File based loader FBL Oracle Fusion

1. What is File Based Loader
Oracle Fusion File Based Loader allows you to load the data in bulk to Oracle Fusion HCM from other sources like your legacy system, Oracle Ebiz, PeopleSoft etc. As the name says loader it is
only used to load the data to Fusion HCM. File Based Loader is capable of loading complex hierarchical data of large volumes including object history.
Working example of File Based Loader
We will see how File Based Loader is used in real life with an example so that our concepts are clear. I will explain the terminology and give more details as we progress.
Example : Lets understand that our requirement is to move the data (Business Objects) from Oracle Ebiz to Fusion HCM and you have been assigned the task to move Grade information. There
are other team members who are taking care of other Business Objects like Job, Location, Position etc. Hope the requirement is clear and you understand your task.
Now a question might come in your mind that can we move all Business Objects from Ebiz to Fusion using File Based Loader, so unfortunately the answer is NO. There are limited numbers of
business objects for which we can use File Based Loader. As of today following are the objects for which we can File Based Loader. Some of the Business Objects are dependents on other.
Orde
r
Business Objects Dependency
01 Actions None
02 Action Reasons Actions
03 Location None
04 Business Unit
None
 You must map each business unit to a default set
immediately after load.
05 Grade None
06 Grade Rate Grade, Business Unit
07 Job Family None
08 Job Job Family, Grade
09 Salary Basis Grade Rate
10 Establishment None
11 Rating Model None
12
Talent Profile Content
Item
Rating Model
13
Talent Profile Content
Item Relationship
Content Item, Establishment
14 Person
None
 The person object includes employees, contingent
workers, pending workers, and non workers
15 Person Contacts
PersonNote : Person documentation includes
citizenship, passports, and visas only
16 Person Documentation Person
17 Department Location, Person, Business Unit
18 Position Job, Department
19 Work Relationship
Person, Position
 Work relationship includes contracts only for the 3-
tier (Single Term Single Assignment) employment
model.
20 Salary Salary Basis
21 Element Entry Work Relationship
22 Tree None
23 Tree Version Tree
24 Department Tree Node Tree, Tree Version, Department
25 Person Accrual Detail Person, Work Relationship

2. 26 Person Absence Entry Person
27
Person Maternity
Absence Entry
Person
28
Person Entitlement
Detail
Person, Work Relationship
Now after looking into this table you understand that you actually need not to wait for any of your team member as the business objects you are going to load (Grade) has no dependency.
However, your colleague who is responsible to load Job you would like to inform that he cannot load unless Job Family and Grade are loaded.
Migrations Activities (Using File Based Loader)
Now since the Business Object you have to load doesn’t depend on any other objects, you start exploring the activities you need to perform for a successful load. You come to know that below are
the detailed steps you will need to perform to load Grade or any business objects.
1. Configure the Load Batch Data Process
2. Define Oracle Fusion Business Objects
3. Generate the Mapping File of Cross-Reference Information
4. Import Cross-Reference Information to the Source Environment
5. Map Source Data to the Reference Data
6. Extract the Source Data
7. Deliver Your Data to the Oracle WebCenter Content Server
8. Import Source Data to the Stage Tables
9. Load Data from the Stage Tables to the Application Tables
10. Fix Batch-Load Errors
Now as you aware about the steps lets login to application and follow the steps one by one
1. Configure the Load Batch Data Process
For this please navigate to Setup and Maintenance » search for task Manage HCM Configuration for coexistence » Click on Go to Task

3. This will open Manage HCM Configuration for Coexistence window. Click on Detach ( ) icon to have a larger view. A screen similar to below will appear.
This is also known as Load Batch Data Process, which helps to load the data from stage table to oracle Fusion application tables. We will make use of this at our later stage. Most of the
parameter will have default values, which you will need not to change. You just need to make sure that value for Loader Number of Processes is between 1 to 8 and there is a password entered
for filed ODI Password
NOTE : You need to perform this activity only once for any instance. So if values are present you need not to any thing.
Once you verify or update the data click on Detach ( ) icon again to return back Manage HCM Configuration for Coexistence. If you changed any value click on “Submit” tab else no action
is required.
2. Define Oracle Fusion Business Objects
In most of the cases this would already be done and you need not to perform any activity. But this is what oracle says with puzzling words.

4. The Business Objects we are loading from Source to Fusion HCM should be as part of the Business objects that originate in your source system may reference other business objects that originate
in Oracle Fusion HCM. For these referenced business objects, you must generate cross-reference information and include it in your source system.
The following table shows the Oracle Fusion business objects for which you may need cross-reference information, and the Oracle Fusion task that you perform to define each business object. If
you want to reference any of these business objects, you must perform the relevant Oracle Fusion task before generating the mapping file for the cross-reference information.
3. Generate the Mapping File of Cross-Reference Information
The next step would be to generate cross-reference information for fusion business objects. This cross reference information will have Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) for each of these Fusion
Business Objects, which we need to use in our further steps.
To Generate the cross reference information. Go back to step1 where we were on page Manage HCM Configuration for coexistence. and click on Submit button (available in the region
Generate Mapping File for HCM Business Objects), which will submit a process. Note down the process id. and again click on “Search“. You will notice a .zip file against the process id.
Status of your process must be 12, which means SUCCEEDED. Even after clicking on Search tab multiple times you status shows other than 12 please see the table below to know the exact
meaning of process Status.
Status
Number
Status Name Status Description
1 WAIT The job request is awaiting dispatch
2 READY
The job request has been dispatched and is awaiting
processing
3 RUNNING The job request is being processed.
4 COMPLETED
The job request has completed and postprocessing has
started
7 CANCELLING
The job request has been canceled and is awaiting
acknowledgement
9 CANCELLED The job request was cancelled
10 ERROR The job request has run and resulted in an error
11 WARNING The job request has run and resulted in a warning
12 SUCCEEDED The job request has run and completed successfully.
13 PAUSED The job request has paused for sub-request completion
17 FINISHED The job request and all child job requests have finished
Note :
 For processes that complete with errors (status 10), search for the process ID in the Scheduled Processes work area (Navigator – Tools – Scheduled Processes) and view the associated log file
 Whenever you make changes to any of the Oracle Fusion business objects, you must regenerate the mapping file. For example, if you define additional person types, then you must regenerate
the GUIDs for the Oracle Fusion instance
 The GUIDs associated with an Oracle Fusion instance don’t change. However, GUIDs vary among instances. Therefore, the GUIDs that you generate from the stage environment are different
from those that you generate from the production environment. You must generate them in both environments.
 As an alternative to running the Generate Mapping File for HCM Business Objects process, you can use the HCM extract described in the document Business Object Key Map Extract for File-
Based Loader (My Oracle Support article ID 1595283.1)

5. 4. Download Mapping File
From the previous steps you have create a .ZIP file now it is time to download the same. By now we know that the zip file will contain cross reference information for each business objects. The
Generate Mapping File for HCM Business Objects process creates one or more data files (.dat files) for each business object. The application packs .dat files automatically in a zipped data file
that’s written to the Oracle WebCenter Content server.
To download the file navigate to Navigator » Tools » File Import and Export » Set the Account value in the Search section to hcm/dataloader/export and click Search
You will see your .ZIP file that you saw in previous steps but this time you can click on the zipped file name. Click on the file name and it will down load the file onto your system.
If you unzip the downloaded file you will see total 21 .dat (data) files. These .dat files belong to different Business Objects as described below in the table.
Business Object Data File Name
Employment Action Reason
 XR_ACTION.dat
 XR_ACTION_REASON.dat
 XR_ACTION_REASON_USAGE.dat
 XR_ACTION_TYPE.dat
Person Assignment Status Type  XR_ASSIGNMENT_STATUS_TYPE.dat
Enterprise  XR_ENTERPRISE.dat
Talent Profile Content Item  XR_HRT_CONTENT_ITEM_LANGUAGE.dat
Talent Profile Content Type
 XR_HRT_CONTENT_TYPE.dat
 XR_HRT_CONTENT_TYPE_RELAT.dat
Talent Profile Type  XR_HRT_PROFILE_TYPE.dat
Talent Instance Qualifier Set
 XR_HRT_QUALIFIER.dat
 XR_HRT_QUALIFIER_SET.dat
 XR_HRT_RELATION_CONFIG.dat
Legal Entity  XR_LEGAL_ENTITY.dat
Legislative Data Group  XR_LEGISLATIVE_DATA_GROUP.dat
Payroll Element Type
 XR_PAY_ELEMENT_TYPE_STD.dat
 XR_PAY_ELEMENT_TYPE_SUPPL.dat

6. Payroll Element Input Value
 XR_PAY_INPUT_VALUE_STD.dat
 XR_PAY_INPUT_VALUE_SUPPL.dat
Person Type  XR_PERSON_TYPE.dat
Application Reference Data Set  XR_SETID_SET.dat
You can explore these files using notepad to see how GUIDs look like. GUIDs are unique 32-character alphanumeric identifier used by both Oracle Fusion HCM and source applications such as
Oracle PeopleSoft and Oracle EBS. Screenshots below shows the XR_ASSIGNMENT_STATUS_TYPE.dat file
5. Map Source Data to the Reference Data
Now it is time to do some interesting and challenging work. To understand this better lets ask a question to yourself how fusion application will know the data your are going to supply to load will
be mapped against which column of any table. To make our life easy oracle has given File-Based Loader Column Mapping Spreadsheet, which tells what are the data we can supply against
any Business Objects .
So in our case if we check the Business Objects for Grade we will find the data we can supply under header given in the column “Datastore Attribute Name”. You can also
check the comment column to see important information. If you see the highlighted column it tells that we must reference the GUID from XR_SETID_SET.dat which we generated from step
Download Mapping File. If you go back and open the XR_SETID_SET.dat you will see different GUIDs for each sets available in your Fusion application. Now you can select the GUIds of the
sets you want to link your Grade. Please note a grade must be linked with your Business Units set or Common set.

7. You must be wondering how to get the mapping for other object such as Job and Business Units. So to get the latest File-Based Loader Column Mapping Spreadsheet please search for the oracle
note Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management File-Based Loader (Doc ID 1595283.1) and download the mapping spreadsheet.
Note:
 Heading rows must be in capital letters and spelled correctly.
 Data lines follow this heading row, with data items also being separated by the pipe character.
 Columns can appear in any order.
So based on the above information our file to upload Grade information should look like below. For example I have added below two grades and both are linked with common set
 Avi Demo Grade1
 Avi Demo Grade2
6. Extract the Source Data
This step is more about structuring about data that are ready to load. As we followed the naming convention while working on mapping source data to reference data, similar all business objects
that we are going to load should be placed inside the structured folder and .dat files should also be placed inside their parent folder as given below
Order Object Directory Name Data-File Name
01 Action
 F_ACTIONS_VO.dat
 F_ACTION_REASON_USAGES_VO.dat
02 ActionReason  F_ACTION_REASONS_VO.dat
03 BusinessUnit  F_BUSINESS_UNIT_VO.dat
04 ContentItem
 F_CONTENT_ITEM_RATING_DESCRIPTION_VO.dat
 F_CONTENT_ITEM_VO.dat
05 ContentItemRelationship  F_CONTENT_ITEM_RELATIONSHIP_VO.dat
06 Department
 F_DEPARTMENT_DETAIL_VO.dat
 F_DEPARTMENT_VO.dat
07 DepartmentTreeNode  F_PER_DEPT_TREE_NODE.dat
08 ElementEntry  F_ELEMENT_ENTRY_VALUE_VO.dat

8.  F_ELEMENT_ENTRY_VO.dat
09 Establishment  F_ESTABLISHMENT_VO.dat
10 Grade  F_GRADE_VO.dat
11 GradeRate
 F_GRADE_RATE_VALUE_VO.dat
 F_GRADE_RATE_VO.dat
12 Job  F_JOB_GRADE_VO.datF_JOB_VO.dat
13 JobFamily  F_JOB_FAMILY_VO.dat
14 Location  F_LOCATION_VO.dat
15 Person
 F_PERSON_ADDRESS_VO.dat
 F_PERSON_EMAIL_VO.dat
 F_PERSON_ETHNICITY_VO.dat
 F_PERSON_LEGISLATIVE_DATA_VO.dat
 F_PERSON_NAME_VO.dat
 F_PERSON_NATIONAL_IDENTIFIER_VO.dat
 F_PERSON_PHONE_VO.dat
 F_PERSON_RELIGION_VO.dat
 F_PERSON_TYPE_USAGE_VO.dat
 F_PERSON_VO.dat
16 PersonAbsenceEntry  F_PERSON_ABSENCE_ENTRY_VO.dat
17 PersonAccrualDetail  F_PERSON_ACCRUAL_DTL_VO.dat
18 PersonContact  F_PERSON_CONTACT_VO.dat
19 PersonDocumentation
 F_PERSON_CITIZENSHIP_VO.dat
 F_PERSON_DOCUMENTATION_VO.dat
 F_PERSON_VISA_VO.datF_PERSON_PASSPORT_VO.dat
20 PersonEntitlementDetail  F_PERSON_PLAN_ENTRY_DTL_VO.dat
21 PersonMaternityAbsenceEntry  F_PERSON_MAT_ABS_ENTRY_VO.dat
22 Position  F_POSITION_GRADE_VO.datF_POSITION_VO.dat
23 Profile
 F_PROFILE_ITEM_VO.dat
 F_PROFILE_RELATION_VO.dat
 F_PROFILE_VO.dat
24 RatingModel  F_RATING_LEVEL_VO.datF_RATING_MODEL_VO.dat
25 Salary
 F_SALARY_COMPONENT_VO.dat
 F_SALARY_VO.dat
26 SalaryBasis  F_SALARY_BASIS_VO.dat
27 Tree  F_FND_TREE.dat
28 TreeVersion  F_FND_TREE_VERSION.dat
28 WorkRelationship
 F_ASSIGNMENT_SUPERVISOR_VO.dat
 F_ASSIGNMENT_VO.dat
 F_ASSIGNMENT_WORK_MEASURE_VO.dat
 F_WORK_RELATIONSHIP_VO.dat
 F_WORK_TERMS_VO.dat
 F_CONTRACT_VO.dat

9. From the above table its pretty clear that to load Grade we must have a folder “Grade” and inside that there should be only one .dat file with name “F_GRADE_VO.dat”. However, system doesn’t
stop you to combine all business objects together and place their .dat files inside respective parent folder. You can upload all business objects together to content server and upload in the stage
table only file moving the business objects to fusion application you will need to follow the sequence we discussed earlier
Note:
 No parent folder exists in the zip file.
 The application processes each business object in the zip file as a separate batch. For example, if the zip file contains both Department and Job business objects, then the application processes
the zip-file contents as two separate batches, one for Departments and one for Jobs.
7. Deliver Your Data to the Oracle WebCenter Content Server
Now its time to work on application again. Lets assume that now we have a .dat file F_GRADE_VO.dat, which is placed inside folder “Grade” and file is zipped with name LoadGrade.zip
Now to upload the .zip file (data) to Oracle WebCenter Content Sever follow the navigation Navigator » Tools » File Import and Export » Click on Update Icon and select your .zip file
(LoadGrade.zip). Please make sure the value for Account is hcm/dataloader/import. Click on Save and Close.
Once you click on Save and Close please make a note of Content ID. If you are not able to see the content id click on View, columns and select Content ID.

10. 8. Import Source Data to the Stage Tables
So far our uploaded zip file is only in the content server we need to move this to stag table. For the same please navigate to Navigator » Workforce Management » Data Exchange » and follow
below activities
Select “Load Data for Coexistence” under Under task “Coexistence for HCM” » and follow below activities
 Click on Import
 Enter Contend ID that you got from previous step
 Select business Object as Grade (if you are uploading more business objects you have option to select all)
 Give the batch a name to identify it later. Object names are prefixed with the batch name to provide a unique batch name for each batch
 Loader Run Type select as Import
 Click Submit

11. Note:
 If you set the Loader Run Type parameter to Import, then data is imported to the stage tables. You can review the results of this process and correct any import errors before proceeding with the
load to the application tables. When you first start to use File-Based Loader, this is the recommended approach.
 If you set the Loader Run Type parameter to Import and Load Batch Data, then data is imported to the stage tables. All objects imported successfully to the stage tables are then loaded
automatically to the application tables. You may prefer this approach when import errors are few and your data-loading is routine.
Track the progress
Once you click on submit track the program. Enter your content Id in filed File and click on search. Press the refresh icon until you see process status Succeeded. At the bottom you can also see
the total object, pending objects etc.
Note: If you encounter any issue/error click on the log file any analysis the issue.
9. Load Data from the Stage Tables to the Application Tables

12. Now our data are loaded to stag table. Its time to move them to application table. For this click on the Batch Name link (for example : LoadGrade:Grade) or search based on the batch name that
you gave earlier. You should see screen similar to below. Now select the batch name line and Click on Run icon
Note : If you have uploaded more than one business objects you need to perform this activity one by one for all object in the same sequence we discussed initially.
Once you click on Run you will see below screen. Before you click on Submit just make sure Batch Name is correct.
As soon as you click on Submit you will get confirmation and the process id. Click Ok and come back to previous screen where you can track the progress. Please click on refresh couple of time
until you see the batch status Complete. Make sure all objects are loaded successfully, you can check this at the bottom.

13. 10. Fix Batch-Load Errors
If you encounter any error on the previous step, click on the failed tab and analysis the data. You have the flexibility to correct data here itself and mark them for reprocess so that you do not need
to start the whole process again.
Verify the loaded data through File Based Loader
Lets assume our data was loaded successfully to application tables. Now its time to verify them. Sine in this example we only uploaded Grades. the navigation we need to follow is Navigator »
Setup and Maintenance » search for task “Manage Grades” and click on Go to task
Now search for the name Avi and you will see two grades available there, which we loaded through File Based Loader

14. Additional Resources for File Based Loader
Please check below oracle notes if they are of any help
 Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management File-Based Loader (Doc ID 1595283.1)
 File Based loader Common simple Issues and their workarounds (Doc ID 1683867.1)
 Data File Validation for File Based Loader (Doc ID 1587716.1)
 What the User Interface Setups Needed For File Based Loader? (Doc ID 1586070.1)
 E-Business Suite HCM Extraction Toolkit for Fusion HCM Integration Using File Based Loader (Doc ID 1556687.1)
 E-Business Suite HCM Extraction Toolkit for Fusion HCM Integration Using Data Loader (Doc ID 1942763.1)