it is released in Oracle Product Information Management Data Hub through Oracle Application Integration Architecture.

CAUTION:  Automatically releasing product objects at once without testing in Siebel CRM might cause unpredictable and undesired results. It is recommended that you first test the product objects in the workspace environment, then release them when you determine it is safe to do so.

When a product object is updated in Oracle Product Information Management Data Hub, in Siebel CRM the workspace version of that object receives the update. The Auto Release parameter setting determines whether the changes are released at once in Siebel CRM.

For more information about workspace projects, see the chapter on testing products and using workspace projects in Siebel Product Administration Guide.

About Addressing Synchronization Errors

In the case of a synchronization error, the error message describes the problem. However, if multiple objects are synchronized in the same payload, then the error message does not indicate in which product, class, attribute, or promotion the problem occurs.

For example, if ten products are synchronized to Siebel CRM, and the ninth product does not have a value for the required field ABC, an error message will indicate that the value for the required field ABC is missing, but will not identify the product in which the field value does not appear. In this case, you must manually find the product from which the field value is missing, and enter a value in the field.

To help identify the sources of synchronization errors, you can increase the log level in Siebel CRM to 3 and check the details in the log files.