Editing a Planning Folder: Details 

Use

You edit planning folders in order to put together planning objects that should be available for users when executing the planning folder. With a suitable selection of planning objects you can ensure that the users are led to the processing of a particular planning task in a target-oriented way, without having to worry about the extensive setting possibilities of the planning environment.

Integration

When processing planning folders, the planning objects are offered that are contained in the planning profile set up for you in the planning environment. To have access to all available planning objects, you must first choose Edit → General Overview in the planning environment.

Prerequisites

You can only include those planning objects in planning folders that have already been created in the planning environment.

Features

Assigning planning layouts

In a planning folder you make one or more layouts of manual planning available with which the data can be displayed, and if required, also changed manually. If you assign more than one planning layout in the areas Input Layouts or Output Layouts, you can switch between the different layouts when executing the planning folder by using pushbuttons. These are automatically generated by the system at runtime.

In planning folders that simultaneously display two planning layouts; you can only use such layouts for whose header area a unique selection was set in the planning environment. To fulfill this requirement, you can define all the characteristics contained in the header area of a layout to a single value in the planning package.

If such a definition means that the layouts included in the folders become too inflexible, then you can solve this problem with the use of variables: In the planning level, choose a variable as the selection for a characteristic of the layout header area. You also add this variable to your planning folder. When executing the planning folder the system offers you the variable to set different selections for the data to be displayed in the layout.

By default, the input and output areas are arranged horizontally when a planning folder is executed: Input areas are displayed in the top part of the screen with output layouts below. In folders that are not Web-enabled, layouts can also be arranged vertically: Choose Planning Objects → Planning Folder Attributes.  The Technical Detail Settings dialog box appears. If you have set the Arrange Layouts Vertically indicator the input layout is displayed on the left-hand side of the screen and the output layout on the right when you execute the folder.

Assigning planning functions

You can assign planning functions (more precisely: parameter groups of planning functions) to each planning layout which you include in a folder. The assignment means that at runtime the functions are only offered or executed when the layout that you have assigned to the functions (layout-dependent functions), is active. For more information, see Automatic Execution of Layout-Dependent Planning Functions.

Variables in planning folders

If, in the planning area that you have assigned to a planning folder, variables of the type Fixed Value are defined and used in all planning levels that you include in the planning folder, the system can offer you these variables when executing the planning folder for the entry of a value. In this way, you can present different scenarios with minimal effort, or change the focus of displayed data. To use this function, you add the desired variables to the folder.

To ensure that all those variables that are used in the layouts of the folder are contained in the folder, choose Goto → Global Settings. The system then lets you add missing variables to the folder.

Display formats for output layouts

For the planning layouts that you transfer in the area of output layouts of a folder, you can choose whether the date contained in the layout should be presented as a table, graphic or a combination of both by using  Output Characteristics (or using Output Characteristics in the context menu of the layout).

The graphical formatting of key figures contained in the output layout of a planning folder is independent of the graphics that you include directly in a planning layout in the context of the planning environment. Therefore, changes to graphics in the planning environment do not have an effect on the graphics displayed in the planning folder.

Editing planning objects directly

For every planning object that you include in a folder, the system offers you the option of going to the planning environment and making the changes to the object directly. To do this, choose  Edit Object.

You can also use this function to create additional objects, which you still require in a planning folder, in the planning environment.

Further functions

You can add global planning functions to the folder. These are offered to you independently of the active layout. Possible application cases for this are central preparatory tasks, for example, deleting existing data and its replacement by specific output values.

The system conducts a log over all steps, which you execute when processing planning folders. With the help of this log you can undo  or repeat  every individual processing step.

Searching for planning objects and folder elements

With the search function  Search, you can search for planning objects or folder elements in the folder that you are editing, as long as you know the name (or part of it). This function is especially useful when finding planning objects because the number of these objects can quickly become quite large. The search function searches for the string you entered in all texts which are displayed in the list of the processing screen.

Use the search function from the application toolbar to search for character strings in the folder.  Use the search function from the context menu of the hierarchical display of planning objects to search for character strings in the planning objects.

Activities

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       1.      To create or edit a new planning folder, choose Business Planning and Simulation → Planning Folders → Customizing from the SAP Easy Access screen.

       2.      Select the planning folder that you want to edit and choose  Edit Planning Folder. The Planning Folder screen appears.

       3.      Select a planning level for which manual planning layouts exist.

       4.      Select a package in this planning level whose data you want to display or edit with a layout.

       5.      Select the planning layout that you want to use and drag it, while keeping the mouse button pressed down, into the right screen area to one of the nodes Input Layouts or Output Layouts.

You can also select the desired layout first and then drag the planning package to be processed into the right screen area. Or, select the planning package, planning layout, and the nodes in the right screen area, below which the layout should appear, and choose Add Object.

       6.      Enter a descriptive text and a technical name for the layout.

The system automatically generates a default value for the technical name. With the descriptive text you should note that the text that you enter here is used as a label for the automatically generated pushbuttons when executing the planning folder. Therefore the text should be as short as possible.

       7.      Select a parameter group of a planning function that you want to offer within the planning application, and drag it, keeping the mouse button pressed down, to one of the planning layouts that you included in the folder.

       8.      If you need global planning functions, first choose the parameter group and package, then Planning Objects → Create In the Create Planning Object dialog box, enter the name of the object, a text for the quick info and where necessary, a new technical name.

       9.      If you require global planning sequences, choose Planning Objects → Spec. Functions / Global Sequences, and transfer the required sequence from the list of planning sequences. In the Create Planning Object dialog box, enter the name of the object, a text for the quick info and where necessary, a new technical name.

   10.      Add all further required objects to the planning folder, and save the planning folder.

If the functions that you offer in a planning folder should be (or have to be) executed in a certain sequence, add the function keys in the required order so that the user is lead through the application as intuitively as possible.

But note that there is no possibility in planning folders to technically force a specific operating sequence. However, in case this is necessary for your purposes, create a planning sequence which processes the different single functions in the sequence intended, and include this sequence as a function in your planning folder. 

   11.      Where necessary, determine the time of automatic execution for the layout-specific or global functions. You can find more information under Automatic Execution of Layout-Dependent Planning Functions and Automatic Execution of Global Functions.