Publication Framework

An Oracle White Paper

August 2012

Fusion Product Hub Publication Process

Publication Framework

Disclaimer
The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information
purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver
any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing
decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for
Oracles products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

Publication Framework

Executive Overview ........................................................................... 1

Introduction ....................................................................................... 1
Terms and Definitions........................................................................ 2
Business Challenges ......................................................................... 2
Solution Overview ............................................................................. 2
Implicit Publication Explained ........................................................ 3
Spoke System Definition ........................................................................ 4
Publication Scheduled Process .............................................................. 7
Profile Options ........................................................................................ 9
Accessing Payload ................................................................................. 9
Customizing Process ............................................................................ 13

Summary ......................................................................................... 13
Frequently Asked Questions............................................................ 13
Addendum: Functionality from Release 8 onwards. ......................... 17

Publication Framework

Executive Overview
In todays global environment, companies offer large sets of products and services to their
customers. Moreover, mergers and acquisitions might result in data migration across systems.
The complete and accurate product information residing in Fusion Product Hub needs to be
consumed by various downstream systems for the specific business requirements. Hence, it
has become important for Fusion Product Hub to support the publication of product information
to external systems.

Introduction
Publication Framework offers a set of features that enable you to publish items and their data
elements, such as product structures, packaging hierarchies, catalogs/categories, item
relationships, and item associations; item classes and their metadata and catalogs and their
categories. In order to achieve successful publication to external systems, publication criteria
need to be defined for the spoke system in Product Hub. This white paper provides information
on the setup of publication options for a spoke system and the method for publishing data
implicitly to external systems.

Publication Framework

Terms and Definitions

TABLE 1. TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
TERM

DEFINITION

PIM

Product Information Management

Organization

An organizing unit in the internal or external structure of your enterprise.

Organization structures provide the framework for performing legal reporting,
financial control, and management reporting. An organization can also represent
a physical structure, such as a warehouse.

EGI

Short code for Oracle Fusion Product Hub

Item

Item represents a product in a given organization

Item Structure

Item structure represents all the components that are part of the item's bill of
material.

Pack

Pack, also known as Trade Item Unit Descriptor (TIUD) is used to describe the
GTIN hierarchy level

Item Relationship

Relationship between two Items or Relationship between an Item and GTIN,

Cross Reference, Trading Partner Item or Source System Item

GTIN

Global Trade Item Number

UCM

Unified Content Manager

API

Application Programming Interface

FSM

Functional Set up Manager

Business Challenges
Company ABC Corp has implemented Fusion Product Hub to manage all the product
information. It recently partnered with company MedComp, a company that uses ABC Corps
products for its business transactions. Hence the business requirement is to publish more than
1000 items and their entities, more than 50 item class metadata and more than 100 catalogs
and their category hierarches from ABC Corp to MedComp.

Solution Overview
Let us discuss how the above business challenge can be achieved using Fusion Product Hub. ABC
Corp can publish items, item classes and catalogs from Product Hub to external system by scheduling a
periodic publication process.

Publication Framework

Note: Publication cannot be invoked from individual object pages. This feature is not supported.

Implicit Publication Explained

Implicit publication allows you to set up a periodic schedule for each spoke system to publish the
objects automatically. In order to set up implicit publication of objects from Product Hub to external
systems, the following is required:
1.

Spoke System Definition: Define the publication options for a spoke system

2.

Publication Scheduled Process: Define the schedule and parameters for the scheduled process
job

3.

Profile Options: Define profile options

4.

Accessing the payload: Access the payload generated by the publication scheduled process

5.

Customization: Customize SOA composite to publish to the external spoke system

Below is the typical flow of publishing items, item classes and catalogs to external spoke system.

Figure1: Publication Flow

The data that gets published is determined by

Publication criteria/options selected for each object for a spoke system. These are used to
identify the objects.

Records that are changed/updated from the last publish date. Examples
o

For Item1 if attribute Color is changed from Red to Blue since the last published
date, the entire item including attribute Color and all other attributes that did not
change will be published.

Publication Framework

For Item2 if only Related Item XYZ is updated since the last published date, the
basic item attributes and the entire Related Item XYZ are published.

For Item Class1, if attribute Material changed from Lead to Aluminum since the last
published date, the entire Item Class1 will be published and not just the attribute
Material.

For Catalog1, if Category1 is updated from last publication date,

For first time publication to a spoke system, you must specify the Criteria Date when for
the scheduled process. For subsequent publications, the last publication date is used. If a
criteria date is populated, then the criteria date is used. For example, for the very first
publication, you entered D1 as the criteria date. Schedule to publish is set for every 5 days,
hence D5, D10 etc. The scheduled publication process on D5 will filter all updated objects
from D1 up to D5 that meets the publication criteria and publish that data. Now for
subsequent publications, data that was updated from D5 (last publication date) that meets the
publication criteria will be published on D10. Before the next publication on D15, if you
entered D7 as the Criteria Date, then all updated records from D7 up to D15 will be
published. In this case, D7 criteria date over writes D10, which is the last publication date.

Once records and data are identified, the payload is generated. You can access this payload (xml file)
and transform it in the format understood by the external spoke system. Details are explained in the
sections below.
Spoke System Definition

Publication options, which are defined at the spoke system level, serve to identify items, item classes
and catalogs metadata to be published from Product Hub to the each spoke system. The spoke systems
are created in Trading Community Services, an application outside of Product Hub. In Product Hub,
you can manage the import and the publication options for each spoke system.
The following publication criteria for are available for each spoke system:

Objects to be Published: Select from Items, Item Classes, Catalogs

Item Publication Criteria: Define criteria to filter the items to be published

Item Class Publication Criteria: Select Item Class to be published

Catalog Publication Criteria: Select Catalog to be published

Objects to be published

You can select the objects you want to publish to a spoke system. Options are Items, Item Classes
and/or Catalogs.

Publication Framework

Figure 2. Publication of objects

Item Publication Criteria

In this region you can set criteria/rules that will identify and filter the items that will get published to a
spoke system.
Item Entities: Only the selected entities will get published for the items. The options are
Attributes this includes operational attributes, Item level EFF, Revision level
Attachments: URL
Associations: Supplier Site Organization this includes Supplier level EFF
Item Category Assignments
Packs
Item Relationships: GTIN
Item Relationships: Related Items
Item Relationships: Trading Partner Items
Item Relationships: Cross References
Structures: All
Structures: Primary

Figure 3. Publish Item Entities

Item Selection Rules: You can select item filtering criteria that will filter the items to be published. You
can filter items by selecting Organization, Organization Hierarchy, Item Class or Catalog. Items are
filtered based on the rules selected, and only those items are published.

Publication Framework

Figure 4. Item Selection Rules

Item Validation Rules: You can select a rule set that will run all the rules on the filtered items before
publication to the spoke system.
Rule sets that can be used are validation rule sets including composite rule sets. Rule sets that are Draft
cannot be used. If a rule set is defined with a Reject rule, the item will not be published. Warning rules
will allow the items to be published, but a message will be logged in the log/output file.

Figure 5. Item Validation Rules

Item Class Publication Criteria

You can select the item classes to be published to the spoke system by checking a hierarchy or an
individual item class. If a parent item class is selected, the entire hierarchy is automatically selected for
publication. To exclude item classes from publication, you have the option to unselect item classes
from the hierarchy.
NOTE: This region is purely to select the item classes that will get published. Item classes that are
selected in this region are not used to filter the items to be published. Please refer to the Item
Selection Rules in the above section for this.
Data that will get published for the selected item classes is
Item class definition (Name, Description and other header level fields/metadata)
Associated attribute groups/attributes (operational and extended flex fields)
Associated transactional item attributes

Publication Framework

Figure 6. Item Class Publication Criteria

Catalog Publication Criteria

You can search and select the catalogs to be published to the spoke systems. The whole category
hierarchy will be published for the catalog you selected.
NOTE: This region is purely to select the catalogs that will get published. Catalogs that are selected in
this region are not used to filter the items to be published. Please refer to the Item Selection Rules
under the Item Selection Criteria section for this.

Figure 7. Catalog Publication Criteria

Publication Scheduled Process

Launch a scheduled process to publish the objects for each spoke system. For each process select the
spoke system, the objects to be published and a date.
On submission, an scheduled process request is initiated. You can monitor the status on the Scheduled
Process Overview page. Any publication errors are logged in the log file of the process.

Publication Framework

Process Name: Product Hub Publication Job

Parameters:
1. Spoke System: Name of the spoke system to which objects gets published
2. Publish Items: Indicate if items get published
3. Publish Item Classes: Indicate if Item Classes get published
4. Publish Catalogs: Indication if Catalogs get published
5. Criteria Date: Objects from this date will get filtered. This is required for the first time
publication. For subsequent publication, the last publish date is used by default if criteria date
not populated.
6. Folder Location: Location of the UCM folder where the xml file will be saved. Cloud
customers can access this location through API for integration.

Figure 8. Publication ESS Parameters

Publication Framework

Figure 9: Publication ESS Schedule

Profile Options

If you are publishing 1000 or more items or records, then the recommendation is to use the following
profile options
EGI_PUBLICATION_ITEMS_PER_PAYLOAD - Number of Items per Payload for Publication
This profile option determines the number of items to be used per payload in the publication
concurrent program.
EGI_PUBLICATION_NUMBER_OF_PAYLOADS - Number of Parallel Payloads for Publication
This profile option determines the number of parallel payloads to be used in the publication
concurrent program.
Incorrect profile option values can adversely affect performance. Evaluate these options carefully
before setting them.
Accessing Payload

Once the payload is generated, it can be accessed in either of two ways, depending on where it is saved:
Enterprise Manager, for on premise customers only
UCM folder, this is available beginning Release 7
To use Enterprise Manager
1. Login to SCMDomian Enterprise Manager (EM). Read-only user will work.

Publication Framework

2.

Expand SOA node.

Figure 10: SOA composite

3.

Scroll down and select EgpItemsPublicationComposite.

Figure 11: Publication Composite

4.

On the right-hand Recent Instances table select the Instances tab and add Request ID
field to the Search panel.

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Publication Framework

Figure 12: Search Instance ID

5.

Make a note of rhe Request ID when submitting from the Product Hub Publication Job,
you can find this in Scheduled Processes task after submitting the job.

Figure 13: Scheduled Processes Process ID

6.

Enter the Request ID in the Search field and click on search.

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Publication Framework

Figure 14: Search Instance ID

7.

Click on the Instance ID hyperlink. This will bring up the Flow Trace popup.

Figure 15: Flow Trace pop-up

8.

Click on the ItemClassPublicationChildProcess instance, which will take you to instance

details.

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Publication Framework

Figure 16: ItemClassPublicationChildProcess

9.

Click on the View XML Document link to view the publication payload.

Customizing Process

The default SOA composite that is shipped does not actually complete the publication process. This is
because the transformation of data and the publication target need to be configured separately for each
spoke system to which publication needs to be supported. This document gives details about the
architecture of the Publication SOA Composite, what can be customized, and how to perform the
customization.

Summary
Items and their child entities, item class metadata and catalogs and their category hierarchies can be
published periodically to a spoke system. The publication is via backend scheduled process job. You
have the ability to define the publication criteria to filter the items, item classes and catalogs for each
spoke system and set up a publication schedule.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which product license is required for the publication feature?

You need to license Fusion Product Hub to be able to use Publication features.
Which objects are supported for publication?

Objects that can be published to external spoke systems are Items (including selected
entities), Item Classes, and Catalogs.

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Publication Framework

Can I create a spoke system in Product Hub?

No, you cannot create a new spoke system using Product Hub. Spoke systems are created
in Trading Community Services task.
What if I do not select any objects on the spoke system to publish?

If you do not select any objects on the spoke system, you will not be able to define the
publication options and no data will be published to the spoke system.
Which item entities are supported for publication?

Item Entities that are supported for publication are:

Attributes
Attachments: URL
Associations: Supplier Site Organization
Item Category Assignments
Packs
Item Relationships: GTIN
Item Relationships: Related Items
Item Relationships: Trading Partner Items
Item Relationships: Cross References
Structures: All
Structures: Primary

Will all items in Product Hub get published?

Items that have been updated since the last publication date or the criteria date that meets
the publication criteria for the spoke system will get published.
How is it determined which items will get published?

Which items will get published is determined by the selection rules defined on the
publication options for a spoke system. These selection rules can be based on
Organization, Organization Hierarchy, Catalog and Item Class.
Can items for child orgs be selected and published?

No, only Master Organizations are available to filter the items. Hence items from child
orgs cannot be published. Based on the selected orgs Item (Master and/or Child Item)
with its attributes will be published. We do not publish the Org Assignments
If a catalog is selected for publication, will the item category assignments for that catalog be published?

No. If a catalog is selected for publication in the Catalog Publication Criteria region, the
item category assignments will not be published. In order to publish item category
assignments, you need to select Item Category Assignments in the Item Entities region.
What item class metadata will get published?

Item Class metadata that will get published is:

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Publication Framework

Item class definition (Name, Description and other header level fields/metadata)
Associated attribute groups/attributes (operational and extended flex fields)
Associated transactional item attributes

Can I select the categories within the catalog for publication?

No, you cannot select individual categories in a catalog to publish. If a catalog is selected,
the whole category hierarchy under it will get published.
Where is the publication schedule defined for the spoke system?

You can setup the publication schedule in the Parameters pop-up for the Product Hub
Publication Job
If no schedule is defined, how can I publish objects?

Setting up a schedule is optional. You can publish by entering the parameters on the
Product Hub Publication Job and submitting the request.
What is the scheduled process used to publish objects to spoke system?

The scheduled process is called Product Hub Publication Process.

The parameters required for scheduling an ESS process are:
TABLE 5. SCHEDULED PROCESS PARAMETERS

*SCHEDULED PROCESS

VALUE

MEANING

Spoke System

Choice-list

Name of the spoke system

Publish Items

Yes/No

Indicates if items will get published

Publish Item Classes

Yes/No

Indicates if item classes will get published

Publish Catalogs

Yes/No

Indicates if catalogs will get published.

Criteria Date

Date picker

Over writes the Last Publication Date.

Folder Location

Text field

UCM folder location to save the output xml file

PARAMETERS

Is Criteria Date enforced for spoke system publication?

First time publication Yes, Criteria Date is required. This was primarily done to
minimize the chances of an arbitrarily large payload from being mistakenly
generated.
Subsequent publication Optional. If not populated, the Last Publication Date is
used. If populated, Criteria Date always takes precedence.

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Does Criteria Date apply only to Items or all objects, i.e. Item Classes, Catalogs?

Criteria Date applies to all objects: Items, Item Classes and Catalogs.
How do we handle chunking of data so that payload size does not exceed what the middleware can handle?

You can use the profile options provided for publication process
EGI_PUBLICATION_ITEMS_PER_PAYLOAD - Number of Items per Payload for Publication
This profile option determines the number of items to be used per payload in the publication
concurrent program.
EGI_PUBLICATION_NUMBER_OF_PAYLOADS - Number of Parallel Payloads for Publication
This profile option determines the number of parallel payloads to be used in the publication
concurrent program
Where can I add values for the profile options?

The profile options values can be defined at Manage Administrator Profile Values task in
FSM.
What is the format of the payload file?

The format of the payload file is xml.

Where can I access the payload file?

For on premise customers only, the xml file can be accessed in Enterprise Manager.
Alternatively if you have opted to save the file in UCM, it can be accessed in the
respective UCM folder location.

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Addendum: Functionality from Release 8 onwards.

Features added/modified from Release 8 are
1. Publish all items in a packaging structure whenever a change to the items in
pack occurs

A new option is added to the Item Entities shuttle to select All Pack Items. When
selected, the payload will include all the items in the pack hierarchy when one of the items
in pack is updated or a new item is added to the pack. In order to be published, ALL the
items in the pack hierarchy should meet the selection criteria and also should pass the
validation rules. If even one of the items in the pack does not meet the selection criteria
or fails a validation rule, ALL the items in the pack will not be published.
2. Generate complete publication payload

The publication payload will contain ALL the selected child entities when any one of
selected child entities is modified. For example
E.g.
#
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Entities created/
modified
Item EFF

Item Revision EFF

Item Supplier EFF

Item Category Assignments

Entities Selected

Payload

Attributes
Item Category Assignment
Attributes
Relationships: GTIN
All entities selected
Attributes
Item Category Assignment
Attributes
Relationships: GTIN
All entities
Attributes
Item Category Assignment
Attributes
Relationships: GTIN
All entities
Attributes
Item Category Assignments
Relationships: GTIN
Item Category Assignments
Structures: Primary

All Attributes
None
All Attributes +
Relationships: GTIN
All entities in payload
All Attributes
None
All Attributes +
Relationships: GTIN
All entities in payload
All Attributes
None
All Attributes +
Relationships: GTIN
All entities in payload
All Attributes + Item
Category Assignments +
Relationships: GTIN
Basic Attributes + Item
Category Assignments +
Structures Primary

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15
16

Attributes
Item Category Assignments

17

Structures: All

18

Attachments: URL

Attributes
Item Category Assignments
Relationships: GTIN
All entities selected

None
Basic Attribute + Item
Category Assignment
None
All entities in payload

3. Publication of child item when inherited attribute group at master org level is
changed

When an inherited attribute group at master org is updated, the payload will include child
org items along with the changed inherited attribute group rows.
4. Publish non organization related entities when child org is published.

When a child org is selected to publish items, the payload will include those selected
entities from the master level that are not controlled at child org level such as Related
Items, GTIN, and Trading Partner Items etc.
5. Issue: Delete of item multi row record does not trigger the publication process.

Solution: The suggestion for this requirement is to be achieved through a combination of

the following:
Once ER#2 Generate complete publication payload is implemented, write a rule to
identify number of rows in Multi Row attribute group and use that to stamp the value in a
hidden attribute. On delete of the row, this hidden attribute value will be updated and will
make the item a candidate for publication.

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Fusion Product Hub Publication Process

Copyright 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is provided for information purposes only and the

August 2012

contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other

Author: Priyanka Ashar

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fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are
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