Overview

Overview

As a system administrator, you can configure integration between Plant Applications and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to automatically import the following records from the ERP systems to the Plant Applications database:
  • Work orders
  • Process orders
  • Materials
This integration is implemented by means of an integration database and integration services.
  • The integration database: Stores information necessary for the integration, such as messages that contain work orders, process orders, and materials that are sent by ERP systems.
  • The integration services: Include the ERP Scheduler service, ERP Transformation service, and ERP Import service, which convert the work orders, process orders, and materials into a JSON file (as needed), import them into Plant Applications, and maintain status information in the integration database.

About the ERP Integration Database

The ERP integration database supports the transfer of data from ERP systems.
Tip: Refer to the database schema for additional information.

The implementation can be a standalone database or a table in the Plant Applications SOADB database, depending on the Plant Applications system setup during initial installation.

About the ERP Scheduler Service

The ERP Scheduler service is a server daemon that executes the import process. The service polls the integration database on a regular interval for the following types of records:
  • New records: For each new (that is, unprocessed) work order, process order, or material, the ERP Scheduler service calls the HTTP POST method of the ERP Import service to import the record.
  • Records that are already in the process of being imported: For each work order, process order, or material whose import process has started, but not completed, the ERP Scheduler service calls the HTTP GET method of the ERP Import service (by sending the ID of the record as a URI parameter) to receive the status update.

After the ERP Scheduler service receives a response from the ERP Import service regarding the status of the import, the ERP Scheduler service updates the error code, error message, and time stamp of the respective message in the integration database.

About the ERP Import Service

The ERP Import service retrieves information about work orders, process orders, and materials from the integration database, and creates these records in the Plant Applications database.

The ERP Import service is a RESTful microservice that exposes an API consisting of the following methods: POST and GET.

To import files, the following steps are performed:
  1. When the ERP Scheduler service sends a request for a new or in-process record, the ERP Import service performs one of the following steps:
    • For a new record, it retrieves the corresponding file from the integration database using the POST method to communicate with the other Plant Applications microservices. This method is asynchronous; as a result, the HTTP response codes and response messages are stored in a table for subsequent retrieval.
      Note: If the record is available in an XML or B2MML format, the ERP Import service sends the data to the ERP Transformation service, where it is converted to a JSON format.
    • For an in-process record, it retrieves the ID of the record from the integration database using the GET method.
  2. The ERP Import service updates the status of the import. The ERP Scheduler service then updates the ERP Integration database with this information.

About the ERP Transformation Service

The ERP Transformation service converts an XML or a B2MML file to a JSON file. The supported version on the B2MML file is V0401.

To convert an XML or a B2MML file to a JSON file, the following steps are performed:
  1. The XML or B2MML file is converted to a standard B2MML file (compatible with MESA standards) based on the mapping details in the XSL file. The supported version of the XSL file is V1.0.
  2. The standard B2MML file is converted to a JSON file, which contains the work order, process order, or material details.
  3. The JSON file is sent in the request body using the HTTP POST method of the ERP Import service.