Extensibility 

Use

SAP Business Partner is designed to enable you to make extensions, as the screen structure and the screen sequences are defined in control tables. Program logic can be integrated by way of firmly defined interfaces.

Features

...

SAP Business Partner

·        Extension by adding attributes:

SAP Business Partner can be extended to include attributes.

If you wish to make customer-specific evaluations or enter additional information on a business partner, you can add fields to existing BP roles in an existing screen or in a separate screen.

·        Extension by adding BP roles:

An extension of BP roles is also permitted.

Extensions should only be made by developers with ABAP/4 experience and only if specific customer applications have been programmed.

Adding new BP roles only makes sense if a customer-specific development is being conducted. The business partner data required for this application can comprise data supplied by SAP as well as customer-specific data.

If no BP role-specific data is required, you should first check whether the required function cannot also be mapped using the BP role Business partner (general), or whether it is not enough to transfer existing business partner roles.

For more information about the renaming of business partner roles, see Business Partner Role (BP role).

For detailed information on the extension to include new BP roles see Business Data Toolset.

·        Extension to include a check on SAP fields

Customers can conduct specific checks for SAP fields. For example, customers can assign the check rule that a last name must contain at least three letters and one vowel.

Relationships:

·        Extension by adding attributes:

Relationships can be extended by way of attributes.

·        Extension by adding relationship categories:

You can create new relationship categories. Examples of relationships:

¡        Is a member of (club)

¡        Is an employee of (business partner company)

¡        Is the son/daughter of

¡        Is the managing director of

¡        Is guarantor for

¡        Is guardian of

You define your own relationship categories in the same way as you define your own BP roles.

Before you create your own relationship categories, you should check carefully whether this relationship category is necessary from a business point of view, and whether it would not also suffice to rename existing business partner relationship categories.

For more information about the renaming of business partner relationship categories, see Business Partner Relationship Categories.