How You Load Data for Extensible Flexfields

This topic describes how to construct METADATA and MERGE lines in a data file to supply extensible flexfield data.

Category Code

Extensible flexfields have both a flexfield code and a category code. The category code is provided automatically in generated template files and has the attribute name EFF_CATEGORY_CODE.

Constructing the METADATA Line

Unlike descriptive flexfields, extensible flexfields aren't an extension of a business-object component. Rather, they're separate components in the business object hierarchy. To supply data for an extensible flexfield, you simply include the METADATA line for the extensible flexfield component in the data file. Remove the names of any attributes for which you aren't supplying data.

This example shows a METADATA line for the JobLegislative extensible flexfield.

METADATA|JobLegislative|EFF_CATEGORY_CODE|FLEX:PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF|JobId(SourceSystemId)|JobCode|SetCode|EffectiveStartDate|EffectiveEndDate|SourceSystemOwner|SourceSystemId|LegislationCode|_EEO1_CATEGORY(PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF=HRX_US_JOBS)|_FLSA_STATUS(PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF=HRX_US_JOBS)|_INSEE_PCS_CODE(PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF=FR)|_ECAP_JOB(PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF=FR)|_LINE_OF_PROGRESSION(PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF=HRX_US_JOBS)

Constructing the MERGE Lines

Each MERGE line for an extensible flexfield record can have only one context. In the METADATA line, you specify the context value against the flexfield code for the extensible flexfield.

This example shows a METADATA line and two MERGE lines for the JobLegislative extensible flexfield:

METADATA|JobLegislative|EFF_CATEGORY_CODE|FLEX:PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF|JobId(SourceSystemId)|JobCode|SetCode|EffectiveStartDate|EffectiveEndDate|SourceSystemOwner|SourceSystemId|LegislationCode|_EEO1_CATEGORY(PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF=HRX_US_JOBS)|_FLSA_STATUS(PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF=HRX_US_JOBS)|_INSEE_PCS_CODE(PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF=FR)|_ECAP_JOB(PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF=FR)|_LINE_OF_PROGRESSION(PER_JOBS_LEG_EFF=HRX_US_JOBS)
MERGE|JobLegislative|JOB_LEG|HRX_US_JOBS|OCT18EFF1|OCT18EFF1|COMMON|1990/01/01|4712/12
MERGE|JobLegislative|JOB_LEG|FR|OCT18EFF1|OCT18EFF1|COMMON|1990/01/01|4712/12/31|VISION|OCT18EFF1_LEG2|FR|||387b|N|

Note: Unlike other components of the business-object hierarchy, extensible flexfields can't be supplied in isolation. They must be accompanied by a parent record.

Multirow Extensible Flexfield Contexts

You can configure an extensible flexfield context with multiple rows. In this case, you configure one or more of the flexfield segments as the key that uniquely identifies a single row of the multirow context. HCM Data Loader treats these flexfield segments as user-key attributes. Therefore, you can uniquely identify a single flexfield record using user keys.

You must supply a value for the user-key flexfield-segment attributes when creating an extensible flexfield record. When updating a multirow extensible-flexfield record, you must supply either the source key or the complete user key, including the flexfield segments defined as the unique key. You can identify which flexfield segments form the unique key by reviewing the flexfield-segment configuration on the Manage Extensible Flexfields page. All flexfield segments for which Unique Key is selected are user-key attributes.