1. Implementation Guide
  2. Extensibility
  3. Input Data Extensibility
  4. Additional Source for Product Attributes

Additional Source for Product Attributes

If you are integrating product attribute data from RMFCS, then you may encounter scenarios where not all product attributes are available in that system and you need to load them separately for Planning purposes only. You have the option to load additional product attributes directly to RAP on the existing foundation interface files for ATTR.csv and PROD_ATTR.csv, and this data will be merged with the RMFCS foundation data. This is handled using special jobs in the AIF DATA batch schedule listed below:

  • SI_W_RTL_PRODUCT_ATTR_DS_MERGE_JOB

  • SI_W_RTL_ITEM_GRP1_DS_MERGE_JOB

  • SI_W_DOMAIN_MEMBER_DS_TL_MERGE_JOB

These jobs should not be enabled in POM unless you are planning to load data from an additional source, because they will conflict with the normal version of these interfaces (which follows a truncate and load process instead of a merge). When the MERGE jobs are turned on, it is assumed that all other SI_* type jobs (like SI_W_RTL_ITEM_GRP1_DS_JOB) are already disabled, because the core foundation dataset is coming directly from RMFCS and not from flat files. The only exception is that you will also need to keep the COPY/STG jobs enabled for the files you are sending in:

  • COPY_SI_ATTR_JOB / STG_SI_ATTR_JOB

  • COPY_SI_PROD_ATTR_JOB / STG_SI_PROD_ATTR_JOB

The merge functionality is limited to two types of attributes: ITEMUDA and ITEMLIST. New attributes going to AIF or Planning must be of type ITEMUDA and it is the implementer’s responsibility to ensure the attributes being added from the secondary source do not conflict with the data coming from RMFCS. The UDA attributes will be combined in the same table in RAP and downstream applications like AIF and MFP will have no knowledge of which source provided the data. ITEMLIST data from secondary sources is meant specifically for the LPO application in AIF when you are leveraging product groups in that application and do not want to use RMFCS item lists for that purpose.