What are enumerations? How do I edit the enumerations file?

Enumerations are values for which you can define chooser values. Members of the Customization Administrator group can import enumerations files using the Enumerations task in the Customization Manager workspace in Ariba Administrator.

Note: Enumerations for service procurement are accessible from the Category Definition Manager workspace. For information, see the Ariba Procurement Data Import and Administration Guide.

Editing the Enumerations File

Because enumerations are custom fields, you need to edit the enumeration file to add your custom values.

1. In Ariba Administrator, choose Customization Manager > Enumerations.
2. Click Export and save the Enumeration file to your desktop. You can export it as either an XLS or a CSV file. This file contains all the enumeration files in one file. If there is more than one enumerations file, you can click the file name to export only that file.
   Note: If there are more than 65,535 enumeration records, and you choose to export to an Excel file, the resulting export file will be in XLSX format.
3. Open the Enumeration file and insert the new value in alphabetical order in both the Display Value and Value fields. Copy the value in the Enumeration field. Save the file.
   The following example shows the content of an enumeration file for a custom field showing requisition owners:
   

   Enumeration	Display Value	Value
   cus_RequisitionOwner	Arnold Davis	adavis
   cus_RequisitionOwner	Chad Noll	cnoll

4. Click Import on the Enumerations page and upload the file. A message appears confirming that the enumeration upload was completed successfully.
5. The added enumerations appear in the chooser for the related field.

Note: Ariba recommends against using only the values without the localized display value definitions. Instead, use the value/display value pairs. This results in a well-structured layout that is easier to maintain, because any updates to existing values can be achieved with a single upload to the enumeration list rather than a mass edit to fix it.

About Preserving Referential Integrity

Exercise caution when removing an existing enumeration. Loss of data due to the removal of an existing enumeration breaks referential integrity.

For example:

• Value objects that were using the enumeration no longer show the display value.
• For objects that were not yet published, the value selection is removed without notice upon saving.
• Updates to objects remove the value selection without notice upon saving.
• If the same value was added again with a different display value, existing objects show the new display value without notice.

If the enumerations you are about to import will break referential integrity by overriding existing enumerations, the Ariba system provides a warning.

Ariba Customer Support can configure the Application.Base.VerifyUnchangedEnumerationValues parameter to prevent enumeration uploads from proceeding if the new enumerations would cause data loss by replacing existing enumerations.

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