About IFS Cloud
IFS Cloud is a composable enterprise software application that choreographs people, customers, and assets to minimize insolubility, cost and risk factors as you plan, manage and optimize critical asset availability, endeavor for operational superiority and workforce productivity.
IFS provides a large range of ERP, Service Management and Enterprise Asset Management capabilities. Organizations choose the capabilities they need from across the solution areas. Construct on a powerful, flexible common platform IFS Cloud combines deep industry and functional strength with intelligent autonomous abilities.
First, let’s understand the fundamentals of IFS Data Migration concepts.
IFS Data Migration
IFS Data Migration is a tool that loads data from external sources into the application core objects in IFS Cloud. This tool is typically used to transfer data from previous legacy systems when an IFS solution is first implemented, or when systems are consolidated. The prime benefit of IFS Data Migration is that it always loads data through the business logic APIs in IFS Cloud. Unlike other tools and resources that insert data straight into tables IFS Data Migration assures that business rules, validations, and integrity checks are never bypassed.
Data Migration jobs are highly adaptive and multiple jobs can be rope together depending on your requirement.
Data Migration is the process of transferring data from one location to another, one format to another, or one application to another. It is a tough and complex job due to the data gravity. IFS Data migration tool assists to migrate your data overcoming the intricacy of data gravity. It permits you to move data via a system application business logic guarantees that the transferred data is valid at the destination. The tool supports various types of Data Migrations such as File migration and Source Migration. In order to shift data using IFS Data Migration tool, the first step is, you need to create a Migration Job.
Migration Jobs
In order to begin migrating data adopting IFS Data Migration Tool, one should first create a Migration Job. it is compulsory to create a migration job for all migration types because it comprises of configuration details such as Source, Destination, Type, Metadata, Rules etc.
Go to Solution Manager > Data Management > Data Migration > Migration Job form. Here you have a header with details common to all types of migrations and child tabs that enable according to the selected Procedure (Migration type).
Field | Description |
Job Id | Unique name to identify the migration job. Only characters, numbers and "_" are allowed for this. allowed for this. |
Description | Description of the Job. |
Procedure | Defines the behaviour/type of migration job. (File Migration, Source Migration). According to the selected procedure, detail tabs will be changed. |
Direction | This is a read only field. The direction values will be changed according to the selected procedure. |
View Name | Enter an IFS view name if you want the source migration job to automatically create a New__ method in the method list. This will populate the File Mapping, Source Mapping and Method List Tabs accordingly. |
Group ID | Migration Jobs can be assigned to a pre-defined group for easy management. |
Note Text | You should always use the note text column to describe the purpose of the job. These will be fetched when printing the documentation of a job. |
Last Info | Displays the log of the last execution. |
Migration Types
Migration jobs can be divided on the way they migrate data. Each type may have different procedures for migrating data.
File Migration
This type of migration jobs transfers data between the database and files. The data can be imported to a single database logical unit or to a data migration container table (IC Table). You can export the data from multiple logical units to a single file.
Source Migration
This type of migration job can be used to migrate data from one data source to another. The source can be a TABLE, VIEW, JOIN, DB LINK or UNION, while destination can be a single or multiple logical units in the database.
Excel Migration
This type of migration job can be used to migrate data between Microsoft Excel (using the IFS Excel Add-In) and the database. Data can be both queried from and saved into single or multiple logical units.
Internal Replication
This type of migration jobs can be used to replicate data within an IFS Application instance. Internal Replication can be configured to replicate data between Sites and Companies in the same IFS Applications instance.
Export/Import Migration Definition
Use this type when you need to export/import migration jobs between IFS Application instances.
Now we talk about our main purpose of writing this blog and that this “IFS Data Migration Using Excel Migration Web Add-In". So, let’s start data migration using Excel Migration Job step by step.
Excel Migration
A migration job with procedure type Excel Migration can be executed through MS Excel and an authorized end user could load / manipulate data in the specific logical units related to the given migration job. The IFS Data Migration Excel Add-In uses the Excel Migration procedure type and is an extension to the standard data migration functionality in IFS Cloud.
Step #1 Creating a Excel Migration job
Go to Solution Manager > Data Management > Data Migration > Migration Job form.
In the Migration Job page, create a new job with the Procedure Name to EXCEL_MIGRATION. You must specify a 'View Name'.
Source Mapping
Here add/modify required columns for the migration job. Make sure Pos and Length are not set to 0. Enter a value for the Source Column if you want to display it as an input from the user in Excel. The Source Column names will be used when creating the IC table for migrating data.
Note the following restrictions for the Source column:
1. Should not exceed 30 characters.
2. Should not have any duplicates.
3. Should not contain spaces.
4. Should start with a letter.
5. All mandatory fields of the logical unit(s) should have a Source Column value, unless there is a Default Value specified for the field.
6. The value for forData length field must be less than 4000.
Step #2 Grant Projections to Permission Sets
Once the Mig. Job is created now we have to give permissions to user so he/she can access the Mig. Job in Excel Template.
Go to Solution Manager > Users and Permissions > Permission Sets >Grant Projections to Permission Sets, click on Add button.
Screen 1.
Screen 2.
Search for newly created Mig. Job in Projection Name filter with Camel casing format, check and then click to: “Add to List” button at left bottom corner.
Screen 3. Check and then click “Next”.
Screen 4. Click “Add”.
Screen 5. Search for Permission Set created by Admin in Permission Set filter check and then click to: “Add to List” button at left bottom corner.
Screen 6. Check and then click to: “Finish” button.
Screen 7. Result Projections granted.
Step #3 Installing the IFS Data Migration Excel Add-in
#3.1 Generate the Manifest of IFS Excel Add-in
Installing Data Migration Excel Add-in requires generating a Office Add-In manifest XML file. The following section describes how to generate a Office Add-In manifest XML from IFS Cloud Web. This manifest file can be used to publish Data Migration Excel Add-In in all deployment methods described above.
Go to Solution Manager >> Data Management >> Data Migration >> Excel Migration >> Generate Manifest, to Generate the Manifest of IFS Excel Add-in.
Click “Generate”.
Save the file in any name (default name: IFS Excel Add-in.xml)
NOTE: this page is only visible to users with FND_ADMIN permission set.
#3.2 Upload My Add-in to Excel for the web.
Login to your SharePoint Application. Create a new excel file and name it. I prefer to use the name as the created Migration Job.
Note: Following option is only visible when the user has admin privileges and in web clients.
Navigate to Insert >> My Add-ins >> Upload My Add-in and upload the relevant xml file.
When the generated manifest file gets successfully uploaded, you will see an IFS-Excel Add-in icon at the top right corner of the excel file.
Step #4 Accessing the Migration Job Created
Now we have successfully installed the IFS Excel Web Add-in. Just click on the icon IFS-Excel Add-in. A window pops up and would ask you for login.
As soon as you provide your login credentials, it will show you all the Migration Job created which you have been given access to.
Scroll and Search for you created Migration Job, when find, click on the Mig.job. Click for Open Job on New Sheet.
The instance you click on Open Job on New Sheet you get an Excel template with all the Columns of specified View which we select during the Mig. Job creation.
All the columns are in the same order as it was in Mig. Job.
Note: You can change the position of column if you want to in during the Mig. Job creation.
Now we have the template, we can insert data into it. You can prepare data in your local excel file and then copy it to this sheet. Remember the order should be the same as your web excel template. Once the data is filled in the template, we must go for Validation to check data formatting and type allowed.
Click on the validate button.
Once the data is validated, we are all set to insert data into the View. Hit the Execute button and our data will go straight to the view, if you want to see the data, you can query the view directly in the DB or check in the IFS portal through the Quick Reports window by creating a new report for your query.
This is how we do IFS Data Migration Using Excel Migration, web Add-In.