This is the cover slide.

AdBaseXMLImporter This is your session title slide

AdBaseXMLImporter Introduction What it is? Configuration options The workflow How it can be used, including examples Sample input files Need some other tidbits here

AdBaseXMLImporter - what is it? The AdBase XML Importer is a process that allows ad order information and system configuration information to be imported into the AdBase system from an external source. XML (extensible markup language) – is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format which is both human-readable and machine-readable. Designed to describe data. Great for transport between many systems. Ad order information? System configuration information? External source – next slide Refer to the AdbaseXMLImporter pdf, what it is called and where it might be found

Here is a screenshot of the AdBaseXMLImporter. There are 4 tabs: Setup, Order Defaults, Account Data, and File Management. Setup is the default view. The Ad portion shows the last ad or other data. There is a logging window in the lower right corner. When Automatic Execution is checked, its running against current settings. Upper right show last execution, usually an ad Lower right shows some logging.

Config - Setup When run, the XML Importer uses the current settings based on the 4 tabs. To save your current settings to use later, go to File – Save Import Scenario. An .ais file is saved. Automatic execution Flat Rate Choice – I’ve tried using this field in the past and couldn’t get it to do what I wanted. Think I was trying to flat-rate the ads coming in. Use Forced Buys – allow a trigger product to add other products. External Order Number – will display but only if it is in the XML. Try Placement mapping . . For when you only have a placement.

Config – Order Defaults Example of AdPay Order Defaults. Ad Type does not override what is already selected Some of these fields are not really important, but System Translation is really important. When you get a message in your reply file that says something like: <non-pub-notes>Publication- Placement Unable to map placement Awesome Merchandise</non-pub-notes>, check System Translator. CLS Obit doesn’t affect anything for us. All types of ads come in and this setting has no effect. Order Status, Publish Queue, Non-Publish Queue, Default Promotion, Ad Taker – these will fill in some of the fields of your ads Response type, EPS Liner Prod Method – need to find out System Translater is an important one.

Config – Account Data In the case of AdPay, the phone number and other fields are used to determine if an account exists. Otherwise, a new account can be created. In other uses, these fields may not be filled out. Need separate slides for each. Need File Management

Config – File Management Input Directory – pickup folder for the XMLImporter. Output Directory – the exact file that was picked up, is put there. Else, it goes to the error queue. Recovery Directory – Reply file is placed there regardless of success or failure. Need separate slides for each. Need File Management

What is the workflow? An external system creates an XML file The XML file is placed into the ‘Input Directory’ location The AdBaseXMLImporter processes the file A file successfully processed gets moved to the ‘Output Directory’ location If the import file contains errors, it is moved to an error folder (more about this) Regardless of success or failure, a reply file gets produced and goes to the ‘Recovery Directory’ location Helpful in troubleshooting problems. One problem with this, if a file is processed containing multiple ad orders, for instance, and one of these orders has a problem, the whole file is sent to the error queue. The orders that had no problems were processed normally. In order to resubmit these failed orders, the files need to be split. Good orders need to go to the ‘processed’ folder and bad orders need to have the condition corrected and resubmitted. Common reasons include: customer is currently in use (ad order, Customer Manager), information in the xml file refers to something that doesn’t exist in Adbase, such as a package name. A placement, position, package, etc was created and this has not been updated in the System Translator utility.

Examples of external sources What external sources? Ad orders in the form of XML files coming from AdPay An XML file created on-demand by an in-house application (POS) An XML file converted from a spreadsheet (circ counts) An XML file converted from a spreadsheet from a different system containing a large number of ad orders. (Eldercare Directory) Need some details

AdBaseXMLImporter – Importing AdPay ads Adpay hosts our photos and currently is our customer self-service ad entry portal. Ads are created at AdPay by the customer online. After approximately 15 minutes, an XML file is ftp’d to a location. From here some XML Transforming may occur. Then, it is moved to another folder where it is picked up by the AdBaseXMLImporter. AdPayMemoriams.ais. Rework this sentence. Might mention the business purpose and separate the technical stuff. Middleware project, splitting files Might throw up a slide showing the different file structures of XML files getting input.

AdBaseXMLImporter – Point-of-Sale (POS) POS with Tips and Tricks POS (UTPointOfSale) is an in- house application that is accessible via Citrix Receiver that allows individuals in the company to make some limited account information requests from AdBase and take payments in the form of cash or check from a customer and apply it in AdBase. NewPOSIAS.ais

AdBaseXMLImporter – Circulation Counts Circulation draw counts The circulation is estimated. A series of spreadsheets are produced. The spreadsheets are converted to XML. CircDefault.ais

AdBaseXMLImporter – Eldercare Directory Hundreds of listings from another system were dumped into an Excel file. This Excel file with 100’s of listings was filtered and this Excel file was turned into an XML file and eventually imported as online orders into Adbase. Original file was an Excel spreadsheet. Rows were added or deleted to match what was required. A schema was produced in Excel. The process ran as a series of macros to produce and XML file.

Input files – Adpay and Circ Counts First example is a portion of a file from AdPay Second example is an example of Circulation Counts

Input files – Eldercare and POS First example is Eldercare Directory Second example is POS

Discussion Questions? What are y’all doin’?