Drag&Relate and the Business Object Repository 

Use

The context information required for Drag&Relate is maintained as metadata for the corresponding business object types in the Business Object Repository (BOR) in the logical SAP R/3 system. This metadata describes the relationship between and business objects and one of the following:

·        Screen fields

·        Possible target transactions

·        Other transactions that can be derived from the relationships between business objects

You can maintain the metadata for Drag&Relate in transaction SPO0. You must maintain the Drag&Relate metadata in all the logical systems in which the transaction is to be executed with Drag&Relate.

You should only maintain your own BOR objects. If you maintain metadata that was delivered by SAP, you must adjust the objects manually if you import the metadata again at a later time.

Prerequisites

Before starting to maintain Drag&Relate metadata, you must import the Enterprise Portal plug-in into the SAP R/3 logical system.

If your SAP R/3 logical system is a standard R/3 System, that is, software component SAP_APPL is installed, you should first import the Drag&Relate metadata supplied by SAP through the SAP Service Marketplace. You can then change the metadata and activate this version of it.

The following table contains an overview of the main tables related to Drag&Relate operations:

Table	Description
SPRTL0	Table in which you maintain Drag&Relate metadata
SPRTL0C	Modified customer version of SPRTL0 used during Drag&Relate operations
SPRTL1	Table containing the object – data element assignments
SPRTL1C	Modified customer version of SPRTL1 used during Drag&Relate operations
SPRTL2	Data element assignment to supertype (active). This runtime table is generated from the data in SPRTL1.

The dependent table SPRTL2 is not transported. The system generates this table when you activate the metadata. You can activate either the SAP delivery version or the modified customer version (tables ending with C) for tables SPRTL0 and SPRTL1.

Change only objects in the customer tables.

Features

Transaction SPO0 contains various tools for maintaining metadata. They are all available on the start screen, in the Tools area.

You can activate inactive objects or the SAPdelivery version to make all saved and inactive metadata available for Drag&Relate operations. There is also a mass activator, in which you can select the exact objects that you want to activate. For more information, see Activating Metadata.

You can transport the metadata. This creates a transport request that you can import into other logical systems. This works only in customer modes Normal (blank) and No Automatic Transport (M); it does not work in the mode Transport of SAP Tables (S). In the Drag&Relate Customizing Check area, you can choose Settings to check this.

You can generate a test screen. This calls the display method for an object. If the data element selected is related to a BOR object, you can choose Enter Key to enter a value for the object and execute the display method.

You can generate test data derived from the Basis flight data model to test Drag&Relate without affecting the BOR objects of your business transactions.

You can delete the buffer for the ad hoc query to remove inconsistencies in the InfoSets and queries. This is useful if you change InfoSets. For more information, see Ad Hoc Query.

Activities

You can maintain metadata for BOR objects, data elements, and Drag&Relate-enabled services. You can switch between these views on the metadata at appropriate points.

For an SAP R/3 system of Release 4.0B or higher, a Drag&Relate-enabled service is a transaction that has already been assigned to an object. For an SAP R/3 system of Release 4.6C or higher, a service can be a transaction or an ABAP report that has already been assigned to an object. You maintain Drag&Relate metadata from a service perspective for specific data elements that the transaction or report contains.

Specify a relationship between the relevant data element and a BOR object. This relationship is known as a key type. This releases the content of any output fields that use this data element for Drag&Relate. The mouse pointer also changes when the user clicks on an object.

Specify the transactions to which the user can drag the object. The user can see that he or she can drag the object to this particular transaction because the mouse pointer changes.

Derive other target transactions using relations between business objects. Business object types can be linked to other business object types using an object-to-object relationship and can then use the target transactions of the other business object as well.

Specify function modules to read additional information that cannot be represented by object-to-object relationships. The portal can use this information to parameterize URLs that are used as Web components.

Save and activate the metadata that you have entered. Depending on your system settings, a Transport dialog box appears so that you can add the changed data to a correction request.

Portal Activities after Back-End Changes

Actions must be taken in the portal to reflect changes in the SAP R/3 system.

If the availability of any objects was added or removed, for example, if the metadata of an additional object was activated:

...

       1.      Remove the default system alias of the R/3 system in the portal system landscape.

       2.      Add a new system alias, and define it as the default (more than one exists).

For detailed information, see Maintaining a System Alias List.

If a change was made to an already available object:

Go to the Distributed Query Engine (DQE) Metadata Loader and unload the specific object. The next time a request is sent to the back-end system, the modified object will be uploaded automatically.

For detailed information, see Metadata Loader.