BPL - Define Selection Criteria (Selection Exit)

[Former Member]

We are using TDMS 3.0 with following patch level:

DMIS 2006_1_700 0010

DMIS_CNT 2006_1_700 0010

DMIS_EXT 2007_1_700 0000

We have a scenario where we want to transfer all sales transactions of particular plant in target system. We have selected package BPL scenario in TDMS with business context sales document.

Under 'Define selection criteria' activity, we are getting only sales Document number as a filter criteria. We can extend the filter criteria to any column of table VBAK, but not any of the dependent tables (Like VBAP - containing plant)

The operation guide shows an example of selection criteria for materials, filtering by the start table (MARA-MATNR) and at the same time by a dependent table (MARC-WERKS). I want to apply the same logic to tables VBAK & VBAP. There are two problems in my way:

1. As per operation guide, when you execute 'Define Selection Criteria', we should see three tab pages. 'Selections', 'Selection criteria' & 'Tables'. But I can see only two in my system i.e 'Selection criteria' & 'Tables'. There is no 'Selection' tab page in my system.

2. Referring to forum , we can use 'Selection Exit'. But can anybody guide me how that can be implemented and attached to the filter / process?

Thanks & Regards,

Audy.

[former_member182566 · Accepted solution]

Hi Audy:

Some hints to get you on the right track:

1) You can filter by VBAP the same way you filter by VBAK. In step "Define Seletion Criteria", just make sure you change the display filter to include dependent tables.

2) Be carefull that if you filter only by VBAP-WERKS then all headers will be copied (even if there are no relevant items). To avoid that what I do is first make a select to get the relevant sales order numbers (those that have at least one item for that plant) and add it to the filter for VBAK-VBELN. You can have filter at the same for both VBAK and VBAP without any problem.

3) The above will not work if you have too many VBELN's (there is a limit on the number of orders you can put in the criteria). To solve it, you must create a file, upload a selection set, and use it in the selection criteria. The operation guide has all the details for that.

I don't have the system in front of me so maybe the labels are not exactly like that, but it should be enough to get you going. Feel free to get back if something was no clear.

Regards,

Rui Dantas

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Rui,

Thanks for your reply.

I personally don't feel feeding list of VBELNs of that particular plant is a good option. It will increase my manual task to get the list. Logically TDMS should check all conditions specified in VBAK and it's dependent tables together before the transfers. (i.e checking plant from VBAP before processing VBAK entries)

Is selection-exit a better option to control VBAK with condition on VBAP? If yes, then can you please provide me the relevant document to use it?

Thanks & Regards,

Audi

[former_member182566 · Accepted solution]

The filter for a table will apply to the tables below, but not to the tables above. Usually that logic makes sense: just because there are no schedule lines it doesn't mean you don't want the item.

Another option would be to set VBAP as the starting table (it would then be above VBAK), but that involves making some non-trivial changes in the task "Select Objects to be Copied".

As far as I know selection exits are not released for customer use and no official documentation exists.

I also had your problems in the past and in the end have come to the conclusion that it is easier to make a select to the database to get the relevant document numbers. I do it in a couple of minutes, and it ends up being much more flexible because in some situations you'll probably want to make AND's and OR's that could not be made by simply filling the selection criteria.

Anyway, there are SAP people involved in TDMS BPL that usually follow this forum and will be able to give you an official answer.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks a lot!!! That will help me very well....

My final query is... The documentation has the list of transactional contexts as follows:

Accounting Document

Purchase Requisition

Purchase Order

Sales Order

Material Document

Billing Document

Invoice Receipt

Quality Notification

Maintenance Order

Allocation Table (Retail)

FI-CA Document

Transaction (CFM)

CO Document

If I want to perform TDMS for all of these contexts, is there any pre-requisite relations between them... Like in archiving? And after this process will our test system can run entire business processes with transactional data reduced at plant level?

Thanks & regards,

Audy

[former_member182566 · Accepted solution]

Hi again.

Forum rules do not allow more than one question in the same thread, but anyway...

TDMS BPL works by direct inserts in the database, so functional dependencies are not checked. This means that in VA01 you cannot create a sales order for a customer that does not exist but with BPL you can, though later of course you'll have problems when checking the sales order in VA03 (this is just an example: in practice the sales order context by default also includes the relevant customers). Unlike archiving, where you cannot delete a customer if sales orders for that customer still exist, in TDMS there are no such checks. This means there is really no sequence: in the end everything will be there.

The direct inserts also mean that document numbers are kept the same, so existing objects with the same number are overwritten; check if that is a problem for you.

About the last part of your question: first, don't forget that BPL does not include customizing, so make sure it is already there; second, BPL contexts are designed to include most tables related to a business process, but as you know R/3's data model is quite complex. After the copy you might realize that for your specific process maybe some tables were not considered. In that case I suggest you complain via OSS so that the context can be improved and we all profit.. ;). You must also be careful if you have Z tables that must be added to the context.

Regards,

Rui Dantas

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hey Rui...

Thank you very much... That almost put us on the right track. Now we can plan our foot steps..

Your help is well appreciated..

Bye.. Take care,

Audy