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Troubleshoot HR writeback issues

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Null and empty values not processed as expected

Applies to:

  • Workday Writeback
  • SAP SuccessFactors Writeback
Troubleshooting Details
Issue You successfully configured the Writeback app. You're getting null or empty value from Microsoft Entra ID. You expect the provisioning service to clear the corresponding email or phone number value in the HR app. But the operation fails.
Cause The provisioning service doesn't have a default logic for null value processing. When the provisioning service gets an empty string from the source app, it tries to flow the value "as-is" to the target app. If Workday or SuccessFactors can't process empty values, then an error is returned.
Resolution Update the attribute mapping to use expression mappings as recommended.

Recommended resolutions

Let's say the attribute telephoneNumber mapped to SAP SuccessFactors attribute businessPhoneNumber may be null or empty in Microsoft Entra ID.

  • Option 1: Define an expression to check for empty or null values using functions like IIF, IsNullOrEmpty, Coalesce, or IsPresent and pass a nonblank literal value (example: 000-000-0000 in this case).

    IIF(IsNullOrEmpty([telephoneNumber]),"000-000-0000",[telephoneNumber])

  • Option 2: Use the function IgnoreFlowIfNullOrEmpty to drop empty or null attributes in the payload sent to SuccessFactors.

    IgnoreFlowIfNullOrEmpty([telephoneNumber])

Next steps