Use

You can use these functions to check and derive values. For example, you can use variant functions for:

Variant functions must be defined by the user.

Integration

A variant function is created as customer-specific coding, which is called up from the dependency by the keywords FUNCTION and PFUNCTION . The characteristics and characteristic values are then transferred in a list containing pairs of parameter names and associated parameter values. Variant functions are part of the knowledge base.

To use variant functions in mySAP ERP Variant Configuration, you have to program them in ABAP . To use variant functions to configure products with the Configuration Engine , however, you have to implement them in Java .

Variant functions must always be created as an ABAP module that covers at least the interface requirements, since you can only set the status of a variant function to Released if the function can be executed.

There is no automatic translation from ABAP to Java.

Prerequisites

To implement variant functions, you must have:

Features

There are two types of variant functions that have the same definition and form. However, they address different objects and therefore provide different options:

Creating Variant Functions

When you create variant functions for models to configure products with the Configuration Engine , remember that the Configuration Engine is based on the Java Transaction Server and uses its infrastructure. For more information and on the steps described below, see SAP Note 870201.

Example

package com.sap.sce.user;

import com.sap.sce.engine.*;

/*

 * Java Class for variant function Z_CABIN_LABEL.

 *

 * This variant function (PFUNCTION) does the following:

 * 1) Read the values of three characteristics:

 *     - ELEVATOR_TYPE (mandatory, using the standard characteristic  *       interface)

 *     - MAX_LOAD (mandatory, using the standard characteristic interface)

 *     - ELEVATOR_OPTIONS (optional, multi-valued, using a method of SCELIB  *       (similar to function group CUPR)

 * 2) Generate a string from the values in 1) and set it as value

 *     for characteristic CABIN_LABEL.

 *

 * Motivation:

 * 1) Since MAX_LOAD is numeric the string label cannot be generated

 *     using classical dependencies.

 * 2) Since ELEVATOR_OPTIONS is multi-valued, its values cannot be passed

 *     via the variant function interface and must be read directly from the

 *     configuration using a read access method (SCELIB).

 *

 * The variant function is activated as follows:

 * 1) Create an equally named variant function in ERP with input  *     characteristics "ELEVATOR_TYPE" and "MAX_LOAD" and output parameter .*     "CABIN_LABEL".

 * 2) Create a procedure with the following code and link it to the  *     config.profile:

 *     pfunction Z_CABIN_LABEL (ELEVATOR_TYPE = $self.ELEVATOR_TYPE,

 *                              MAX_LOAD       = $self.MAX_LOAD,

 *                             CABIN_LABEL    = $self.CABIN_LABEL)

 */

public class Z_CABIN_LABEL implements sce_user_fn

   {

     public boolean execute(fn_args args, Object obj)

      {

           // get the target instance of the PFUNCTION

           ddb_inst inst = args.get_instance();

           // get elevator type from characteristic interface (Input):

           String elevatorType = args.get_value("ELEVATOR_TYPE");

           // get capacity from characteristic interface (Input):

           int capacity = Integer.parseInt(args.get_value("MAX_LOAD"));

          // get elevator options with read method (scelib) from           // configuration:

           String[] elevatorOptions = scelib.get_values(                       inst, "ELEVATOR_OPTIONS");

           // calculate the cabin label

           StringBuffer cabinLabel = new StringBuffer();

           cabinLabel.append(elevatorType);

              if(elevatorOptions.length > 0) {

                 cabinLabel.append("-");

                 for(int i = 0; i < elevatorOptions.length; ++i)

                 cabinLabel.append(elevatorOptions[i]);

            }

           cabinLabel.append(" max load: " + capacity);

          if(cabinLabel.length() > 30)

           throw new IllegalArgumentException(

                       "Z_CABIN_LABEL: maximum length exceeded: "

                       + cabinLabel);

           // set value of cabin label in interface (Output)

           args.set_value("CABIN_LABEL", cabinLabel.toString());

           // NOTE: if you have a multi-valued output parameter or

           // an unknown number of output parameters you can set the           // result values directly in the configuration via           // scelib.set_value:           // EXAMPLE: scelib.set_value(inst, "CABIN_LABEL",           // cabinLabel.toString());

           return true;

      }

   }