Product Variant Search 

Use

This function enables you to search for product variants using the Configuration Engine at any time during the configuration process. If the selected characteristic values match those of a product variant, the search is successful. In this way, variants can then also be found for products that have not yet been fully configured, that is, if characteristics still need to be assigned a value.

Integration

The Configuration Engine is always part of an application for configuration tasks, such as the interactive configuration in quotation or order management.

Prerequisites

As well as runtime versions of knowledge-base objects, product variants must also be available in the environment in which the Configuration Engine is running.

The type of product variant search (see below) is determined by the parameters set by the application during the search call.

Incomplete Search

An "incomplete" search is the standard product variant search.This type of search shows product variants if they match the current – still incomplete – status of the characteristic value assignment. However, characteristics for which a value has not been assigned are not taken into account.

For performance reasons, we recommend that you limit this type of search to approximately 10,000 product variants.

Exact Search

The exact search is used if all characteristics have been assigned values and you want to find the exact product variant that matches the assigned values.

This type of search is designed for searching through a large number of product variants quickly. For performance reasons, however, we recommend that you limit the search to approximately 10,000 product variants.

Excluding Characteristics from the Search

You can exclude characteristics from the search. To do so, you have to specify the relevant characteristics.In a mySAP ERP system, the report RCU_EXCL_CHARACTERISTICS is provided for this purpose. If you are using other applications, you have to provide a report that can help you specify the characteristics by accessing the database directly.

The characteristics are identified in the knowledge base and are taken into account by the Configuration Engine during the search for product variants. The application in which the Configuration Engine is running, therefore, must have access to up-to-date runtime versions of the knowledge-base objects involved.

Constraints

·        The search can be used for cross-plant product variants only.

·        Only single-level configuration is suitable for the product variant search; products with configurable components are not suitable.