Tips & Tricks - using Conversion Lists

Quite frequently, we read data from external systems where basic data is not consistent with legal values in IFS. In these cases, we can define a Conversion List that transforms loaded values before it is updated into IFS.

Contents

• Define Conversion Lists
• Use Conversion Lists

Define Conversion Lists

You find Conversions Lists under Solution Manager/Data Management/Data Migration/Data Migration Basic Data.

First enter the list header with ID and description and save before entering details. It is convenient to use describing names in ID, so that it is easy to identify (from a LOV) what this list does.

When you query values from a list, or when it is used, the list will always be sorted by Old_Value descending. This means that specific values will appear first, followed by wild-cards . First hit in this order will be used.
For all 3 examples above, following will happen

• All items with value BAC will be changed to 200
• All starting with B and ending with 20 will be changed to 220
• All starting with A or B will be changed to 250 or 100

Now, the rest is very important to notice :

1. All remaining values will be returned blank. This is very useful if this is a mandatory column, and your list should cover all possible combinations. Then you will get an error-message if you have missed out anything
2. All remaining values will get 300 as default. It may be wise to perform a 'SELECT DISTINCT' from the source to make sure you haven't missed anything. If you are selecting from table/view you may perform this statement

   SELECT DISTINCT <conv_column> old_value, 
          Intface_Conv_List_Cols_API.Get_New_Value('TRAIN_DEMO',<conv_column>) new_value
   FROM <source_table>

    This may be a 'heavy' select if there is a lot of data, but it will clearly show you what the result is going to be.
3. Other values than covered by this list, will be passed on unchanged.

Use Conversion Lists

Conversion Lists may be used by all jobs defined under navigator choice Migration Job. You have to connect the list to a given column as shown below. There is of course a LOV on the column.

If you want to see what jobs that have been connected to a Conversion Lists, you can query on all detail rows under Navigator choice Migration Job Details

Conversions Lists are automatically included in export files (when you execute FNDMIG_EXPORT).