Maintaining Characteristic Data

If characteristic data have been changed, we must activate the change before BEx Analyzer can display the new data. First we show how BW manages the history of characteristic data changes.

In Screen 12.1, we change material number MAT003's name and short description from COOKIE and Fortune cookie, to SNACK and Popcorn, respectively.

Note

To change a data entry, select the data entry and then click .

SCREEN 12.1

The change we made in Screen 12.1 results in a new entry and a modified entry in the underlying database table /BIC/PIO_MAT (Screen 12.2). There, the A in the OBJVERS column indicates that the corresponding entry is active, and the M indicates that the corresponding entry is modified and to be activated. The D in the CHANGED column indicates that the corresponding entry is to be deleted, and the I indicates that the corresponding entry is a new one.

SCREEN 12.2

Next, we create a query to display IO_MAT's attribute IO_MATNM. To do so, in the query definition window (Screen 12.3), right-click Material number and then select Properties.

SCREEN 12.3

In the pop-up window, select and move Material name from the Available attributes area to the Selected attributes area (Screen 12.4).

SCREEN 12.4

Click to return to Screen 12.3. After executing the query, we see the result shown in Screen 12.5.

SCREEN 12.5

Here we see that the text short description has changed to Popcorn; however, the material name remains COOKIE. This phenomenon tells us two things:

1. A query always retrieves the current texts. The text table does not save the history of changes.
2. A query always retrieves active master data. In our case, COOKIE is the old but currently still active master data.

To make the Screen 12.1 change become reflected in this query, we need to activate the change. The procedure follows.

Work Instructions

Step 1. Right-click the characteristic IO_MAT, and then select Activate master data.

SCREEN 12.6

Result

After clicking in Screen 12.2 to refresh the table contents, we get the result shown in Screen 12.7. Now the change becomes active, and the old record is deleted. If we refresh the query result in Screen 12.5, we will see that the MAT003 material name has changed to SNACK.

SCREEN 12.7

The following procedure describes another way to activate characteristic data changes. The new procedure can be applied not only to master data changes, but also to hierarchy changes.

Work Instructions

Step 1. From the Administrator Workbench screen, select the Apply Hierarchy/Attribute change… item on the Tools menu.

SCREEN 12.8

Step 2. We can schedule the activation by clicking . A new window like Screen 3.20 will then open in which we can schedule the background activation job. Alternatively, we could activate the change immediately by clicking .

To list changed characteristics, click .

SCREEN 12.9

Step 3. IO_MAT is listed in Screen 12.10 because, after activating the IO_MAT data in Screen 12.6, we made another change to the IO_MAT data.

IO_MAT is selected by default to be activated. We accept the default and close this window.

SCREEN 12.10

Result

If we click in Screen 12.9, a background job will start immediately to activate the new change to the IO_MAT data.

We have now answered the first question raised at the beginning of this chapter.

Note

You cannot delete characteristic data if they are used by other BW objects. SID table contents can reveal the status of characteristic data. The X in column DATAFL indicates that an InfoCube uses the corresponding entry, and the X in column INCFL indicates that a hierarchy uses the entry (Screen 12.11).

SCREEN 12.11