Business function Activation

[Former Member]

Hi All,

Wanted to understand what would be the impact activating business function "FIN_TRAVEL_2" for Travel management.

Presently we are on FIN_TRAVEL_1 and EHP6. Wanted to have both Travel request and Travel expense report output view though PR05.

As FIN_TRAVEL_2 has this extended feature, wanted to activate that before which thought of taking the experts view on the impact it can have on the existing system.

As new fields get activated on TRIP, Travel Request and Travel expense report, will this have issue for the ones created before the activation.

Regards...

[Lukas_Weigelt · Accepted solution]

Hi Ravi,

As new fields get activated on TRIP, Travel Request and Travel expense report, will this have issue for the ones created before the activation.

No, because the new fields that actually have impact on the cluster are appended at the end of the corresponding structures. Aside from that, the only fields that are added here are for Public Sector Germany.

The Functionality for the estimated costs and the requested transports and accommodations is held in transparent tables and doesn't influence the cluster.

If for some reason, there should yet be an inconsistency, you can fix it via SE14.

Cheers, Lukas

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Lukas,

Thanks for the quick reply.

We are on ECC 6 and EHP6 and for Travel management we are still on "FIN_TRAVEL_1" and using it for more than 3  years.

Wanted to know, if we activate "the FIN_TRAVEL_2" business function now, will that impact anything on the current Travel Requests or Expense sheet in any ways for processing. Also there is portal in place through which Travel requests are created too.

I have gone though the information note of SAP on Travel Management 2 as per the link give below which has the Constraint for Travel request given below:

“If you use the new travel request functions, travel
requests that have been created in the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface cannot
be processed in Travel Manager (transaction TRIP).”

Hence, just wanted to know if i activate this which cant be irreversable, will that have adverse impact on the existing TR or Travel expense reports or any other functionality.

http://help.sap.com/erp2005_ehp_04/helpdata/EN/5D/EECF6D3832433EA4D292E57D925E10/frameset.htm

[Lukas_Weigelt · Accepted solution]

Wanted to know, if we activate "the FIN_TRAVEL_2" business function now, will that impact anything on the current Travel Requests or Expense sheet in any ways for processing. Also there is portal in place through which Travel requests are created too.

The answer to that and to the activation of any business function in general is always YES. There's loads of coding in hundreds of subparts of the frame program that polls the Switchframework whether certain switches are switched on. I'm pretty sure there's nobody (including myself) who can line out every change in programmable process that takes place due to the activation.

You say you are using a portal, I assume you are using the WebDynpro JAVA Services here? Or are you using transaction iviews with TA TRIP?

What is stated in the help simply means that trips that are created in TA TRIP and WDA are not interchangeably processable. This does not mean that you cannot use the TA TRIP anymore once the business function is activated, but in case in your current business process you are furhter processing requests that are at the moment created in WebDynpro JAVA, that is not going to work likewise with WDA. (I hope this answers your question).

Hence, just wanted to know if i activate this which cant be irreversable, will that have adverse impact on the existing TR or Travel expense reports or any other functionality. 

Careful. The activation of FIN_TRAVEL_2 IS irreversable, this means it is NOT reversable. The only unofficial way to deactivate such a business function is to roll back the Database.

I have a question: What exactly are you using the Transaction TRIP for anyway? From EHP2 onwards it's practically obsolete, so you could shift your processes completely to the WDA services and TA PR05.

Cheers, Lukas

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Lukas,

We are using Web Dynpro ABAP & transaction iviews for TA TRIP for Portal.

With this inplace, do you think the activation will impact as it says the Travel Requests which are existing before activation in anyways.

“If you use the new travel request functions, travel
requests that have been created in the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface cannot
be processed in Travel Manager (transaction TRIP).”

What i understand is, if we use the enhanced functionalities that come with the activation that will impact the processing of TRs in the TRIP transaction. Am i righ?

Thanks...

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

What i understand is, if we use the enhanced functionalities that come with the activation that will impact the processing of TRs in the TRIP transaction. Am i righ?

Yes, you will have to use PR05 instead (so maybe some adaptations to foresee if you did some standard modifications). TRIP is obsolete so nothing surprising here

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Mathieu/Lukas,

what if we activate the FIN_Travel_2 and doesnt use the new functionalities? will this impact the processing of existing Travel requests in TRIP tcode.

What i assume is if we activate and use new feature then it will impact otherwise no.. am i right in my understanding.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Why would you activate if you doesnt use new functionnalities ?

It is not clear in documentation but from what I know of the enhancement framework once you activate it will definitivly impact TRIP.

In source code you have several checks on BF activation (if business function is activated then..), so the activation will have an impact

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I wanted to activate it so that i can view the Travel Request PDF document in PR05 which is not possible now.

[Lukas_Weigelt · Accepted solution]

Hi Ravi,

what if we activate the FIN_Travel_2 and doesnt use the new functionalities? will this impact the processing of existing Travel requests in TRIP tcode.

What i assume is if we activate and use new feature then it will impact otherwise no.. am i right in my understanding.

The dogmatic answer to this is, activating the BF will not damage your current process with Transaction TRIP. My answer as per experience, as I already tried to explain in my earlier post, is, that there are a lot of changes in the coding dependant on the Switch, more than anyone can supervise or predict all of their effects. In my opinion, if you can "survive" for a while longer without the BF FIN_TRAVEL_2 then you should make a migration plan for using PR05 instead of TRIP and replace all your frontend means, whatever you use at the moment, with the WebDynpro ABAP Services, because:

• TA TRIP and some other corresponding backend transactions are obsolete from EHP2 onwards, this means they will merely be maintained by SAP but the new features will not be implemented. This means once you want to activate higher BFs, you will have to migrate in any case.
• You have a lot more manipulation possibilities WITHOUT modifications in the WDAs

Cheers, Lukas

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Lukas & Chenu for your clarifications...