Uniform Packaging Service (UPS)/ALE Distribution Unit (SAP Library

Uniform Packaging Service (UPS)/ALE Distribution Unit

Purpose

You can use the UPS to distribute a list of objects from one system to a target system. Integrated mechanisms (see also Object Serialization) ensure that data is complete and consistent and improve system performance.

Distribution with the UPS is based on ALE Distribution Units, and thereby on existing ALE technology, but with additional process aspects: complex data structures are collected into clusters.

Distribution using the UPS offers the following advantages over existing ALE technology:

Technical completeness and data consistency can be ensured and redundancies can be avoided.

Distribution is process oriented, and can be monitored on the basis of the status network in the source and target systems.

Distribution is user friendly: you can navigate between the objects to be distributed, IDocs, and the application log.

Features

The UPS provides a generic service for distributing objects in the form of packets. An integral part of the UPS are the various services provided:

Filtering

To avoid redundancies, the list of objects to be transferred is restricted to a minimum by checks on the replication table.

Corrections

If required, changes can be made to the object lists of an ALE distribution unit. With corrections, you ensure the completeness and consistency of the data (see also Processing an ALE Distribution Unit).

Confirmation

Relevant status changes to the ALE distribution unit in the target system are made known to the source system by means of confirmations.

UPS Serialization

The distribution of large object units that are interdependent requires a serialization of ALE distribution units.

Object Serialization

To reduce the number of technically recognizable errors when posting objects, UPS provides three-dimensional object serialization.

Status

The status describes the state of an ALE distribution unit before or after a specific transaction has been executed.

Posting Strategies

You start posting of data in the target system as a background job. You have the choice between different posting strategies.

A central component of the UPS is the objects that use the services. In the standard system, a large number of objects, used in different distribution scenarios, are already connected to UPS.

Object Group	Object Type
Central objects	Change number
Product structuring	Material Material BOM Document Document link Document structure
Classification	Class Characteristic Class hierarchy Object classification
Variant configuration	Configuration profile for general maintenance task list Configuration profile for model service specifications Configuration profile for material Configuration profile for standard network Dependency net Dependency Variant function Variant table (structure) Variant table (contents)
	SD condition (permanent) SD condition (time-dependent)

Note

In addition to these objects, you can connect new objects to UPS without modifications. These can be either SAP objects or customer-specific objects that are to be connected to UPS in a customer-specific distribution scenario. If you want to do this, contact your SAP consultant to find out the technical requirements for objects, and to achieve optimum scenario-related mapping of the object to UPS services.

The distribution process is supported by the comprehensive functionality of the UPS:

Process ALE distribution unit

The ALE distribution unit comprises ALE distribution packets. ALE distribution packets (original packets and correction packets) can be processed either manually or automatically using the programming interface (for example, by using the replication workbench).

Sending of data

In the source system, the data is collected together in an ALE distribution unit, and sent to the assigned target system. IDocs are created in the background.

Posting of data

In the target system, the data is posted and the posting status of the UPS is confirmed by the target system.

Monitoring of the distribution process
In the source and target systems, you can monitor distribution, for example using the status of IDocs, and access them if required, by posting correction packets individually. (See also ALE Distribution Cockpit)

Release and approval

UPS represents a release process in the source system (outbound) and an approval process in the target system (inbound). The process steps can be run either manually or automatically in the background. After release by the UPS, the object IDocs should be set up automatically. The automatic set-up of object IDocs is only possible in the background.

Automation

In UPS Customizing, you can automate the following substeps:

Automatic update of object types
Automatic release of the object list in the source system
Automatic sending of the object list in the source system
Automatic approval of the object list in the target system
Automatic posting of the object list in the target system

Uniform User Interface

All the functions that you require for distribution with ALE distribution units are available in the source and target systems in a uniform working environment.