Import of BMECat (XML) into SRM-MDM Catalog using MDM Import Manager

[Former Member]

Hi all,

has anybody succeeded in loading the "complex" XML format BMECat 1.2 into the SRM MDM Catalog repository? This format is a wide-spread german XML standard, but as MDM documentation basically shows "flat XML" structures without much logic, I wonder if there is some extension available to get the import logic into the MDM framework?

Regards, Andreas

[Former Member]

Hello,

I think you found a way to map that, but since the question is not answered, here is what I did to load prices from bme cat 1.2 xml files:

article_price_details_lower_bound --> Lower Bound Purchasing Info Record

second new field --> Purchasing Organization (since we don´t work with the organiszations in the catalog the value is NULL)

Then right click in the source heirarchy, Create Compound Field Price Information. I mapped that one to Price Information , .

That is working.

Concerning the MIMEs I did the following:

MIME_SOURCE --> URL Hyperlink (I converted them and added the URL where to find the pictures via apply operator --> prepend file://servername etc.

MIME_TYPE Clone --> Hyperlink and mapped the values to: image/jpg to Rendered, text/html and application/pdf to Link

MIME_TYPE --> MIME_TYPE URL Bezeichnung Hyperlink

I still have a problem with the pdf documents, because in the Catalog the links are not displayed (invalid URL). I created an OSS message for that. The images are displayed in the details view but not as images.

Do the links work in your system?

Best regards

Nicole

[Former Member]

Hi Nicole ( and fellow MDMers),

did you also managed to import text HTML files?

I received the files separately and loaded them in the Data Manager under a proper Data Group (similar to loading Images).

I also defined a Lookup Text HTML field in the Table Products.

However, I can't link the text HTML to the Products, since in the field <MIME Source> are the file Names and the Import Manager shows as destination the contents (Values) of the HTML text files I previously imported.

Thanx!

BR,

Mircea

Edited by: Mircea Precup on Mar 27, 2008 5:01 PM

Edited by: Mircea Precup on Mar 27, 2008 5:03 PM

[former_member188973]

Hello,

sounds like some of you managed to load BMECat into MDM. Could you maybe give me something like a cookbook or a docu how you did that? Maybe the Map? Did you load the file at once or splitted the file. How big are your files, what have the problems been etc.

I would be very glad about any input.

Best regards

Roman

[Former Member]

Hi Roman,

I managed to load several BMECAT Catalogues in MDM.

In order to be able to import the whole Data and not overload the Import Manager I used more than one map (Catalog Articles, Category, MIME etc.).

So, I didn't phisically split the import file, but "logically". It's not a really nice solution, but it works.

It works fine by ca. 5000 Articles pro Catalog. I don't have bigger files (yet).

Hope it helps you.

Best Regards,

Mircea

Edited by: Mircea Precup on May 19, 2008 6:27 PM

[Former Member]

Has anybody experience in getting the price and MIME models of BMECat 1.2 into MDM properly mapped? I tried a lot but did not succeed to get quantity pricing in or picking a single picture of type normal to be mapped to the single image field.

Anybody else out there trying to use MDM this way?

[Former Member]

Hi Andreas,

I havnt worked on the BMECat 1.2 but we had our data source in Excel. Even though we had problems with regards to the Pricing and the image mappings.

For pricing, it is a qualified table. It has 6-7 fields which either are with qualifiier yes or no. During the import we need to map the qualified fields in the qualified table Price with the data fields first then in the main table map the source data field again with the qualified as well as non qualified fields. Once this is done you can import the data.

Note: In import manager you will always see the fields in the qualified tables which havee QUALIFIER set to NO.

For images you need to import the images in the data manager first, follow the following steps.

1) go to the images table in Data Manager, in the records pane add all the images from source data.

2 Once it is done go to the import manager and you will find images in the destination field. Then map those images with the source and import it along with the other tables.

Please check if it helps you. As i told you we did it with excel as our data source.

[former_member544585]

Hi Andreas,

Price

In Data Manager, you need to add at least the following record to the Price table: Lower Bound = 1, Info Record (blank), POrg (blank).

In Import Manager, you need to map your source fields to at least the following three destination fields: Amount [Price Information], Currency [Price Information], Lower Bound [Price Information]. All three values must exist in your source, e.g. Amount 100, Currency USD, Lower Bound 1 (if the latter is blank in your source, you can actually populate the value 1 in the Converted Value column). After you've mapped the 3 fields, map the values of the Currency field in the value mapping section. Then you should be able to execute the command Create Compound Field > Price Information (right-click on the Source Hierarchy). If this command is greyed out, you have not met some of the pre-requisites I described above. Once you create this compound field, the system will automatically map it to the corresponding destination field. You will still have to manually map the values of this field to the destination values (that you entered before in Data Manager). After that you should be in business.

Pictures

There are two ways to show pictures in the SRM-MDM Catalog. One is to hyperlink to an existing image (e.g. on supplier's website). If this is your scenario, let me know and I can provide you with more details. The other way is to upload images directly into MDM server. For specific instructions, pls see my answer in this thread:

I am hoping my answers will help you even considering your source format.

Cheers,

Serguei

[Former Member]

Hi Prasad,

Hi Serguei,

thanks for your hints.

Basic prices (lower bound, currency, amount) and basic images (image name) are in. However, pricing and images are more complicated data structures in BMECat.

In particular, has any of you loaded quantity discounts such as

qtyamountCurrency

00110.00EUR

01009.00EUR

10007.50EUR

so that prices get better when you buy more.

What I managed so far is creating one entry in "price" table for each lower bound like

qtyInfoPurchase Org

0010001001

0100001001

100-000--1001

and after that I can map the price data in the product file to these price templates. However, the lower bound (qty) of the pricing changes to arbitrary lower bounds, so this solution works for 20 different quantity price lower bounds, but not for 200 which is what I have to expect when loading 500000 products from 20 different suppliers.

Do you know a way to add new price definitions / price templates on-the-fly when loading quantity prices?

Halloween Greetings, Andreas

[former_member544585]

Hi Andreas,

If your lower bounds vary significantly (e.g. can be any value from 1 to 1000), then you can simply create all possible combinations in the Price table by importing them from Import Manager. Create a load file in Excel with 3 columns (Lower Bound, POrg, InfoRec), populate the Lower Bound column with values (e.g. 1 to 1000), and populate the other two columns as necessary (or leave them blank). Then import this file via Import Manager into the Price table. Your master data will thus be complete and ready to accept any incoming Lower Bound values during the subsequent imports to the Catalog Items table.

In terms of getting multiple-tiered pricing (a price per lower bound) in each catalog item, it's very much possible, since the Price Information is a <b>multi-valued</b> qualified field. The question is how you can achieve this given your source format. Unfortunately, I have not tried XML imports (let alone BMECat, which is more popular in Europe), so I cannot advise. The only thing I'd suggest is that you dig into the Import Manager Reference Guide, understand all related concepts, and try out a few ideas. I'd be interested to hear what the solution might be when you find it. Worst case, you can convert to a different format (e.g. flat file) to import.

Cheers,

Serguei

[Former Member]

You can import BMECat using XML schema validation by adding the all-in-one schema xsd file you can download from www.bmecat.org. I commented out those sections checking for referencing integrity (too much memory consumption) as well as for unit enumerations (lookup list is configured with a separate value list anyway - who want's to have ALL ISO codes in his data!!?).

Error reporting when schema violation occurs is very poor, in particular all schema validations start with a namespace error, which in most cases is NOT the source of the porblem. See if you find a SaxError somewhere, which is the original Java/XML Parser error (saying error on Line x, Column y).

Note that for schema validation you need to remove the DOCTYPE dtd reference and add a proper xsd reference into the BMECAT element, such as

<BMECAT version="1.2" xmlns="http://www.bmecat.org/XMLSchema/1.2/bmecat_new_catalog" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.bmecat.org/XMLSchema/1.2/bmecat_new_catalog bmecat_new_catalog_1_2.xsd">

However, after reparing your errors in the import file, XML validation works pretty good and fast.

[former_member544585]

Hi Andreas,

I have not tried loading BMECat XML, but if you look at my answer in your other thread (Multi-Level Hierarchy Import in MDM), you can use the Create Hierarchy Field command in MDM Import Manager with an XML source. Hopefully, MDM will recognize your BMECat file as a valid source. For more info on this command, please refer to the SAP MDM 5.5 SP4/5 Import Manager Reference Guide.

Cheers,

Serguei

[Former Member]

Hi Serguei,

thanks for the feedback. Yes, create hierarchy field is useful and worked for getting in the BMECat element CATALOG GROUP STRUCTURE with at least Code, Name and Parent.

What needs to be considered though: BMECat requires the root CATALOG_STRUCTURE element to refer to PARENT_ID of value 0 (a constant value simply defined by the BMECat document), which results in a corresponding import error in MDM, as there is no node with code 0 in the file. So you have to edit the XML file and you have to leave the PARENT_ID element empty for the root node. After that, MDM import worked. Unfortunately, leaving the PARENT_ID blank violates the bmecat 1.2 xsd definition constraint, so to import it you have to select the plane XML import and you cannot use the XML schema import including the XML validation before import.

Seems the compatibility for BMECat 1.2 is not provided in too much detail here.