IBM Product Master connection

To read or write product information in IBM Product Master, create a connection asset for it.

IBM Product Master is a repository for trusted product information management (PIM). Use this connection to read data from IBM Product Master or to write data to IBM Product Master for a specific company.

Prerequisite

Install Product Master on Cloud Pak for Data

Create a connection to IBM Product Master

To create the connection asset, you need these connection details:

  • Application URL: Product Master application cluster URL on Cloud Pak for Data. Use this format:
    <route-name>-<namespace-name>.apps.<cluster-name>.<domain-name>

  • Username: Users with these roles can access the data from Product Master:

    • Full Admin
    • Admin
    • Catalog Manager
    • Content Editor
    • Solution Developer

  • Company name: The company name is provided by the administrator who deploys Product Master on Cloud Pak for Data.

  • Password for the username

For Credentials, you can use secrets if a vault is configured for the platform and the service supports vaults. For information, see Using secrets from vaults in connections.

Choose the method for creating a connection based on where you are in the platform

In a project
Click Assets > New asset > Connect to a data source. See Adding a connection to a project.
In the Platform assets catalog
Click New connection. See Adding platform connections.

Next step: Add data assets from the connection

Browsing data on Product Master

After you create the connection, you can browse the catalogs, hierarchies, and items that are in Product Master for the company that you specify for the connection.

Reading assets in Product Master

Provide these source properties to read items from Product Master in the following order:

  1. Catalog Name: (required). The name of the Product Master catalog from which you want to read the items.

  2. Hierarchy Name: (optional). The name of the hierarchy associated with the specified catalog. All the items from the specified hierarchy will be read. The items will have all the attributes from the primary and secondary specs under the specified hierarchy.

  3. Category Identifier: (optional). The complete path for the subcategories. All the items from the specified category will be read. Items will have all the attributes from the primary and secondary specs under the specified hierarchy and category.

Writing assets to Product Master

Provide these target properties to push items to Product Master in the following order:

  1. Catalog Name: (required). The name of the Product Master catalog to which you want to push the items.

  2. Hierarchy Name: (optional). The name of the hierarchy associated with the specified catalog. All the items will be pushed under the hierarchy that you specify.

    • If you specify a hierarchy name, then you must specify a category name that belongs to the hierarchy.
    • If you do not provide a hierarchy name and category, the items will be pushed under Unassigned category.

  3. Category Identifier: (optional). The complete path for subcategories. All the items will be pushed to the specified category.

To write data to IBM Product Master, you must configure the Bulk Load Job to run periodically in order to import the data. Provide the Container Name, Batch size, and Poll Timeout (in seconds). The Bulk Load job will fetch the data in batches and import it to the container that you specify.

Restrictions

  • The number of records that are included in previews of the data items is limited to 1000 records.
  • Only the first occurrence of a multi-occurring attribute is supported in read/write operations.
  • The forward slash / is not supported in the category identifier.

Where you can use this connection

You can use the IBM Product Master connection in the following workspaces and tools:

Projects

  • Data Refinery (Watson Studio)

Catalogs

  • Platform assets catalog

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance

  • 4.8.0 and 4.8.1: This connection is compliant with FIPS if you installed Cloud Pak for Data on or prior to January, 22, 2024.
  • 4.8.2 and later: This connection is not compliant with FIPS, but it is FIPS-tolerant.

Supported data types

The IBM Product Master connection supports these data types:

  • Binary
  • Currency
  • Flag
  • Grouped
  • Image
  • Image URL
  • Integer
  • Lookup Table
  • Number
  • Number Enumeration
  • Password
  • Rich text
  • Sequence
  • String
  • String Enumeration
  • Thumbnail Image
  • Thumbnail Image URL
  • TimeZone

Learn more

Product Master on Cloud Pak for Data

Parent topic: Supported connections