Extraction of Material Master Data in a GDS Scenario 

Use

You use this function to extract certain material master data from ERP, and as part of a global data synchronization scenario (GDS scenario), to make it available to other systems. As part of the extraction process, you evaluate material master data and transfer this data to other systems (such as a GDS Console) in the form of IDocs.

Integration

To extract material master data, you must first use the GDS-Relevant indicator in the material master to determine if a material is to be taken into consideration during the extraction process. You extract the material master data using transaction GDS_MATERIAL_EXTRACT. In this transaction, the system uses the GDS-Relevant indicator and other selection criteria to determine which materials are to be extracted and are to be made available to subsequent systems using IDocs.

Prerequisites

The GDS-Relevant indicator is neither visible nor can you set it in the standard system. You must first determine if a user is to be able to set the GDS-Relevant indicator in the material master. You make this setting in Customizing for Logistics-General under Material Master → Configuring the Material Master → Assign Screen Sequences to User/Material Type/Transaction/Industry Sector.

It only makes sense to use this function as part of a GDS scenario if you set the GDS-Relevant indicator in the master data of the materials you want to extract.

Features

The transaction GDS_MATERIAL_EXTRACT makes available material master data and sends this data to defined systems in the form of IDocs. You can use various selection criteria to determine for which materials master data is to be extracted. To define additional, customer-specific selection criteria, you can use a Business Add-In (BAdI). To do this, in Customizing choose Logistics - General → Material Master → Global Data Synchronization → BAdI: Extraction to GDS Console.

During the extraction process, you can choose between a full extraction (initial load) and a partial extraction (delta load).

Before you can perform a delta load, you must perform at least one initial load for all GDS-relevant materials. An initial load can be performance-intensive and therefore influence the system response.

In the case of a delta load, the extraction report takes into consideration only material master data that was changed since the previous extraction.

During a delta load, you have two choices for determining the message scope of the IDocs:

·        In the case of gross messages, the systems sends all of the data that exists for a particular material.

·        In the case of net messages, the system sends only those segments in an IDoc that contain fields that were changed since the previous extraction. This can reduce the size of the messages you create. In the case of a net message, you must use the Set Change Document Items for Message Type function to determine for which material master data the system is to log a change. To do this, in Customizing choose Logistics - General → Material Master → Global Data Synchronization → Set Change Document Items for Message Type.
If you do not enter any master data fields in the above function, the system does not log the changes.

The receiving system must be able to process the messages.

For each message type, you can define IDoc types that contain your own set of material master data fields. You can use this function when the receiving system can only process certain fields; in doing this, you also reduce the size of the IDocs. You can use BAdI GDS_MATERIAL_EXTRACT to cause the system to send all the data on a particular material to the receiving system when you make certain changes to the material master data.

The report issues an application log (log object GDS_MATERIAL_EXTRACT).

For more information about this report, see the system documentation.

Activities

You can call this function manually using transaction GDS_MATERIAL_EXTRACT or schedule it as a background job.