This chapter covers the following topics:
Using either an Oracle Applications form or the self-service application, you can upload transactional data (supply and demand) from flat files to the VCP destination instance. In the case of a centralized deployment, you can upload transactional data from flat files to the joint EBS/Planning instance.
With flat file loading, you identify the location of the data and control files for loading and select entities for pre-processing. With collecting via Self-Service, a set of .dat files are packaged into a single zip file before the collection is begun. The application requires a fixed naming convention for the .dat files that are loaded. These names are used to automatically identify the entity it contains and implies a corresponding .ctl file that controls how the file is loaded into the staging tables.
Ensure that the transactional data is uploaded to the planning server using either legacy systems directly or an Oracle EBS application. To avoid double counting, do not upload the same transaction data to both Legacy and EBS instances. For example, a sales order should not be uploaded using both EBS and Legacy instances.
Before you can upload transactional data to an VCP destination instance, you must format your data. An Excel template is provided to help you prototype or inspect the .dat files. Usually, implementations loading ERP data via flat (.dat) files have some sort of extraction and transformation process that extracts the ERP data from the legacy system and formats it to match the file and column organization required by the VCP destination instance .ctl files.
Using the Advanced Supply Chain Planner responsibility, navigate to the Load Data Files form (Collections > Legacy Systems > Collect Flat File Data -- Self Service) and select the Download link to download the Excel templates. Use the ExcelLoad.xlt file to insert and modify your .dat files.
If you are importing .dat files for the first time, then Excel prompts you to enter these values:
Date format: The format of all the dates in the .dat files
Delimiter: Used internally to separate different columns in the .dat file; make sure that it matches the value of profile option MSC: Self Service Loads Delimiter. Change these values in APS Menu > User Options. It opens a window to modify the values and select an action:
Apply: Applies the changes to the open sheet
Apply & Save: Applies the changes to the open sheet and saves the settings
Note: Once you enter these values, you do not need to enter them again.
Before uploading CSData.dat, set the date format in ExcelLoader to YYYY/MM/DD.
Navigate to the Planning Data Collection form (Collections > Oracle Systems > Load Transaction Data using Flat Files).
A Request Set form appears showing three programs: Load Transaction Data, Pre-Process Transaction Data, and Planning ODS Load. The Load Transaction Data program loads the transaction data through flat files into staging tables. Load Transaction Data accepts parameter values including the path for control and data files.
The Pre-Process Transaction Data program preprocesses the transaction data and generates ids. Pre-Process Transaction Data enables you to specify the instance in which you want to load the transaction data.
Planning ODS Load program moves the data from the staging tables to the ODS.
Click in the Parameters field for Load Transaction Data.
The Parameters window appears.
Enter the required information and the file names for all the data files that you want to upload. Specify the maximum amount of time you would like to allocate to the concurrent program in the Time Out Duration field. You can either enter the directory path in the Data File's Directory field and then enter the file names for each entity to be uploaded in the File Name fields, or you can leave the Data File's Directory field blank and enter the complete path and file name of each entity in the File Name fields. The second option is useful if all the data files are not kept in the same directory.
When you finish entering information in the fields, click OK.
Click in the Parameters field for Pre-Process Transaction Data.
The Parameters window appears.
Select the instance from a list of values.
After specifying the instance in which you want to load the transaction data, specify the maximum time allowed for the process in the Time Out Duration field (in minutes).
The Processing Batch Size field determines the size of batches while preprocessing the records in the interface tables. An RDBMS COMMIT is performed for each batch. A larger batch size is faster but requires more system resources like UNDO tablespace. Each batch requires some overhead (like processing the commit and releasing the undoable data), so a larger number of smaller batches can increase the processing time. The current default batch size is 1000.
The Total Number of Workers field specifies the number of concurrent processes to be launched to process the data in parallel.
Specify the entities that you want to be preprocessed for the VCP destination instance. Yes indicates the entities that need to be preprocessed.
When you finish entering information in the fields, click OK.
Click in the Parameters field for Planning ODS Load.
The Parameters window appears.
The Planning ODS Load parameters required for data collection in the VCP destination instance is similar to the parameters required for legacy collections.
Specify the values for the parameters and click OK.
Click Submit in the Planning Data Collection window.
From the toolbar, choose View > Requests to view the status of the collections process.
When the request is complete, you can view the data in Collection Workbench.
Double-click Collections > Oracle Systems > Load Transaction Data using Self Service Loads.
The Oracle Collaborative Planning page appears.
Click the Download link to download the Oracle Applications (OA) template.
All zipped .dat files, for example, bills of material and Calendar appear. A readme providing information on how to use the templates is also provided in this zip file.
Open the ExcelLoad.xlt file and from the APS menu, import your data files to view and modify. After making the changes, export the data file. Finally, zip all data files that need to be uploaded. For more information about the ExcelLoad.xlt file, see To download the Excel template from EBS.
Click Browse to navigate to the data files location.
Select the zip file containing data files to be uploaded.
Click Start Load Now.
A concurrent request is triggered.
After the completion of this request, navigate to Collections Workbench to view the collected data.
System integrators may want to add custom validations for enabling preprocessing to filter out unwanted incoming data. The preprocessing engine provides hooks for each entity, which can be used to plug-in custom validations.