Jennifer - member of Data Import, Metadata Management SIG and part of Product Council.
Came up as Product Council asked for top 5 priorities.
Concern that working group’s priorities might be lost as Metadata Management is quite large.
Should Data Import be its own SIG, remain under MM or be a working group under Cross App?
Data Import does need help with orders side of things. Searching for more interaction.
Christie - There are implications for changes in acquisitions. With each release see changes in orders/funds, which have implications for how data import works with batch creation of orders. Having a tighter relationship will help in understanding and anticipating changes.
Open up floor to discussion
Kimberly - think it’s a bit confusing that it’s under Metadata Management. Use Data Import mostly for invoicing, but the topics listed in the SIG did not seem as relevant to this.
Christie Thomas (she/her) 12:08 PM
That is an excellent point. I think we have also not spent time on order imports in any significant way. Metadata management focused topics have taken priority.
Being a SIG - convener or co-convener could structure the agenda and distribute time among topics.
Kimberly Wiljanen 12:09 PM
MSU also uses data import for our imports
I'm sorry -- I meant orders and invoices
Dennis - From PO perspective this has also been somewhat challenging. Something that has come to mind a few times is that there are so many more record types that need to be supported. Almost seems like field mapping profile for given record type should be responsibility of that application. May be a different want to approach this structurally to smooth these possible issues with updates, especially as more record types are supported. Seems like it will become more difficult for one or two people to supervise all of these.
Would you also consider business logic with that?
Kristin - One thing that happened with order imports was that in the purchase order management of donors was changed. That change got overlooked with data import.
Two teams with different priorities, but someone has to make the changes, which can push out bug fixes or work for other things.
Early on in development of order import tool, business logic of data import (creating orders in batch) deviated from business logic used for opening orders manually. Thinking about how we can catch things that are problematic sooner rather than later. Really hard to test order imports in BugFest. Not a robust enough acquisitions data set. Understanding types of things that cause problems and how we can provide feedback and catch things earlier.
Examples:
Fund balance checking - can see that working with data import, but right now can’t have it turned on and successfully create orders in batch.
Relationship between quantity and location and what you do when there are multiple items. In Poppy, Quesnalia, and maybe Ramsons - data needs to be structured a little differently to create holdings and items.
Not always just the order import profiles changing - what changed was how data was pushed from orders into inventory. Thinking about business logic component is also important.
:21 - Discussion re: status of orders and business logic. Creating orders in an open state - logic deviates and bypasses some of order import logic.
Ways of collaborating on things - business logic and structurally.
Differences between SIG and working group?
SIG has convener, PC liaison, SIG reports monthly for product council, quarterly SIG conveners group. More administrative duties. Working group doesn’t do that, just reports up to larger group.
SIG is a great idea. Gain a lot from that in terms of interoperability. Gives prominence in a way a working group does not.
Joe Reimers (EBSCO) 12:26 PM
I could also see Users being an importable data type
Also financial systems, etc. Various things could fall under Data Import in some way.
Do we have anybody who took over what Ann-Marie used to handle?
Ryan Taylor took over as PO.
Ann-Marie intimately knew acquisitions side of house and EDIFACT format.
Maybe opening SIG could put out a call for someone with that kind of knowledge.
Dennis Bridges 12:30 PM
Maybe this SIG could could cover both import and export? Maybe that would add unnecessary complexity.