External Lists in SAP CRM 
This process enables you to create, update, and maintain external lists in SAP CRM. This process also includes the import of external lists along with marketing attributes and assignment of marketing attributes to existing or new business partners.
Note
For more information about possible errors and troubleshooting in External List Management, see SAP Note 708557.
Prerequisites
You have maintained your settings for External List Management.
For more information, see IMG for Customer Relationship Management and
choose 
Marketing 
External
List Management 
.
Process
From this screen, you can maintain the following:
General Data
To create a new external list, you must maintain the external list ID and data including list origin, list type, costs, maximum number of uses or maximum usage date, allowed end-of-use date, gross number of data records. You can choose the file name and the path and also give the type of field separator for importing the data from a local PC file.
In case of rented external lists, you must enter either the permitted number of uses or the allowed end-of-use date. You cannot maintain both for a rented list.
You can select a data file from the workstation or the application server. If the data file is from the workstation, it is first transferred to the application server and stored as a temporary file. To upload the file, the data file must be in the application server.
RecommendationSAP recommends that for efficient performance, large data files should be selected from the application server.
End of the recommendation.If you select a new file after executing the step Upload File, all data created by previously executed steps is deleted and you are required to repeat all steps. You cannot change the location of the file after executing the step Business Partner Creation, if business partners are created.
If you choose the field separator as Other Character, you must enter a separator character. For predefined field separator types such as Comma, you cannot enter a separator character.
For each origin defined, you can set the Consumer indicator to determine whether general business partners or consumers are created when you generate business partners. For more information, see Customizing for CRM and choose
Marketing External
List Management Define List Origin
.
Data after mapping
You can display the temporary data after you have performed the step Map Data. You can view all the data records that have been mapped successfully.
NoteYou can only view up to 4 records due to performance reasons. By default, records 1 to 4 are displayed. To view a different set of records, change the start position of the records.
End of the note.Key figures
You can display some of the key figures for the external list using the Key Figures assignment block.
External lists
You can create and maintain external lists using the various options provided such as:
Due to performance reasons, all steps are executed in the background by the workflow processing.
You can mark the step(s) that you want to execute and specify the error attribute and the repeat attribute for each step.
You can assign one of the following values to the error attribute:
Continue & Process error free records: If errors are found while executing the steps, the processing does not stop. The steps subsequent to this will be processed only with the error free records.
Stop on error: If errors are found while executing the step, the processing stops after the step is finished. The steps subsequent to this step are not processed.
You can specify the repeat attribute as follows:
All data records (REPEAT_ALL): If you select this option, then all data records are processed again with step repetition. If this is not flagged, only erroneous records are processed again with step repetition.
NoteNot all steps can be repeated with All Data Records flagged. You can choose this option only if the step has already been executed.
End of the note.
After you have marked the steps to be executed, enter the start data (start type, start date, start time) and save the external list. A Workflow task is created and starts as specified in the start data.
NoteThe external list switches to the display mode if you have specified the start type as Start Immediately.
End of the note.