Implementation Guide for Oracle Self-Service E-Billing > Input File Specifications and Data Mapping >

Preprocessor Tasks

Oracle Self-Service E-Billing requires that all input bill data files conform to the file format specified in this section. The flat file format is pipe delimited. Each row in the file has specific record type associated with it indicating the type of the record. The preprocessor performs the following tasks:

• Converts data file from an outside billing system file format to the one Oracle Self-Service E-Billing uses.
• Converts all dimension value literal strings into dimension value business keys.

You can use many dimension values in a data file. For example, the data file might contain a record with the following text: service 781-359-1000 Peak 2000 minutes. In this record, Peak could be interpreted as one of Tariff dimension value, which might have a business key PEAK_CALL. For the ETL process to recognize this record indicating that the service with number 781-359-1000 made a total of 2000 call minutes during peak hours, Oracle Self-Service E-Billing expects the file to contain PEAK_CALL (the business KEY string rather than the word Peak, the literal string that came from the billing system).