To learn how to configure Learning Activities, watch this video:
When integrating Career Development Planning (CDP) with SAP SuccessFactors Learning Management System (LMS), a team effort is needed between the professional services of CDP and LMS.
Starting Points for CDP - LMS Integration
Setup and configuration must take place for both products to integrate properly. The content in this lesson mainly addresses the CDP setting modifications. However, please remember to coordinate with the LMS Professional Services Consultant to ensure a smooth system exchange.
Starter steps are as follows:
CDP and LMS have to be activated in Provisioning.
Turn on mandatory Company Settings related to CDP/LMS Integration.
Place Specific URL/URI Information into Company Settings and also the URL/URI Authorized SP Assertion Consumer Service Settings.
Add/Edit the Learning Activity Template to include Required Fields.
Verify with the LMS Consultant regarding settings within this module.
First Steps in Company Settings in Provisioning
Navigate to Provisioning → Company Settings → Career Development Planning. To begin, enable CDP Full (Development Plan) and the Transcript features.
Transcript Feature - What does it do?
Transcript: Currently, if a customer chooses SAP SuccessFactors Learning (LMS), the Transcript Feature needs to be checked and they can use enhanced learning definitions with the new learning template settings.
Use default value for required field validation: If this option is enabled, once the status is completed, SAP SuccessFactors compares the current value of each field with the default value in the template and will report errors. Default values are treated as mandatory fields. You do not need to enable this option.
Enable Add Learning Activity Manually: This option should be selected to manually add new learning activities directly from CDP via custom Learning Activity. If this option is disabled, the customer can only add learning activities in the Learning Management System, and the Custom Learning Activity menu does not appear in CDP.
Next Steps in Company Settings of Provisioning
Select the option Enable SuccessFactors Learning Integration and specify the SAP SuccessFactors Learning Integration URI. If the customer uses Akamai or reverse proxy, you should specify an SAP SuccessFactors Learning Integration API URI.
Note
Customers need a unique learning URL when enabling SAP SuccessFactors Learning Integration. This URL can be requested from Data Center Operations.Legacy Learning Activities vs. Transcript Learning Activities
The existing learning activity is very limited and has performance issues with large data. The Transcript project includes building a transcript module which can be easily extended to support new customer requirements. These requirements include:
Integration with 3rd party system by web service
Extended columns to provide enough information for customers
Better performance by rotating blob to flat table
Provide audit trial to track the learning activity change
Easy link/unlink with objective
Support Ad hoc Report for learning activity (for the learning activities linked to the development goals)
Introduce EL/EJ role to maintain more precise Learning
Support Mass Export and import to update learning.
Configuring the Transcript Learning Activity Template
Only one Transcript template is supported in Provisioning. For best results, use the template ID 4201.
This new learning plan should be made as the default in Provisioning in order to use the Transcript feature.
All required fields must be configured within the template for the integration to work properly.
Make sure you have learning-activity-deep-link="true" in your template.
Required Fields for Learning Activity Template
The Learning Activity Template supports configuration for both Catalog Learning from SAP SuccessFactors LMS and manual learning.
For a full set of field definitions, refer to the CDP Implementation Guide. For Catalog Learning, the fields in the Required Fields table are mandatory.
Required Fields
| Field ID | Description | Type | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| assignee | Owner of the learning | text | |
| completed_date | Learning completed date | Date | |
| name | Learning activity name | text | |
| description | Description | textarea | Supports coach advisor/legal scan/spell check |
| status | Status of the learning | enum | |
| guid | Learning unique ID | ID | |
| type | Product Type | text | Reserved and only can be configured as text |
| dev_goals | Learning associated with goals | text | Must assign write permission for this field |
Adding Custom Learning Activities with Custom Field
To add the learning activity type for a custom learning activity, use a custom field configured as an enum type field.
You can also hide the type field by removing it from the detail-layout definition in the learning template and then display the customtext4 field instead, as illustrated in the figure.
Custom Learning Type in the Learning Activity Template
To add a custom learning type, enter the configuration illustrated in the figure.
Disabling the Fancy Pod
Fancy Pod is to control the UI on the pop-up of manually-added transcript learning. It enables a fancy layout for name, status, and description fields. However, you can choose to use the standard layout for the name, status, and description fields by adding the following switch in the template.
1234<switches>
<switch for for="transcript-disable-fancy-pod" value="on"/>
</switches>
Permissions for LMS
Once the customer has SAP SuccessFactors Learning enabled, the administrator can grant permission to employees in the Admin Center.
To set role permissions to access Learning (RBP), navigate to Admin Center → Set User Permissions → Manage Permission Roles. For the roles needing the Learning tab, turn on the Learning Access Permission.
Importing Development Goals with Learning Activities
When using the tool Import Development Goals, it is possible to download the CSV template and complete it with development goals and learning activities.
Importing learning activities with development goals is only available for customers that have enabled the Transcript feature, which is the integration between CDP (Career Development Plan) and LMS (Learning Management System). This explains why customers who do not have the transcript enabled will see that development goals may be successfully imported, but not the associated learning activities.
Moreover, it is only possible to add, update, or delete custom learning activities. It is not possible to perform any actions on the learning activities from the LMS catalog.
Overview of the column content for the Import for Learning Activities:
To import learning activities, the TYPE should be LEARNING.
GUID is the GUID of the goal and the SUBGUID is the GUID of the learning activity.
For the ADD action, leave SUBGUID, and the LEARNING_guid blank and the system will automatically generate a value.
You can add, delete, and update all custom learning activities.
You cannot perform an add on a catalog learning activity.
When the Enable SuccessFactors Learning integration option is enabled in Provisioning, catalog learning from the Learning Management System cannot be updated or deleted.
Note
Importing learning activities to a Completed Goal will not work. You need to change the goal status to In Progress or Not Started and then import. If importing to a manually added goal, you can use the Goal ID instead of the GUID. Manually added goals do not have GUIDs (only imported ones have it).
End User View
Once the integration between SAP SuccessFactors LMS and CDP is created, end users can add a Learning Activity directly from their Development Plan.
Due to technical challenges of integrating an LMS system with a BizX system for THR95, we have included the following video that will demonstrate the key features that a customer can expect to get from an integration SAP SuccessFactors Learning Management System. It will also show the relevant XML code that can be used in a typical development plan template, learning activity template, and career worksheet template.