Source Systems Overview

Source System Management maintains references between the TCA Registry and any defined source system, such as a legacy or third party system, that loads data into the Registry. The source ID, or ID of the record in that external system, is mapped to the Registry ID of the TCA record, such as the party or contact point.

For example, you load a record with the ID 12345 from the Gorman system into the TCA Registry. That record is assigned the Registry ID 100 in the TCA Registry. The source ID, 12345, is referenced to Registry ID 100.

Note: By defining source systems, you ensure that when you load data from that system, a mapping record is created to maintain the reference between the source ID and the Registry ID.

Source System Management allows multiple source system references to one Registry ID. Examples of TCA entities that support multiple source references include the Party, Location, and Customer Account entities. The mappings can be between one Registry ID and source IDs from multiple source systems, or, if enabled, between one Registry ID and multiple source IDs from the same source system.

For example, Registry ID 100 is mapped to source ID 12345 from the Gorman system and source ID 99999 from the Elcaro system. If multiple references from the same source is allowed for the entity, Registry ID 100 can be mapped to source IDs 12345 and 67890 from the same Gorman system.

By mapping the IDs from the sources of your customer data to the TCA Registry IDs, your source systems can continue to operate, sending updates to and receiving updates from TCA. This operational mapping between the TCA Registry and multiple source systems allows you to:

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Source Systems Example

This example shows how you can implement and use source systems.

  1. You define a source system, for example, Gorman.

  2. You load data from an external system into the TCA Registry, specifying both the source system name and source ID.

    For example, you load a record for a party named Joe Smith from Gorman. You specify that the source system name is Gorman and that the source ID, or ID of Joe Smith in Gorman, is 12345.

    Note: If you specify only the source ID, the mapping is only inserted for customer account level entities with unique references, with the source system name defaulted to UNKNOWN.

  3. Users of an application that has implemented SSM can specify the source system name and source ID when they create or update records in the TCA Registry. They can also query records in the Registry using the source system name and source ID.

    For example, the user enters a record for the party named Joe Smith and specify that the source system is Gorman and the source ID is 12345. Then, the user can query for Joe Smith using 12345 as the source ID and Gorman as the source system name.

  4. You can encounter additional situations, for example:

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