The Item Preprocessor is an add-on product in Costpoint Product Interfaces that you can use to upload item information (parts, services and goods) from flat ASCII text files into Costpoint. This preprocessor will also update item information for existing rows if the input file references an existing item/rev. However, if an input file field is null, the existing database columns in Costpoint that apply will not be deleted or changed to null. You can specify the network location and name of the input file, and the application will perform all necessary database and business rule validation.
If you select the Separate Items By Company checkbox in the Corporate Settings subtask of the Product Definition Settings screen, the system will assign your company ID to your newly processed items and saved parameters, based on the company logged into when the process was executed. Users logged into other companies will not be able to change or delete these items or parameters. If you select the Separate Items by Company checkbox, you can have two item records in the database with the same ID (and revisions, if you also selected the Allow Multiple Revisions for Each Item checkbox in the Corporate Settings subtask of the Product Definition Settings screen), as long as the items are linked to different companies. If you are changing or deleting an item, item record, or its related data, the company ID must be the same for both your user ID and the item ID.
If you do not select the Separate Items by Company checkbox, all items in the database will be available to users in all companies, and two items cannot coexist with the same item ID (and revision, if you also selected the Allow Multiple Revisions for Each Item checkbox in the Corporate Settings subtask of the Product Definition Settings screen) in the database.
Use the Material Requirements Planning control functions (in the MRP Corporate Settings subtask of the MRP Settings screen) to enable MRP planning by company ID.
You must set up any necessary master table data records (such as Unit of Measure, commodity code, and industry classification) before you run the Item preprocessor.
Use the Select pushbutton to choose an ASCII text file to be uploaded, or enter the filename. This is a required field. The input file cannot have an extension of .ERR. The .ERR extension is reserved for the error file.
You can process only one input file at a time. The file being processed can contain different line types. Only the Item Line is required for inserting new items. All other lines are optional. The order of the lines is inconsequential.
Select this radio button to indicate that the input file has delimiters as field separators. This is the default.
Select this radio button to indicate the input file contains fields that start and end in a specified column. If the Input File is a fixed-length format file, you must fill every position with the appropriate number of either characters or spaces for a given column before entering data for the next column. It is not necessary to zero fill numbers; you can use spaces to maintain the proper format. Numeric fields should be right justified; character fields should be left justified. Once you have entered the last character of meaningful data for the input file, you need not fill the remaining column lines with spaces.
For example, if the Item (ITM) record format's maximum line length (i.e., the entire input file) is a total of 451 characters and the last character of meaningful data is in position 113, you do not need to add the remaining 338 spaces. However, let's say that the Commodity Code (beginning at position 114 on the input file) is only five characters long. You must include the Commodity Code plus three additional spaces before entering the Hazardous Material Flag in position number 122. Please refer to the "Processing Details" section for additional information.
If the input file is Delimited, you must choose the delimiter. The default is Comma. To use another delimiter, select the Other radio button and enter a single character in the field to the right.
Use the radio buttons in this group box to determine how validation errors will be handled. Errors occur if the input file record is not valid or a condition is not met for a field that is being processed in an input file record. If you select the Process Valid Records radio button, all valid rows on the input file will be processed. Process Valid Records is the default. If you select the Process No Records radio button, no input rows will be processed when errors are encountered. In either case, an error report listing all validation errors will be produced as well an ASCII error file (if the Produce NO ASCII Error File checkbox is unselected). The error file will have the same filename as the original input file except the suffix will be ".ERR," and the file will contain all input rows that are in error. You can then correct this error file, rename it, and reprocess it until all rows are processed. The program will timestamp the TIMESTAMP field at the end of each record, indicating the most recent instance in which the file was created.
Select this checkbox if you do not want to produce an ASCII error file listing the input file records not processed.
ITEM UNIT OF MEASURE LINE (IUM)
ITEM UNIT OF MEASURE CONVERSION (UMC)
PRODUCT WARRANTY COST SCHEDULE (PWS)
PROJECT CONTRACT LINE ITEM NUMBER (CLN)
PROJECT CLIENT LINE ITEM NUMBER PRODUCT (PCP)
CONTRACT LINE ITEM NUMBER PRICE SCHEDULE (CPS)
CONTRACT LINE ITEM NUMBER COST SCHEDULE (CCS)
CONTRACT LINE ITEM NUMBER WARRANTY COST SCHEDULE (CWS)