Planning a custom import task
This topic discusses the first two steps in the process of importing custom data into the Commerce Server 2000 Data Warehouse.
A running example is used to explain this process. The example involves an ice cream company with a volume of user data in log files. They want to extract information about customers who registered on their Web site over the last year. Part of the registration process involved answering a questionnaire about their favorite flavor of ice cream. To enhance local promotions, the company wants to analyze the regional distribution of favorite flavors.
The log files contain the following data:
| Data Property Name | Example Values |
| Title | "Mr" "Ms" "Dr" |
| FullName | "Kevin Verboort" |
| Email_Address | "kevinv@microsoft.com |
| TelNum | "800 123-4567x123" |
| FaxNum | "800 123-4567x321" |
| AddressLine1 | "Public's Animal Shelter" |
| AddressLine2 | "223 Normal Coast Way, #85" |
| City | "Everytown" |
| State | "WA" |
| ZipCode | "98434-3424" |
| Fav_Flavor_Code | 34 |
| Fav_Flavor_Comments | "Can never get enough chocolate!" |
The goal is to analyze the regional distribution of favorite flavors. This will require, at minimum, the State and Fav_Flavor_Code data. Because the company wants a more granular distribution, the City data must also be included.
To promote their product, the names and e-mail addresses of the registered users are required. This will allow the company to send customized direct mailings to their customers.
The resulting list of essential data contains:
| Data Property Name | Data Type |
| Title | String |
| FullName | String |
| Email_address | String |
| City | String |
| State | String |
| Fav_Flavor_Code | Integer (unsigned) |
This completes the first step.
The second step involves finding a structure in the Data Warehouse schema that fits this data. The RegisteredUser structure in the Profiles category of the Data Warehouse logical schema is the closest match.
The RegisteredUser class contains data members for title (UserTitle), name (FirstName, LastName), and e-mail address (Email). It does not contain data members for city, state, or favorite ice cream flavor. The following table shows the match between the log data and the Data Warehouse structure.
| Source Data | RegisteredUser Data Member |
| Commerce.GenID object | UserID |
| Log data: Title | UserTitle |
| Log data: FullName | FirstName, LastName |
| Log data: Email_Address | |
| Log data: City | New Data Member: City |
| Log data: State | New Data Member: State |
| Log data: Fav_Flavor_Code | New Data Member: Fav_Flavor_Code |
The final essential data member is the unique key for the RegisteredUser class. This key is the UserId data member, which is a UUID. In order to fit custom data into the Commerce Server 2000 Data Warehouse, this key must be correctly assigned. Commerce Server 2000 provides a UUID generator. The Commerce.GenID object creates the UUIDs used by Commerce Server 2000 Profiling System to identify users. Using this object to create the UserID keys for the import data guarantees compatibility with any existing data or future data imported into the Data Warehouse. This completes the data required to create valid RegisteredUser objects containing the necessary information.
For the next step, see Preparing the Data Warehouse.