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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:

This field name is a default name from the name of the reference field and can be overwritten.
These fields can also be overwritten.
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.