Maintain Optional Characteristics (SAP Library

Maintain Optional Characteristics

You only need this IMG activity, if you want to use classification for order selection or for the summarization of orders. Classification is only useful when the fields available for the definition of summarization hierarchies are not adequate for your purposes and you want to do the following, for example:

Define a new characteristic as a selection criterion for order selection

Summarize orders using a characteristic you defined yourself

In contrast to reference characteristics, user-defined characteristics do not reference fields in the order master record. For this reason you must manually enter the values for user-defined characteristics in the maintenance of an order master record.

Once you have created a user-defined characteristic and assigned it to the class SAP_KKR_CLASS (class type 013), this characteristic is offered for maintenance with all orders.

If you want to have certain characteristics offered for maintenance not for every order but only for a certain order type or object class, you must also define dependencies with reference to the relevant order types or object classes and assign them to the characteristic.

Example of a User-Defined Characteristic

You can use the characteristic INVEST_CAT (investment category) to classify your orders by the size of the investment. This characteristic has the following values:

Char. value	Designation
<10000	Investments up to 10,000
<50000	Investments up to 50,000
<100000	Investments up to 100,000

Example of a Dependency

You have created the following characteristics:

Characteristic	Designation
INVEST_CAT	Investment category
SERVICE_TYPE	Service type
SERVICE_CATEGORY	Service category

For order type 0600 (Internal Order - Capital Spending), the only characteristic to be offered for maintenance besides the object characteristics is INVEST_CAT.

For the order types 0500 (Internal Order - Third-Party Services) and 0800 (Internal Order - Repair/Maintenance), the characteristics SERVICE_TYPE and SERVICE_CATEGORY are to be offered for maintenance in addition to the object characteristics.

For order type PP01 (production order), only the object characteristics are to be offered for maintenance.

You must do the following:

Create two dependencies.

These dependencies must have the dependency type "Precondition", and as the condition reference the characteristic SAP_KKR_ORAUART (order type).

For the first condition, enter SAP_KKR_ORAUART IN ('0600') in the dependency editor.

For the second condition, enter SAP_KKR_ORAUART IN ('0500','0800') in the dependency editor.

Add the first condition to the characteristic INVEST_CAT.

Add the second condition to the characteristics SERVICE_TYPE and SERVICE_CATEGORY.

Actions

Decide whether you want to summarize or select your orders according to user-defined characteristics.

In this step you go into classification and create the characteristics that you want to valuate in the master data maintenance according to your specific requirements. You proceed as follows:

1. Define one or more user-defined characteristic as follows:

a) Enter the name of the characteristic (use the naming convention for characteristic names).

b) Select the areas for which you want to enter data, and confirm your entry.

c) Under Basic data, specify the following:

The data type of the characteristic

The value assignment of the characteristic (single-value)

The status of the characteristic (1 = released)

Whether a value must always be assigned to the characteristic in classification

d) Maintain the corresponding designations for your characteristic.

e) Maintain the values allowed for your characteristic.

f) Define the interface control for the valuation of the characteristic in classification.

g) If appropriate, restrict the use of your characteristic to class type 013 (CO orders).

2. Assign the characteristic or characteristics to class SAP_KKR_CLASS (class type 013).

3. If appropriate, create dependencies as follows:

a) Enter the name of the dependency.

b) Specify the following under Basic data:

The designation of the dependency

The status of the dependency (1 = released)

The dependency type "precondition"

c) Edit the dependency by choosing Goto -> Dependency editor.

4. Assign these dependencies to the relevant characteristics by choosing Extras -> Object dependencies -> Allocations when changing the characteristics.

Additional information

For more information on defining characteristics, see the Implementation Guide for Classification (Cross-Application Components).

To enable characteristics to be used to create a hierarchy, the characteristics must meet the following conditions:

The characteristic must have the data type CHAR (character format) or NUM (numerical format).

Characteristics with numerical format are not allowed to have places after the decimal point or a plus/minus sign.

Notes on transport

Characteristics and classes are transported in the ALE concept (Application Link Enabling) for distributed R/3 applications. This concept is explained in detail in the document "CA - ALE Consultant's Handbook".

Before transporting, you must carry out the following steps:

Define communication

Define Port

Maintain Partner Profile

Define logical link and message objects for distribution:

Maintain Customer Distribution Model on PC Tool

Maintain Customer Distribution Model Directly

Distribute Customer Model

Check Consistency Against Customer Model

The following objects are used:

Object	Designation
CHRMAS	Characteristic
CLSMAS	Classes

Then you must use transaction BALE to select the master data for the characteristics and classes and specify the interval for the objects to be distributed.

Object dependencies are not transported.

Otherwise you must carry out all activities listed here in each client in which you want to work.