Symptom
We have a large number of import jobs scheduled to run daily that are of the type "Foundation Data Import".
The application error id would be accompanied by: "Effective start date cannot be null.,effectiveStartDate: 22/10/2014 is not a valid date value.","".
I suspect that something has changed so that dates are now expected to be of a different format than the one we have used so far (dd/mm/yyyy).
(Nothing has changed in the way the data files, that come from different sources, are sent to Employee Central.)
Image/data in this KBA is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental.
Reproducing the Issue
- Schedule Jobs
- go to Monitor Job for error reports
Cause
- For any Foundation Object that is on MDF, the only date format that is accepted on import is MM/DD/YYYY.
- MDF import does not currently support the logged in users locale, it will Always operate on US date format- This is expected behaviour.
- For any Foundation Object that is not on MDF, it will respect the logged in user locales date format.
Resolution
Make sure to use the US date format i.e. MM/DD/YYYY
Please refer to: Guide: Implementing the Metadata Framework (MDF) Chapter: Using Delimit Functionality for MDF Entities
See Also
1935476 - Date format does not match selected Locale
Keywords
Date Format, User Locale, Effective start date, cannot be null, Effective start date cannot be null, effectiveStartDate, Import, Metadata Framework,MDF , KBA , LOD-SF-EC-FOO , Foundation Objects (Organisation, Pay and Job Structures) , Problem