International Address Versions

Purpose

The worldwide use of SAP software requires the use of many different fonts. International address versions (or versions for short) are an attribute of Business Address Services that enable addresses to be printed in different fonts depending on the country. In this context, "different fonts" does not refer to country-specific features within a character set, such as umlauts in German and accents in French, but rather fonts that consist of their own character sets.

When printing addresses, note that the font of the addresses to be printed is not determined by the current logon language or the logon language at the time of address creation. International address versions enable the same address to be output in different fonts (or versions), depending on certain parameters.

See also SAP Note 316331 about international address versions.

Maintaining Address Versions

The NATION field in table TSADV is used as an indicator for international address versions. All version keys that can be used are included in this table. The following versions are predefined in table TSADV (delivery class E) for Releases 4.6B/4.6C:

Customers can define their own version key in the customer namespace 1 - 9. New entries are created with the view V_SAPTSADV in transaction SM30. You can activate or deactivate this indicator in transaction SPRO under component BC-SRV-ADR by choosing SAP Web Application Server  Basis Services  Address Management  Maintain Address Version Display Formats (or in transaction SA09).

The NATION field is a component of the key of the address tables ADRC, ADRP, and ADCP.

Addresses of type 1 are stored on the database under a specific address number and the version indicator 'SPACE', when they are created. If other versions are created for these addresses, these versions are also stored on the database under the same address number but with the appropriate version indicator.

The same applies for the person number with address type 2 and address type 3. The versions for address type 3 can be created if the corresponding versions of address type 1 already exist.

International Address Versions in Applications

Address versions are automatically available in all applications that use the Business Address Services. Note also that customer master, vendor master, and bank master have been using versions as of Release 2.1, although these applications have only integrated the Business Address Services (formerly Central Address Management) completely as of Release 4.5.

Since address versions have to correspond semantically with the relevant default versions and only represent one way of creating an address in several fonts, it has to be ensured that the address specifications are consistent in the default version and corresponding address version. For this reason, the numeric fields in an address (for example, house number, postal code, and telephone numbers) are proposed, in accordance with the default version, as default values in the additional version. Changes in these fields are copied back into the default version of the address. Only text fields can be maintained differently in different versions.

Printing

Addresses are printed using the ADDRESS_INTO_PRINTFORM function module. For more information, see Print Formatting for Addresses. To enable the ADDRESS_INTO_PRINTFORM function module to call existing versions of an address for print output, the application program has to transfer the address number for address type 1, or the address number and person number for address types 2 and 3, to the function module or to SAPscript/SAP Smart Forms.

If you want to use other international address versions besides Japanese versions, you can use the customer exit SZAD0001 of the function module ADDRESS_INTO_PRINTFORM.

Address Versions Before Release 4.5

In Releases prior to 4.5, note the following:

1. The default address is stored in the application table (customer master: KNA1; vendor master: LFA1); additional address versions are stored in table SADR. With the bank master (BNKA), all versions of the address are stored in table SADR. You can access the maintenance of other address versions in the master data transactions in the menu by choosing Goto  Address Versions.

2. The version indicators are stored in table TSAV (delivery class C).

3. Up to Release 4.0, the include LSADRI00 for the print functions of versions must be modified. The key values that are assigned to the Kanji and international version in table TSAV have to be entered.

4. The version indicators are activated in transaction SADV.

5. If keys are stored in table TSAV, table TSAVX for the assignment of keys in tables TSAV and TSADV has to be maintained, according to SAP Note 165262, before upgrading to Release 4.5 or higher.

6. The address versions stored in SADR are automatically copied to the BAS table ADRC during an upgrade. The version indicator is used for this purpose, in accordance with table TSAVX.

7. SAP Note 121841 for printing versions other than the Japanese version is valid up to Release 4.0, as is SAP Note 316331.