Transporting Language-Dependent Data

You can select language-specific data during the import and export.

Export: Selecting Language-Dependent Data

During the export, the data is always found in all languages.

If you want to change this method, you need to set both R3trans options language and language_selection_mode (lsm).

Option language

The default value for the option language is "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz".

As long as this value is not changed, language-specific data is exported in all languages. By specifying only a few languages, you can restrict the languages to be selected. This reduces the export times for tables where the key begins with the language key. A disadvantage is that you have to adjust the parameter language in the transport profile if you install languages in the system.

Option language_selection_mode (lsm)

The default value for the option language_selection_mode or lsm is VECTOR (the value of the option language is often described as a language vector). This means that R3trans is selected in the languages specified with the option language. For specific object types, you can specify a different behavior according to different object types:

Development environment objects, such as ABAP programs, dynpros, GUI statuses, ABAP Dictionary objects or T100 messages, but no long documentation:
- lsm = MASTER
  The master language is stored for each object in the object directory (table TADIR). This is the language in which the object was created or is maintained. In this mode, the language-specific data in the master language is transported, however, not translated texts. This master language does not have to be contained in the language vector.
- lsm = NOMASTER
  As for TRANSLATION however, languages not contained in the language vector are also respected.
- lsm = TRANSLATION
  Only the translated data is transported in this mode, not however entries in the master language. Only languages contained in the language vector are respected.
- lsm = VECTORANDMASTER
  All entries belonging to the master language or contained in the language vector are transported.
Long documentation
The long documentation for the object types above is handled in the same way as the objects, and you can also control it using the options language and lsm.

Caution
For the long documentation, the master language is not read from the object directory (TADIR). Instead it is directly with the object. This mechanism enables a different master language for the long documentation from the object to which it belongs.

This affects lsm = MASTER, TRANSLATION, NOMASTER, or VECTORANDMASTER. There is no effect on lsm = VECTOR (default).
Table entries
There is no entry in the object directory and no master language for general table entries in a transport request (R3TR TABU …). R3trans always behaves like lsm=VECTOR, regardless of the value set for option lsm. This means all the languages specified in the language vector are searched.

This does not apply if a table key is specified in the transport request in which the language field is explicitly evaluated. In this case, the specified entry is selected even if the language specified there is not in the language vector.

These selections can result if Customizing changes are recorded automatically in transport requests. The logon language is often entered directly in the selection. You can use LSM=ALL to override the explicitly specified language with the language vector.

If a table has the language field at the beginning of the key and you want to transport in all languages, but you want to specify individual keys or key areas, you can enter * in the language field. (This applies only for the language field in the key).

Import: Selecting Language-Dependent Data

You can restrict the data set during the import using the SAP transport tools tp and R3trans so that language-specific data is imported in the languages that also exist in the system. This is useful, for example, if an export data set is created for several different installations. Since these imports were always completely imported into the target systems, there were language-specific table entries in non-installed languages.

Option selectivelanguageimport (sli)

The option selectivelanguageimport (sli) is available to control the selective language import. The default value for this option is sli=no. By selecting sli=yes, you can ensure that language-dependent data is only imported for languages that exist in the system. For this purpose, R3trans analyzes a log table of the language import.

Caution

In this case, the languages selected at import (language vector at export) should ideally include all languages contained in the target systems. If this is not the case, R3trans creates a warning message at import.

Note

The languages in the system are the ones for which language imports have already been performed. Languages that have just been "filled" but not imported are therefore not part of the system and are not overwritten.

This option is used when importing Support Packages (transaction SPAM).