Table maintenance dialogs are used mainly to create and transport customizing settings. Experience shows that problems can arise when importing customizing changes into the production system because of the different customizing environment compared to the quality assurance system, requiring additional effort and causing increased costs. Many customers are aware of this problem and avoid it by recreating the customizing settings in the target system (usually the production system) manually. This procedure is made no longer necessary by the Customizing Cross-System Viewer (CCS Viewer) and the Customizing Transfer Assistant (CTA) from Release 4.5A. The CCS Viewer compares the customizing settings in two clients and adjusts any diffences individually (performing all checks). The CTA is a CCS Viewer add-on which automatically controls the checked mass copy of customizing data.

Customizing settings are compared and copied with checks using the standard table maintenance, i.e. the customizing activity must use the view/view cluster maintenance for adjustment to be possible. Individually programmed IMG activities cannot be handled by the CCS Viewer and CTA.

The CCS Viewer and CTA copy the customizing changes into the target client in the associated dialogs. All checks which are made in online maintenance are performed. This procedure is technically unproblematic for unmodified dialogs. If individual checks, dialogs or events have been added to the dialog, the adjustment may not work. For this reason, the two tools cannot currently handle modified dialogs. This is unsatisfactory because many modifications need not prevent adjustment. The person responsible for a modified dialog must decide whether it can be handled by the CCS Viewer and CTA according to fixed criteria. This document describes these criteria to enable the person responsible to decide whether a dialog is "adjustable" or not.

The adjustability is indicated by a flag in the maintenance object description header, which is processed by the CCS Viewer and CTA. The flag can have the following values:

• no value, i.e. the dialog has been modified and no adjustability value has been specified for it. This dialog cannot be handled by the CCS Viewer and CTA;

• not adjustable, i.e. the dialog cannot be handled by the CCS Viewer and CTA;
• adjustable in dialog, i.e. the CCS Viewer or CTA run the dialog, the user adjusts the data and saves. Automatic adjustment is not possible;
• automatically adjustable, i.e. the dialog is unmodified or only modified in ways which do not prevent automatic (and dialog) adjustment.

The flag must be set manually for modified dialogs, by the person responsible. This new flag is maintained for individual dialogs in SE54. The flags for all the maintenance dialogs in a development class can be set by the program RSVIEWMOD.

The developer must check the effects of modifications/enhancements on the adjustment, according to the criteria, before setting the flag. The effort required to do this depends on the environment, and cannot be estimated generally.

The following maintenance dialog modifications are critical for automatic and dialog adjustment:

1. Use of subsets
2. Field value change sequence
3. Subobject-specific checks
4. Create, change or delete additional data independently of Save
5. Additional table maintenance
6. Messages
7. User dialogs
8. View-specifically generated internal data table access

If the VIM_IMPORT_MODE_ACTIVE flag is not SPACE_DIRECT_UPGRADE, the maintenance dialog was called by CTA in automatic adjustment mode.

If the VIM_SPECIAL_MODE flag is VIM_DIRECT_UPGRADE, the maintenance dialog was called by the CCS Viewer and CTA in dialog adjustment.

If a key field is defined as a subset of the view, only this subset is locked in normal view maintenance, and only the data belonging to this subset is read into the internal table TOTAL.

Checked copying completely locks the affected tables, and the entire dataset is read into the table TOTAL. DBA_SELLIST, the internal table conaining the database access selection criteria, contains no value for the subset field at lock and read time

Application-specific events which assume that DBA_SELLIST contains concrete subset field values at lock or read time are not automatically adjustable.

1. Ensure that these events are subset-independent in automatic adjustment. Use the VIM_IMPORT_MODE_ACTIVE flag to check in which mode the maintenance dialog was called.

Datasets are automatically adjusted and saved by subset, i.e. both DBA_SELLIST and DPL_SELLIST, which contains the selection critera for data display, contain the current subset field value. The table EXTRACT contains the entries to be copied from the adjustment data set.

In contrast to normal processing, the internal table TOTAL contains the complete dataset of the relevant tables during automatic adjustment. Any individual check modules and events before or at saving must handle this correctly.

In contrast to automatic adjustment, only the dataset for the current key, not the entire dataset, is read into the table TOTAL in dialog adjustment. DBA_SELLIST contains the selection criteria, so you can here also not assume that DBA_SELLIST contains exactly one value for a subset field.

The table EXTRACT contains the entries to be copied. Data are copied subset-independently, so the table can contain data records for various subset values. When an indivdual dataset is copied, the current subset value is in the table DPL_SELLIST.

All datasets are saved in one subset-independent step. This must be taken into account in the individual save routine.

Field value change sequence checks are not relevant for adjustment, because the CCS Viewer and CTA only check the resulting data consistency, not the input process.

1. Deactivate these checks for adjustment, using the VIM_IMPORT_MODE_ACTIVE flag.

The CCS Viewer and CTA do not recognize or perform subobject-specific checks or logic. The maintenance object description subobject is not in the change request and is therefore unknown. The associated Set/Get parameter CUS is also not set.

1. Check whether the logic is relevant for the adjustment.
2. If the subobject-specific logic is not adjustment-relevant, change your program code so that the logic is not processed in the adjustment.
3. If the subobject-specific logic is adjustment-relevant, it must be changed so that knowledgde of the subobject is not required for the adjustment.

Standard dialog modifications or enhancements which create change or delete database data or objects independently of the view maintenance Save function, are not allowed for automatic adjustment. These database changes cannot be reset in the case of a CCS Viewer or CTA error, and would cause an inconsistent target system.

1. Check whether the enhancements/modifications are required for the adjustment.

If this is not the case, ensure that the enhancements/modifications are not processed at the adjustment, using the global flag VIM_IMPORT_MODE_ACTIVE. (for the use of VIM_IMPORT_MODE_ACTIVE see:)

Modifications/enhancements of a standard dialog which maintain additional data in tables which are not in the view, are not processed by the CCS Viewer and CTA.

You must read in and save the additional tables yourself, as in online maintenance. If you do this in the view maintenance events intended for it, these actions are performed in automatic and dialog adjustment (as in online maintenance).

Messages are logged by the CCS Viewer and CTA in automatic adjustment. The processing of the current record (or records) is also canceled if an error occurs. For messages in modifications and enhancements to the standard dialog to be logged and the copy canceled if an error occurs, note that:

• E and A messages automatically end the processing of the record and are automatically logged. no further action is required;
• For S, W, and I messages, which need not be logged and can be ignored, no further action is required;
• For S, W and I messages which are to be logged or used for error handling, call the form routine VIM_PROCESS_MESSAGE instead of the MESSAGE statement.

No modifications/enhancements which contain user dialogs are allowed because the CCS Viewer and CTA copy the customizing settings in the background.

1. Check whether the user dialogs can be copied in the background or not at all.

If the user dialogs are omitted use the VIM_IMPORT_ACTIVE flag to not process the dialogs in adjustment mode.

You can access the internal tables which contain the view data in view maintenance, using the generated variable <viewname>_TOTAL or <viewname>_EXTRACT, or the global parameters TOTAL and EXTRACT. Both types of access get an internal table header record.

In normal online processing, these header records occupy the same memory space, i.e. the global field symbols defined in the view maintenance, e.g. <VIM_XTOTAL_KEY> or <ACTION> point to this header record. In background copying there are two different header records. If the view is called VHUGO, header records exist for VHUGO_TOTAL and TOTAL, although the rest of the tables VHUGO_TOTAL and TOTAL occupy the same memory.

does not have the desired result because <ACTION> points to the header record TOTAL and does not change in the loop.

1. Use either only the global parameter TOTAL or EXTRACT or only the generated data.

The use of the generated data requires the definition of user field symbols.

Alternatively, you can access the individual components directly using the generated data, without using field symbols.

Modified view clusters and view clusters with modified individual dialogs are critical for the CCS Viewer and CTA. The following modifications prevent automatic adjustment, but allow dialog adjustment:

1. Subdialogs which are not automatically adjustable
2. User dialogs
3. Messages
4. Events not processed in automatic adjustment
5. Use of the event SV
6. Switching to display mode in events
7. Use of subsets
8. Use of the table "EXTRACT" in automatic adjustment

The following modifications also prevent dialog adjustment:

9. Not dialog-adjustable dialogs
10. Events not processed in dialog adjustment
11. Checking events
12. Subset processing
13. Dynamic modifications to the object structure VCL_STRUC_TAB

The global flag VCL_SPECIAL_MODE specifies the view cluster maintenance mode. If the flag is:

• VCL_IMPORT_MODE, view cluster maintenance is in transfer mode
• VCL_COMPARE_MODE, view cluster maintenance is in adjustment mode
• SPACE, view cluster maintenance is in normal maintenance mode.

If the view cluster contains one or more dialogs which cannot be adjusted automatically, the entire cluster is not automatically adjustable.

View cluster events must not contain user dialogs, except at events not processed in the automatic comparison, because this would stop the automatic adjustment.

1. Check whether the maintenance dialog can be omitted in automatic adjustment mode, using the VCL_SPECIAL_MODE flag.

If the user dialog is required, the view cluster is not automatically adjustable.

All S, I and W messages are ignored in automatic adjustment. As view cluster event error messages must always be sent as S or I messages, the errors are not logged (see also the Application help topic "View cluster events, technical background").

1. Use the VCL_PROCESS_MESSAGE routine, which is defined in the Include LSVCMCOD and has the following interface, instead of the MESSAGE statement:

Message types for import and online maintenance (PM_BATCH_TYPE/PM_ONLINE_TYPE) can be specified here.

In online maintenance the routine sends the message normally as an I message like the message statement in the above example. In automatic adjustment the error message is logged. No save is made, so the data which causes the inconsistency is not imported.

To cancel the entire automatic adjustment, use message type A as PM_BATCH_TYPE.

The following view cluster navigation or data maintenance area definition events are not processed:

• 02
• 03
• 07
• 09
• 10
• GR

If these events contain relevant checks, automatic adjustment with the CCS Viewer and CTA is not possible.

1. Check whether the checks can be made elsewhere.

If the event SV is used instead of save, the transfer results are not logged. There is no remedy because the structures are not known.

Switching to display mode in events (in particular events 01, 06, EQ, RE - e.g. if a table cannot be locked) is forbidden because it stops the automatic adjustment.

1. Send a type 'A' error message using the form routine VCL_PROCESS_MESSAGE to cancel automatic adjustment (see messages).

If a subset is defined in a root object for the view cluster, the keys in the change request are used to reconstruct the subsets and automatically adjust by subset. Only the records for a subset in the change request are read in, changed and saved, i.e. the "TOTAL" tables of all subobjects only contain the entries for this subset. The subset field(s) value is entered in the selection list "DBA-SELLIST" for all subobjects, as in online maintenance. Lock is an exception. All tables involved are completely locked at the start of automatic adjustment. So application-specific lock events must lock subset-independently in automatic transfer, otherwise the view cluster is not automatically adjustable.

In the following cases the values for the subset fields cannot be determined from the keys in the change request:

• there are root objects with key subset fields which are not linked by an I dependency;
• a key subset field at root level is in the generic part of the transport key;

• a key subset field at root level is in an object which depends on the root object, is not a key field, or is in the generic transport key.

If the subset values cannot be reconstructed from the transport key, all entries are processed at once, not by subsets, i.e. the subobject "TOTAL" data tables contain entries for several different subset values and no subset field value is specified in the data read selection lists "DBA_SELLIST". If the event program logic assumes that the "TOTAL" tables only contain entries for one subset, or that the subset value is entered in the "DBA_SELLIST", automatic adjustment is not possible. Lock, read and save events in particular should be checked for this.

In online maintenance the "EXTRACT" tables contain records from the "TOTAL" data table which the user has filtered out because of an action performed. In adjust mode, the "EXTRACT" tables are useed for other purposes. As the tables are empty, or contain the data to be adjusted, accessing "EXTRACT" is usually unnnecessary and can cause errors.

In dialog adjustment the view cluster object hierarchy is presented to the user in its own screen:

The adjustment can be performed per subobject (view/table) from this screen, using the adjust icons. All entries in the change request for a subobject are adjusted in one step, not selectively for the entries which were selected at a higher level. There is no navigation in adjustment as in 'normal' view cluster maintenance, in which entries in a higher-level object are selected and then just the dependent objects can be processed . The reason for this is that a user cannot get an overview of all changed entries, he or she must go to all dependent subobjects of all higher-level entries to make the adjustment

You can go to the 'normal' view cluster maintenance by choosing Object maintenance. You can also adjust individual entries here under Utilities à Adjust. Not all maintenance function are available because you are in adjust mode (Delete, New entries, Copy are not possible). You can return to the adjustment structure overview by choosing Back.

If the VCL_SPECIALMODE flag is VCL_COMPARE_MODE, the view cluster maintenance is in adjustment mode, including in the Object maintenance function, where VCL_FUNCTION <> SPACE. In structure overview operations VCL_FUNCTION = SPACE.

If the view cluster contains one or more dialogs which cannot be adjusted in dialog, the entire cluster is not dialog-adjustable.

The following view cluster navigation or data maintenance area definition events are not processed, as in automatic adjustment:

• 02
• 03
• 07
• 09
• 10
• GR

If these events contain relevant checks, dialog adjustment with the CCS Viewer and CTA is not possible.

1. Check whether the checks can be made elsewhere.

When you enter a view cluster with subsets, all subsets in the adjustment dataset, or the complete dataset, if the subset field values cannot be determined from the keys in the change request (see Use of subsets), are read in. The "TOTAL" data tables contain entries for several different subset values and no subset field value is specified in the data read selection lists "DBA_SELLIST". If the event program logic assumes that the "TOTAL" tables only contain entries for one subset, or that the subset value is entered in the "DBA_SELLIST", dialog adjustment is not possible. (See Use of subsets)

You can adjust view clusters in dialog by subdialog in the hierarchical view cluster display (See General remarks). Only those subobjects are presented which are not marked as hidden in the object structure (as in the navigation subscreen). Subobjects marked as hidden cannot be adjusted. This is usually not a problem because entries in such a table are also created hidden in the 'normal' dialog, i.e. they are not created explicitly by the end user. These entries are also created hidden because all modifications are also performed in dialog adjustment.

This beviour cannot be reproduced in dialog adjustment. This view cluster is not adjustable because not all subobjects are offered for dialog adjustment because of the hidden flag.