When I first started with Siebel EIM it was a struggle to determine how to get

the data from a spreadsheet or external database mapped into the Siebel
base tables through Siebel EIM. There are many steps involved and I became
confused very quickly. Through these experiences I formulated an efficient
process to take in order to map data to Siebel base tables through Siebel EIM.

The following is a step by step guide for mapping external source data to
EIM tables in order to insert/import to a Siebel base table.

Siebel EIM Mapping Step By Step Guide

1. Determine the base tables that the data will be mapped to and you must
understand the data models that the data will be converted into. I am
assuming that you have already worked out the mapping and data conversion
rules so you know what fields from excel file will be mapped to what base
tables etc.

2. For each of the Siebel base tables to be populated, make a note of all the
columns in the base tables that you will be mapping to with your source data.
Also make a note of the columns that make up the user key for the table. If
you are using Siebel EIM to update existing data in base tables then all that is
required for EIM mapping is the mapping to user key and the columns being
updated from source data. However if you are using Siebel EIM to insert new
records you also need to also map to the non-system columns on the base
tables that have the "Required" checkbox flagged and make a note of
these. So you have 3 separate notes:

a. The required columns of the table (required for EIM inserts)

b. The columns mapping data to

c. The user key columns of the base table

3. In you need to determine a Siebel EIM table that is appropriate to load

the data into the base tables, the appropriate Siebel EIM table would be that
which has all the column mappings you need to populate the data. To do this,
in the Siebel Tools Object Explorergo to "Flat Mode" and select "EIM
Table Mapping". In the list of table mappings, query in the "Destination
Table" column for the base table you wish to populate make a note of some of
the "Parent EIM Interface Table" tables. It is usually obvious which table(s) to
use (i.e. EIM_ACTIVITY would map to S_EVT_ACT, but you would use
EIM_ACTIVITY1/EIM_ACTIVITY2 etc for mapping to activity related tables
etc.). When you have found the Parent EIM Interface Table, go to the "Types"
view in the object explorer and select "EIM Interface Table" query for the
table, drill into the table to the "EIM Table Mapping" and select the base table
being mapped to then drill in to "Attribute Mapping"to verify that all the
base columns you want to populate are there.

4. Lookup through Attribute Mapping in the "Base Table Attribute

Column" field each of the columns being mapped to and make a note of
what the corresponding interface table column is to populate with that field
value. Do this for all the columns you wish to map to. It is good practice to
maintain a mapping spreadsheet document to map fields from source data to
interface table columns and Siebel base table columns.

5. In the same way as above lookup the required base table columns that you
made a note of as these will need to be populated for the Siebel EIM
insert/update operation to be successful. As part of this you need to determine
what the value of the base table column that is required should be. Most of the
time these are flag fields as part of the vanilla Siebel table in which you just
need to ensure that you populate which that default value.

6. In the same way as the above step lookup the user key columns that you
made a note of. You need to ensure that these columns are correctly
populated with the unique identifier for each record that you wish to insert.
Most of the time the user key will consist of the Name/LOC/BU, for example if
for populating S_ORG_EXT, the user key is NAME/LOC/BU (not sure exactly
what the BU column is called) where the NAME represents the unique name
column of the Org, LOC is usually NULL and BU is based on the Organization
the record belongs to "Default Organization" would be the value for a single
org application.

7. In the Siebel Tools Object Explorer, go to EIM Interface Table > EIM
Interface Table Column and filter for all records where "Required" = Y.
Check if there are any columns here that have not been included to be
mapped in the above mappings. If there are you need to ensure that these
columns are also populated. Again it is a matter of determining what the
column will map to and what the appropriate value for that column should be.
Usually if the column does not mean anything to your application functionality
specifically you would just map it to the default value that all other records in
the base table are populated with.
8. If you populate the EIM table with all the above data for each record and
run the EIM job with a configuration file that is correct you will get a successful
EIM insert/update.

My next EIM article will provide a guide for mapping to EIM in order to import
foreign key columns and setting the primary flag for MVG records.