Staging | Use Cases | Data comparison

Customer requirement

Values imported into Staging are to be compared to existing values before being copied to PIM.

It is not sufficient to check whether values are present or not (see Comparison of Staging objects to PIM objects with Check Created Product). The values must be directly compared and a responsible person decides whether the data is transferred.

Challenges

Without Staging, there is no way to check data prior to the actual import, make comparisons, or make individual copying decisions.

Solution (summary)

• Item Sync to Staging in the target attributes for which a comparison is to be made

• Comparison of imported values to the comparison values

• Display of Saging value vs. PIM value per rule

• Rule-based copying to PIM

Required modules

• SDZeCOM Staging

• SDZeCOM Rules+

• SDZeCOM Integration Suite

Procedure

1. Tag the required source attributes.

2. Create the target attributes in Staging in the same way as the import attributes.

   • Same attribute type

   • Same external key as PIM attributes with suffix or prefix (!)
     Example: Staging import attribute MATNR > Comparison attribute MATNR_PIM

3. Create rules that compare Staging import attributes to their comparison attributes.

4. Create rule attributes for the rules.

5. Optional: Arrange staging import attributes, comparison attributes, and rule attributes in columns for easy visual comparison.

6. Create a checkbox attribute that you can use for controlling the copying process of the entire Staging object and all its values to PIM based on rules.
   Alternatively: Create a checkbox for each combination of Staging import attribute, comparison attribute, and rule attribute that you can use for controlling the copying process to PIM per attribute based on rules.

7. Item Sync from PIM to Staging. The transformation plug-in is currently customer-specific, but will soon be available in the standard version.
   Replace: $1 with suffix or prefix (see point 2)
   Example: $1_PIM

   

8. Initially, you should synchronize the entire tree once. During operation, the filter can be restricted to specific objects. Synchronization should run at defined intervals to ensure that the PIM values in Staging are up to date, and to enable a reliable comparison.

9. Select the checkbox(es) (see point 6) to copy data to PIM after successful verification. Do not select the checkbox(es) if you want to correct values in the source system and import them again into Staging for another comparison.

10. Deactivate all checkboxes again. However, this process can be carried out during the next import, for example, by setting the checkboxes to 0 via transformation or by working with workflows and status transitions.