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 Working with Mini-Templates

Use

You use the template framework to maintain mini-templates, which can be reused by many product master records.

Mini-templates are defined in Customizing and assigned to product category hierarchies in the standard system. Which mini-templates are assigned to a specific product is therefore determined implicitly when a product is assigned categories in product maintenance.

Mini-templates are used to maintain data for set types.

Prerequisites

Before you can work with mini-templates in product maintenance, you have to

  • Create set types in transaction COMM_ATTRSET

  • Activate these set types so that they can be used in mini-template maintenance by

    • Setting the flag Template-Enabled when you create a new set type, or maintain an existing set type

    • Choosing Set Type -> Activate Templates in the menu for set types that have already been generated or delivered, and that can be called up only in the display mode.

      A differentiation key-independent mini-template and a differentiation key-dependent mini-template are then generated automatically for each set type.

  • Maintain the appropriate data for your mini-templates in Customizing for SAP Product, by choosing Cross-Application Components -> SAP Product -> Templates -> Maintain Mini-Templates .

Features

Assignment of Mini-Templates to Products

You assign mini-templates to categories in category and hierarchy maintenance. Mini-templates are therefore not assigned directly to products, but only to product categories.

Mini-templates can be inherited from higher-level categories within a hierarchy.

During product maintenance, the categories for the product in question are read at runtime. If a mini-template is found, its data is read to the corresponding attributes of the product if this product does not already have its own data.

For more information, see Category Maintenance and Hierarchy Maintenance .

Usage of Mini-Template Data

You use mini-template data in product maintenance. Here, mini-template-enabled product set types reference the data in mini-templates that are assigned to product categories. The mini-template data is read at runtime into the corresponding set type’s fields, which are in display mode and therefore cannot be maintained. A text is displayed, indicating from which mini-template and category the data has been derived for a particular product set type. Choose Information to display technical data on the mini-template.

You can copy the mini-template data to the set type of a product by choosing Create Own Data . The set type’s fields then become ready for input and you can overwrite the mini-template data with your own data.

You can switch back to the referenced data by choosing Delete Own Data . Your own data is deleted, and the mini-template data is once again displayed.

Distribution of Changes to Mini-Templates

When changes to mini-templates are transported, they are cascaded into all the relevant clients in the target system. However, this does not mean that the changes are automatically distributed to external systems, such as BI or ERP systems.

If distribution is required, you should schedule a variant of report TFW_DX_TEMPLATE_CHANGES

  • periodically

  • or once only, after an import

in the relevant clients of the target system.

You should carry out the scheduling using the view V_TFW_DX_JOB. In this way, an entry is made in the table TFW_DX_JOB, which prevents redundant scheduling.