The Modification Assistant
The SAP system is modified to meet the needs of individual working environments at several different levels:
Customizing, Personalization, Business Add-Ins, and customer developments are all supported by corresponding tools such as the IMG, the BAdI Builder, or the development environment. The Modification Assistant is the tool that offers you support when making modifications to the standard.
In order to use the Modification Assistant to simplify the upgrade process, you branch to a special modification mode whenever you are modifying objects from the standard in an ABAP Workbench editor. Originals are initially protected in this mode and can only be changed with the help of the additional pushbuttons that are placed at your disposal.
All changes that you make to the system are logged with the help of the Modification Assistant. This provides you with a detailed overview of modifications that is easy to read and that dramatically reduces the amount of effort needed to upgrade your system.
The Modification Assistant offers support in the following areas:
ABAP Editor, Class Builder, Screen Painter, Menu Painter, text element maintenance, Function Builder, ABAP Dictionary and documentation.
Modifications made to those ABAP Workbench objects not supported by the Modification Assistant are logged and displayed in an overview. Modifications made to these objects are adjusted in the system in the conventional manner at upgrade.
If an object can be edited using the Modification Assistant, a dialog box appears the first time that you attempt to edit that object informing you that editing functions are limited in modification mode. This dialog box appears exactly once per user for each of the various different kinds of transport objects.
Modifications should only be made to the standard when they are necessary for the optimization of specific business processes. Before modifying the standard, it is essential that you are well acquainted with an application’s construction and flow logic since such knowledge is necessary if you want to evaluate modification possibilities.
The responsibility for a modification’s semantic correctness ultimately lies with the person making the modifications.
For more information, see:
Modifications in Programs Modifications in the Screen Painter Modifications in the Menu Painter Modifying Text Elements Modifying and Adding Function Modules Modifications in the ABAP Dictionary Modifying Documentation Disabling the Modification Assistant Reset to Original The Modification Browser Upgrade Procedure / Support Packages