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Function documentationSearch Material

 

The Search service provides a flexible UI for performing and reviewing searches. The UI enables you to view search results with or without organization-level data.

The material search function enables you to search for and display materials based on specified criteria. The search criteria can include material attributes, class characteristics assigned to the material, and the values for these material attributes and class characteristics. You can search for materials in both the active and staging areas.

You can use a the Enterprise Search template for material to search by a large range of attributes including material, old material number, classification, characteristic, and base unit of measure. Furthermore it allows you to search based on organizational levels such as Plant, Sales Organization, and Distribution Channel. You can also search based on pre-defined MRP and Sales fields. Regardless of the search criteria selected the results list only displays one line for each material. From the search results list you can choose to display, edit, replicate, create, or copy a material. You can also view change documents for a material or start a mass change for several materials. The search service can take information from an inputted search and use it as the basis for creating a new material using a change request.

Activities

You can use this function to carry out the following activities:

  • Restricting Search

    Normally, the search application returns data from both the active and staging areas. If you select the Search Active Data Only checkbox the system will only search within the active area. To conform to the general search standards for MDG, this checkbox is deactivated as of MDG 7.0 SP2 (Feature Pack), if the business function MDG_MATERIAL_5 is active.

  • Additional Search Lines

    You can add or remove lines from your search using the Insert Line and Delete Line buttons.

  • Save and Load Searches

    You can save a set of search parameters and load them for use at a later time.

  • Fuzzy Search

    By selecting the Fuzzy Search attribute and selecting the checkbox, you can activate fuzzy search logic for your searches.

  • Maximum Number of Records

    You can use the Maximum Number of Results field to limit the number of records displayed.

  • Launch Follow-On Activities

    You can use the search results screen to display a material or change request, open multiple-record processing, copy a material, launch single material creation, or start mass material creation. You can also perform replication-related activities.

The following points should be kept in mind when formatting your search:

  • If you specify multiple search criteria then the system returns only those materials that fulfill all the search criteria. For example, you search for materials with a material attribute of Material Group with a value of 01, and a characteristic of Color with a value of red. The system returns all materials with both a Material Group value of 01 and a Color characteristic value of red.

  • If you choose to specify multiple values for one search criteria then the system returns all materials that contain at least one of these specified values. For example, you search for materials with a characteristic of Clothing Type and the values Shirt and Pants. In this case, the search returns all materials that are assigned to the classifications Shirt, Pants, or both.