SAP Learning Journey

Importing a picklist at the beginning of an implementation

Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Import a picklist at the beginning of an implementation

Picklist and picklist values

Aside from enabling appropriate settings in Provisioning and uploading the Data models, another essential part of the Employee Central configuration setup is creating picklists. Picklists determine the information that gets displayed typically as a dropdown menu. SAP SuccessFactors provides a Master Picklist file which can be downloaded from the SAP Software Download Center.

Note
This section only tackles picklists regarding setting up Employee Central. For the complete concept of Picklist and how to use Picklist Center, please review the relevant topic in THR80 Platform Introduction Academy.

The Employee Central master picklist MDF zip file is comprehensive and contains picklist values for many countries. The zip file includes the following:

  • HRIS Picklist values: These are used in Employee Central. 

  • Miscellaneous Picklist values: These are used in talent modules. 

  • Delta Picklist values: These are the new picklist values rolled out with the enhancement release.

When working with the Master Picklist from the Software Download Center, there are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Some picklists and picklist values might already exist in an Employee Central-enabled environment.
  • The zip file only includes picklist values. Consultants are recommended to create a separate import file for the picklists before importing the picklist values file. Delete from the file any picklists and picklist values that already exist in the system before uploading.
  • The file from the portal is massive and may need some revision if consultants only want to import values relevant to the implemented countries.
  • Zip import option is available for uploading Picklist and Picklist values, but only if you want to do a Full Purge. Use the CSV import option for incremental upload.

A validation check is available in Check Tool to identify invalid picklist references in person and employment elements. This feature saves time in identifying issues and taking corrective actions.

Note
For THR81 academy, the practice environment is already set up with picklists, and you won’t need to use the Master Picklist from the SAP Software Download Center. A simplified version of the file is included in the Course File.

Exercise: Create a new picklist

Business Example

After expanding its operation to France, Germany, and the United States, ACE Corp needs to create a new picklist to identify its pay scale for these countries. You will create this new picklist using the standard picklist file provided by SAP SuccessFactors.

Steps

  1. Create Pay Scale Picklist for France, Germany, and United States.

    Hint
    To avoid unnecessary errors, we recommend watching the Create a New Picklist tutorial video before completing any task on this exercise.

    1. Download the MDF Pay Scale Type Picklist from Course Files.

    2. The excel file contains different pay scale type values for different countries. For this example, you will only create a pay scale type for France, Germany, and United States. Delete the unnecessary translations and values for other countries.

    3. Go to Import and Export Data using Action Search.

    4. Select Download Template from action to perform.

    5. Select Picklist as the Generic Object (leave other settings as is).

    6. Select Download.

    7. The zip file contains both the Picklist and Picklist Value templates.

  2. Transfer the necessary data from the MDF Pay Scale Type to the Picklist template.

    1. Copy the ID from master to the Id and legacyPickListId columns of the template.

    2. In the parentPickList.id column, enter the ISO Country List picklist code from the Picklist Center.

    3. Transfer the rest of the data to the template.

  3. Transfer the necessary data from the MDF Pay Scale Type to the Picklist Value template.

    1. Copy the ID and the values.externalCode from master to the template.

    2. Transfer the rest of the data to the template.

  4. Upload the files. 

    1. Go to Import and Export Data using Action Search.

    2. Select Import Data from action to perform.

    3. Select Picklist as the Generic Object.

    4. File Encoding is UTF-8.

    5. Purge Type as incremental load (All other settings leave as is).

    6. Choose File and Validate.

    7. If no error, select Import.

    8. Do the same for Picklist Value file.

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