2285593 - Adding an Association from Custom Foundation Object to a Legacy Foundation Object (GO to FO) - Employee Central

How do you add an association filter between a Custom Foundation Object (Child) and a Legacy Foundation Object (Parent). How is this accomplished?

Image/data in this KBA is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental.

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central

To be able to associate a Generic Object (Child) with a Legacy Foundation Object (Parent) you will need to create an MDF Wrapper object, and use that as your association on the Custom Foundation Object (GO). Please follow the steps below to accomplish this.

The following actions do not require a Support case, and can be executed by an Admin User. A few things to remember here before getting started -:

1. Start Simple! Try not to do everything at once on your 1st try. Keep it simple, get the basic configuration working, and then work to expand to the more complex scenarios.
2. Always start in your Test/Sandbox instance - never start in a QA/Production instance. 
3. Ensure that you follow the below steps and create your working object first, before trying any custom configurations, as it is much simpler to get the basic object working and then build up to the intended configuration instead of doing it all in 1 step (as mistakes can be made which could lead to errors/inconsistent behaviours).

You will need the following Administrative Permission to access the following Admin Center UI's to complete this task -:

• Configure Object Definitions
• Manage Data
• Manage Business Configuration

Example Association Configuration - Room Number (Child) to Location (Parent)

1) We assume that the "Room / Floor Number" Custom Foundation Object (GO) has already been created and added to Job Information configuration as well as permissioned correctly in RBP. (Please refer to article 2285199 which is tagged in the References section at the bottom of this KBA, which details how to create a Custom Foundation Object)

2) To add an association from a Custom foundation Object (Child) to a Legacy Foundation Object (Parent), you will need to utilize one of the pre-delivered Wrapper objects, which are needed to associate a GO (Child) with FO (Parent). In our case we are associating to Location, so we will use the pre-delivered "Location Wrapper (FOWLocation)" -:

 

3) We assign this Wrapper object as the Association on our Custom Foundation Object (GO/Generic Object), with the following criteria and then Save the change. Make sure to note down the Association Name for use in a later step! (cust_toLocation) -:

• Association Name = Call it something sensible - such as toLocation
• Multiplicity = One to Many
• Destination Object = Location Wrapper
• Type = Composite

 '

4) Next we need to add the Field Criteria information to the "Floor / Room Number" field to ensure the values are correctly filtered based on the Location selection. Please navigate to Admin Center > Manage Business Configuration. Select jobInfo element and Take Action > Make Correction. Find the custom-string field that the "Room / Floor Number" Custom Foundation Object (GO) has been assigned to and click "Details".

• Destination Field Value = location       (Field Identifier for Parent field in Job Information)
• Source Field Name = cust_toLocation.externalCode     (The reason we use externalCode here is because in the Wrapper object, the "externalCode" field is set as type "Foundation Object" 

5) Once the Field Criteria has been set, click Finished and Save.

6) Next you need to go to Admin Center > Manage Data and create some values for your Custom Foundation Object including specifying their associated Location value -:

7) Once completed, navigate to My Employee Files > Search for a Test user and navigate to their Employment Information page. Final check to make is to ensure your association is working correctly. You can use History > Insert New Record/Make Correction for a quick test. Select a Department and then choose a Sub Department option

8) Before deploying the same solution to a Production instance, please ensure you test the changes thoroughly in a Test instance. Meaning; ensure the filtering/Value Help works in all available UI's (History, MSS UI, etc). Make sure that when assigning permission that the relative roles have access to view/edit data in this field. And verify any workflows triggered off of changing this field are triggered accordingly.

 

If you have further configuration questions please review the Employee Central Master Implementation Guide

 

• Object Association FAQ (Value Help Configuration)
• Adding an Association from Custom Foundation Object to MDF Foundation Object (GO to GO)
• Object Association: How to create a field that filters based on Termination Reason

Custom Foundation Object, Legacy Foundation Object, Parent, Child, Create Custom FO, association, value help, go, fo, mfo, associations, GO to FO , KBA , LOD-SF-EC-FOO , Foundation Objects (Organisation, Pay and Job Structures) , LOD-SF-EC-JOB , Job Information , LOD-SF-EC-MDF , MDF & EC2MDF Migration , How To

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central all versions ; SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite all versions