Function documentationControl Center

 

The control center on the Web user interface (Web UI) of SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM) is the principal initial screen for this application. It gives you an overview of the PLM objects you are currently working on or have worked on recently and you can also search for certain objects. The system displays the most important general attributes for the objects, such as change date and status, and you can access the objects directly or call them up using the Object Navigator. You can also specify default values for the objects to which you want to navigate.

To access the control center, choose Work Overview from the Home area of the SAP NetWeaver Business Client.

Prerequisites

In Customizing, you specified which fields are to appear on the Generic tab page of the Edit Work Environment window. For more information, see Customizing for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) under Start of the navigation path PLM Web User Interface Next navigation step PLM Web Applications Next navigation step PLM Tools and Web Access Next navigation step Define Generic Parameters for Work Environment End of the navigation path.

If you do not make any settings in Customizing, the settings supplied with the standard system apply.

Features

Work Environment

In the work environment, you can specify default values for certain key fields of objects to which you want to navigate. The following fields are displayed in the Work Environment screen area. By choosing Edit Work Environment you can call a window in which you can specify the values for these fields on the Specific tab page:

  • Change Number

  • Key Date

    The key date specifies the date for which the object is displayed. You can specify whether the key date is the current date, a date you entered, or the valid-from date of the specified change number.

  • Plant

    If you are using bills of material, the bill of material is displayed in this plant. If you do not enter a plant, the group BOM applies.

  • Context

    Specifies the access control context, that is, the area whose business objects can only be accessed by users with a corresponding context role.

Depending on your Customizing settings, you can specify more default values, for example the (BOM) usage, on the Generic tab page of the Edit Work Environment window. You can specify which fields appear on this tab page in Customizing. For more information, see the Prerequisites section.

Search

You use the search to find individual objects that you have not yet specified as favorites, for example. For more information, see Search.

My Contexts

This screen area contains the list of access control contexts to which you are assigned. You can display the individual access control contexts and edit them (depending on your role).

My Objects

This screen area contains lists of your object favorites and the objects that you recently accessed and changed. You can display or change all objects directly or display them in the Object Navigator by choosing the relevant pushbutton on the tab pages. When you click an object, the system opens it in edit mode. The access control contexts are an exception to this; the system opens them in the Object Navigator.

The lists contain the following information:

  • PLM Favorites

    The system displays all favorites you specified with general attributes, such as description or change date. If you want to display additional, object-specific information, call up the work center for the object. For more information, see Work Center.

    You can specify favorites from the individual objects when you display them either directly or in the Object Navigator, or when you edit them. You can delete your favorites by choosing Remove.

  • Last Accessed

    This tab page displays the last objects that you called up directly (not using the Object Navigator).

  • Recently Changed

    This tab page displays the last objects that you changed.

You can personalize the My Objects screen area and hide the tab pages. To show the tab pages again, you have to define a new query. You can also add your own tab page using a customer-specific enhancement.

There is no limit on the number of favorites that can be displayed. You can change the query for the last-accessed and recently-changed objects to specify how many objects the system should display.

Transaction Links

You can use the transaction links in the top screen area to call all transactions for creating, displaying, and changing different PLM objects.