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Agile Product Lifecycle Management Import/Export User Guide
Release 9.3.6
E71157-01
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8 Mapping Import Files to Agile Fields

This chapter includes the following:

8.1 Overview

This chapter provides referential and procedural information to:

  • Map files, key fields and required fields

  • Select Change Orders and create, reuse, and edit mapped files

  • Map PDX and aXML packages

8.2 About Mapping Files

When you import data into the PLM system, you must indicate where to put the data. You do this in the Import Wizard by mapping fields in the source data to Agile fields. Only mapped fields are imported. The Import Wizard ignores any source fields that are not mapped.

Mapping files are XML files that you can reuse them to map data for subsequent import sessions. You can save the files locally or on a network drive. They are not stored on the PLM system.


Note:

The Import Wizard does not support mapping files created with previous Agile Product Cost Management or Agile Product Collaboration releases.

8.3 Key Fields and Required Fields

Key fields uniquely identify an object in the PLM system and are required to import all objects, whether they are new or already exist. An example of a key field is the Title Block > Number field for a part. In fact, most key fields for Agile PLM objects are used to set the unique number for the object. When you map fields for import, all key fields in the Edit Mapping File window are shown in blue boldface type.

The following table lists key fields for all objects supported by the Import Wizard. You must map these fields.


Note:

If the data is not in the Agile system, you must map all key fields and required attributes. If the data is already in the Agile system (created earlier, or soft deleted), you can bypass mapping the required attributes, but you must map the key fields.

Table 8-1 Key fields for objects supported by Import Wizard

Object Tab Key Fields

Currency Conversion

Currency Conversion

Currency Code

Customer

General Info

Customer Name

Customer NumberFoot 1 

Declaration

Attachment

File Identifier, File Name

Cover Page

Name, Supplier

Item Composition

Item Number, Item Revision

Substance Name

Substance Type

Items

Item Number, Revision Number

Manufacturer Parts

Mfr. Name

Mfr. Part Number

Manufacturer Part Composition

Mfr. Name

Mfr. Part Number

Substance Name

Substance Type

Part Group Composition

Name

Substance Name

Substance Type

Part Groups

Name

Specifications

Specification

Item

Attachments

File Identifier

File Name

BOM

Item Number

Compliance

Specification

Manufacturers

Mfr. Name

Mfr. Part Number

Sites

Site Name

Suppliers

Supplier

Title Block

Number

Composition

Composition Type

Substance

Substance Name, Substance Type

Manufacture

Attachment

File Identifier



File Name


General Info

Name

Manufacturer Part

Attachment

File Identifier


File Name

Compliance

Specification

Composition

Composition TypeFoot 2 

General Info

Manufacturer Name

Manufacturer Part Number

Substance

Substance Name

Suppliers

Supplier

Part Group

Attachments

File Identifier

File Name

Compliance

Specification

General Info

Name

Parts

Part Number

Suppliers

Supplier

Cover Page

Number

Affected Items

Item Number

Project Item

AML

Manufacturer Name

Manufacturer Part Number

Attachments

File Identifier

File Name

BOM

Component Part Number

Items

Number

Published Price

Attachments

File Identifier

File Name

General Information

Customer

Item Number

Item Revision

Manufacturing Site

Manufacturer Name

Manufacturer Part Number

Number

Price Type

Program

Supplier

Published Price Lines

Price Effective From Date

Price Effective To Date

Qty

Ship From

Ship To

Quote History

General Information

Customer

Item Number

Item Revision

Manufacturing Site

Manufacturer Name

Manufacturer Part Number

Number

Price Type

Program

Supplier

Published Price Lines

Price Effective From Date

Price Effective To Date

Qty

Ship From

Ship To

Specification

Attachments

File Identifier

File Name

General Information

Name

Substances

Name, Substances Type

Substance

Attachments

File Identifier

File Name, Substances Type

Composition

Name

General Information

Name

Supplier

Commodities

Commodity

Continent

Ship-To

General Information

Name

Number

Manufacturers

Continent

Manufacturer Name

Ship-To

Projects

General Information

Name

Name

Number

Action Items

Assigned To

Discussion

Subject

User

General Information

General Info User ID

User Group

User Group group name

User Group

General Information

General Info Name

User

Users user names in group


Footnote 1 If you do not map the Number field or the data is not provided in the source file, the Import Wizard uses an AutoNumber source to assign a number to a new object it creates. You can set the default AutoNumber sources used by the Import Wizard. For more information, see Setting Default AutoNumber Sources.

Footnote 2 Composition Type determines what type of substances can be imported into the composition. For Substance Compositions, you can import Substances and substance groups. For Homogeneous Materials Composition, you can import Subparts, materials, substance groups, and substances. For Part Composition, no substances are importable

In addition to key fields, Agile PLM also has required fields. The PLM administrator can configure any field on Page One (Title Block, Cover Page, or General Information), Page Two, or Page Three of an object to be a required field. To import new objects in Agile PLM, you must complete all required fields. However, if you are importing data to existing objects, required fields do not need to be mapped. When you map fields for import, all required fields in the Edit Mapping File window are shown in green boldface type.

For a complete list of required Agile PLM fields, print the Agile Classes Report from the Web Client.

Some Agile PLM objects have special mapping requirements. See the following sections for more information.

8.3.1 BOM Mapping Requirements

Title Block > Number and BOM > Item Number are required fields. However, BOM > Find Num and BOM > Qty are optional key fields. If you don't map the BOM > Find Num field, the BOM tab shows 0 as the find number for all imported items. If you do not map the BOM > Qty field, all quantities on the BOM tab use the default quantity value set by the Agile PLM administrator.

8.3.2 Quote History and Published Price Mapping Requirements

Quote histories and published prices have special mapping requirements because they have multiple required and optional key fields that you can use to import. For more information about the required fields for Quote Histories, Published Prices, and Published Price Lines, see "Importing Quote History and Published Price Data."

8.3.3 Mapping Classes and Subclasses

For item, BOM, and AML imports, there are two separate target classes that may need to be mapped depending on what the source file contains. If the source file contains both parts and documents, then you must map both the Parts class and Documents class, even if the mappings are the same.

If you do not map the Type field for the object, or the Type column of a particular row is blank, then the default type for the object is used, regardless of whether the object currently exists or not. For example, if your import file contains documents, but you do not map the Type field, documents could be imported as parts if that is the default item type selected in Import preferences. For items in the import file that already exist in the target system, a type mismatch rejection error occurs if the default type assumed by import does not match the existing object in the target system.

For information about how to specify default types for an import session, see "Setting Default Types."

8.4 Selecting a Change Order and Mapping File

When the Select Change Order and Mapping File page appears in the Import Wizard, you can specify a change order and select a mapping file using the following options:

  • Change Order - If you are importing in Redlining mode (the default), click Details to select a change order. If you are using Authoring mode, you can not specify a change order. For more information about redlining, see Using Redlining or Authoring Mode on page 84.


Note:

To change from Redlining mode to Authoring mode, click Preferences, select Business Rule Options, and change the value for the Change Mode field.

  • Use an Existing Mapping File - After selecting this option, type the path of a mapping file or click Browse to select one. The mapping file must exist on your local system or on a network computer. Mapping files are not stored on the PLM server.

  • Create a New Mapping - After selecting this option, edit Mapping attributes in Step 4 of the Wizard.

  • Use Currently Defined Mapping Definition - Use a mapping definition previously selected during this import session. If you have not specified a mapping file yet, this option does not appear.

  • Use Default Mapping Definition - Use the default field mappings for the specified file type. This option is not available for Excel files and delimited text files that do not use a predefined template format.

Once you select or create a mapping definition, the Import Wizard stores it in memory for the current import session. After this, you can click Import to begin the import process, or click Next to select other options.

8.5 Creating a New Mapping File

If you are importing data from a new source, you need to create a mapping file. To create a mapping file, you select fields from the import data and map them to Agile fields.

To create a new mapping file:

  1. In the Import Wizard, proceed to the Select Content Options page.

  2. Select the Define attribute Mapping in next step option and click Next.

  3. Click a field in the Import Fields list.


    Note:

    Only one field can be selected at a time in the Specify Attribute Mapping window. However, you can map an import field to multiple Agile PLM fields. Also, if the Specify Attribute Mapping window has no fields, the source file may be invalid. If the source file is a delimited text file, make sure fields in the header row do not have carriage returns or linefeed characters.

  4. Navigate to the corresponding field in the Agile Fields list. Click the field to map it. This arrow appears next to the field along with the name of the import field to which it is mapped.

  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all fields that you want to map.

  6. When you finish mapping all fields, click Save As. The File Download dialog box appears.

  7. Select Save this File to Disk. Click OK.

  8. Type the name of the file, and click Save.

To unmap a field in the Edit Mapping File window:

Click the red x icon to the right of the mapped field.

To show all fields in the Specify Attribute Mapping window:

Click Expand All.

8.5.1 Mapping Page Two and Page Three Fields

Only visible Agile fields are mapped in the Specify Attribute Mapping window. To map source fields to Page Two or Page Three fields, the Agile PLM administrator must configure those fields to be visible.

8.5.2 How Fields are Sorted in the Specify Attribute Mapping Window

When you are importing data from a PDX package, the Specify Attribute Mapping window displays import fields sorted in alphabetical order within each node in the package. The following figure shows how fields in a PDX package are sorted for the Item subclass.

Figure 8-1 Sorted PDX package fields for the Item subclass

Surrounding text describes Figure 8-1 .

When you import data from a delimited text file, the Specify Attribute Mapping window does not sort the import fields. Instead, it displays the fields in the order in which they appear in the text file, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 8-2 Fields in the order of appear in the text file

Surrounding text describes Figure 8-2 .

To make it easier to map fields in a text file, you may want to sort the fields in another application, such as Excel, before attempting to import the data.

Figure 8-3 Sorted Agile fields in Agile Classes

Surrounding text describes Figure 8-3 .

Agile fields are sorted in alphabetical order by the tab on which the field appears, as shown in the following figure.

8.6 Reusing a Mapping File

If you routinely import data from the same source (such as PDX packages originating from the same source system), you can maintain mapping files that correctly map source fields to Agile fields.

Mapping files are flexible and are designed to be reused for subsequent import sessions. The import source data generally varies from one import session to another. However, it's possible to reuse the same mapping file for multiple source files if the mapping file contains fields common to them. For example, if you create a mapping file that contains mappings for all PDX objects, you can reuse that particular mapping file for any PDX file, including a file that only includes one type of object, such as Items. If a target field is mapped but does not exist in the import source file, the Import Wizard ignores the field and does not import it.

Target fields in the PLM system can also change from one import session to another. For example, the PLM administrator can make fields invisible that may have been used in your mapping files. When a target field is mapped but is not visible in the PLM system, the Import Wizard ignores the field and does not import it.

If you rename column headings in your import source file, any mapping files that you created for that particular source file will be invalid. To successfully import the data, you need to remap all fields that have been renamed. The Import Wizard ignores any mapped fields that are not found in the source file.

If the PLM administrator renamed classes or attributes used in a mapping file, the Import Wizard resolves target fields by referencing their internal IDs. Therefore, mapping files that reference renamed fields are still valid. The Debug Mapping Window shows a warning message for every field that the Import Wizard resolves to a different name.

To use an existing mapping file:

  1. In the Import Wizard, proceed to the Select Content Options page.

  2. Select Use a saved mapping file.

  3. Type the path of the mapping file, or click Browse to locate and select the path.


    Note:

    After you select the file, you can confirm the field mappings by clicking Next, and reviewing the mapped fields in the Specify Attribute Mapping page.

  4. Click Next to continue.

8.7 Editing a Mapping File

If an import file has been modified (for example, new columns of data have been added), you need to modify its associated mapping file. Otherwise, the mapping file could be invalid for the revised data.

To edit a mapping file:

  1. In the Import Wizard, proceed to the Select Content Options page.

  2. Select Use a saved mapping file.

  3. Type the path of the mapping file, or click Browse to select it.


    Note:

    Mapping files have an XML filename extension.

  4. Edit the Mapping File in Step 4 of the Wizard.

    When you reuse a mapping file to import a new source file, the Import Wizard ensures that the mapping file correctly matches the source data. If the mapping file has errors, an Errors/Warnings box appears at the top of the window. You can click an error or warning in the box to highlight its related field.

  5. Edit the mappings.

  6. Click Save As to save the file. The File Download dialog box appears.

  7. Select Save this File to Disk. Click OK.

  8. Type the name of the file, and click Save.

8.8 Mapping PDX and aXML Packages

When you select Use Default Mapping on the Select Content Options page, the Specify Attribute Mapping page provides default mappings for core Agile fields. Custom fields are not mapped by default; you have to map those fields manually.

Only PDX and aXML elements present in the source file are assigned default mappings. For example, if the file contains only items and no other types of import data, then the Specify Attribute Mapping page shows default mappings for item fields only. If you save the mapping file to reuse it later, you can use it only to import items.

To create a mapping file with mappings for all types of import data, make sure all objects are selected in the Specify File Content page of the Import Wizard. That way, default mappings are assigned for all objects, regardless if all objects are contained in the selected source file.