The creation of table/view maintenance dialogs is described here. Maintenance dialogs can be created for SAP or customer tables or views.

There are two steps:

1. Define table/view
   if the table or view does not yet exist.
2. Define maintenance dialog

The table/view is defined in the Dictionary. A view comprises a primary table and secondary tables which have a foreign key relationship to the primary table. Secondary tables can be

• Dependent tables: These are auxiliary primary tables and have the same key as the primary table. All fields can be maintained directly. The secondary tables are linked by a foreign key with dependency factor "ID" and cardinality 1 or C, except for text tables, which must have dependency factor TEXT. The logon language is assigned to the language key when you save.

• Referred tables: The primary table contains fields which belong to the referred secondary table. The secondary table can have other key fields which are not known to the primary table. The secondary table fields cannot be maintained, they can only be displayed. The referred secondary tables are linked by a foreign key with dependency factor OBL or OPT and cardinality CN or N. All other secondary tables which depend on the referring table, are also only referred tables for the primary table.

You can display the view structure graphically with the View hierarchy struct. function in the Utilities menu.

To create a table/view:

• Choose view type Maintenance view.
• All primary table key fields must be in the view definition.
• The client field must be included for client-dependent tables/views. The field is not displayed in the maintenance dialog.
• The language key must not be included for secondary text tables. The logon language is automatically used in maintenance.
• The key fields must be defined before the function fields. Function fields and key fields must not be mixed.
• Fields of a referred table cannot be maintained and have the maintenance attribute 'R'.
• Each field can have one of the following maintenance attributes.

• You can specify the maintenance status of the entire table/view with the Maintenance status option. You can:

• read only
• read, change, delete and create (default setting)
• read and change
• read and change (time-dependent views)

You must specify the following parameters in the maintenance dialog definition:

• Function group: the function group in which the tables/view-specific maintenance dialog components are generated. The function group is created if necessary.
• Authorization group: the users who are authorized to maintain the table/view contents.
• Maintenance type: one or two-step dialog. One-step dialogs comprise only an overview screen containing all fields. In two-step dialogs, only the key and text fields with a length of more than 20 characters are displayed in the overview screen. All fields are offered in the detail screen.
• Maintenance screens: the internal number of each maintenance screen. You can get possible values in a search function.
• Recording routine: Specify whether and how the table/view contents maintained with the dialog are put in a transport.

The maintenance dialog is generated after all values have been entered. If there are no errors, the dialog can be used immediately to maintain table/view contents.