Merge Process Parameters in IFB

These are the parameters which are only applicable to EIM Merge process and are written with in the Process section in an IFB file used for merge process. They are :-

SET BASED LOGGING

• This parameter specifies whether to enable the set based logging.
• When enabled, a separate log entry will be generated for all the rows in each table that were processed by EIM. This allows greater performance.
• When disabled, each and every row processed by EIM will have an entry in the transaction table.
• Valid values are TRUE or FALSE.
• Default value is TRUE.
• Example: SET BASED LOGGING = TRUE

Delete Process Parameters in IFB

These are the parameters which are only applicable to EIM Delete process and are written with in the Process section in an IFB file used for delete process. They are :-

CASCADE DELETE ONLY

• Optional parameter that tells whether to delete the child records when a parent record is deleted.
• Valid values are TRUE or FALSE.
• Default value is FALSE.
• If set to FALSE, EIM deletes the parent record and sets the foreign key column in the child records to NULL.
• Example: CASCADE DELETE ONLY = TRUE

Export Process Parameters in IFB

These are the parameters which are only applicable to EIM Export process and are written with in the Process section in an IFB file used for export process. They are :-

ATTACHMENT DIRECTORY

• Optional parameter that specifies the directory path to where the attachments have to be exported.
• This directory path should exist on one of the Siebel server machine.
• In case of remote machine, map the path to a drive and specify the drive name to this parameter.
• Default value is <SIEBEL_HOME>\OUTPUT
• Example: ATTACHMENT DIRECTORY = X:, Where X: is mapped to \\CRMDEV02\siebsrvr\OUTPUT

Import Process Parameters in IFB

These are the parameters which are only applicable to EIM Import process and are written with in the Process section in an IFB file used for import process. They are :-

COMMIT OPERATIONS

• Optional parameter that specifies the commit frequency while logging the transactions.
• Value specifies the number of records processed before a commit is done.
• Applicable only if DOCKING: TRANSACTION LOGGING is set in System Preferences.
• Default value is 0, which means commit has to be made at the end of EIM process.
• Example: COMMIT OPERATIONS = 100

General Process Parameters in IFB

These are the parameters which are common to all the EIM process (Import,Export,Delete,Merge) and are written with in the Process section in an IFB file. They are :-

BATCH

• Required field that specifies the batch number, which is used to identify the set of records that should be considered for this EIM process.
• This batch number corresponds to the number specified in the IF_ROW_BATCH_NUM column of the EIM table.
• Valid values are 0 to 2147483647 (2³¹ – 1).
• Batch numbers can be specified in ranges or as a comma delimited format.
• Example: BATCH = 100 – 110, BATCH = 100, 103, 120.
• If batch number is specified wrongly in IFB file, the EIM throws an error stating, no records found for the stated batch number.

General Header Parameters in IFB

These are the global parameters which are used in an IFB file and are written with in the Header section in an IFB file. They are :-

CONNECT

• Specifies the ODBC source name of the database to be used

LOG TRANSACTIONS TO FILE

• This parameter specifies whether the transactions to be logged to a file or docking transaction table.
• Valid values are TRUE or FALSE.
• If set to TRUE, the transaction details are logged into the directory <SIEBEL_FILE_SYSTEM>EIM.
• If set to FALSE, the transaction details are logged into the S_DOCK_TXN_LOG table.
• This parameter doesn’t make sense, if DOCKING: TRANSACTION LOGGING parameter in System Preferences is set to FALSE.

IFB Parameters for EIM

The parameters used in an IFB are classified as follows:

• General Header Parameters.
• General Process Parameters.
• Import Process Parameters.
• Export Process Parameters.
• Delete Process Parameters.
• Merge Process Parameters.

General Header Parameters

These are the global parameters which are used in an IFB file and are written with in the Header section in an IFB file. They are :-

• CONNECT
• LOG TRANSACTIONS TO FILE
• PASSWORD
• PROCESS
• [Siebel Interface Manager]
• TABLEOWNER
• USER NAME

To know more on general header parameters, click here . . .

EIM Configuration File (IFB File)

An EIM process reads a configuration file, where different kinds of parameters are set for an EIM process. The configuration file, in short IFB file, defines the type of process, EIM table involved, batch number, and lots of other parameters.

An IFB file has two sections :-

1. Header Section.
2. Process Section.

Header Section

The header section defines the parameters that are common to all the processes defined in the file. 

Process Section

The process section defines parameters which are specific to that particular section.

Temporary Columns in EIM Tables

EIM tables (Interface tables) act as staging area which holds the data that has to be imported, data exported from the Siebel base tables, data to be deleted and that to be merged.

Every Siebel interface table has 4 types of temporary columns as defined below:

• UNQ column.
• EXS column.
• RID column.
• STA column.

Each of the temporary columns has a naming format as follows: 

" T_<base table without prefix S_>__<temporary column type> "

       Examples: T_ORG_EXT__UNQ, T_ORG_EXT__EXS, T_ORG_EXT__STA, T_ORG_EXT__RID

There are few exceptions for this naming rule.

       Examples: T_ACCNTPOST__STA, T_OPTYPOSTN__RID, T_PRODLNPOSTN__RID

Siebel Interface Tables (EIM Tables)

Interface tables act as staging area which holds the data that has to be imported, data exported from the Siebel base tables, data to be deleted and that to be merged. EIM process operates upon these tables and does the specified operation. Every interface table has columns that get mapped to base tables, few mandatory columns and many temporary columns. The mandatory columns are mainly ROW_ID, IF_ROW_STAT and IF_ROW_BATCH_NUM.

The temporary columns are those that are used by EIM task to manipulate data values at run times. These temporary columns store the ROW IDs of records, status of the record, uniqueness of the records, whether the record already exists in the database. Some temporary columns store the ROW ID values of deleted, merged, exported rows.

An Overview on EIM Functions and its requirements

Siebel EIM can be used to achieve four kinds of functionality in which all the functions deal with the data directly. The functions are :-

• Import new and revised data into Siebel Base Tables.
• Export existing data from Siebel Base Tables.
• Delete existing data from Siebel Base Tables.
• Merge existing data in Siebel Base Tables.

Importing Data

Data importing comes into picture under following business requirements:

• Initial implementation of Siebel application (Loading product data from the legacy database).
• Maintaining the Siebel database in long run (Importing archived data).
• Periodical updating of data into Siebel database from a non Siebel database.

Data Flow in EIM

Siebel EIM is server task that deals with the exchange of data between intermediary tables called interface tables and Siebel base tables.
In Siebel, we should not populate data directly into the base tables. At first, we have to populate data from legacy (an external database or a flat file) into the interface tables (EIM tables) and then from the interface table to its corresponding base table by running the EIM job.

EIM Mandatory Columns

For an EIM process to be successful , we must populate values in a certain set of columns.
The Mandatory Columns in an EIM Process are :

• ROW_ID
• IF_ROW_BATCH_NUM
• IF_ROW_STAT
• IF_ROW_MERGE_ID

In this set of four columns, IF_ROW_MERGE_ID is only mandatory when we are carrying out EIM Merge process. So we can look on to these columns in detail and what data to be populated on these.

An Introduction to EIM

EIM stands for Enterprise Integration Manager. Siebel EIM is a process provided by the Siebel CRM package, in order to import the legacy data, export, delete or merge existing data. It is a SIEBEL Component which is used for Data Migration from legacy as well as other Siebel systems. EIM is much fascinating and challenging as area in Siebel to work on.

Why EIM:

Siebel has very unique and complicated Database structure which already has relationship defined between 'n' number of tables and hence it is not recommended to insert, delete or update data stored in what is known as Base Tables in Siebel. During migration, lot of things can happen which can lead to data integrity issues. To answer all those concerns Siebel has provided EIM.
For most of base tables in Siebel, an EIM table is also in existence which allows you to play with data and perform thing that you normally wouldn’t want to perform on base tables. So, you can import-export data to and from EIM tables.

EIM is mainly used :

• To Import bulk amounts of data from external sources to base table.
• To Delete bulk amounts of data.
• To Update bulk amounts of data.

Discussion Forum

Lets discuss here and learn ourselves. This space is dedicated for discussions where you can comment your thoughts, ideas, experiences, queries on topics like Siebel EIM, SQL etc. 

Also you can mail your queries, ideas, experiences, or feedback's  to 'eimtoolbox@gmail.com' and i will post them in blog on your behalf.