Extending the OCI with custom fields 

Introduction

There are numerous enhancements provided in SRM MDM Catalog 2.0 over SRM MDM Catalog 1.0. While working on SRM MDM Catalog 2.0 scenario I got a chance to explore Extending the OCI Mapping which is one of the enhancements provided in SRM MDM Catalog 2.0. The OCI Fields can be extended to incorporate one or more new fields to the already existing list of OCI Fields using this functionality.

Why it is needed?

Suppose you have a field in MDM repository which you want to show in the SRM MDM Catalog 2.0. For example in the requirement I was working on there was need to add a custom Status field which showed the availability of product. It can be done by adding the fields to the already existing OCI fields using the Configuration UI.The Configuration UI can be accessed using the link http://<server>:<port>/webdynpro/dispatcher/sap.com/tc~mdm~srmcat~uisearch/MDM_SRM_UI_App 

How it is done? 

Step 1

In the Server section of the Configuration UI, enter the name and password of the server to connect to. After connecting to the server, select the repository from the Repository drop down and enter the username and password of the user having Catalog Manager role to connect to the repository. Then instead of clicking on Login, click on Transport Configurtaion. The transport configuration window opens up. 
  

Step 2

Export the configuration and save it in XML format on the local drive. In the XML file, for every user there is an ociMapping node with the OCI fields defined in it. View the source of the XML and in the source, for a particular user, add a new OCI field which will be visible for the user only. For example as shown in the screen below I've added the OCI field "NEW_CUSTOM-STATUS" for user "Default" which holds the value of the MDM field "Status".

Step 3

Save the changes made to the XML file and import it back using the transport configuration Import option. Once the XML file is imported, login to the Configuration UI using the respository login credentials having the role Catalog Manager. Select the user for whom the OCI fields have been modified and in the General tab click on OCI Mapping.

Step 4

The OCI field "NEW_CUSTOM-STATUS" is added at the bottom of all the default OCI fields and can be mapped to the "Status" field of the MDM Repository.
 
 

Step 5 

Once all the configurations for displaying the Catalog have been saved, the newly added Status fields is displayed in the catalog on SRM Enterprise Buyers Portal with header "Status" and having values from the MDM repository in it.