Vendor Data Onboarding

Sample Scenario

Consider that you wish to import the Item record with Part Terminology Number "PRV_VD_31122022_12" with respective Digital assets, and Price sheet details. The Item records with Part Terminology Number and the related attributes information are defined in the Item section of the PIES XML file, and the related assets information are defined in the DigitalAssets section of the PIES XML file. The Price sheet information are defined in the PriceSheets section.

Once the PIES XML file is uploaded via UI, the launcher job is triggered and the system initiates the batch processing. The Vendor Item or Part records, its related assets, and Price sheets are imported with the related attribute details.

A sample PIES XSD file is attached here:

PIES_8_0_SampleFile.xml

How to Upload PIES XML File

On preparing the PIES XML file, login to the system to begin with the submission process.

1. On the navigation menu, click Quick Actions > Upload PIES XML file.

Result: The PIES Upload page is displayed.

2. Use any of the below two options to upload the file:
   • Click Upload File or drag and drop the file.
   • Enter the URL path of the PIES XML file in the Give a file link here section. You can upload the XML file from Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive by copying its URL and pasting it into the textbox. Then, click Retrieve File to complete the process.

Result: The "File(s) uploaded and under processing. You can review the progress of the <task ID> in task details" notification is displayed.

3. You can perform any of the following:

   • Click Finish & Close to go to the Home page.
   • Click Show task details to view the Task Detail page with its key components. You can view the summary and the task filters, processing details, and sub-details of the task. You can also view and search the entities that were part of the batch task.

4. Click Refresh to load the Task Detail page with the Task status as Completed.

Result: The Task Detail page of the respective XML file is displayed with the File Size, Total Records, and other details as depicted in the below image.

View Task Detail Page

You can use either one of the task options from the Type drop-down list in the Task Status window of the Home page to view the PIES bulk import task details:

• Automotive PIES Bulk Import: Displays exclusive PIES bulk file import task details.
• Automotive Data Bulk Import: Displays import task details based on the type of file imported, either ACES or PIES.

To view the Task Detail page for the Automotive PIES Bulk Import task type:

1. Click Task Status icon on the *header.
2. Click Automotive PIES Bulk Import option from the Type drop-down list.

3. Click View Details link of the required file.

Result: The Automotive PIES Bulk Import task details page is displayed.

To view the details of the created entities:

1. Click Related Tasks tab
2. Click the hyperlink of Vendor Item entity.

Result: In Summary tab, you can view the Processing Details and Sub- details of the uploaded file, which indicates that the file is processed successfully and the entities are created in the application.

3. Click Success Details tab to view the details of the created entities.

Result: The Success Detail tab is displayed with the onboarded Vendor Item entity.

Similarly, you can click on Pricesheet Entity Data Imports to view the imported Pricesheet details.

4. Click on the respective Vendor Item of the onboarded entities to navigate to the Entity Manage page of the respective Vendor Item.

Result: The Entity Manage page of the respective Vendor Item entity is displayed.

Downloads

In the Task Detail page of the Automotive Data Bulk Import task, you can view the Downloads tab which allows you to download the uploaded XML files.

The following are the details provided in the Downloads tab:

• Input File: This property provides the link to download the uploaded XML file.
  • If the XML file was uploaded via URL, the Click here link is displayed. On click, it redirects to the application (Dropbox, Google Drive, or One Drive) from where the URL was fetched. Upon download, the xml file will be saved to your local drive.
    
  • If the XML file was uploaded via local drive, the downloadable file name is displayed. On click will download the XML file and gets saved to your local drive.
    
• Upload Report: This property provides the link to download the uploaded XML file in .zip format and save into your local drive.
  

Task Status Types

The system supports following Task Status types:

• Completed: All data in the file is processed with no validation errors found in the file or file data.
• Completed with Errors: All data in the file is processed with some data not persisted due to validation errors (Example: Overmap, Overlap, and Missing Part Numbers).
• Errored: Identified issues in file or system while processing the file. They are further categorized to sub statuses:
  • File Error: There are issues in the file due to which the file could not be processed by the system. No data from the file was persisted. Example: All XSD Validation errors are listed as part of File Errors. The error message displayed is "Upload Errored with Substatus: File Error".
  • System Error: File processing could not be completed due to the systm issue. Example: Any system error occured, it displays the "Upload Errored with SubStatus: System Error".
• Processing: Indicates the file is currently inprocessing stage.
• Queued: Indicates the file is curretly in the queued stage.

Governance of Mandatory PAdb Attributes

This topic describes the feature on enforcement of certain PAdb attributes as mandatory attributes.

To ensure successful completion of the PIES XML file import into the application, you must include the mandatory PAdb attribute values in the XML file. For more information on importing the PIES XML file, refer Uploading PIES Data.

You can view the list of mandatory attributes from the Reference Data Library page on the User Interface (UI).

Consider a part with the Part Terminology ID – 21579. The mandatory PAdb attributes for that part, as depicted in the following figure are: padb2002, padb4026, and padb9456.

Validating PADb attributes on PIES XML File Import
If any mandatory PAdb attributes values are missing during the PIES XML file import, then the UI displays a validation error message indicating the missing attributes.

Scenario: Consider a scenario where a Part with Part Terminology ID – 21579 has three mandatory PAdb attributes - padb2002, padb4026, and padb9456.

• The value of only one mandatory PAdb attribute padb9456 is given in the PIES XML file, and that file is imported into the application. The following sample XML segment shows the addition of one of the mandatory attribute values:

<Item MaintenanceType="A">
      <HazardousMaterialCode>N</HazardousMaterialCode>
      <ItemLevelGTIN GTINQualifier="UP">00889245329035</ItemLevelGTIN>
      <PartNumber>Vendor_21579_2901</PartNumber>
      <BrandAAIAID>BKLB</BrandAAIAID>
      <BrandLabel>Dorman - TECHoice</BrandLabel>
      <ACESApplications>Y</ACESApplications>
      <ItemQuantitySize UOM="PC">1.00</ItemQuantitySize>
      <ContainerType>BX</ContainerType>
      <UNSPSC>26111805</UNSPSC>
      <PartTerminologyID>21579</PartTerminologyID>
      <VMRSCode>045008158</VMRSCode>
      <ProductAttributes>
<ProductAttribute RecordNumber="23" PADBAttribute="Y" AttributeID="9456" MaintenanceType="A">test</ProductAttribute>
    </Item>

• Once the file is imported, the validation error for the missing PAdb mandatory attributes is displayed in the Summary tab of the vendor item Entity Manage page.

To fix the validation error:

1. Click on the Validate Mandatory PAdb Attributes link.

Result: The missing mandatory PAdb attributes are displayed.

2. Provide the PAdb attribute values and Click Save.

Result: The attribute values are saved.

3. Click Summary tab.

Result: The validation error related to mandatory PAdb attributes is fixed.

Invalid Digital Assets Report

On successfully importing the data, you can view the reports by clicking Download Report icon in the Task Detail page to locate and identify the errors.

If the Digital assets are imported without the file type or file extension, then the system imports the XML file. You can view the details of the invalid entities in the Invalid Digital Assets Report.

The PIES Report is downloaded in the zip file format, which shows the details of the invalid asset details as depicted in the below screenshot:

Invalid EXPI Codes Report

During XML import, if the EXPI codes that are specified in the XML file do not exist in the "PIESExpiCode" table of the PCAdb database, then the system imports the XML data and rejects the invalid EXPI codes that are specified in the imported XML file. On successfully importing the data, you can view the invalid EXPI codes report by clicking the Download Report icon in the Task Detail page to locate and identify the errors.

The PIES report is downloaded in the zip file format, which includes InvalidEXpiCodes.csv file. You can view the details of the invalid EXPI codes in the InvalidEXpiCodes.csv as depicted in the below screenshot:

Populate Dynamic and Nested Attributes

The system internally matches the dynamic attributes of Item entity such as packaging attributes including the respective pricing attributes, and the digital assets defined in the PIES XML file gets automatically mapped to the application and populated in the UI.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<PIES
	xmlns="http://www.autocare.org">
    <Header>
    <Items>
        <Item>
        ...
              <Package MaintenanceType="A">
                    <PackageLevelGTIN>00052948902168</PackageLevelGTIN>
                    <ElectronicProductCode>4A.356E414.M351C7.KD331A467</ElectronicProductCode>
                    <PackageBarCodeCharacters>123455559012</PackageBarCodeCharacters>
                    <PackageUOM>EA</PackageUOM>
                    <QuantityofEaches>2</QuantityofEaches>
                    <InnerQuantity InnerQuantityUOM="EA">2</InnerQuantity>
                    <Orderable>Y</Orderable>
                    <Dimensions UOM="IN">...</Dimensions>
                </Package>
            </Packages>
            <Prices>-----> Nested Attributes
                <Pricing MaintenanceType="A" PriceType="AC1">
                    <PriceSheetNumber>2007WD</PriceSheetNumber>
                    <CurrencyCode>CNY</CurrencyCode>
                    <EffectiveDate>2020-09-01</EffectiveDate>
                    <ExpirationDate>2020-09-01</ExpirationDate>
                    <Price UOM="PE">354.99</Price>
                    <PriceTypeDescription>ASDSS</PriceTypeDescription>
                    <PriceMultiplier>0.6000</PriceMultiplier>
                </Pricing>
            </Prices>
        </Item>
    </Items>

Populate User-defined or Custom attributes

Vendors can import the user-defined attributes which are not part of PAdb database by specifying PADBAttribute="N". the system imports the user-defined attributes of Item entity, and entity attributes gets automatically mapped to the application and populated in the UI. For more information, see PIES XML File Segments.

<Items> 
     <Item MaintenanceType="A"> 
     … 
     <PartNumber>1234</PartNumber> 
     … 
     <ProductAttributes> 
        <ProductAttribute MaintenanceType="A" AttributeID="Fits" PADBAttribute="N">DAHL 100 Series Fuel Filter/Water Separator Units</ProductAttribute> ---> User-defined or Custom attribute
        <ProductAttribute MaintenanceType="A" AttributeID="Length" PADBAttribute="N">2</ProductAttribute> 
        <ProductAttribute MaintenanceType="A" AttributeID="Height" PADBAttribute="N">12</ProductAttribute> 
</ProductAttributes> 

PIES Data Backup

The application allows you to take a backup of PIES entities such as Marketcopy, Price Sheet, Part Interchange, Vendor Items, and Digital Assets and store them in a specific blob storage container to maintain sync with our Data application.

• PIES Entities Backup: A batch job is triggered to fetch all the existing PIES entities, which are in production from the respective blob storage production container (For example, "autoappqa-entity" is a production container for existing PIES entities). The retrieved entities are then processed and the respective Master IDs are generated for each entity. The processed entities are stored as a backup in the "autoapp-pies-data" Azure blob storage container.
  The backup data is stored in .zip format (For example, Marketcopy.zip), which includes "blob.json" file. You can download any backup data to view the details such as "matchConfigKey", "entityid", and "MasterId" of the respective entities. If the backup data does not contain these details, then it is considered as corrupted data.
  

• Vendor Items Backup : For Vendor Items, the backup data is segregated based on Vendor Ownership ID and Brand. The name format of any Vendor Item backup includes the respective Vendor Ownership ID and Brand name. For example, The backup of Vendor Item with Vendor Ownership ID, 130376-USA and Brand, GJVK is stored in the format of "130376-USA_GJVK.zip". The backup data is not segregated for other PIES entities such as Marketcopy, Price Sheet, and Part Interchange (For example, the backup of Marketcopy is stored as MarketCopy.zip).

• Digital Assets Backup: A batch job is triggered to fetch all the existing Digital Assets, which are in production from the respective blob storage production container (For example, "autoappqa-entity" is a production container for existing PIES entities). The retrieved entities are then processed and the respective Master IDs (Vendor Ownership ID and File Name Combination) and Entity IDs are generated for each entity. The processed Digital Asset entities are stored as a backup in the "autoappDigitalFileInformation" Azure blob storage container.
  To maintain the backup data, only one process can access the backup data at any given point of time so that no other process can overwrite the data. This is done by implementing the leasing mechanism on the backup blobs. Once the current process is done, then the lease will be released on the respective blob so that the next process can access the backup data.

PIES Data Backup via Event Monitor Job

When the entities are created via UI or from any other external sources, an event monitor job is triggered to fetch all those entities from the respective blob storage container. The processed entities are stored as a backup in the "autoapp-pies-data" blob storage container.

Backup of Vendor Items Mapped to SKU attributes

Our application allows you take a backup of Vendor Items, which are mapped to the respective Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) attributes. A batch job is triggered to fetch all the Vendor Items, which are mapped to SKU. The retrieved Vendor Items are the combination of Vendor ownership ID, BrandAAID, and Part Number attributes. These Vendor Items are stored as a backup in the "autoappAcesVendorMapping" storage table of the respective Azure blob storage container.

The name format of the Vendor Item backup includes the respective Vendor Ownership ID, Brand AAIAID, and Part Number attribute values. For example, the backup of Vendor Item with "130376-USA" Vendor Ownership ID, "GJVK" Brand, and "34" Part Number is stored in the format of "130376-USA_GJVK_34". The file name of the backup will be used as a lookup value to get the SKU.

When a new Vendor Item is linked to the SKU or if the SKU value is updated to an existing Vendor Item in the system, an event monitor job is triggered to fetch all those Vendor Items. The retrieved Vendor Items will be updated in the "autoappAcesVendorMapping" storage table.

Walkthrough

In this walkthrough video, you will find the steps on how to onboard PIES XML data.