FINS Data Transfer Utilities

The best thing while working on siebel is you are never short of options. Recently we had requirement of updating a Service request from contact. Finally we did that using "EAI Siebel Adapter" business service. However during that time i came across another business service "FINS Data Transfer Utilities" popularly known as DTU business service. As i was not having prior knowledge of it going by the rule of not learning swimming lessons while drowning i decided not to go for it. Lately i have tried to explore this service and trust me it can do wonders.

Here is a sample example update of Service Request from contact. We need to follow below steps in order to understand strength of this business service.

1 - Navigate to Site Map. Go to Administration - Application -> Data Map Administration tab. Create a new Record with following options:

Name: Service Request Test

Source Business Object: Contact

Destination Business Object: Service Request

Here the source business object specifies where data should come and Destination busobject specifies where data should go.

2 -In Data Map Component we specify mapping of the child business component. There needs to be one root business component and other child business component in the map. This is really handy while creating quotes and quote line items from Opportunity. Or any other instance where multiple BC's are under scanner.

Name: SR Update

Source Business Component: Contact

Destination Business Component: Service Request

3 - In Data Map field we specify field to field mapping, data from which source field should go to which destination field. However source/destination field could be of following types based

on our requirement:

Field: BC field

Parameter: Input argument to business service

Expression: combination of BC field or Parameters

The most important thing here is the Key field, which helps in matching source record with destination record during update operation. More of this is given in "siebel finance bookshelf".

4 - Once data map is done, our job is very simple. We need to write a workflow which can call this business service and invoke that workflow on contact write

record. Sample workflow should look like.

Method Invoked is: DataTransfer

Parameters which we have passed are:

Operation - Update : It specifies which operation we need to perform. Values are Insert,Update,Delete and Upsert

InitBO - Contact : Initiator BO

InitBC - Contact : Initiator BC

DataMapObj - Service Request Test : Name of the Data Map

&Status - Closed : Status value we need to set for SR

&SRId - '288-70710' : SR Number for which we need to set status. This could be process property. I have hard coded for testing purpose.

5 - Create a runtime event which invokes this workflow on writerecord of Contact BC. Once reload is done try to see the magic.

This business service is of immense help if used efficiently and can be of real help in scenarios involving update/insert of multiple business components.

Learning Swimming and Siebel.