Creating a complete hierarchy table from Excel via Import Manager

[Former Member]

I would like to create the parent/child relationship of a hierarchy lookup table from an Excel spreadsheet via the MDM 5.5 Import Manager. I want to do this to avoid manually creating all the entries, which number about 2500 entires.

The hierarchy table will have a structure like this:

Product Group (name and 18 character code)

===>Category (name and 18 character code)

=======>Family (name and 18 character code)

===========>Platform (name and 18 character code)

================>Product Code (name and 18 character code)

The leaf nodes under Product Code is where products will finally be assigned.

There are about 8 Product Group nodes with about 4 - 6 nodes in each of Category, Family, Platform, and 20 - 40 nodes under Product Code.

I have limited success in importing and creating this structure so far. I can create a single nodes (Family) under the Category node, but I am not able to create all five levels at the same time. The mapping drops most of the code values once I'm two-levels deep.

I'm looking for the "magic" mix of correct Excel structure and correct Import Manager mapping to get this done.

Any help would be most apprecaited.

Regards,

Michael Jakeway

Whirlpool Corporation

[Former Member]

Your excel is ok and the trick is simple. You have to build in the import manager such hierarchy. Actually it's not building but organizing/grouping. Go to the partition/field value tab in the import manager after you select source and destination tables. Stay in the source hierarchy on the top field in the building hierarchy (Product Group in your case). Then in the bottom area choose (by double clicking or by Adding) from the list of Available fields one by one following layers of the tree:Category, Family, Platform, Product Code. They should all appear below Product Group in the 'Partitioned By' list. Don't combine them!

Now go to the next tab (Map Fields/Values). A new field appeared in the list of the Source fields - Product Group[Partition]. Look at its values below to be sure that the hierarchy is built as you wanted. If not come back and change the order of the fields. Now map it to the target field and then select all the values of this hierarchy and Add them 'Add branch as child'. You're almost done. The rest is simple and known:-)

[Former Member]

Roman,

Thank you for your response. I will work on it later today.

I also look forward to meeting you next month. I work for Jason Childers, whom I believe you have already chatted with regarding our work on ESA.

Regards,

Mike