This chapter describes the formats of the source system data, which are expected in the form of attribute values in the XML output file.
Attribute mapping assigns a PPM attribute type to the source system attributes. Source system attributes are pure carriers of information in the form of a string. The data type of the PPM attribute specifies how the text of the source system attribute will be interpreted.
Numerical data
Numerical data is essentially interpreted as information in the decimal system. Floating point numbers use full stops as separators between places before and after the decimal point, regardless of the setting of the operating system.
Attribute values are imported with a unit, e.g., 57 USD. If no unit is specified, the base unit of the data type on which the PPM attribute type is based will be assumed.
Percentages are either specified as 58 PERCENT or as a factor in the form of 0.58 VALUE_ONLY.
Time-based data
PPM differentiates between three categories of time-based reference data:
Date:
The day of the calendar is specified, e.g., 26.06.2003.
Time:
The time of day is specified in 24-hour format, e.g., 14:29.
Time stamp:
The specification of a time stamp is made up of date and time information, e.g., 26.06.2003 14:29.
For parsing of the data string, the format string specified in the file AdapterConfig_settings.properties in the client configuration folder for the relevant category is used.
Warning
The format string information from the file AdapterConfig_settings.properties is used when importing in graph format. To import time data that differs from the default PPM format, the format XML attribute is provided in attribute mapping from PPM 3.0.
As an extension to the Java standard (see Definition of attribute mapping, Transformations section), PPM provides the format string Q.yyyy, which enables time values to be imported as a quarter, e.g., 2.2003 for the second quarter of 2003.