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 Catalog Interface (OCI - Open Catalog Interface)

Use

The Open Catalog Interface (OCI) is a log that ensures the trouble-free communication between an SAP system and an external catalog. You can use it to call up an external catalog from a maintenance/service order, a maintenance task list, or a network, and copy materials or services from the catalog to the order or task list.

You have the option of storing multiple catalogs for each of the following criteria:

  • Order type and planning plant

  • Task list category and plant

  • Network type and plant

The connection is made using a Business Add-In(BAdI). In addition, you can use this BAdI to set your own criteria or the modify the list of the selected catalogs (add or remove catalogs).

Integration

You can use an external procurement system for processing purchase requisitions further (see Transferring a Purchase Requisition to an External Procurement System ).

Prerequisites

  • In the Customizing for Plant Maintenance and Customer Service or in the Customizing for Project Systems, you entered the required data about the catalog that you want to connect to the SAP system. You can find the corresponding IMG activities under Interface for Procurement Using External Catalogs (OCI) .

  • So that the SAP system automatically creates a purchase requisition from the transferred material, you have set the item category of the selected components to N (non-stock item) in Customizing under Convert HTML Fields to SAP Fields.

  • You implemented and activated the Business Add-In (BAdI) PLM_CATALOG_IF using the method COMPONENT_VIA_CATALOG_GET.

Features

You can call up an external catalog from the following screens:

  • Component overview

  • Service overview (subscreen and full screen)

  • Activity overview (subscreen and full screen)

  • Activity detail screen

If multiple catalogs are possible for the criteria named above, during processing you must select one of the catalogs offered.

In the catalog you select the required materials or services and transfer them to the SAP system.

In Customizing, you can define fixed values for the catalog data or write function modules, for example, to search for a material number in the SAP system that corresponds to a material number in the external catalog, or to mark catalog items that the system copies to the SAP system without a material number as non-stock items.

You can change material components from the catalog using the method COMPONENT_VIA_CATALOG_MODIFY of the BAdI PLM_CATALOG_IF. You can change services with the method SERVICE_VIA_CATALOG_MODIFY.

Activities

To call up the external catalog, choose Choose Catalog from one of the above screens.