Generation Variant
Use
This function controls report creation depending on whether reports contain specification data.
Reports with Reference to a Specification
For reports with reference to a specification, the generation variant controls the generation and the procedure in report management.
Specification data stored in the specification database needs to automatically reach the correct addressee in accordance with the validity area and rating.
The report generation variant (RGV) forms the link between the report template and the usage, which is made up of the validity area and the rating. You enter the usage both for the individual value assignments and identifiers and for the report generation variant. Data is generated and output on the report only if the usage of a value assignment or identifier corresponds with the validity area and the rating of the generation variant.
Identifiers are selected depending on the language as follows: the identifiers are selected for which the report language is specified. If the system does not find an identifier for the language, it selects the identifiers for which no language is specified. The same applies for the selection of user-defined texts.
You can specify validity areas of different validity area categories (such as REGION, PLANT) in Customizing. Thus you can output data on a report, for example, for a specific plant. You can assign other validity areas to a validity area in Customizing, but no other validity areas can be assigned to a validity area that is already assigned.
See
You use the generation variant indicator to specify the stages in the status network in report management through which a report must pass when it is created for the first time.
Reports Without Reference to a Specification
After assigning the generation variant to a released report template that does not contain any symbols from the
report application specification master, the report is treated as a released report and is therefore available for report shipping in the report information system. The report does not therefore appear in report management.
For reports without reference to a specification, the validity area of the generation variant and the rating have no significance.
Features
You protect specification data against unauthorized access using ratings. You can, for example, specify that data can be accessed by all customers.
A validity area can group several jurisdictions where specification data has the same validity.
You need to differentiate between:
You specify these validity areas when you create a generation variant.
If you want a document (a multi-language hazard label, for example) to feature several validity area/language combinations, you also define these assignments as part of the report generation variant.
You also need to define a repeating group type Validity and language area so that the system selects the correct data for the report.
See
You can use the usage check in the report generation variant header and for the individual discrete validity areas to specify the way in which the SAP System compares usages.
You can specify for usages with the same rating for the validity areas whether an intersection, subset, or superset should be present or whether they should agree for the comparison to apply.
For more information about comparing usages, see
You can use the status check in the report generation variant header using the Status check indicator to specify whether the specification or phrase status should be checked when a report is generated.
If you call the Report from template function from the specification management hit list, you can override the indicator if required.
If there is no status entry for the relevant specification that prohibits generation, the status is taken into account in the following way:
The SAP System checks the usage records for the selected data records that led to the selection of the data record. If there is a status for the relevant specification that prohibits output on reports, the data record is not output on the report.
Depending on the status of the phrase item, you can specify whether the phrase item is expanded on the report, or whether the phrase symbol is not expanded and the additional information for the phrase status is output on the report.
The report category is also directly linked to the generation variant. A report can be identified using the report category, for example, as a tremcard or material safety data sheet (MSDS). As standard, only reports of the category Material safety data sheet can be sent in the material safety data sheet shipping function. This is controlled via the business process Material safety data sheet shipping that must be assigned to the report category in the IMG activity Specify Report Categories and to the shipping reason Manual shipping in the IMG activity Check Shipping Reasons. See
Once you have assigned a report template to a generation variant, the SAP System automatically determines all report applications to which symbols were created in the report template. You cannot delete these report applications. You can also assign other report applications that must have been created in the IMG activity Specify Report Applications in Customizing for Product Safety.
The report application Specification master cannot be assigned manually. It is assigned only by the use of specification symbols in the corresponding report template.
The symbols are assigned uniquely to a report application because:
You can define your own symbols for each report application that are then available in the report template. Using the IMG activity Specify Report Symbol Groups function modules are defined for each symbol group which then determine default values that can be overwritten for the parameter symbols of the report template. You can adapt the function modules to suit your own specific requirements. A report application can also use a number of symbol groups.
You can restrict the usability of the generation variant by assigning individual object keys to the report applications. If no object key is specified, the generation variant applies for all objects in the report application (see
If a report is assigned to certain objects already, there is no point in restricting the usability of the generation variant to other objects in the same report application. The SAP System therefore ignores these object assignments. (Example: If a report is assigned to a specific material via the material-specification assignment, the assignment of the generation variant to another material is ignored.)
When you access the report management or report information system functions, the generation variants and the corresponding reports are selected according to the
search criteria.