Oracle Fusion GUIDs and Surrogate IDs

Oracle Fusion Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) and surrogate IDs are two of the four types of keys that HCM Data Loader supports. This topic describes when you can use GUIDs and surrogate IDs to identify business objects uniquely.

Oracle Fusion GUIDs

When you create an integration-enabled business object in Oracle HCM Cloud, a GUID is generated for the object automatically. As the GUID is generated when you create the business object, it's suitable only for identifying business objects that already exist. You can't supply a GUID when creating a business object. The GUID, a hexadecimal value, isn't held on the created object but exists in the Integration Key Map table.

GUIDs are useful when you share changes with down-stream applications, such as third-party payroll providers. You extract the changes for the third-party payroll and provide the GUID as the unique key to the worker. When reporting any updates back to Oracle HCM Cloud, you can use GUIDs to identify the records to update.

Oracle Fusion Surrogate IDs

The surrogate ID, a numeric value, is the internal system identifier that's generated when you create a business object. All objects, including those that aren't integration-enabled, have surrogate IDs. The surrogate ID is held on the object. The ID is also used in the Integration Key Map table to provide a mapping for GUID and source-key values. As the surrogate ID isn't generated until the object is created, you can't use this value when creating objects. Access to surrogate IDs may also be limited. On-premises customers are more likely to have access to surrogate IDs than Oracle HCM Cloud customers.