Use

The Validation and Enrichment Processor (VE Processor, VEP) is a generic tool for validating and enriching data. The VE Processor enables the user to apply rules to mass data.

The process is triggered by an event. The event calls up one or more rule sets. Rule sets are called one after the other. Each of them processes all its rules consecutively.

A rule checks the condition. If the condition is met, an action is carried out. The rule is made up on the basis of conditions, actions and expressions.

The VE processor consists of two parts: runtime environment and configuration environment. The user uses the runtime environment to process actual data according to rules. The configuration environment is used to define and edit the elements of the VE processor: application, event, rule set, rule, condition, action and expression.

Features

You can work in the VE Processor with the following elements:

Application– External structure for defining a rule. The application consists of objects defined as structures: event, rule set, rule, condition, action and expression.

Element– This is the generic term for rule expression components: expression, action, condition, rule, rule set and event.

Expressions– These are components of actions or conditions. They can be simple (for example, a constant) or complex (a method call). They can be edited or deleted as long as they are not used by another element. Expressions can contain operands and an operator. Their return value is a Boolean value. Operands can be constants, fields or system variables.

Actions– Use expressions. They can transform data, connect data from different structures, call methods and produce messages informing the user about the results of processes carried out.

Condition– The components of a condition are expressions or other conditions. Conditions can contain hierarchies of such components. They are also evaluated on the basis of these hierarchies. The result of a condition evaluation can influence the result of the evaluation of the next condition. Therefore the order/succession of components is extremely important. Conditions establish whether the actions of a rule can be carried out or not: If the condition is met, the action is carried out, otherwise it is not carried out.

Rule– Rules consist of an initial condition and an action. If the condition is met, the action is carried out, otherwise it is not carried out. Rule attributes can be assigned to fields that belong to deeper structures. In that case, the rule can be applied to all chosen deep structures – this makes it possible to process mass data.

Rule set– Rule sets are groups of rules. They can be called by one or a number of events. A rule set consists of several rules grouped together on management grounds. The rules of a rule set have the same attributes as the rules directly assigned to the events.

Event– An event can contain a rule set or a hierarchy of rule sets. If an event executes a rule set, the rules are executed successively. Triggered by the event, rule processing is started from a program. During this process, work structures are filled with external data.

Activities

For more detailed information on working with the VE Processor, see Editing the Validation and Enrichment Processor und the SAP Service Marketplace under the Internet address service.sap.com/retail -> Expert Knowledge Corner -> Data Synchronization -> http://service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700000970282007EOverview Data Synchronization Guides (including a step-by-step guide and information on configuration).