Tutorial: How to monitor Business Partner updates? (API Approach)

Overview

Use case

Customer and vendor data quality decreases, even if the data is not touched, e.g., due to address changes, M&A, or insolvencies. Keeping the data up to date manually is a complex and high effort on a global scale. Commercial registers and other reference data sources have to be monitored continuously. And for countries without reliable reference data, data has to be researched business partner by business partner. The CDQ Business Partner Update Monitoring takes over the effort of manual update screening. Business Partner Updates are automatically collected and made available in an easy to analyze and integrate way.

Use Case: Situation, Approach and Results

Learning Goals

In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

1. Create Augmentation Configuration for updates
2. Create Augmentation Monitor
3. Read Subscriptions
4. Read updates

Prerequisites

Authorization

Before trying CDQ APIs, user must be authenticated:

1. Paste the API Key in the console's security bar into the X-API-KEY field.

2. After pasting the API Key, the green padlock will appear.

3. Check your API key for missing characters or extra space before trying.

No API Key?

1. Check how to get one on authentication page.
2. Follow the steps above.

Data Mirror

For tutorial purposes, the CDQ Data Mirror is used. Use your organization's Data Mirror to recreate the happy path.

Step 1: Create Augmentation Configuration

List available reference Data Sources

To receive updates, define which data sources should be monitored. All data sources should be activated in the Global settings.

To list all available reference Data Sources:

1. Use the List Data Sources of Update Monitors endpoint,
2. Send the request,

3. Select the desired reference Data Source.

All available reference Data Sources will be listed in the schema below:

{
    "referenceDataSources": [
        {
            "aleiPrefix": "REF_DATASOURCE_PREFIX",
            "technicalKey": "REF_DATASOURCE_TECHNICAL_KEY"
        }
    ]
}

Create the configuration

1. Use the Create augmentation configuration endpoint,
2. Select the Client Configuration (VIES and CH_UIDR) example,
3. Send the request,

4. Save id value from the response for next step.

{
    "id": "YOUR_AUGMENTATION_CONFIGURATION_ID"
}

Step2: Create an Augmentation Monitor

Selected reference Data Sources can be added to Augmentation Monitor. To activate or make changes to the Augmentation Monitor for your data source or sources:

1. Use the Create Update Monitors endpoint to send the below request.

2. Select Create an Augmentation Monitor example,
3. Replace values in the example:
   • YOUR_DATA_SOURCE_ID with proper data source ID or IDs,
   • YOUR_AUGMENTATION_CONFIGURATION_ID with proper configuration ID,
4. Send the request.

Step 3: Browse the subscription

Browsing subscription allows seeing the list of Business Partners to be monitored for updates.

Check already subscribed Business Partners:

1. Use the Read Links endpoint to send the below request,
2. Replace values in the example:
   • YOUR_STORAGE_ID with proper Data Storage ID in a Parameters section,
3. Clean the:
   • startAfter filed in a Parameters section,
4. Send the request.

{
"id": "BUSINESS_PARTNER_ID",
"updateMonitoring": true
}

Step 4: Read updates

Once linkage is created, it's possible to check updates.

Regular updates

When the update monitors are updated and all necessary Business Partners are updated, you can check Business Partners updates.

To read all updates:

1. Use the Read Business Partner Updates endpoint to send the below request.
2. Replace values in the example:
   • YOUR_STORAGE_ID with proper Data Storage ID in a Parameters section,
3. Clean below fields in the Parameters section:
   • conceptClassification
   • dataTransformationDefinitionId
   • from
   • startAfter
   • summaryClassification
4. Send the request.

Filtering

• summaryClassification: This filter provides Business Partners with a summary classification, which is determined by the highest classificationlevel among all Business Partner concepts.
• conceptClassification: This filter indicates the classification of a Business Partner's concept (e.g., name, street, legal form).

Generate seed updates

Seed updates are generated as an initial step in the update monitoring. All business partners from the mirror, for which linkage was created, receive full BP from reference data sources with the comparison (update assessment). In case update monitoring was turned on in the past, and some updates were not consumed, there is a possibility to generate seed updates on demand. It's possible to do that for a specific BP or for a big, defined group.

1. Use the Start Seed Updates Generate Job endpoint to send the below request,
2. Select Seed Updates example,

3. Set the storageId in the Parameters section,
4. Send the request.

5. Save the jobId for the next step.

6. Check the status of the job using the Poll Seed Updates Generate Job endpoint.
7. Set the jobId and storageId in the Parameters section,
8. Send the request.

Customized response

Response from the Read Business Partner Updates endpoint can be customized to the required structure and chosen elements. To do that, it's required to have Data Transformation Definition.

A customized response is provided in the "jsonRecord" section in the response from the Read Business Partner Updates endpoint:

{
  "limit": "100",
  "total": "67",
  "startAfter": "5712566172571652",
  "nextStartAfter": "5712566172571652",
  "values": [
    {
      "id": "5712566172571652",
      "businessPartnerId": "63e635235c06b7396330fe40",
      "externalBusinessPartnerId": "The ID managed in the customer's SAP systems.",
      "updatedBusinessPartner": {
        "id": "63e635235c06b7396330fe40",
        "summary": {},
        "names": [],
        "legalForm": {},
        "identifiers": [],
        "categories": [],
        "status": {},
        "addresses": [],
        "externalId": "The ID managed in the customer's SAP systems.",
        "profile": {},
        "types": [],
        "relations": [],
        "jsonRecord": "{\"key\":\"value\"}"
      },
      "storageBusinessPartner": {}
    }
  ]
}

Option 1 - DTD ID provided in the request

Ask dedicated CSM to create a Data Transformation Definition based on provided needs in the workspace where the Augmentation Monitor is created.

1. Use the Read Business Partner Updates endpoint to send the below request.
2. Replace values in the example:
   • YOUR_STORAGE_ID with proper Data Storage ID in a Parameters section,
   • dataTransformationDefinitionId with the Data Transformation Definition ID (Provided by CMS) in the Parameters section,
3. Clean below fields in the Parameters section:
   • conceptClassification
   • from
   • startAfter
   • summaryClassification
4. Send the request.

Option 2 - Configuration assigned to the API KEY

Ask CSM to create a Data Transformation Definition based on your needs in the workspace where the Augmentation Monitor is created.

1. Go to the Data Transformation Configurator APP,
2. Create a new configuration,

3. Select created Data Transformation Definition in the Business Partner Updates selector,
4. Save the configuration,

5. Go to the API Key Management,
6. Select the existing API KEY or create a new one and click a "See Details" button,
7. Scroll down and assign a new configuration for Data Transformation Configuration,

8. Save the changes,

Use API KEY in requests to get data in a customized way from the Read Business Partner Updates endpoint.

To read updates:

1. Use the Read Business Partner Updates endpoint to send the below request.
2. Replace values in the example:

• YOUR_STORAGE_ID with proper Data Storage ID in a Parameters section,

3. Clean below fields in the Parameters section:

• conceptClassification
• dataTransformationDefinitionId
• from
• startAfter
• summaryClassification

4. Send the request.

Update Report

CDQ Cloud APPs offer the creation of update report. Report for now provides data in the old model (v4). More about creating reports check here.

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