getting null records in tuple

[Former Member]

Hi,

We have multiple tuples in a main table. However when I am trying to get the data from ECC into MDM using MDIS, records are getting created in the tuple even if that particular segment is vacant in the idoc. So tuple shows a record having null value in it. And it i happening with all the segment which are coming as blank from the Idoc.

Can anyone tell me is there any setting/configuration change I need to do in order to avoid creation of null records?

Regards,

Indraveer

[Former Member]

Dear Indraveer,

Can you let us know what is the version you are using? As i remember the earlier versions like 7.1 sp01, this problem exists. The latest versions has Tuple update option which will handle this scenario.

Regards,

Pramod

[Former Member]

Hi,

I've tested this in MDM 7.1 SP04 Patch 05 and there the missing segments are no longer treated as NULL value!

This should now prevent getting a null record in the tuple, but it is causing new problem as well (see also my other thread on this: )

Regards,

Marcel

[Former Member]

Hi Andraveer,

I'm running into same issue when importing customer data from ECC.

By the way, it is a known issue also recognized by SAP.

E.g. look into Business Content document where following is stated under the known Issues and Limitations:

In some special cases MDM Import Manager or MDIS might create empty tuples while importing data.

The reason is the handling of missing versus empty message elements.

The issue occurs only if a record does not have the segment at all (for example a Customer without

phone numbers). In this case SAP ERP excludes the complete segment from the message.

Nevertheless MDM Import Manager and MDIS currently handle these missing elements in the same

way as empty ones.

The issue is already under investigation and should be fixed within the next releases. The current

workaround is either changing the Import Map before import or a manual deletion of the

empty tuples after import.

Of course you can ignore the NULLS, but be aware that ignoring NULLS can cause problems when entries are deleted from ECC and does not exist anymore in the IDOC/import file. In this case MDM should be aware of this deletion too and must be able to process these NULLS (since MDM must also remove the deleted entries from the tuple). So ignoring the nulls will not help you out here, because then the existing tuple records in MDM will still remain.

In my case I had to preserve the nulls and overwrite existing values with the nulls. By setting the Tuple Update matching fields to None, New records to Create and Existing records to Replace, I'm now able to import all tuple records from ECC whether or not the source records segment exist or not exist. Of course this option only works when you always receive the most actual complete set of tuple records (this can also be empty/non-existing segment), and can replace the existing tuple records in MDM completely with the newly received source tuple records!

Also in my case, the issue of empty tuple record still remains when no tuple data is received, since it preserves the NULL and now always creates one tuple record with NULL values. But at least all other creations, updates and deletions are now working fine. I'm looking forward for next release for this issue to be solved by SAP.....

I have tested above in version MDM 7.1 SP03 Patch 22.

Regards,

Marcel Herber

Edited by: P.H.M. Herber on Apr 27, 2010 3:53 PM

[Former Member]

Indraveer,

Go to Import Manager --> Right Click on Tuple --> Set Tuple Update --> And remove all fields from matching criteria for which you dont want to import data. Give default import action as Skip.

I hope, Your problem will be resolved.

BR,

Alok Sharma

[michael_theis]

Hi Indraveer,

this relates to the NULL handling of Import Manager respectively MDIS. With the current MDM release, missing segments or fields are treated as NULL values. This will hopefully improve in MDM 7.3.

Open the import map in Import Manager. First check the Configuration Options of the map (see top menu entry). Check the settings for NULL handling, e.g. there are options to ignore or preserve NULL values. Note that the map options define settings globally for all fields of the maps! If you want to check the settings for the tuples only, you have to navigate to the field mapping. In the destination fields pane, you can right click on a tuple member field. In the context menu you can define the NULL handling for each field independently.

Best regards

Michael