forward slash (/) in Emigall

[Former Member]

Hi all

I am having an issue trying to send a string that begins with a slash (/) up through Emigall. It appears as if when I send a slash as the first character of a string (field), the entire string is ignored. If I remove the forward slash, the data loads just fine.

Is there a way I can tell Emigall that I want the slash taken simply as a character rather than some sort of comment indicator?

Thanks!

C N

[friedrich_keller]

C N,

Can you be more specific, please? What do you mean with When I am trying to send a string that begins with a slash (/) up through Emigall ... the entire string is removed ...

Please describe step by step what exactly you are doing, what kind of files you are treating (text file, binary file) with which tools (converting text -> binary, importing, editing, ...)

Kind regards,

Fritz

[Former Member]

Ok, what I've got is a business partner that I'm trying to load using the Partner Emigall object. I have extracted into a text file. The questionable part is in the BUT020 structure. In the field Name_Co, which is the Care/Of part of the address for this particular BP, the string coming out of legacy is "/ Jane Doe". What is wanted is that the mailing label will come out looking like:

John Doe

/ Jane Doe

123 Main St

So that's the background. In the Partner object, I go through the "Convert Migration File" process to convert my text file to binary. After which I can view the file using the Display button. The data is clearly there.

But when I execute the migration, the "/ Jane Doe" does not appear on the address in the Name_CO field.

I can take that same file and remove the slash, upload using the same procedure, and "Jane Doe" migrates quite nicely into the Name_Co field. I've tried moving the slash around and as long as it's not the first character, it doesn't seem to have the same power as when it's the first character.

Hope this is clearer. I was thinking maybe there was just a generic usage of the slash that was across the board, like an asterisk being a comment when the 1st character in a programming language, that you could get around simply. Apparently this is not the case. Darn it!

Thanks

C N

[friedrich_keller]

C N,

Thank you that you have a provided a detailed description of the problem and I think there is a simple solution available. I'm afraid but the only thing I don't understand is your final statement. Do you mind explaining to what you are referring with "Darn it"?

Cheers,

Fritz

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Fritz,

I was hoping that someone would say "oh yeah, Emigall thinks a string that starts with a forward slash is a comment. The way you get around it is to add this other character before the slash" or something similar.

Darn it was simply in reference to the simplest thing I could think of not appearing to be the problem.

[friedrich_keller]

C N,

Let's try to explain the miracle and you will see that it was good to have the problem explained in all details ;o)

The PARTNER(CHA) and ACCOUNT(CHA) migration objects are having service function modules that call the BDT (business data toolset) API. The API (application processing interface) knows a so-called no-data-sign that is by default - surprise - a slash '/'. You are always passing the no-data-sign if you don't want to transfer a new (different) value in a field but stick with the old value. Of course it does not seem to make sense when creating a business partner or a contract account but in such cases the old value is space. This explains why the field is only cleared when the first character of the value in the field contains a slash. A slash in the second place is not treated as whatsoever no-data-sign.

You can pass any no-data-sign to the API if you are not happy with the default and it seems that the character / does not work for you. You can change the default no-data-sign in the parameter interface of the service function module of your migration object: mark the migration object -> MigObject Change -> push the parameter button at the right hand side of the service function module and identify the NODATA parameter (I think its called NODATA but I can't verify because I cannot logon to any system right now) and change it to any other (reasonable) value, such as, # or |.

You will see that it works like a charm 🐵

Cheers,

Fritz

[Former Member]

Fritz,

You da man!

And you've made me a believer that I should post more detail in my questions - perhaps there's even a simpler solution than I think!

Seriously though thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. Every little bit that I learn about Emigall helps - I'm still wet behind the ears with all things SAP. You saved me a TON of time!

C N

[friedrich_keller]

C N,

You might also want to read if you want to learn more about the IS MIgration Workbench.

Cheers,

Fritz

[Former Member]

Thank you Fritz, this will be most helpful!