Import Process: Column Mapping

This page describes the Column Mapping step of the Phenix import process. While the column mapping step is ultimately not very complicated, its presentation and the logic behind how you complete the step may be initially confusing.

The step boils down to this: you are trying to bring some information from an outside file into Phenix. Phenix expects to have certain types of information, and can handle more types of information beyond that, but it doesn’t know what the types of information you are sharing equate to in terms of what it expects to have. Therefore, you go through the column mapping process to tell Phenix what information you are providing Phenix, in its own terms. Phenix can even “remember” this step, so you won’t have to re-map columns with every import as long as your file is same format or minimally different.

When you first reach the column mapping step you will see several columns and rows on your screen similar to the following:

Open

You will always be presented with the Actions, Column Name, Example Values, and Mapping columns. The number of rows presented will depend on the file you are using for the import process; if using an Excel file, for example, more columns in the Excel file will result in more rows in Phenix.

The Actions column will always hold an “Edit Mapping” button for each row, which may be green to indicate that it has been assigned a mapping already. A white button means that no mapping is assigned, a yellow button means that the mapping process is incomplete, and a red button means that the mapping conflicts with another mapping (e.g., both items share a mapping).

The Column Name column in Phenix refers to the columns in the file you are importing from. Using the picture above as an example, the Column Name column suggests that the file you are using for the import has columns called “Material”, “Material Description”, “Material Type”, “Min. Order Amount”, and so on.

The Example Values column exists to help you determine what mapping should be assigned to a given column. It shows you what data is present in a few of the cells of the column with the name described in the Column Name column. Again using the image above as a reference, Phenix is indicating that for cells in a column named “Material”, values such as 1001, 1002, and 1003 are present. Using this information, we can judge what that column should be mapped to (in this case, Material identifier).

Finally, the Mapping column is the column wherein you tell Phenix what type of information it expects to have equates to the label in the Column Name column. The array of choices depends on the type of import you are performing (e.g., Orders, Material Master Data, Inventory, etc.), but you can fill this column either by dragging and dropping mappings from the array on the right or by using the Edit Mapping button on the left.