The eCl@ss is a standard for export control class and material groups. It is as a standard for information exchange between vendors and customers. The eCl@ss is represented by a four-level hierarchical classification key with one of 12,000 terms from a key word register. The eCl@ss depicts the procurement markets for purchasers and supports engineers during development, planning and maintenance. You can find further information on eCl@ss under www.eclass.de.

The eCl@ss is passed to BW with the version (see 0ECLASS_VS) from the document. The document always contains historical eCl@sses. As the eCl@ss classification spreads, new versions will be brought out. This new numbering could affect old eCl@sses and renumber them. 12-34-56-78 could become 12-33-33-33. So that the historical data does not have to be changed, each eCl@ss always has a unique key (according to nomenclature of the eCl@ss IDKL), that describes the classification. This key remains the same but is assigned to different eCl@sses in different versions.

From SAP BW Release 3.0B, the procedure for loading data (master data and texts) has been changed to InfoSources with flexible update (see also Flexible Update for Central Master Data Objects).