Reference Characteristics in ERP Scenarios 

Use

If you use the Configuration Engine to configure products in ERP scenarios, you can use reference characteristics to copy values from the application to the configuration or transfer values from the configuration to the application. Using other reference characteristics, you can specify whether characteristics are visible or ready for input during the interactive configuration process.

For an overview and description of the functional scope of the reference characteristics that can be used, see Reference Characteristics and Configuration Engine.

Prerequisites

If you define reference characteristics for use with the Configuration Engine in ERP scenarios, you must check how these reference characteristics operate in the respective scenario.

Reference characteristics for controlling the user interface are subject to certain restrictions when they are used with the Configuration Engine (see ERP Master Data and Configuration Engine). You must take these restrictions into account during the modeling process.

Integration

When the Configuration Engine is called up, applications can fill the context with values that are read by the Configuration Engine as context parameters and copied to the configuration. In the ERP scenarios listed below, this option is used in various different ways.

Configuring Products with theConfiguration Engine in mySAP ERP

When the Configuration Engine is called up, all the context parameters listed below are taken into account and filled as appropriate with values from the context.

SAP E-Commerce for mySAP ERP and Vehicle Management System (VMS)

The available context parameters are not taken into account when the Configuration Engine is called up in the standard manner – in other words, in these scenarios, values are not copied to the context parameters.  The Configuration Engine, however, fills the context parameters with default values.

Default Values

All the context parameters that are defaulted by the Configuration Engine are listed below – such as the creation date of a sales document (VBAK_ERDAT) – provided that the calling application does not explicitly write values to the context itself.

This defaulting process, however, is subject to certain restrictions that could lead to undesired results in the case of a certain context parameters. The Configuration Engine sets, for example, the creation date of a sales document by default to today’s date. If an existing configuration is later changed, this new date would therefore be used as the creation date of the sales document, thus overwriting the original date. For this reason, you should always check whether the default values fulfill your requirements.

Overview

In addition to descriptions for tables and fields, the overview also contains parallel field descriptions as used in other environments, such as CRM.

Table	Field	Field Parallel Description	Restrictions for Default Values
MAAPV	BRGEW	PRODUCT_GROSS_WEIGHT	–
MAAPV	GEWEI	PRODUCT_WEIGHT_UNIT	Value from the master data
MAAPV	MATNR	PRODUCT_ID_R3	–
MAAPV	NTGEW	PRODUCT_NET_WEIGHT	Value from the master data
MAAPV	VOLEH	PRODUCT_VOLUME_UNIT	Value from the master data
MAAPV	VOLUM	PRODUCT_VOLUME	Value from the master data
MAEPV	MATNR	COPY_1_OF_PRODUCT_ID_R3	–
VBAK	ERDAT	DOCUMENT_CREATION_DATE	Today's date
VBAK	KALSM	DOCUMENT_PRICING_PROCEDURE	–
VBAK	SPART	DOCUMENT_DIVISION	–
VBAK	VKORG	DOCUMENT_SALES_ORG_R3	–
VBAK	VTWEG	DOCUMENT_DISTRIBUTION_CHANNEL	–
VBAP	BRGEW	ITEM_GROSS_WEIGHT	Value from the master data
VBAP	ERDAT	ITEM_CREATION_DATE	Today’s date
VBAP	GEWEI	ITEM_WEIGHT_UNIT	Value from the master data
VBAP	MATNR	ITEM_PRODUCT_ID_R3	–
VBAP	MATWA	ITEM_SELECTED_PRODUCT	–
VBAP	NTGEW	ITEM_NET_WEIGHT	Value from the master data
VBAP	VOLEH	ITEM_VOLUME_UNIT	Value from the master data
VBAP	VOLUM	ITEM_VOLUME	Value from the master data
VBKD	PRSDT	ITEM_PRICING_DATE	Today’s date
VBPA_AG	KUNNR	ITEM_SOLD_TO_PARTY_R3	Sold-to party for the document
VBPA_AG	LAND1	ITEM_SOLD_TO_COUNTRY	Country for the document
VBPA_WE	KUNNR	ITEM_GOODS_RECIPIENT_R3	Sold-to party for the document
VBPA_WE	LAND1	ITEM_GOODS_RECIPIENT_COUNTRY	Country for the document

Enhancements

If you define additional context parameters, you must use the format required by the Configuration Engine to identify context parameters (see Reference Characteristics and Configuration Engine). You must also fill the additional context parameters with values in the applications. Depending on the application, specific enhancement options (such as BAdIs) are available.

Configuring Products with theConfiguration Engine in mySAP ERP

Additional context parameters are freely definable. You use BAdI ERP_CFG_ADAPT to fill the context parameters that have been additionally defined.

SAP E-Commerce for mySAP ERP

If you want to use additional context parameters in this scenario, you must set up the required enhancements in the Java environment for the application (see the current “Development and Extension Guide for SAP Internet Sales” on the SAP Service Marketplace).

Vehicle Management System (VMS)

When the Configuration Engine is called, this scenario specifies the CONTEXT_LT table in addition to the context parameters listed. You can fill this table with scenario-specific context parameters using the BAdI VLC_SCE_PARAMETERS.