During an upgrade or the import of an Support Package, existing objects of the SAP standard are overwritten with the objects redelivered. To help the customer retain the objects modified in a previous release, SAP provides all modified objects which are redelivered (in an upgrade or Support Package) in the upgrade adjustment of transactions SPAU and SPDD. These transactions allow customers to enter their modifications into the corresponding new objects being delivered at upgrade. The Modification Assistant supports this process of adopting customer modifications.

In the past, all objects modified by a customer and delivered again by SAP, an IBU or an SAP partner, had to be manually re-modified during an upgrade. Now, modifications are either automatically adopted or the system provides you with an assistant for adjusting your modifications to the newly upgraded configuration.

In general, objects altered using the Modification Assistant can now be automatically accepted into the upgraded system if the modifications undertaken in the original version do not directly overlap those made in the customer version. If collisions occur between the two versions at upgrade (naming collisions, or if SAP has deleted an object modified by a customer), the system offers support during the upgrade, which means that a semi-automatic adjustment is made. In some cases, however, you may still have to manually adjust objects using ABAP Workbench tools.

Objects modified according to the old system used prior to the advent of the Modification Assistant must be manually maintained after an upgrade has been run.

Use transactions SPDD and SPAU during an upgrade to select these objects and modify them manually.

• Transaction SPDD allows you to adjust modifications to ABAP Dictionary objects during an upgrade.

Additional information about the upgrade procedure can be found in: