Prerequisites (SAP Library - Changing the SAP Standard (BC))

Prerequisites

This section provides you with answers to the following questions:

Which screens can I include in a variant?
How many screens can I include in a variant?
What settings can be copied for which fields?
Under what conditions are transaction variant settings adopted?

Information about possible error dialogs that may occur during transaction variant maintenance can be found at the end of this section.

Which Screens Can I Include in a Variant?

Only "normal" screens, dialog boxes, and subscreens can be included in the variant.

The screens of the following functions may not be included:

Help and possible entries help (F1, F4)
List display (and selection screens)
Confirmation dialog boxes
Various system functions (status display, save list...)

You can only create screen transactions for those types of screens that can be included in a transaction variant. The dialog box allowing you to copy values for the variant only appears for these screens.

If a screen is composed of numerous subscreens, this dialog box appears for each subscreen, as well as for the entire screen.

How Many Screens Can I Include in a Variant?

In principle, every screen in a transaction that fulfills the requirements listed above can be included in a transaction variant.

A screen may only be included in a transaction variant once per transaction (however it may be included in multiple transaction variants for different transactions).

If a screen is processed more than once in this transaction, the same predefined values are inserted each time. Unless initial, field contents altered by the user or within the transaction are not overwritten with the values from the variant.

Changed field display attributes are always accepted by the variant.

What Settings Can be Copied For Which Fields?

Field values can usually be copied for input fields. Their display attributes may be changed as well.
Exception: No field values can be copied for input fields with user-specific formatting (except date fields).

Initial values cannot be copied into the variant. Display settings may, however, be changed for these fields.

Function entries are not copied into the variant.
Exception: If a screen is meant to be hidden, this function entry is transferred to the variant for this screen.

Radio buttons may not be altered in any way.

No values can be transferred for pushbuttons.

All other fields may be hidden.

Special rules exist for:

Step loops and table controls
You can set individual values for each input field in a step loop / table control. Display attributes (Invisible, No input) can only be set once per column (for the first field in each column); these attributes are then valid for all fields in the column.
All step loop and table control fields for which a value has been entered are displayed in the field list. The initial field is always displayed even if it does not contain a value so that you can use it to determine the display attributes for that column.
Several restrictions apply when saving settings for step loop and table control fields.

Table Controls
The same rules apply to table control fields and table control columns that exist for step loop fields and columns.
In addition, the entire table control can be hidden, simply by setting it to Invisible. Other table control display attributes may not be changed.
If a table control's column sequence or column width has been changed on a screen, these settings may also be copied to the transaction variant (Adopt column sequence / Adopt column width).
For more detailed information see Table Control Layout in Variants.

Tabstrip Control
None of the tabstrip control's display attributes may be changed. You can, however, set the tabstrip control's tabs to "Invisible". (Be careful, this may lead to errors. Pay close attention to the guidelines found in the section Transaction Variants and Screen Variants: Special Features)

Subscreens
A separate dialog box allowing you to copy field values is sent for each subscreen. For technical reasons, the Cancel function has been deactivated on these dialog boxes.

Under What Conditions Are Transaction Variant Settings Adopted?

In principle, all values present in a variant are inserted each time its transaction (Variant Transactions) is started and the corresponding fields of the transaction are initial. If one of the fields in question already contains a value (inserted by a user or set internally by a transaction), this value is not overwritten with the value found in the transaction variant.

Exception: If the field has been reset to initial (by a user or internally by a transaction). In this case, the variant cannot tell that the initial value found in the has been inserted explicitly. If the variant contains a value for this field that differs from the initial value, then this second value is inserted. This means that fields that have a value in the variant cannot be reset to initial because this initial value will always be overwritten by the variant.

For more information about conflicts between user entries, SPA and GPA parameters, and values set by variants, see Transaction Variants and Screen Variants: Special Features.

Display attributes are not set when you change a variant With processing. The dialog box for determining values shows which display attributes are valid in that variant.

Error Dialogs

From a technical point of view, there are two types of error messages:

(a) Error messages output by the screen itself (for example, when an entry is incompatible with its field type)

(b) Error messages output by the program.

During transaction processing, no difference is apparent between error messages of type (a) and (b). This is not the case during variant creation.

Type (a) messages are displayed BEFORE the dialog box for determining values is sent. This ensures that errors that trigger type (a) messages can be corrected before the dialog box is sent.

Type (b) messages are displayed AFTER the dialog box for determining values has been sent. The system automatically replaces incorrect values with correct ones if they are to be adopted into the variant. This is also the case with corrections that have been made due to warnings.
Exception: If the "Exit and Save" function has been chosen from the dialog box, the system exits the transaction before if can send a message (b). Here, the entries can no longer be corrected.