Siebel EIM DELETE Process

This section explains different types of deletes, the steps involved in a delete process, manual procedure to be followed to accomplish an EIM delete process.

Delete Types:
There are three ways in which you can achieve the deletion of records through EIM. They are as follows:

DELETE EXACT – Where EIM uses a user key matching algorithm to identify the rows that needs to be deleted. This is done by matching the user key of the record in the interface table with that of the records in the base table. Once a match occurs, EIM deletes this record.
DELETE MATCHES – Where EIM deletes those records that match the conditional expression set in the IFB file using the parameter “DELETE MATCHES”.
DELETE ALL ROWS – Where EIM deletes all the rows from the base table irrespective of any conditions or user key matching.

Delete Process Steps:
Whenever an EIM delete process runs, it internally performs a sequence of tasks. Each task involves multiple passes where one pass is defined as an execution of one SQL statement.

Step1:
EIM performs an initialization process on EIM tables. It checks the CLEAR INTERFACE TABLE parameter defined in the IFB file. If this parameter is set to TRUE, it deletes all the rows in the EIM table for the specified batch number. The default value of the parameter depends on the type of delete (as explained in previous section) being performed.

Step2:
In this step EIM performs the actual deletion of the records. If the DELETE EXACT parameter is set to TRUE in the IFB file, EIM performs a user key matching process to identify those records that need to be deleted and deletes the same.

If the DELETE MATCHES parameter is defined in the IFB file, EIM uses this conditional expression and selects those records from the target base table and deletes them.
If the DELETE ALL ROWS parameter is set to TRUE in the IFB file, EIM deletes all the rows from the target base table.

Step3:
As a final step, EIM sets the IF_ROW_STAT of those records to “DELETED” in the EIM table. Also, when there’s a reference to this record in some other table, that record is deleted if the referenced column is a mandatory, otherwise the reference column is cleared.

Whenever a parent record is deleted, the child records are also deleted, if the foreign key column in the child table is mandatory, otherwise the foreign column is cleared.
The deletion of child record is decided based on the CASCADE DELETE ONLY parameter defined in the IFB file.

Manual Deleting Procedure:

Before you start the export process, it is necessary to take care of the following things.
Identify the Data: As a first step, identify the data you want to delete from the base table. Now check once or twice, whether you have selected the right data for deleting. Once the data is identified, decide what type of delete (explained in previous section) needs to be used.

Prepare EIM Table: Depending upon the type of delete, decide what data should be loaded into your EIM table. If you are achieving a delete through DELETE EXACT, you must load the data into EIM table in the mandatory columns with IF_ROW_STAT set to “FOR_DELETE”, the user key columns of the corresponding target and non-target table.

Edit Configuration File: Depending upon the type of DELETE you use, make changes in the configuration file. The configuration parameters are explained in the previous section. Always set the COMMIT EACH PASS & COMMIT EACH TABLE parameter to FALSE and ROLLBACK ON ERROR to TRUE, to avoid dangling references in case if a failure occurs during an EIM delete.

Verify Results: After executing the EIM task, verify the results by examining the EIM table. EIM stores the ROW_ID of the deleted rows in the EIM table, in T_DELETED_ROW_ID column. Query for the count of records whose IF_ROW_STAT = “DELETED”. Verify this count is equal to the count of records considered for deletion earlier.

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