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Anaplan Basics

This guide explains key Anaplan concepts for developers working with the Bulk API. You can think of the flow of uploading data to Anaplan with the Bulk API like so:

Quick Overview

  • You upload data to files in Anaplan. The only supported file formats are csv and xlsx.
  • Import Actions move data from files to Lists & Modules
  • Export Actions move data from Lists & Modules to files
  • You download these files to retrieve data
  • Processes are sequences of actions
  • Never run concurrent operations that reference the same file.

Files

  • All data exchange happens through files (referenced by ID (113000000000), not SFTP/FTP)
  • Files have a 48-hour lifetime
  • Files are not safe for concurrent access. You can override the content of a file while another import is reading from it. Anaplan does not acquire locks and will not queue the task.

Actions

All data is exchanged through files. When uploading data, you are uploading the data to a file previously registered with Anaplan. When downloading data, you are downloading a file either registered with Anaplan or produced by an export action. Anaplan does not use (S)FTP, you will reference these files only by their ID and send or receive their content in the body of HTTP Requests.

  • Anaplan has the following type of actions:
    • Imports - 112000000000 IDs.
    • Exports - 116000000000 IDs.
    • Processes - 118000000000 IDs.
    • Other Actions - 117000000000 IDs.

Imports read data from a file and load it into a module. Exports conversely load data from a module to a file. The file id of the resulting file is identical to the export id. "Other Actions" move things around in Anaplan and can also delete data etc. Processes are simply a sequence of the other three.

Invoking any Action will spawn a Task. You can then query the status of this task.

Files are NOT Safe for concurrent access. If you want to override the content of a file while an import is being run against it, you can. Import and Export Actions, however, are. If you run an Export while an Import into a module that will affect the data of the module you are trying to export from, Anaplan will queue this task. No dirty reads.

Imports

Imports read data from a file and load it into a list or module. Only after running an Import against the file you just uploaded is the data actually "in" Anaplan. Only uploading a file will do nothing and after 48h - the lifetime for files in Anaplan - the content will simply vanish. Import Actions are quite powerful and can incur mapping of columns from i.e. a csv structure to dimensions in Anaplan, type conversion, date parsing and more. They are also quite easy to get wrong and very sensitive to change.

Exports

When you want to get some data from Anaplan, you will have to do the reverse of an Import, in two similar steps. First, you run an export and wait for the spawned task to complete. Then you can download the content of the file that was populated by the export action. The File will have the same ID as the Export Action that produced it.

Processes

A Process is just an arbitrary sequence of any kind of actions. These are useful for grouping actions that must only be run together or just represent some logical grouping. Processes can include import an export actions. When loading data to or from Anaplan with a process, you will have to find the Import or Export contained in the process, and the referenced data source in the case of an Import.