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Setting up Catalog Validation

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

Modify default validation rules
Create supplier specific validation rules

Catalog Validation Setup

"Great! Now I have a good understanding on how to load catalogs. But what happens when there are errors? How can we fix those?"

"That is an excellent question. After your catalog has loaded, navigate to the Catalogs Home page where you can view all information about any catalog subscription, including any error detail. As an administrator you may have to create validation rules for your catalogs before starting to upload them. You can also configure your system to wait for or skip verification and approvals if that works best.

A validation rule is a set of constraints applied to catalog item fields.

The catalog files published by the suppliers contain data related to catalog items. Sometimes catalog data in the files might be missing or not relevant to buyer requirements. A buyer can define a set of validation rules for catalog fields to specify the catalog data they need from the supplier."

Note

When creating a validation rule you can specify whether the value for a catalog field is required or optional, and also specify the value that is expected in a catalog field. For example, if a buyer requires that the supplier must always provide a value for the catalog field Green, then they specify that the field Green is a required field.

Types of Validation Checks Performed by the System:

Syntactic

Ensures that a catalog’s content is correctly formed
Every catalog must be syntactically correct before it can be published
Examples: Required fields, number formats, price fields, parametric data

Semantic

Ensures that a catalog’s content is compatible with specified catalog standards
Examples: currency, unit of measure, commodity codes, supplier ID

"How can we create validation rules? Does the application come with default rules?"

"The buyer can edit the default global validation rules available in the SAP Ariba solution that are applicable to all suppliers or create supplier-specific validation rules for individual suppliers.

The validation rules take effect when catalogs are loaded in SAP Ariba solutions either locally or downloaded from Ariba Network when the Ariba Network Full Subscription Synchronization scheduled task is run."

Validation Rules

The default rules available in the SAP Ariba solution are global validation rules. Users belonging to the Customer Catalog Manager group can modify or create validation rules. You can modify global validation rules that are common to all suppliers or create supplier-specific validation rules for individual suppliers. You create or edit supplier-specific rules for one supplier at a time. When a catalog field has both global and supplier-specific validation rules, the supplier-specific rules take precedence.

Working with Global Validation Rules

Validation rules can be accessed from the Catalog Manager menu.

Select the plus icons to learn more about Validation Rules.

Working with Supplier Validation Rules

You can create supplier-specific validation rules by editing global validation rules

Select the plus icons to learn more about Validation Rules.

You can delete or disable supplier-specific validation rules if you no longer need them. Disabling validation rules allows you to keep the rule for future use.

To delete a supplier-specific validation rule, choose Delete Rule from the Actions drop-down menu for the catalog field to delete the validation rule.
To disable a supplier-specific validation rule, choose Disable Rule from the Actions dropdown menu for the catalog field to disable the validation rule.

Viewing Validation Errors

Users must be members of the Customer Catalog Manager group to view errors. From the Catalog Manager menu under Catalogs, catalog managers can see the list of available catalogs and the validation error displayed in the Status column of catalog versions.

Select the plus icons to learn more about Validation Errors.

"Thanks a lot for the explanation! This clarifies my doubts! Since we receive most of the catalogs from suppliers, how can we make sure they know and understand our validation rules?"

"That is an excellent question. Suppliers can punch in to the SAP Ariba solution to view or download the validation rules before publishing catalogs to their customers on SAP Business Network. A supplier cannot view the supplier-specific rules that are created for other suppliers."

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