Sources of Business-Object Information

To load a business object or component successfully using HCM Data Loader, you must understand its structure, supported key systems, data formats, and required attributes. You must also understand any business rules that apply to the object.

This topic identifies where you can find this information.

Business-Object Details

The View Business Objects table lists all business object available for bulk-loading. From here you can:

• Download business object template files.

• Download the complete definition of an object for offline use.

• Identify which objects support being rolled back.

• Review the object hierarchy and supported attributes for an object.

You're recommended to refresh all objects after an update. The refresh ensures that any changes from the update appear on the View Business Objects page and in object templates. If no details exist for a selected object when you view it, then you're prompted to refresh the object.

You can refresh business objects using the Refresh Object icon and the Refresh All Objects button. When you refresh an object:

• Attribute and flexfield information for the selected business objects is updated.

• Up-to-date templates of METADATA lines are generated for the selected business objects.

• The Overview spreadsheet can be downloaded for the selected business object.

  1. Click the icon in the Overview column to download the complete definition of an object for offline use. The default file name of the downloaded spreadsheet is GenericBusObjDetails.xlsx, but you can change the name when you save the file.

  Note: Whenever you open a downloaded spreadsheet, you're invited to sign in again. If you sign in, then the spreadsheet is updated automatically with latest information as you select each tab. These updates overwrite any changes that you may have made to the spreadsheet. If you prefer to keep your changes, then don't sign in.

When you click the name of a business object on the View Business Objects page, you access information about the object. This information includes:

• The component hierarchy of the object.

• Component details for the currently selected component. These include:

  • Its parent component, file discriminator, .dat file, and translation object

  • Whether it supports integration keys

  • Its supported actions, for example, whether you can delete the component

  • Whether it's date effective and, if so, whether you can change the component's first start date and last end date

• Attribute details for each attribute of the currently selected component. These include:

  • Its name, type, and length

  • A translated label and description

  • Whether it's required always or for new objects only

  • Whether it's a key value or can be used as a key value and, if so, the key type

  • For attributes that are keys of type surrogate ID, parent surrogate ID, or foreign-object reference, whether integration keys are also supported

  • The names of any user-key attributes that you can use in place of surrogate IDs

  • Names of lookup types, for attributes that are lookup-validated

• Flexfield attribute details for each of the configured and deployed flexfield segments. These include:
  • The attribute name, flexfield segment label and description
  • The data type, length, and required status
  • The value set used to validate the flexfield segment
• Note:

  • Two attributes are supplied for flexfield segments, which are validated by a value set. The attribute that includes _Display in the name accepts the meaning, and the other attribute accepts the ID.
  • Some components restrict the flexfield contexts you can bulk-load using HCM Data Loader. Hence, you may not see a flexfield context you created.

• On the View Business Objects page you will now see a red alert icon against object hierarchies that are being withdrawn and a yellow warning icon against object hierarchies that include components that are being withdrawn. You can also see icons against components in the business object hierarchy that are always or conditionally required when creating new records.

If you can load flexfields for the component, then the Flexfield Attributes tab appears. For descriptive flexfields and extensible flexfields, you can see the attributes for a selected flexfield and context. For extensible flexfields, category also appears. When a flexfield context supports multirow entries, one or more flexfield attributes are identified as user keys to reference a single record uniquely. These attributes are identified in the User Key column on the Flexfield Attributes tab. This column doesn't appear if the flexfield doesn't support multirow entries.

You can refresh business objects using the Refresh Object icon and the Refresh All Objects button. When you refresh an object:

• Attribute and flexfield information for the selected business objects is updated.

• Up-to-date templates of METADATA lines are generated for the selected business objects.

Business Rules

Business rules for many objects are included in the Integrating with Oracle HCM Cloud guide. For objects that aren't described in the Integrating with Oracle HCM Cloud guide, see HCM Data Loader: Business Object Documentation (2020600.1) on My Oracle Support at https://support.oracle.com.

Example .dat files for many business objects are also available on Cloud Customer Connect. Select Navigator > Others > Cloud Customer Connect. After signing in, select the HCM Cloud Integrations forum on the Human Capital Management page.

Other documents on My Oracle Support provide information about business objects for specific localizations. Many are linked from the document All White Papers for Oracle Fusion HCM (1504483.1). For example:

• Oracle Fusion HCM: HCM Address Validation (2140848.1)

• Oracle Fusion HCM: Person Name Validation (2146270.1)

• Validating National Identifiers in Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management (2159758.1)

Here's a tutorial on using the View Business Objects task which is the data dictionary for all supported business objects: View Business Object task