1. Integration Playbooks for SCM
  2. Item Import for File-Based Data Import (FBDI) and Smart Spreadsheet

Item Import for File-Based Data Import (FBDI) and Smart Spreadsheet

Use this import option to import items and related entities, such as structures, packs, category assignments, and trading partner item references, from multiple product source systems.

While FBDI is a set of predefined, unchangeable template for importing your business objects, the smart spreadsheet is a user-defined, flexible mapping between the input data file and the business objects.

The input item data file can be in comma-separated values (CSV) or XML format. For a complete list of business objects and item-related business objects that can be imported, see Overview of Manage Imports in the Using Product Master Data Management guide. For more objects, such as Change Orders, see Import Agile PLM Data.

Key Features

  • Import large volumes of data from secure content management servers. For example, Oracle WebCenter Content/Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM) provide controlled access to external systems.
  • Asynchronous automated integration between systems.
  • Import data from a collection of input data files and attachments using a manifest file.
  • It can be used to build an orchestrated integration process with Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC) and business events.

Best Practices

Common for all use cases, including low-volume data import:

  • Assign the profile options choices that best suit your business requirements. For more information see the Set the Profile Options table in the Best Practices for Item Import Performance section.
  • For the use case for importing items:
    • Complete the upload items and their master organizations records first. Then upload the child organization records.
    • Upload attachments only after the relevant item-organization records have been uploaded.
    • For more strategies you can use to achieve the best performance, see Best Practices for Item Import Performance.
  • For the use case to import item structures:
    • For structure import, first import the items and revisions that are going to be part of the structure, including substitute parts.
    • In the case to create common structures, associate the items to the child organizations first and then create the common structures.
    • The component, reference designator, and substitute parts must be imported in the same batch. In case you've already imported the components, you must have the component details in the input file while importing reference designators and substitutes parts.
    • For more strategies you can use to achieve performance, see Import Item Structures.
  • For the use case to import change orders:
    • Before you import change-order data, you first must import this data:
      • Items and attributes
      • Item revisions
      • Manufacturer parts
      • Item attachments
      • Item structures
    • For more information, see Import Changes.
    • For more strategies you can use to achieve performance, see Best Practices for Item Import Performance.

For very large volumes of data import (usually at cut-over):

For medium-to-large volumes of data import (usually at cut-over):

Constraints

Don't run multiple item batches in parallel except for low data volume. This can be done by setting the Process Sequentially spoke system option to Yes. The item import process already contains logic to process the workload in parallel. You gain no advantage by submitting parallel batches and might cause record-locking issues. However, Process Sequentially should be set to No only when the number of records in the batches is low (in the hundreds) and when there are no large batches being imported during the same time period.

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