PO printing invalid information

[Former Member]

I am trying to debug a PO printout which has some invalid information on it. The PO in question has the 'goods recipient' and 'unloading point' information on the printout even though no such information has been entered in the PO (in the 'account assignment' item detail tab). I had a look at the PO custom sapscript form and this condition is being checked. I also had a look at the spool request for the particular user and see that the previous PO in the spool list has this information which appears on the PO in question. This invalid information is not being printed when the user reprints the PO in prod or if I try to create and print a similar PO in dev. I haven't seen this happening with other similar POs in prod either.

The only explanation I can think of is that the information from the previous PO somehow got retained in memory when this PO was being printed but I am not convinced about this. Can someone offer a better explanation on how this could have possibly occured?

Thanks,

H Narayan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Have you verified the Item changes of that PO item, if some one deleted that info after printing?

Regards

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Gopala,

Thanks for the response. I did verify the item changes and they look good. The PO in question is not an account-assigned PO and yet has the account assignment information on the printout. I am wondering if you have any other ideas on how this could have appeared on the printout.

H Narayan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Any other ideas/suggestions? I assume I have provided enough background on the issue I am working on.

H Narayan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

from functional perspective, I couldn't visualize any issue...When you create a po with reference to another PO, the print program may be retaining some content like unloading point and receipient etc which may not be appearing in the new PO. However, if you get the help of ABAP programmer to debug it, you can get to the solution easily and faster....that is the reason ABAP programmers are paid for, in the projects...

Regards

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Gopala,

Thanks for the response. I have done some debugging on the program myself and I don't see any obvious issues. I am not really creating a PO with reference to an other PO here. The PO in question seems to be retaining information from the previous PO since the outputs were processed around the same time. However, I don't see a way by which I can confirm my line of thought or replicate the same scenario in dev.

There could be issues with the program such as field's values not being cleared etc which I am not sure of. I am going to get an ABAP developer to look into the code.

Btw, I have been around for a while to know why ABAP developers get paid and why we guys get paid for as well:)! It's just that I usually try what I can with my limited ABAP skills before I engage a developer.

Thanks,

H Narayan

[Former Member]

What values are being printed? Is it only the heading "Goods Recipient:" or is there some value - like "Goods Recipient: ABC".

Lakshman

[Former Member]

Hi Lakshman,

The text 'Attn:' followed by the values for the 'goods recipient' and 'unloading point' are being printed. For account assigned POs, this information needs to be printed which is fine. The PO in question is not an account-assigned PO and no such information has been entered in the PO. So there should be no reason for this info to be printed on the PO.

Thanks,

H Narayan

[Former Member]

Hi,

I guess, it must be your form, the culprit. It must be taking either defaults hard coded or from user master record...unless you see these values in the PO (not the printout), no point in investigating in PO doc ...only print form should be the culprit....Also worth lookin at text detemination..

Regards

[Former Member]

You are correct. This should not be printed in the PO.

Please check if this can be changed in the PO print program to be printed only if there are values in these fields.

Lakshman

[Former Member]

Lakshman,

That is the exact condition which is already checked in the code and I am left wondering! I am pretty sure it has got to do with several PO outputs being processed at the same time. I am having an ABAP developer look into the code to see if any field values are not being cleared and the like. It seems to have happened as a one-off case.

Gopala,

I guess the best option would be to have a developer step through the print program code.

H Narayan

[Former Member]

What do you mean by several POs being printed at the same time? If there are multiple POs being printed in the same program (i.e. by entering a range in the from - to option), then the clearing of variables is the likely cause. I have found that this is the problem in 99% of the cases.

If multiple people are printing PO separately, then it is a different problem.

Lakshman

[Former Member]

Hi,

Just for clarity sake, would like to continue discussion on this post:

Print program can work just like a tunnel which makes way for the data required, to be passed on to form. However, Print Form is the one that prints on the PO printout. So, if at all you need to kill the bug, in my knowledge, print form should be attacked....

Regards

[Former Member]

Lakhsman,

This happens to be the case where in multiple POs are printed by the same program. I believe the user goes into ME9F and inputs a range of POs to be printed out. The clearing of variables seems to be likely given that this was an old sapscript form and the code probably not being optimized.

H Narayan

[Former Member]

Hi,

Did you check if this was a problem of variable clearing only? Is it resolved?

Lakshman

[Former Member]

Lakhman,

I had a developer take a look at the code and it appears that that the EKKN table was not being cleared in the program. So, I would think that would have been the most likely issue. The issue can be considered resolved. Thanks again for your help.

H Narayan