6 Customizing the Transformations

This chapter discusses how to modify mappings between the attributes of the participating applications and how to plug in your own logic at pre-defined extension points (user exits) provided in the out-of-the-box (OOTB) Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) flow to validate, enrich, and transform data.

6.1 Overview

You may require OOTB and user-defined attribute (UDA) mapping between applications, which are not covered as part of standard transformations. Considering this, the transformation files (XSLs) are externalized to help perform the following:

• Modify the OOTB transformations:

• Add new mappings for the Agile attributes to Enterprise Business Message (EBM) attributes.

  These Agile attributes are those that have not been mapped OOTB, including any of the flex-fields.

The transformations support the following:

• Multiple transformations involving multiple Application Business Objects (ABOs) and Application Business Messages (ABMs) as well as multiple Enterprise Business Objects EBOs) and EBMs.

• Flex-field mappings

• Customer provided XSLs for complex transformations that are not part of the standard transformations.

  It is required to support the transformations for user-defined EBO extensions (such as Custom tags) and in places where you have overriden the standard transformation logic.

6.1.1 Transformation Rules

These are the transformation rules:

• For a transformation from ABM into EBM, all the flex-fields (interchangeably user-defined attribute or flex-field attribute) go under the Specification Group element under the main EBM element with a matching type such as ValueText (for text values), ValueNumeric (for numeric values), and so on for carrying the values.

• For the transformations from EBM into ABM, depending upon the identification element of Specification and Specification Group, pull processing is performed to populate the UDAs.

• For Classification elements, such as Item Classification, the field values are translated using a configuration, into EBM and vice-versa. The configuration states are <<Name in Agile>> <<Name on EBO>> <<Name SAP ERP>>. For the remainder of the classification elements such as Part Type, Product Family, and so on fields must be packed and unpacked on or from the XXCatalog element on the EBM.

6.2 Customization in Agile

The XSL transformations in Agile Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) iIntegration are externalized, which means they are hosted on the implementation server under:

<AIA_Home>/AIAComponents/Transformations/Agile/

Refer Customization Points of each Process (in corresponding chapters).

You can modify the XSLs based on the customization points against each process, including new mappings for the Agile attributes to the EBM elements. The entire behavior of the OOTB mappings can be enhanced using this approach.

Note: The server mus be restarted to bring the changes into effect.

6.2.1 Sample Customization

A few sample customizations have been provided at <AIA_HOME>\PIPS\Core\Agile\Samples. The following is a sample customization of Engineering Change Order (ECO) attributes:

User-Defined ECO - in Sites Tab Under Items

Mapping:

Agile	EBM	SAP
Item.Site:List01	corecomEBO:RevisedItem/corecomEBO:BaseUOMCode	Primary UOM Code

Template:

createEngineeringChangeOrderLines_With_SiteData

• createEngineeringChangeOrderLines_With_OrgData

• createEngineeringChangeOrderLines_With_DefaultMasterOrgData

6.3 Customization in SAP

To customize a Mapping File:

1. Pickup the <flow>_Custom XSL file from the Requester, Provider, or EBS service where the <flow> is the process name, such as ECO_CHANGE_ORDER_TYPE.

   1. If only flex-field transformation is to be modified then the custom targets can be modified to include the new mappings.

      For example, ECO_CHANGE_ORDER_TYPE_Custom in Create ECO flow for the change order flex attributes

   2. It is not necessary to set the custom transformations property in this case as the targets are already included in the base transformation file.

2. If the entire mapping is to be modified then you can copy the base mappings into the custom target (such as Custom in Create ECO flow) in the custom file and modify the mappings as desired.

3. After modifying the file you must set the Custom Transformations property in the Oracle Application Integration Architecture (Oracle AIA) configurations file and update the configuration file from the Oracle Metadata Services (Oracle MDS) repository

4. Restart the server after performing the above three steps. The server must be restarted for the new transformations to load into the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

6.3.1 Templates in the Custom Files

• CreateEngineeringChangeOrderListEbmToAbm: The following templates are used in the custom transformation files to map the flex field attributes.

  • ECO_CHANGE_ORDER_TYPE_Custom

  • ECO_REVISED_ITEM_TYPE_ITEM_Custom

  • REFERENCE_DESIGNATOR_TBL_Custom

  • COMPONENT_ITEM_TBL_Custom

  • SUBSTITUTE_COMPONENT_TBL_ITEM_Custom

  • STRUCTURE_HEADER_Custom

    The Custom template is used for modifying the entire mapping.

• ItemEbmToAbm: The template CUSTOM_OBJ_TYPE_Custom is used to map the flex-field attributes. The template Custom is used to replace the entire mapping.

• UpdateItemListABMToEBM: The template ItemSpecificationGroup_Custom is used the map the flex-field to the specification group in the EBM. The UpdateItemListABMToEBMCustom template is used to replace the entire file.

Note: Since the templates are directly included inside the object, only the specific attributes being mapped must be put in the custom xsl and not the entire hierarchy.

6.3.2 Replacing the Entire Mapping

To replace the entire mapping:

Use this template, UpdateItemListABMToEBMCustomfor complete ABM to EBM transformation.

1. Change the Use Custom Transformation property in Oracle AIA Configurations file.

   File Path: $AIA_HOME/config/AIAConfigurationProperties.xml

   
   

   Note: This step is not required if the flex field mapping is done.

   
   

2. Reload the Oracle AIA Configurations file.

3. Restart the Server.

   
   

   Note: The Use Custom Transformation property is per integration flow and must be set accordingly.

   
   

6.4 User Exits

The Agile PLM Integration Pack for SAP: Design to Release integration provides user exits to allow custom transformations or filtration routines that you may want to add in the process without affecting the main integration flow. The user exit points for each process are listed in their respective chapters.

These are the user exit points for:

• Requester flows

• Provider flows

6.4.1 Requester Flows

User exits points for the Requester flow:

• Just prior to the execution of transformation of ABM to EBM

• Just prior to the invocation of Enterprise Business Service (EBS)

• Just prior to the execution of transformation of EBM to ABM

• Just prior to the invocation of callback service or response return

6.4.2 Provider Flows

User exits points for the Provider flow:

• Just prior to the execution of transformation of EBM to ABM

• Just prior to the invocation of Application Business Service (ABS)

• Just prior to the execution of transformation of ABM to EBM

• Just prior to the invocation of callback EBS or return of response message

6.4.3 Implementing User Exits

To implement user exits:

1. Identify which OOTB flow is to be extended.

2. Identify the suitable exit point in the flow.

3. Develop the flow.

4. Configure the OOTB flow to include the newly developed flow.

5. Test the developed flow.