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Maintain
Self-Defined Information Structures
In this step, you can create, change, delete
and display information structures.
New self-defined information structures need a four-character name, which lies
between S501 and S999.
Information structures created with different names before
Release 3.0A can still be used.
Requirements
If you wish to create an information structure
that contains fields from different applications, you first need to create a
self-defined application.
Caution
You can only change or delete information
structures if no data is stored in them.
If the information structure in question
contains data, then you have to delete this data first.
When you delete an information structure, all
of the update rules that are assigned to it will also be deleted in all of the
clients.
Activities
1. In the
Info structure field, specify both a name and a
description for the information structure that you wish to
create.
2. Assign the
information structure to an application.
3. You use the
attribute to determine the type of info structure, and also to determine if
this info structure can be planned. Once an information structure has been
created with certain attributes, these attributes can not be
changed.
4. If you want
to create an information structure with reference to an information structure
that already exists, specify the name of the information structure to which
you are referring in the field Copy from info
structure.
The elements of the
reference structure are then automatically copied to the new information
structure. You can make changes to these proposals.
5. Press
Enter.
a) If you chose
type 'D' (without update), the transaction structure
(type ' ') and the stock structure (type 'C') must be specified
first.
You now branch into
the maintenance screen of the characteristics and key figures of the
information structure.
6. Select
Edit -> Characteristics, in order to define the characteristics for
the information structure.
Two dialog boxes for
selecting the characteristics are displayed.
One dialog box
(Chosen Characteristics: Sequence) lists the fields that have already been
selected. To select other fields choose the function Selection
list.
The second dialog
box (Selection List) consists of two lists. Only those field catalogs from
which you can select characteristics are displayed. Only the field catalogs
that apply to the selected application are displayed (characteristic
catalogs).
7. If you want
to display the characteristics in a certain field catalog, select it by
double-clicking on the catalog.
The list on the left
shows the characteristics from the selected field catalog.
8. If you want
to copy a characteristic from the list to your information structure, position
the cursor on the respective charcteristic name and select the function
Copy.
The characteristic
you select is marked and is then copied into the list of the characteristics
you have already selected.
Note
When you select
field catalogs and characteristics, the respective descriptions are
displayed.
You can use the
Switch display function to display the technical names (field catalog
names and field names of the characteristic from the Dictionary).
9. You can
branch into the list of selected characteristics, by pressing
Enter.
You can now edit
this list further, i.e. you can change the sequence of the of the
characteristics, delete characteristics from the list or insert new
characteristics from the field catalogs.
To change the
sequence of the selected characteristics, proceed as follows:
a) Select the
characteristic or block of characteristics that needs to be moved by double
clicking or using icon Select/Deselect or Select block. The
icon Move appears. Position your cursor on another character, and
choose Move.
The characteristic
or block of characteristics that you marked first will now be be inserted
exactly above this second characteristic.
An alternative to
selecting characteristics from the field catalogs is to copy the
characteristics from an information structure that already
exists.
Select the function
Edit -> Chacteristics with reference. In the
dialog box, specify the name of the information structure from which you want
to copy the characteristics.
Caution
If you have already
selected characteristics and use the "Characteristics with reference"
function, the characteristics that you have already selected will be
overwritten and not added.
10. In order to
define the key figures for the information structure, select Edit
-> Key figures .
The system displays
the field catalogs for key figures and the catalogs for date fields which
correspond to the application.
The procedure for
the definition of the key figures is exactly the same as for the definition of
the characteristics.
Note
It is sometimes
necessary to define key figures which resemble characteristics in the key
figure area. This is necessary in cases of information structures that are
relatively document-specific, for example.
The key figure
catalogs in the standard system only contain key figures that can be
calculated.
If you want to
define key figures that resemble characteristics, you need to have created
your own key
figure catalogs.
When defining a key
figure, you must also specify a unit. You thus determine the unit in which the
key figure should appear in the information structure (for example, currency,
local currency, order unit, sales order unit). This
causes the unit from the source field of the application to be
proposed.
The unit of the key
figure can differ from this proposal. If you use similar key figures in an
information structure whose source fields have different units (for example,
local currency and document currency), these key figures are not directly
comparable when different document currencies and local currencies are used in
evaluations.
In this case you can
assign the unit "local currency" to the key figure whose source field is in
document currency for statistical purposes.
If the units in the
source field and key figure are different, the units are automatically
converted when the statistics update from the application takes
place.
Caution
There is a limited
number of ways in which the unit conversions can be used.
Only very specific
conversisons are allowed for the statistics update. These are, as a rule, the
unit conversions whose conversion factors are saved in the document of the
application. This is required to guarantee the consistency of statistics
updates when changes are made to the document. This will help prevent
inconsistencies arising during the time between the creation of a document and
the subsequent changes to the document. In both cases, the same conversion
rate is used for the unit conversion.
Note
When the information
structure is generated, a corresponding unit field is automatically created in
the information structure in accordance with the selected unit. This unit
field is automatically supplied with the respective unit that corresponds to
the key figure during updating.
The automatic
generation of a unit field does not occur for key figures
that do not have a unit or for numerators.
It is possible to
use self-defined units for self-defined key figures. If the log shows missing
entries for the table TMC6 and TMC24 after the check or generation, execute
maintain units.
They also play an
important role in standard analyses for the definition of a key
figure.
If you use
qualitative key figures, it is not recommended to display these key figures as
a percentage.
For example, if the
key figure value to be evaluated is greater than the key figure 3.5 by 1.5, it
does not make sense to illustrate both of the key figures as a percentage of a
sum of 5.0.
The indicator "SKz"
(summation indicator) indicates whether the value of the key figure can be
properly cumulated. This information is used in the standard analysis for
totals formation, execution of the ABC analysis, classification and
segmentation. It is also used in Copy Management.
Caution
This key figure does
not affect the display of totals in the flexible analyses.
a) In
information structures for which the attribute Planning
possible is set, you can select the indicator "FKz" (Fix
indicator) so that the values of this key figure can be fixed in the planning
table in Flexible Planning.
During generation, an additional field is created, with the prefix "F".
Example: If the field name is AETNETWR, a field with the name FAETNETWR is
generated in the dictionary table and the database table. This field is not
displayed in the information structure.
a) In
information structures of type 'D' (without update) or type 'E', (standard
with valuations) stock values are marked with the indicator "BWt" (Stock
value).
For the stock values with an information structure type 'D' (without updating)
you must define the stock value in the stock info structure type 'C' (without
period), and the receipt/issue values in the transactional information
structure type ' ' (standard). To do so, choose Edit -> Receipt/issue key
figures.
1. Save the
information structure.
2. Choose
Info structure -> Generate
During generation, the dictionary table and its database table for the
information structure "Snnn" and the table for the planning hierarchy "SnnnE"
are created ("nnn" is the number of the information structure).
In order to generate
this environment automatically, select the function "Generate info
structure".
First you gain an
overview of the most important steps of the generation (brief summary of the
generation log). Position your cursor on a row in the log and choose
Goto -> Detailed log for a detailed overview of the
object created. Alternatively, you can choose Goto -> Complete
log to see the entire log. Using Goto ->
Documentation , you can obtain a message number and the long
text (if available) for the message, which is useful in solving the
problem.
To print the log,
select the function Log -> Print.
It is possible to
display the generated objects.
Position the cursor on the appropriate line of the log and select
Goto -> Generated object. You then branch to the Dictionary
to display the generated table.
If you need precise technical
information about the characteristics or key figures, select the
function Edit -> Techn. field inform.
The following information is shown in a dialog
box:
- the field name of the characteristic or the
key figure as it was created in the information structure and in the
accompanying Dictionary table
This field name is a
default name from the name of the reference field and can be
overwritten.
- the names of the reference table and the
reference field from which the technical features for the fields in the
information structure are copied.
These fields can
also be overwritten.
- the name of the corresponding data element and
the domain of the reference field
- The name of the source field is for
documentation purposes only in this case. It is proposed as a source field
when you define the update rules.
It is important to
display the unit of the source field for the technical features of the key
figure. Only specific unit conversions to the unit of the key figure are
permitted, dependending on this source unit.
In you wish to display the field
documentation,
position the cursor on a characteristic or a
key figure and select the function Edit -> Display field
docu . The documentation of the respective reference field is
then shown.
You can use Edit -> General
features to display the name of the Dictionary table that
belongs to the information structure. The table is only displayed if the
information structure has already been saved or generated.
You can use the function Tools
-> Transport features to change the transport features
(development class) of an object.
You can use
Environment to branch into any update definition of an
information structure or to display the generation log for an information
structure.