Importing data into attributes

[Former Member]

Dear MDM Gurus,

How to assign the categories I have created to the Hierarchy.

How to import data into my attributes.

Can I do it before the category is attached to any Hierarchy.

Appreciate any help.

Thanks.

Hari

[Former Member]

Mark,

Thanks for the an excellent step by step guide to importing a taxonomy.

I have one question though. The last step to import or generate the links does not seem to work. I get an error saying that the attribute value is not found. I have mapped the source property to the destination attribute alias.

Any thoughts.

Regards,

Venkat.

[Former Member]

Hi Venkat

You <u>have</u> to map both the Node Name and Attribute Alias (so it knows which attribute and where in the taxonomy hierarchy the link must be created.)

When performing record matching, you <u>have</u> to select both the Node Name and Attribute Alias in the "Mapped destination fields" list then add them together. The "Matching fields" list must list "Attribute Alias; Node Name [Key] [All]" as a single item. The Default import actions list should find no matches, so set the action for Match Type "None" to create.

[Former Member]

Mark,

I did exactly as you have described and I received the same exact error. But, when I mapped the Property to the Attribute name instead of the Attribute Alias, it worked like a charm.

Is this because of the different versions of MDM. I am using SP04 5.5.33.13

[Former Member]

Venkat,

That's strange. I'm using the exact same version as you. I've just checked the documentation (the MDM 5.5 SP4 RKT on the ServiceMarketPlace) and it specifically says map the Alias, not the Name. I do not know why it would work for you.

[Former Member]

Mark,

That was a fantastic Step-by-step.

In my case I had created a category,attributes and did the linkages all manually.

When I tried mapping the source value for that attribute and execute the import it does not show up the value.

Kindly let me know how to upload data into already existing attributes.

I have a main table field as taxonomy lookup which points to a taxonomy table.

Greatly appreciate your inputs.

Thanks.

Hari

[Former Member]

To eloborate what I previuosly mentioned ...

In my main table I have 3 taxonomy lookup fields pointing to 3 different taxonomy tables.

One field is for the Data Hierarchy,

one is for Attributes - Mexico and the other for attributes - USA.

Some main table records would have both the attribute sets (Mex and USA) filled

and for some Only USA or ONLY Mexico.

The way I did it was as follows :

I went to Data Manager,in Taxonomy Mode opened the MEXICO attribute TAX table..created a node and created attributes to it manually (linkages).

Same for the USA attribute table.

Now I want to import attribute values into each main table record's attribute sets ( i.e. MEXICO and USA).

Any help is appreciated.Pls treat this as urgent.

Thanks.

Hari

[Former Member]

Hi Hari

To import text values into attributes, see the above step-by-step process.

To import (coupled) numeric values, you just map a source field to them them in the import manager. Attributes belonging to a taxonomy which is linked to your main table are listed as an "A" in the F/D/Q/A column of the Destination fields.

e.g. main table (Products) is linked to taxonomy table (Classification). The taxonomy table (Classification) has an attribute called "Length". When importing into your main table (Products), the "Length" attribute is included in the destination fields because of the taxonomy link.

HTH,

Mark

[Former Member]

Mark,

How can we change an attribute value and update it.What is the procedure.Is it any different.

Also in my case I created the attributes manually from the Data Manager.Now am trying to import text values into.

When I try to do so,it does not give me an option to ADD the text value in VALUE MAPPING.

I have posted one more question on the similar topic as a separate post.Kindly have a look.

Greatly appreciate your inputs.

Thanks.

Hari

[Former Member]

I thought there was a blog on importing taxonomies and attributes, but I can't find it on SDN.

<a href="https://www.sdn.sap.comhttp://www.sdn.sap.comhttp://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/d84c0afa-0301-0010-03a9-a0932528bae3">This</a> a NetWeaver How-to Guide for Handling Attributes during Data Transformation.

Briefly, the typical process is:

1. Import taxonomy hierarchy

2. Import taxonomy attributes

3. Import attribute text values

4. Import attribute links

A sample:

Create and save an Excel spreadsheet. Populate columns A,B,C and D with the following data:

ColumnA-

Category

Child1

Child1

Child1

Child2

Child2

Child2

Child1;SubChild1.1

Child1;SubChild1.2

Child1;SubChild1.2

Child1;SubChild1.2

Child2;SubChild2.1

Child2;SubChild2.1

Child2;SubChild2.1

Child2;SubChild2.2

Child2;SubChild2.2

ColumnB-

Property

Length

Width

Height

Colour

Colour

Colour

Volume

Material

Material

Material

UsageType

UsageType

UsageType

IsApproved

IsApproved

ColumnC-

Type

N

N

N

T

T

T

N

T

T

T

T

T

T

T

T

ColumnD- (include the empty lines - they're numeric attributes and as such need to be left empty)

Value

Red

Green

Blue

Plastic

Cardboard

Aluminium

Packaging

Sealing

Printing

Yes

No

<u>1. Import taxonomy hierarchy</u>

Create a taxonomy table in a repository (leave it with the one field - Name.) Using the Import Manager, connect to the repository using the spreadsheet as the source. Set your source table as Sheet1$ and your destination table as the new taxonomy table. In the <b>Source Hierarchy</b> window, split the Category column into a hierarchy (right click the column, choose Split into Hierarchy. I assume your delimiter is still the default semi-colon.) In the field mapping window, map this split column to the Name column. In the value mapping window, select "Child1" and "Child2", and add the branches as children on the taxonomy. Match the records on Name and set the import action to create. Execute the import. You've now got your hierarchical structure of your taxonomy in the repository. Confirm it with the Data Manager.

<u>2. Import taxonomy attributes</u>

In the Import Manager, change your destination table to "Attributes [TaxonomyTableName]". In the Field Mapping window, map the Property field to the attribute Name (leave the value mapping alone - they'll be added.) Map the Type field to the attribute Type (in the value mapping, map "N" to Numeric and "T" to text.) Match the records on Name and set the import action to create. Execute the import. You've now got your taxonomy attributes in the repository (but the text attribute have no values, and nothing is linked yet.)

As you can see, the hierarchical structure of the taxonomy was not used / linked in this step, so to answer your question : Yes, you can import the attributes before the importing the hierarchy.

<u>3. Import attribute text values</u>

In the Import Manager, change your destination table to "Text Values [TaxonomyTableName]". In the Field Mapping window, map the Property field to the Attribute Name. <b>Make sure that the Import Manager displays the just-imported attributes in the Destination values. If the destination values window is empty, restart the Import Manager and start again.</b> Map the Value field to the Text Value. Clone the Property source column and map the clone to the Alias (required in order to do linking.) Match the records on Attribute Name and set the import action to Update (All mapped fields). Execute the import. You've now got your text attribute values in your repository.

<u>4. Import attribute links</u>

In the Import Manager, change your destination table to "Attribute Links [TaxonomyTableName]". In the <b>Source Hierarchy</b> window, split the Category column into a hierarchy. In the field mapping window, map this split column to the Node Name column (automap the values.) Also map the Property field to the Attribute Alias. Select both the Node Name and Attribute Alias to match on. Set the import action to create. Execute the import (you'll probably get errors saying the attributes are already linked : this is <b>due to the sample source structure</b> repeating attributes - which I did to get the sample into an easily understandable format.) Check the results with the Data Manager.