GTS EDI Messaging Framework

[Former Member]

Hi GTS Support Group,

I am reaching out for some help on GTS’s communication framework.

The result I am targeting is to set-up EDI communication to a broker where I can:

1. Use the vendor number from the ERP feeder system, not the BP number
2. Have each FTO communicate through a different outbound port (WE21). In ERP we set-up ports by company code and wanting to do similar in GTS with FTO’s
3. Use the message code and function fields.

Currently we have one legal regulation representing two FTO’s for a country. There are two company codes in the feeder and they map directly to the FTO’s

I am very familiar with setting up the output conditions (like VV21) in SD, but could use some guidance/reality on how or if this can be done in GTS.

Issues we are running into with current set-up:

1. Have to use the BP number and the customs office fields under the geography tab to identify the partner to communicate to
2. Cannot determine how to establish a relationship between the FTO and the output
3. When the message code is populated the output fails and says it cannot find a partner

What we have observed, but not sure fact yet

1. The organizational structure for GTS’s communication is the legal regulation. This means that EDI would be done by this and here is no link between an FTO
2. For an import declaration, the Office Of Destination is the trigger for EDI communication and for export declarations it’s the Office Of Departure. This means we have to use these field and the BP number and cannot use the Vendor Master number

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

[former_member215181 · Accepted solution]

Hi Jeff,

You should use BAdI /SAPSLL/CUS_ECC to overcome these problems.

In Methods MODIFY_IDOC_VIEW and MODIFY_IDOC_DATA, you can over-write the data in the iDoc (before and after the incompletion check), so you can easily replace the GTS partner number with the ERP partner number - look up in the Partner record in table /SAPSLL/PNTBP.

In Method MODIFY_IDOC_PARTNER_PROFILE, you can over-write the partner in the Control Record of the iDoc, so you can use the FTO as the control partner and thereby route the message to different ports.

I'm not sure what you intend to do with the Message Code and Function fields, but those are also available in the latter Method.

I hope that helps, but let us know if you need more detail.

Regards,

Dave

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Dave,

Thank you for your answer. You have been very helpful to all of my quetions.

Message code would identify the FTO with a two digit code and function identify the EDIFACT trasaction.

Thank you, Jeff

[former_member215181 · Accepted solution]

Ok, no problem.  Maybe you could mark some of your questions as "complete", unless you are still looking for further answers?

Regards,

Dave

[Former Member]

Hi Jeff,

A very interesting requirement, and there are perhaps several possible approaches how to achieve this. You don't need to bend to the requirements of the standard messages as your messages dont go to customs, so seems that you have more freedom.

I`ll try to go one by one, on the first part.

The result I am targeting is to set-up EDI communication to a broker where I can:


Use the vendor number from the ERP feeder system, not the BP number

         You can map GTS BP numbers to be 1:1 (identical) toERP customer and vendor numbers .

         This of course depends if your number range setup in ECC if they overlap, but even if NRs overlap do you can use a prefix, so ECC customer '123' is in GTS BP 'C123'. Then later on in the background during sending you can get rid of the prefix..

     2. Have each FTO communicate through a different outbound port (WE21). In ERP we set-up ports by company code and wanting to do similar in GTS with FTO’s

     This is doable as well,

     A) either by reusing the standard messages and then coding user exit / BadI to change partner partner profile determination based on your own rules like FTO (there is one after FM  SAPSLL/IDOC_PARTNER_APPL_READ call in standard messages)

     B) building your own PPF outbound message from scratch, the delivery SAP messages can be a good orientation material, plus here you can set the FTO dependent logic.

     C) something perhaps like Dave mentions, to have 2 sets of customs offices, 1 for each FTO, and 'fool' the standard SAP message processing, etc..

3. Use the message code and function fields.

Not sure what this means, maybe that you want to re-use what GTS has in standard for message communication. This should not be a problem. As you dont need to communicate to Customs, but 'only' to broker, perhaps you can copy the standard messages to your own tweaked Z message to get the extra functionality not delivered in standard message.

For your current issues :

1. 
   Have to use the BP number and the customs office fields under the geography tab to identify the partner to communicate to
   
   

     This again depens on which standard mesage you use and the incompletion settings for the message, it can be changed.

1. 
   Cannot determine how to establish a relationship between the FTO and the output
   
   

     Usually you establish the relation in defaulting for document output (data proposal part), Where one of the criteria (access sequence, field combination) is the FTO partner

1. When the message code is populated the output fails and says it cannot find a partner

      Please see the the user exit mentioned above for modifying this or use your own message.

Hope this helps,

[Former Member]

Hi Branislav,

Based on your answer it appers development will be needed.

Could you provide the IMG path for the following settings

1) "You can map GTS BP numbers to be 1:1 (identical) toERP customer and vendor numbers"

2)  "Usually you establish the relation in defaulting for document output (data proposal part), Where one of the criteria (access sequence, field combination) is the FTO partner"

Thank you, Jeff

[Former Member]

Hi Jeffrey,

Yes, I think that it would be quite difficult to avoid development for your specific requirements.

1) to map ECC customer and vendor numbers to 1:1 GTS BP numbers

We did this long ago back on 7.2 version, i had a look now for details and it seems some inner clockwork in last version is different 😕

To make it work without modifying the standard you should try to force the BP creation logic to use the external number range interval and grouping as a default, instead of the internal interval

I`ll try to come back with more, I`m not able to change the NR settings in current system to find out.

This topic is also discussed here :

2) This is probably a part where seeing it once is better than reading a 1000 words description.

For the requirement - if i understood it correctly, the already setup IMG defaulting rules should be sufficient. You should only have to do master data settings parts in GTS cockpit -> Customs management -> Master data -> Default data -> Rules for output determination.

Cheers,

Branislav

[former_member215181]

Hi Jeff,

If time permits, I will give this some thought tomorrow.  However, just a quick tip regarding your second point: The Customs Office "Office Number" gets populated in the outbound iDoc, but the message determination uses the Customs Office PARTNER number.  Based on that knowledge, you could use a "workaround" - define two Customs Offices (one for each FTO) and assign the same Office Number to each.  Then propose the Customs Office according to the FTO.  So in the Import Declarations, the Customs Office is distinct for each FTO, so may be sent to separate EDI ports even though each iDoc contains the same actual Office code.

Does that help?

Regards,

Dave