Most Common Problems

If the specification exchange scenario doesn't work, go through these preliminary checks to determine where can the problem be.

The first thing to check is whether you activated all of the following services and you're getting data from these APIs:
- Allergen - Read (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_ALLERGEN/Allergen)
- Allergen Statement - Read (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_ALLERGENSTATEMENT/AllergenStatement)
- Nutrient - Read (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_NUTRIENT/Nutrient)
- Nutrient Statement - Read (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_NUTRIENTSTATEMENT/NutrientStatement)
- Product Specification (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_PRODUCTSPECIFICATION/ProductSpecification)
- Product Specification Composition Configuration - Read (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_PRODSPECCMPSTNCONFIGN/ProdSpecComponent)
- Product Specification Property Configuration - Read (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_PRODSPECPRPTYCONFIGN//ProdSpecPrptyDefinition)
- Pure Substance - Read (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_PURESUBSTANCE/PureSubstance)
- Pure Substance Component Type - Read (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_PURESUBSTCOMPONENTTYPE/PureSubstanceComponentType)
- Specification Phrase - Read (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_SPECIFICATIONPHRASE/SpecificationPhrase)
- Characteristic Data for Classification (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_CLFN_CHARACTERISTIC_SRV/A_ClfnCharacteristicForKeyDate)
- Product Specification Authorization Group
- (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_PRODSPECAUTHZNGROUP/ProdSpecAuthorizationGroup)
- Product Specification Type
- (sample URL: https://{host}:{port}/sap/opu/odata/sap/API_PRODSPECTYPE/ProdSpecType)
Note

For detailed information about the Specification APIs, see: Specification APIs for Recipe Development and 3117894 . For information on how to configure the Classification API for EPD, see 3145055 .
Also check whether all relevant SAP Notes are there in your system, see SAP Notes for the Specification Exchange Scenario.

Here are the most common problems that cause the specification exchange scenario to not work properly.

Destination Not Set Up Correctly

If you get data from the APIs listed in this topic, but the specification exchange scenario still doesn't work properly, you may have a problem with your cloud connector or with the destination. To check if everything is set up correctly, see the following guide: Connectivity. If you don't get any response for those API requests, look for a setup issue in your source system. For more information, see: Destination for Collaborating on Specifications.

Authorization Issues

If you've set up your destination and are using basic authorization (for details, see the following topic: Destination for Collaborating on Specifications), and you're using technical users, make sure that you set up users to have at least Read access to the service in the source system. Otherwise the value sets won't load.

Categories Are Not Set

To load the value sets properly to the cloud, the system needs to understand which nutrients, allergens, and substances you're using in your source system. To make sure that the system recognizes those items, assign the appropriate category to your specification types in the following Customizing activity: Start of the navigation path Logistics - General Next navigation step Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) PLM Web User Interface Recipe Development Specification Management Specification Specification Master Specify Specification Types in Recipe Development End of the navigation path

The following rules apply:

A specification is considered an allergen if the category ALLERGEN is assigned to it.
A specification is considered a nutrient if the category NUTRIENT is assigned to it.
A specification is considered a pure substance if the category PURE is assigned to it.

If you can’t load data from your source system with the Load Value Sets app, check the Customizing activity to see if your specification types Allergen, Nutrient, and Pure Substance do have those specification categories assigned.

Usage Is Not Consistent

When the specification API wants to create composition headers (for example, when transferring data back to the source system), it checks for the settings in the customizing activity Define Settings for Specification APIs, where a rating and a validity area are assigned to a VAT. The VAT itself is defined in the customizing activity Specify Value Assignment Types, where a usage profile is assigned to it (you can check by double-clicking the respective VAT). The usage profile assigned to the VAT has to contain the same rating and validity area information that is defined in Define Settings for Specification APIs, otherwise the API call fails.

You can check the usage profile in the following customizing activity: Start of the navigation path Logistics - General Next navigation step Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) PLM Web User Interface Recipe Development Specification Management Specification Additional Information for Value Assignment Usage Specify Usage Profiles End of the navigation path .

Getting All Specification Types for Custom Compositions

In case of B (listing) or C (composition) type custom compositions, the Specification Type column in the Customizing activity Define Settings for Specification APIs isn't taken into consideration. To fix this problem, in the Customizing activity Specify Value Assignment Types you have to define which specification types are allowed for the custom composition. To do this or to check the settings, go to the following node: Start of the navigation path Logistics - General Next navigation step Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) PLM Web User Interface Recipe Development Specification Management Specification Specification Database Structure Settings for Value Assignment End of the navigation path .

In the Customizing activity Specify Value Assignment Types, select the respective VAT and go to the detailed Specification Type view, where you can list the specification types that you want associated with your custom composition.

If no specification type is defined here, all specification types are accepted for the respective custom composition - and loading all data with the Load Value Sets for Specification app can take much longer.

Problem While Transferring Qualitative or Quantitative Custom Compositions

With RMS_D (qualitative) or RMS_N (quantitative) type custom compositions, the Specification Type column in the Customizing activity Define Settings for Specification APIs is taken into consideration. This means that only specifications with the given specification type can be entered as an item in the composition.

However, this specification type has to correspond to the specification type defined in the respective calculation ID as well.

To assign Calculation ID-s to VATs, go to the following Customizing activity: Start of the navigation path

Logistics - General Next navigation step

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Next navigation step

PLM Web User Interface Next navigation step

Recipe Development Next navigation step

Specification Management Next navigation step

Specification Next navigation step

Additional Information for Value Assignment Next navigation step

Specific Settings for Recipe Development Next navigation step

Assign Calculation ID to Value Assignment Type End of the navigation path

. If you set up a new custom composition, you have to assign a calculation ID to it as well.

The specification type given in the respective calculation ID and the specification type given in the Customizing activity Define Settings for Specification APIs both have to be the same. Otherwise transferring data from the cloud to the source system can cause inconsistencies.

In the following Customizing activity, you can check the specification type that's assigned to the calculation ID: Start of the navigation path

Logistics - General Next navigation step

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Next navigation step

PLM Web User Interface Next navigation step

Recipe Development Next navigation step

Specification Management Next navigation step

Recipe

Calculations Next navigation step

Define Recipe Calculations End of the navigation path

. Here you select the calculation ID and go to the subview as follows:

In case of RMS_D (qualitative) type custom compositions, select the subview Qualitative Composition (Group-Based)
In case of RMS_N (quantitative) type custom compositions, select the subview Quantitative Composition (Group-Based)

Problem with Transferring Properties

Mandatory Information Not Filled

The mandatory attribute of properties can be only set in the source system. However, because of how the different Customizing activities work, something that is mandatory in the source system may not be marked as mandatory in the UI of the Manage Provisional Specifications app.

This transfer problem can happen when a characteristic isn't set as Entry Required in transaction CT04, but is marked later as Rq.Ent.Fld in the Customizing activity Set Up Table-Based Value Assignment. This setting isn't regarded as mandatory in the provisional specification, therefore, if fields are left empty, the transfer can fail.

VAT Not Active

If while transferring you get an error message stating that the request can't be performed and you should check the respective Customizing activities, this may be because the Value Assignment Types (VATs) that are used as properties aren't marked as active. To check this, go to the Implementation Guide and open the Customizing activity Start of the navigation path Logistics - General Next navigation step Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) PLM Web User Interface Recipe Development Specification Management Specification Specification Database Structure Settings for Value Assignment Specify Value Assignment Types End of the navigation path .

Here, double click on the VATs that you're using in your cloud system and check if the following fields are checked:

VA Copy Active
New VA Active
Change Active

Descriptions Are Not Displayed

If you see no descriptions for your compositions or properties on the cloud side and you are sure that they are maintained in your source system, then the problem can be that the identifiers are not configured correctly.

You can customize the displayed identification types with the following Customizing activity: Check Identification Listing under Start of the navigation path Logistics - General Next navigation step Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) PLM Web User Interface Recipe Development Specification Management Specification Specification Master End of the navigation path .

The identifiers in position 1 and 2 are exposed to the API per specification category. You can use language dependent and language independent descriptions.

The following table summarizes how the identifiers should look like.

Defining Identifiers
Spec. Cat.	IDListPos.	IDLISTPrio	ID Categ	ID Type	Comment
ALLERGEN	1	1	NAM	DESC	Language independent description
ALLERGEN	2	1	NAM	PROD	Language dependent description
ALLGROUP	1	1	NAM	DESC	Language independent description
ALLGROUP	2	1	NAM	PROD	Language dependent description

You have to maintain this table for all used specification categories, including the category SUBSTANCE, which is used by the specification exchange scenario as the main category.

See Descriptions in Different Languages for more information.

UoMs Are Not Loaded or Transferred

It can happen that any of your Units of Measurement doesn't synchronize during one of the following actions:

When loading specification data from your source system;
When transferring data back to the source system;
After loading value sets, a nutrient misses its base UoM

This is most likely because the UoM codes and ISO codes in your source system do not match with the supported UoMs provided by SAP for the specification exchange scenario. You can find the list of supported UoMs in the following document: Supported Units of Measurement.

If this problem occurs, go to transaction CUNI in your source system, and compare the respective UoM's code and ISO code with the one in the above mentioned document. These two should match.

If you find that you are using a UoM that is not provided by SAP in the specification exchange scenario, and it is not a custom UoM but an ISO certified one, you can raise an incident to component PLM-CLOUD-COL-SXC.