MAM and Attachments

[Former Member]

We are exploring the potential of using MAM for the SAP Plant Maintenance module.

I have a question about MAM capability to deal with attachments.

For instance:

- A Functional Location has a floor plan diagram attached to it that would be useful for the maintenance technician while performing maintenance at the site (which is not connected to any network, so offline.)

- When synchronizing from SAP ECC to MAM, is it possible to send the diagram document on the technician laptop along with the Functional Location metadata?

- If yes, is it possible to transfer only the documents for which the created date is newer than the date of the last synchronization done by the MAM user?

Thanks in advance for your assistance. Denis

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Denis,

MAM out of the box does not allow this transfer of binary data. In fact, Mobile Infrastructure is the problem here. As of MI 2.5 or 7.0 there is no simple way to do this. MI 7.1 has a simple, integrated attachment support but it is currently in ramp up and MAM is not supported on this new platform.

To come back to the original question, you would have to binary encode (uuencode for example) the data and break it down into multiple rows in a sync bo. Now that sync BO should be download only as the middleware should not perform any conflict checking on those binary encoded field. For big file, there is a problem, you will have too much items and it won't be manageable both by the backend, the client application or the middleware.

If those files are bigger than let's say 5kb, you should consider bypassing the middleware. Once the synchronization is done on the client, trigger a separate task to call a web service and download the appropriate file to the client. You could even think about a on demand solution where the technician download only the required files.

If you decide to do any of those solutions, you will have to create your own syncbo/webservice and you will be able to select the the latest document if that is your business requirement.

I would strongly suggest the later solution as your files will be relatively big and you do not want to slow down the complete middleware.

I hope this helps you,

Julien.

msc mobile Canada

http://www.msc-mobile.com

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Julien,

The second option you mentioned will be explored.

Denis