The following standard table maintenance dialog functionality is already available in the system for user applications:

• A central program module, which contains all the maintenance functionality, including mark functions for multiple record processing, the possibility of selecting all records processed, recover deleted records, and much more besides.
• The maintenance transaction, which uses the table or view-specific components as well as the central program module.

The processing sequence is illustrated using views as an example, in the following figure:

A work area, which can contain all existing views or be restricted by a selection, is fetched from the database for processing on the screen. This work area is first loaded into internal tables. At this point, a further selection for processing by field contents can be made.

Field contents are maintained in the internal tables. The database is not accessed automatically after the maintenance of each individual view record. Changes made are only copied from the internal buffer to the database when the user chooses save. This buffering gives the maintenance processing the form of a transaction. This enables the user to cancel changes before the database access (user-controlled „Rollback") and allows the calling main program to check entries for consistency in context.

The maintenance dialog can be integrated as follows:

• Maintenance transaction integration in a menu or an application.
• Maintenance dialog integration using function modules in an application with parameter passing.
  There are three possible entry levels, which differ according to the extent to which the maintenance procedure can be controlled.

• Highest level
  With this interface you call the complete maintenance dialog for a table or a view. You can restrict the table entries which are read from the database using selections.
• Middle level
  This level contains the actual maintenance dialog with the steps "Read, Edit, Save" in this order. You must program preparatory actions, such as locking the data, reading the Dictionary, etc., yourself.

• Lowest level
  With this interface you control all maintenance procedures individually from your program. You pass the actions to be performed to the function module as parameters.
  In this way you can easily integrate individual maintenance steps ("Read, Edit, Save") in your program.