Processing Change Pointers

Use

Change pointers are collected for the periodic publication of planning results and processed at a later point in time. You can use the Process Change Pointers report to restrict the list of change pointers according to certain criteria.

For more information, see Publication of Planning Results .

Procedure

Choose Tools → APO Administration → Integration → Publication → Process Change Pointer or call report /SAPAPO/RDMCPPROCESS (transaction /SAPAPO/C5).

The Select and Copy Orders screen is displayed .

Enter the necessary data. The fields represent selection criteria, on the basis of which the list of change pointers is restricted.

Field	Procedure
Orders
Order number	Order number from the external system
APO order type	Of the publishing types listed in the input help window, only the following are processed: 021 External procurement 026 Confirmation for scheduling agreement 031 In-house production 036 Project orders 053 Sales order 300 Production campaign
Order GUID	[Entry not required]
Products
Product number	Name of the location product
Production planner	Planner who is responsible for the location product in Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS)
SNP planner	Planner who is responsible for the location product in Supply Network Planning (SNP)
Demand planner	Planner who is responsible for the location product in Demand Planning
Transportation planner	Planner who is responsible for the location product in Transportation Planning
Locations
Source location	For stock transfer: issuing plant or vendor
Source location type	Use the input help to choose the number of the required location type.
Destination location	Recipient
Destination location type	Use the input help to choose the number of the required location type.
Other Criteria
Method	Choose from the following methods: N – Create new order [New] Newly created orders often have the value C . C – Change order [Change] D – Delete or partially delete document [Delete] R – Completely delete order [Remove]
Creation time stamp	Time of event creation This is not a date field. It has the format of the time stamp used in the system. Input example: 199.904.120.000.00 Real date/time: 1999.04.12.00.00.00 Y M D h min sec
User name	Logon name of the user in the SAP R/3 system
Flow Control
Maximum number of hits	Number of maximum selected change pointers
Block size	Enter the number of change pointers you want to be processed in each block. The system processes the change pointers selected for transfer on a block by block basis depending on the figure entered here. The block size is set to 1000 by default. As the block size increases, so does the associated memory requirement. An application log is written for every block that is processed. If a large number of change pointers need to be processed, we recommend using a smaller block size, otherwise there could be a negative effect on performance. In this case, the system reads additional data from SAP liveCache while the queues for SAP R/3 are being processed ( parallelization ). There are 1000 change pointers to be processed. You choose a block size of 100. The system selects the data for the first 100 change pointers and generates queues for this data for the transfer to SAP R/3. While these queues are being processed, the system is already selecting the data for the next 100 change pointers.
Processing direction	The system only evaluates this data if you have entered filter criteria in the Products screen section. Choose between two processing directions: From Product : The system determines the associated change pointers depending on the product/planner entered. From Change Pointer : The system begins with the selected change pointers and filters out those that do not meet the filter criteria. Both processing directions have an effect on performance. Tests should be made to determine which processing direction results in higher performance in your system.
Background processing	This data is only valid for background processing. Delete Events : If you set this indicator, the system deletes all selected change pointers without sending them first. Deleting change pointers that have not been sent can lead to data inconsistencies. Step 4 describes how you can delete change pointers in dialog mode. Detailed Job Log : If you set this indicator, you receive detailed information in the job log.

Choose Execute .

The list of change pointers for the specified criteria is displayed.

The table can be interpreted as follows:

Column	Meaning
Indicator	When you set the indicator, you select the change pointer for transfer.
Met.	Method N – New order created [New]; see above C – Order changed [Changed] D – Order deleted or partially deleted [Delete] R – Complete order deleted [Removed]
GUID	Globally unique identifier – automatically generated by the system
Order No.	Order number in external system. If blank, order creation takes place in SAP APO, and a number does therefore not yet exist in SAP R/3.
From	Source location
To	Destination location

All change pointers are selected by default.

Deselect all change pointers for which no orders are to be transferred.

At the top of the screen, you see pushbuttons for sending and deleting change pointers. You also see pushbuttons for the total number of selected change pointers as well as for selecting and deselecting change pointers.

You can obtain detailed information about the change pointers by double-clicking entries in the list of change pointers. The product indicator only appears if you have entered data in the Products screen section.

Choose the Send pushbutton.

A dialog box confirms the number of change pointers that have been processed.

The change pointers are processed in the background by the system. This means that the corresponding data records are extracted from liveCache and then sent. For orders created in SAP APO, SAP R/3 returns the assigned GUID together with the external number ( key completion ) to SAP APO.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text.

If you schedule the report as a background job, you can mark the Delete Events field to ensure that the change pointers found are deleted automatically and not processed.