Skip Headers

Home

Contents

Book
List

Contact
Us

PDF

18 Common HCM Configuration: Define Extracts

This chapter contains the following:

Defining an Extract: Worked Example

Extract Components: How They Work Together

FAQs for Define Extracts

Defining an Extract: Worked Example

This example demonstrates the steps required to create an extract definition. Before you create an extract definition, you should understand the following details: the information that you want to extract; the structure in which the data must be extracted and how you want to deliver this data (including file format, delivery mechanism and frequency information).

FAST bank is a global organization with subsidiaries all over the world. As part of an external business reporting requirement, FAST bank is required to extract the department and employee details (grouped by department) across the entire company. This information must be sent to a third party in an XML file and to HR Managers in a PDF file using e-mail.

The following table summarizes the key decisions in this scenario:

Decisions to Consider	In This Example
How many extracts do I need to create to produce this type of report?	You create one extract definition to define a headcount report.
What type of extract do I create?	You create a HR Archive extract.
How many blocks do I need to create?	In this example there are 2 functional groups of information, therefore you create two blocks, one for department and one for employees.
How many records do I need to create?	You decide the number of records based on the sub-group of data elements within a block. In this example, you create two records for the department block: Department Details Department Summary You create one record for the employees block: Employee Details.
How many data elements do I need to create?	You decide the number of data elements based on the specific information required for that report. In this example, create the following data elements for the Department Details record: Department Name Department Location For the Department Summary record, create the following data elements: Record Code Report Date Employee Count For the Employees Details record, create the following data elements: Full Name Gender Date of Birth Salary Bonus Tax Rate
Do I need to create any fast formulas?	You can use fast formulas at the following levels: Extract Criteria level to determine certain conditions. Extract Rule level to derive data element values. Extract Advanced Condition level to specify complex conditions. Extract Record level to automatically generate formulas when you use the Generate Formula option.

Creating an Extract Definition

On the Manage HCM Extract Definitions page click on the Create icon to create a new extract.
Enter 01-Jan-2000 as the Session Effective Date.
The session effective date is an effective start date that applies to all date-effective interactions in the current session.
Enter FAST Bank Extract as the name and select HR Archive as the type. The application automatically creates the tag name based on the extract name and uses this name to generate the XML output file.
Click Save and the application saves the extract definition and automatically generates the parameters based on the type of extract. The parameters control the output of an extract. In this example, the application creates the following parameters:
- Effective Date
- Legislative Block
- Parameter Group
- Report Category
- Request ID
- Start Date

Creating Extract Blocks

Select the Extract Block link from the navigation tree to open the Extract Blocks region.
Click on Create to define a new block. A block represents data that belongs to one or more logical data entities.

Complete the general fields, as shown in this table:

Field Name	Entry
Name	Departments
User Entity	PER_EXT_SEC_ORGANIZATION_UE
Root Block	Yes (By selecting this checkbox you select this block as the starting point for the extract execution.)

Select Save and Create Another to create a block for Employees.
Complete the general fields, as shown in this table:

Field Name

Entry

Name

Employees

User Entity

PER_EXT_SEC_ASSIGNMENT_UE

Root Block

No

Field Name	Entry
Name	Employees
User Entity	PER_EXT_SEC_ASSIGNMENT_UE
Root Block	No

Creating Extract Block Links

Select Extract Block in the navigation tree to display the blocks in a table. Block links enable you to define the master-detail of parent-child relationship between the entities. For example, the Employees and Departments blocks are linked with Department ID.
Select the Employees Block and define the block link details.
Complete the general fields, as shown in this table:

Field Name

Entry

Parent Block

Departments

Parent Block Database Item

PER_EXT_ORG_ORGANIZATION_ID

Block Database Item

PER_EXT_ASG_ORG_ID
Define the block criteria for each block. Block criteria enables you to specify the filter conditions of what data you want to archive. You can specify the filter conditions as an expression or fast formula.

Field Name	Entry
Parent Block	Departments
Parent Block Database Item	PER_EXT_ORG_ORGANIZATION_ID
Block Database Item	PER_EXT_ASG_ORG_ID

Creating Extract Records

Select the Departments Block from the navigation tree and select the Create icon in the Extract Records region. Extract records represent a physical collection of all required fields. If a block has 3 records, then you can specify the sequence in which the application processes the records using the sequence field. You can also select the Next Block to identify which block the application processes next.
Create two records for the Departments Block.

Complete the general fields, as shown in this table:

Field	Department Summary	Department Details
Name	Department Summary	Department Details
Effective Start Date	1/1/00	1/1/00
Sequence	20	10
Type	Trailer Record	Header Record
Process Type	Fast Formula	Fast Formula
Next Block	NA	Employees

Save the records, then select the Employees Block and select the Create icon in the Extract Records region.
Create one record for the Employees Block.
Complete the general fields, as shown in this table:

Field Name

Entry

Name

Employee Details

Effective Start Date

1/1/00

Sequence

10

Type

Detail Record

Process Type

Fast Formula

Field Name	Entry
Name	Employee Details
Effective Start Date	1/1/00
Sequence	10
Type	Detail Record
Process Type	Fast Formula

Creating Data Elements

Select the Departments Block from the navigation tree and select the Department Details record.
An extract data element is an individual field of a record.
Create the following extract data elements for the Department Details record and select Save.

Complete the general fields, as shown in this table:

Field Name	Data Element Entry	Data Element Entry
Name	Department Name	Department Location
Type	Database item group	Database item group
Database Item Group	Organization Name	Organization Location Country

Save the record, then select the Department Summary record.
Select the Create icon in the Extract Data Elements region.
Create the following extract data elements for the Department Summary record and select Save.

Complete the general fields, as shown in this table:

Field Name	Data Element Entry	Data Element Entry	Data Element Entry
Name	Record Code	Report Date	Employee Count
Data Type	Text	Date	Number
Type	String	Parameter Element	Summary Element
String Value	999	NA	NA
Parameter	Effective Date	NA	NA
Aggregate Function	NA	NA	Count
Aggregate Record Name	NA	NA	Employees Employee Details

Select the Employees Block from the navigation tree and select the Employee Details record.
Create the following extract data elements for the Employee Details record and select Save.

Complete the general fields, as shown in this table:

Field Name	Data Element Entry	Data Element Entry	Data Element Entry
Name	Full Name	Gender	Date of Birth
Start Date	1/1/00	1/1/00	1/1/00
Data Type	Text	Text	Date
Type	Database Item Group	Decoded database item group	Database item group
Database Item Group	Person Full Name	Person Gender	Person Date of Birth

Field Name	Data Element Entry	Data Element Entry	Data Element Entry
Name	Salary	Bonus	Tax rate
Start Date	1/1/00	1/1/00	1/1/00
Data Type	Number	Number	Text
Type	Database item group	Record Calculation	Rule
Database Item Group	Assignment Salary Amount	NA	NA
Calculation Expression	NA	Salary * 0.5	NA
Rule	NA	NA	FAST Bank Tax Rule

Defining the Delivery Options

Navigate to the Extract Execution Tree to validate the extract definition setup.
Select Export XSD to download the XML Schema Definition (.xsd) file for this extract setup. This exported file contains the structure of the extract definition: the blocks, records, and data elements.
Select the Extract Delivery Options region to define the formatting and layout options for the extract definition.
You can define delivery options for an extract using a BI publisher template, with the following delivery file output types: PDF, XLS, XML, DOC, and the following delivery modes FTP, email, fax. You can also choose Documents of Record as the delivery mode. This delivery mode enables you to store the output in the database and allows employees to view online payslips from documents of record. If the XML output is split and burst as separate files, then you can select the bursting node. For example, if you want all employees to be sent an email with their payslip, then set the bursting node to Employee_ID.

Complete the general fields, as shown in this table:

Field	Value	Value
Start Date	1/1/00	1/1/00
End Date	12/31/12	12/31/12
BI Publisher Template	ReportLayout	EFTLayout
Output Type	PDF	EFT
Delivery Type	Email	FTP
Delivery Option Name	Email to HR	FTP to 3rd Party
Output Name	HeadcountReport	EFTReport

Define further information for each delivery option in the Additional Details region. For example, add the server, username and password for the FTP delivery type.
Enter FAST Bank Extract as the reporting category and click Submit.

Submitting an Extract

An extract definition automatically creates an extract process with the same name as the extract. The extract process enables you to define an execution sequence of multiple tasks, including pre and post tasks. You can use the Refine HCM Extracts task to view and modify the extract process, if required.

Select the Submit an HCM Process task and select the FAST Bank Extract process.
Enter FAST Bank Extract - Jan 2012 as the Payroll Flow.
Enter 1/1/12 as the Effective Date.
Select Next. You can specify interaction details if the task is dependent on other tasks with different extract processes. For example, this task must wait because another task is running.
Select Next and review the extract.
Select Submit.
Select OK and View Checklist to view the status of the process.
Select the View an HCM Process task to review the results of the extract run. Search for the FAST Bank Extract process.
Select Go to Task for FAST Bank Extract - Jan 2012 and view the report output.

Extract Components: How They Work Together

The HCM Extracts feature is a flexible tool for generating data files and reports. You use the extract components to define what information you want the application to extract and report on, and how the information is displayed, formatted and delivered. An extract definition consists of: one or more extract blocks, depending on how many logical entities you want to extract; one or more extract records depending on how many groups of information you want to collect; and one or more data elements depending on how many individual fields of data you want to extract.

Extract Definitions

An extract definition refers to the complete setup of an extract, that consists of extract blocks, criteria, records, data elements, advance conditions and output delivery options. You use HCM extracts to extract, archive, transform, report, and deliver high volumes of HCM data from the Fusion HCM database. You can view the extracted data in the UI before generating the final output. You can generate the output in the following formats:

CSV
XML
Excel
HTML
RTF
PDF

You can distribute the extracted information by email, fax and other delivery modes. Some common examples of extracts are: PDF payslips delivered to employees' mailboxes, payroll or benefits data transferred to third-party service providers, HR and talent data exchange between Fusion and legacy applications, for example in a coexistence scenario.

Blocks

Extract blocks represent a business area or logical entity, for example person, assignment, or benefits. The application uses this information to retrieve the report data items. You define one block as the primary or root block and this block is the starting point of the data extraction.

Extract block links capture the association details between the current block and the parent block. The block links form the hierarchical relationship among the blocks.

Extract block criteria enables you to define a set of filtering conditions the application must perform on an extract block. You specify the criteria conditions using an expression or fast formula.

Extract Records

Extract records represent a grouping of related data or a physical collection of all fields required in the extract. For example, the Employee block can have records such as Basic Details, Pay Details, Location Details, and Primary Contact An extract record is a collection of data elements which you can organize in a required sequence. For example, if a block has 3 records, then you can specify the sequence in which the application processes the records. You can also select the next block to identify which block the application processes next.

Data Elements

Data elements are the individual fields inside the extract record. A data element is the lowest attribute level of a HCM extract and represents a piece of information, for example, person first name, person last name or person date of birth.

This figure demonstrates the hierarchy of information within a block definition. In this example, the block is a container for the logical group of data called Department. Within the Department block there are two records of department data called Department Information and Department Other Information (extract records). Within the subgroup of Department Information there are two elements of information called Department ID and Department Name. Within the subgroup of Department Other Information there are two elements of information called Department Location and Department Start Date. An extract definition is a hierarchy of information with data elements such as Department ID at the bottom.

Extract definition hierarchy of information
diagram.

FAQs for Define Extracts

How can I restrict the records to be extracted?

You can use extract block criteria to define a set of filtering conditions the application performs on an extract block. For example, you can use database items in the fast formula to represent the town_or_city and primary_flag columns in the per_addresses table to restrict the data to people living in London only. The extract definition would then exclude people with a primary address of anywhere other than London. You can specify the criteria conditions using an expression or fast formula.