Trusted RFCs should be created with current user id and not any other user id because when you will log on from charm to do any modification after creating the transport request in web ui of charm it will not allow you to own the request(owner is changed).
All developers should have access to S_RFC and S_RFCACL objects.
This can be the main reason you won’t be able to schedule the transport release tasks in SCMA as it will initiate the call to TMSSUP* RFC.
Transport of copies are not getting created
While creation of transport copies, TMW rfc will be used and hence SMTMSMP user should have access to execute the function module TMW* in managed system, the main authorization object for this is S_RFC.
Bpmon security authorization issues
Sometimes monitoring object greyed out and alert cannot be viewed in WorkCentre also.
Solman read user in the rfc does not have proper authorization in managed system setup.
Required authorizations are profiles S_CSMREG and S_CUS_CMP
Also S_TABU_DIS authorization is required with field value as SS for DICBERCLS
File monitoring issues
Also for the file monitoring in BPMON, it is very much required for the user in managed system setup assigned in READ rfc from the solution manager to have the authorization object with S_CTS_ADMI with the value of TABL and EPS1.
Note:- The important role SAP_SM_BPOANA_ALL should be checked for all the users and should be configured as per the analytics guide.
Job monitoring issues
Error occurred in the job monitoring objects: This is the error occurred if the job documentation is not created and further not assigned to the job monitoring object. The authorization object required for this is SM_JOBDEF or SM_JSM_DOC. These objects are delivered through SAP_SM_SCHEDULER_BPO role. You need to see and activate the object SM_JOBDEF (in case old authorizations are active you need to adjust it accordingly). Further for configuring the business process monitoring the specified roles should present with user BPO_ADM_<SID>. Similarly for technical monitoring the corresponding user is SMC_JMON_<SID>.
This guide show you how to install a Digital Certificate in your mobile device and access to the new Portal Launchpad from you mobile device without type user/password every time.
For the part 2 of this tutorial use the following link:
2).- Select the option Single Sign-On with SAP Passports from the left menu and click on the red button "Apply Here"Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
7).- after the successful execution, the system will show you the following screen and you will have your certificate file in your desktop.Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
The second part of this tutorial, will show you how to install the certificate in the mobile device, in this case, I will install the certificate in my iphone.
For the part 1 of this tutorial use the following link:
1).- I sended the certificate by mail to my email that is accessible by my mobile device. is important to attach the certificate file (certificate.p12) Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
For some time now, I have been thinking about a way to allow functional people to monitor processes and message flows, but without letting them use SAP PO. In the past, PI monitoring came close and was not bad at all. But now, my requirements are completely covered using Message Flow Monitoring on SAP Solution Manager. This is what functional people need!
We use a SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP15 system in conjunction with a SAP PO 7.4 SP09 system. Currently we are close to setup completion, but still a few details are not 100% OK. For that reason, I raised an OSS message. As soon that final issue (with the payload) is solved, I will post an update.
Prerequisites
SAP PI 7.31 SP07 or higher and SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP09 or higher.
For all managed ABAP systems to be monitored with Message Flow Monitoring, make sure
ST-PI 2008_1_* plugin SP08 or higher is installed
In the SAP Solution Manager Configuration work center, the Managed System Configuration scenario has been performed.
You have set up Integration Visibility and run a discovery of your PI system landscape.
In case you need more (specific) setup details, please do let me know
Setup
On the SAP Solution Manager system, take transaction SOLMAN_SETUP…
All the steps in the guided procedure are very straight forward. For that reason, I will not go into detail.
Keep in mind that the FlowMaintenance (5) and FlowGroupMaintenance (6) steps are imported. Here you build up your monitoring looks and provide names for an Integrated Scenario or a group of Integrated Scenarios.
Helpful extras
Once the setup was finished, I found out that the reporting part was not working at all. To enable it, please do the following: take transaction SICF, put in the field Service Name the value solmanlib and activate that service
More information on (specific) Message Flow Monitoring authorizations can be found in a PDF document
Currently, the payload is not visible. As soon as a solution is provided for that, I will share it.
In Job Moniotring, move to step 4, define scope. Select a technical scenraio of interest (else you may want to create one). Technical scenarios are logical grouping according to the user requriement. There can be scenarios that represent for instance, all systems that belong to a business process or being monitred by a particular shift of operators or grouped based on the region of data source.
Select a scenario and move to .2 step for alert configuration. The top table provides an overview of all the selected metrics. On lead selection, the thresholds provided for each metric and the alert texts for selected monitored objects is available.
=> On edit, the text box next to ALERT TEXT opens up for editing. This is a re-usable technical component that is available for system monitoring as well.
Subsequently
1. SAVE
2. Generate
3. Activate
For the changes to be seen in the notification triggered from Auto-notification and to see these texts in the alert inbox, when an alert is triggered for this MO.
Subsequent stpes provides options to launch the job log in the managed system. This is mandatory step to be performed(also manually) as expect a job log holds the details of the execution of this job.
We provide also the jump-in to launch the job documentaion. Should the job be documented, the alert resolution could might well be docuemnted in the job document.
When working with the Diagnostics scenario in the Solution Manager, We must be very careful about the Introscope Enterprise Manager and always keep an eye on it to ensure the data collection is working well. The problem is that depending on the size of the landscape involved, this scenario can grow fast in complexity and it'll become difficult to identify if the EM is taking care of the job easily or if it is becoming overloaded.
The EM itself generates a file called "perflog.txt" which is simply a collection of performance metrics which are stored every 15 second cycle. This data is very useful to understand how the Enterprise Manager has been handling the load and if any action is required to improve its behavior. The hard thing about analyzing this file is that it generates a lot of data depending on how long the Enterprise Manager has been up and running.
With the help of my colleague Allam Drebes, a tool was developed to facilitate this analysis, and also share our knowledge with the customers. The EM Perflog Analyzer tool performs a series of checks in this file and provides recommendations accordingly. Right now, we're releasing it under version 1.0.0.40 and it can be downloaded from its wiki page.
In this version we've added 5 main checks to be performed over the perflog file, which are the following:
Number of Metrics
Number of Agents
Java Heap Space
Harvest Duration
SmartStor Duration
Through these checks it is possible to identify if the EM is struggling to handle the load and needs any action from the user to correct the problem/avoid future issues. We plan to include more checks in the future as the tool develops further, but right now our focus is to deliver the tool with the most important checks and ensure it is working stable.
The main advantage of using this tool is that it'll make possible to understand how well the Enterprise Manager is working and predict issues beforehand based on the historical data present in the perflog.
I'm glad that we're releasing this tool today and I hope to hear the feedback from the community, to further improve the tool and facilitate the task of keeping the Enterprise Manager running well and reliable.
Please leave us your feedback and also let us know if you run into any issue when using the tool.
Solution Manager 7.2 was initially scheduled to be generally available by the end of 2015 (But reportedly postponed to Q2 of 2016) and will introduce big changes. From what we could see in the previews, we get a revamped Solution Documentation. What should we expect exactly? I have tried to synthesize all the information I got from the SAP webinars, with my comments as a Solution Manager consultant.
It would be great to discuss these planned changes. However, keep in mind that this blog entry is based on previews by SAP, and that the finished product might be different.
Pragmatic Business Process Management
Solution Manager 7.2 introduces what SAP calls “Pragmatic Business Process Management”. This is a way to underscore the fact that SolMan 7.2 is more “Business Processes Oriented. 7.1 was IT/Operations focused. 7.2 will try to balance things more, increasing value for Business Processes/Implementation. The goal is to get Business Process Experts more involved... This translates into most of the following items:
Documentation before project start
With more focus on implementation and Business Processes, one major flaw needed to be addressed. In 7.1, you can’t start documenting unless you have a landscape. This means that you business process expert can’t document unless the project actually starts. For 7.2, SAP want to decouple the documentation (or at least, the modelling of processes) from the actual landscape. The link will of course need to be done later on, but at least, there will be no need to “wait” anymore.
Graphic Business Process Modeling
We gain a business process modeling tool, adapted from Power Designer. SAP is simply using the graphic libraries, so we shouldn't expect the functionalities of the tool. This modeling environment should be for business processes only (No enterprise architecture, no UML).
So far we had an integration with ARIS (that wasn't made by SAP). We should be getting an open interface that will make things simpler. Bi-directional, it will be possible to use it with any tool. It won't be part of the ramp-up (but added later).
Analytics extended to business cases
We should be able to relate business cases to KPI and thresholds from Business Processes Analytics Framework. The way to do it: We define this in implementation, store in SolMan, do our project, and in Live phase we can analyse and continuously check how well our KPI are met by the system users.
A new Documentation Lifecycle Model
Projects and Solution are two similar concepts for Solution Documentation in SolMan 7.1.
To document in Solution Manager, you will need to create a Project.
Let’s say you are starting an implementation, but will shift to maintenance after go-live. Then, the proposed model is as follows:
So, you need to create an implementation project and document. This can be made from scratch, or using “templates”. Once your project goes live, you need to transfer your documentation to a productive “Solution”, and then create a maintenance project. This maintenance project will be used for documenting your changes to the productive environment.
You end up with documents in double or triple, with different versions. You need to use the “compare and adjust” functionality…
As if this is not enough, projects and Solutions share a lot, but have a few specificities that make both of them necessary. So you should maintain both.
Solution Manager 7.2 will remove this issue by introducing one common directory for Business Process documentation. Projects and Solution are unified. New concepts are introduced. Old ones are rendered obsolete.
No more Reverse Business Process Documentation
We could see this coming. RBPD, or Reverse Business Processing Documentation, is a great functionality of 7.1. It helps you jumpstart your documentation in the less painful way possible. Instead of manually creating your process steps/ Business Processes and Scenarios, or having to choose them in the very dense BPR (Business Process repository), RBPD creates for you, based on your system usage, an almost ready to use Business Process Structure.
The disappearance of RBPD could be foreshadowed with the introduction of SEA, who also creates a ready to use business process structure for you (because SEA needs one). Or, even more so, with the introduction, with note 2061626, of the Blueprint Generator (used by SEA) as a separate functionality. The blueprint generator/SEA analyzes your system usage and create a Solution Documentation Project that contains all transactions and reports structured by the Application Component Hierarchy comparable to what you can already see in the IMG. Objects that are not standard are listed at the end, under “Customer objects”, and it is your responsibility to affect them to the right process step. This blueprint generator becomes standard tool to generate blueprints, and will be used by Solution Documentation.
And no more BPR
It gets replaced by the RDS Content.
A new architecture
New concepts are introduced by 7.2. Layers of libraries are now used to avoid redundancy of objects.
Objects will be in the TOL only if used, with only one occurrence, and structured according to the application component hierarchy.
The PSL will also be created automatically based on usage. Multiple occurrences (of technical objects) will be allowed.
Process Step Library and Technical Object Library are available by system. E2E business process will be used to document across systems.
The creation of the E2E should be simple (you pull steps from the individual systems in the E2E library) but not required, as the TOL& PSL are enough to work with SolDoc. You can start testing as soon as SolMan is set up.
No more Solar Transactions
If you are somehow familiar with Solution Documentation, then you must know about the SOLAR Transactions. They are used to create, manage and do some reporting on your documentation project.
Those transactions are the heart of solution documentation in SolMan 7.1, and simply disappear in 7.2.
We gain instead, it seems, two mains views: The Solution Landscape UI, and the Solution Documentation UI.
Business Process Hierarchy with unlimited levels
In 7.1, you document with a 3 levels hierarchy: Scenarios, Business Process and Process Steps.
Without Solar transactions anymore, it's no surprise that the way structures are represented will change considerably. Instead of this 3 levels structure, we are getting boxes representing levels, and the possibility to have as many levels as we want. However, the 3 levels are still there, and will be the core of the documentation. We will simply be able to add as many levels as we want on top of them. This will be very close to the workaround used right now, which consists on coding levels through naming convention (combining levels in Scenarios names, for example).
Lifecycle based on Branches
Among the new concepts introduced, the “branches” hold a significant place. If you want a simple definition for a branch, it is simply, according to SAP, a versioning context for documentation. What this means is while we don't have the implementation/maintenance projects anymore, you will be able to maintain your different documentations without affecting the one that is productive. It's based on views that contains only pre selected processes.
You have a change document open for some maintenance in your system, tracking your changes. The corresponding documentation is in the maintenance branch of your documentation. When your ticket is productive, you will simply need to make your maintenance documentation productive. And apparently, this is done automatically. So, 7.2 adds a new layer of SolDoc/ChaRM integration, which is great.
SAP introduces requirement management in Solution Documentation, and in ChaRM. This will be particularly interesting for ChaRM, as It seems we are getting new transactions types for IT and Business Requirements. A workaround so far had been to adapt some of the standard transaction to allow requirement management using some specific statuses.
Logical component group
They get introduced to make logical components management easier and avoid redundancy of documentation. We should end up with much fewer logical components.
This is what I got for the previews. I will update my blog post or create a new one once I get access to SolMan 7.2.
The SAP Solution Documentation webinar can be found here:
I remember about three years back when i was involved in a Solution Manager upgrade/implementation project, I advised a consultant from a Solution Manager consulting firm to dig into custom BW reporting on top of Solution Manager. In retrospect it's always nice to see advice was actually good advice. More and more customers are reporting on Solution Manager data nowadays so he should have had a head start on that by now already.
Revisiting reporting options
Not so long ago, I needed to do the same since we proposed at customer side to automate some statistical reporting which was generated in a manual fashion still. In the past I had done some discovery of potential options and some work on specific reporting (availability through ccmsping in a custom SLR for example) but not yet utilized custom queries. So I started again by looking at what's possible nowadays, some releases further down the road.
My first idea was to use custom queries in SLR (Service Level Reporting) in Solution Manager but that didn't work out as well as I had hoped. It's too restrictive and too slow to make quick adjustments and generate a result. Since I don't have a publishing platform (BusinessObjects, portal, ...) at hand at this customer on short notice I had to reside to an alternative option. You can see in above screenshot that it did work but you cannot build really advanced queries or anything so in the end it didn't have the requirements I was looking for.
In the end, I ended up using the Bex Query Designer and Bex Query Analyzer. Why? Because my Microsoft Office version was not recent enough to properly leverage Analysis Office and I didn't have any publishing platform available on short notice.
According to Tammy Powlas, it's more interesting / better than Bex Query Analyzer so I take her word for it and once I've got the right prerequisites I give it a spin.
Combining Bex Query Designer, Bex Query Analyzer and Microsoft Office, I was able to generate a PDF based report which meets the requirements of the customer in terms of reporting on KPI's. As a next step I will be looking at publishing options and leveraging the BI suite (Web Intelligence or alikes ...). You can read some related posts as I leveraged learning hub, read about that here and I tried out BW connectivity to SAP Lumira.as well which you can read about here.
Some challenges along the way:
The exception in Bex Query Designer is hard to leverage for building the graph in Excel. So I resorted to a calculated key figure matching the exception value so I have another column in Excel which can be used to build the graph.
I used an offset function to define the area where the data resides to have the graph dynamically build depending on the available data ~ some months are longer than other months and reporting on the previous month means you need a dynamic graph
Performance wasn't optimal ~ I leverage a number of Bex SAP notes to change some parameter settings to optimize the loading time and I also set the query refresh to single dataproviders in order not to be forced to refresh the whole workbook each time
I need to look into this further and potentially leverage caching as a way to speed things up further or try to use aggregation up front
Figuring out what's what isn't too easy, especially if you don't have a BW background Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. so I spent some time on figuring out the key figures and how SAP calculated them to come to a specific result. Help.sap.com helped to some extent on the infoproviders and key figure description info (you need to know in what something is expressed also for example so check the content first ~ms versus second for example makes a big difference Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.).
In the end, it has been super interesting already to work this out and I look forward to do more around BI reporting on SAP Solution Manager based data.
SAPPHIRENOW here I come
With SAPPHIRENOW in sight, I'm eagerly awaiting to participate in the ASUG BI preconference to learn about the latest reporting options and innovations. That will definitely help me out to get up to date on reporting options. If you are going and you want to learn about BI reporting, this is the session you should go for.
Feel free to stop me when you see me speeding by at SAPPHIRE NOW 2015 and say Hi so we can connect. I'll be running around in my bright blue SAP Mentor shirt ~ look for number 28 with @tomcenens on the back. I'm mostly active in SAP Solution Manager, SAP Technology (SAP HANA nowadays, SAP Basis background), SAP Education & Certification. I tend to follow a lot of SAP topics (as much as I can consume) so anything interesting SAP has got will catch my interest Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.. If you don't catch me during the day, feel free to invite me for dinner or a nice reception Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view..
In the Request for Change (ZMCR), I have configured the Approval Procedure to be determined by Multi Level Categorization. When the ChaRM status is in "To Be Approved", it does not make sense to allow the Categorization to be changed since the Approver Procedure might also change. So, I had the requirement to protect the Categorization fields from changes when the status is "To Be Approved". The IMG activity "Adjust UI objects by User Status" does not offer the Categorization fields for selection, so I needed to make the change in an Enhancement.
The following screen shots are from 7.1 SP11.
In ZMCR, put the cursor on the Category field and select F2. Locate the UI Component name and View.
Navigate to the Attributes in the Context Nodes and locate GET_I_CAT01 for the first Categorization field. If the logic is needed for the other Categorization fields, these changes can also be applied to GET_I_CAT02, GET_I_CAT03, and so on....
* 2) Process only for ZMCR. If it is not, continue with original processing. select single process_type from crmd_orderadm_h INTO LS_PROCESS_TYPE WHERE guid = ls_HEADER_GUID.
if sy-subrc = 0 and LS_PROCESS_TYPE = 'ZMCR'.
* 3) Read ChaRM status CALL METHOD Zxxx_CHARM=>READ_CHARM_STATUS EXPORTING PI_GUID = ls_HEADER_GUID IMPORTING PO_STATUS_CODE = ls_status_code PO_STATUS_TEXT = ls_status_text. "not used here
* 4) Check if pending approval. If it is not, continue with original processing. * The sequence for this was determined by watching in debug. * This will set the field to display only when in edit mode. if ls_status_code = 'E0012'. po_return = 'FALSE'. if pi_Field_setting eq abap_true. po_return = 'TRUE'. endif.
clear PO_CONTINUE. "skip standard logic endif. endif.
endmethod.
Fields are now display only when in status 'To Be Approved;....
Using several free resources, we have gone live with Change Request Management. As a start, we took advantage of the Expert Guided Implementation (EGI) for Change Request Management. This is free for Enterprise Support Customers. I knew when the courses were available by reading James Pearce content. He is good about announcing when the EGI's are available.
For EGI's you spend a week with an SAP expert going live with your own sandbox system. The SAP lectures are 2 hours each day, and you are given a 50+ page PowerPoint each day with some "homework". The key is actually spending the time after the lecture doing the homework. You need to have your Solution Manager system open so if you have questions that can't be resolved by e-mail SAP can log on to it.
I want to thank Shamantha for her expert help and support during the EGI. I couldn't figure out how to make a field open for editing. Shamantha researched this and got back to me with the help the next day.
The downside of the EGI is your SP in SolMan may not be the same that the EGI covers. We are on SP12 and a few of the screens were different.
Next, we also took advantage of the Ramp-up Knowledge Transfer for Solution Manager, also free. These are available at service.sap.com/rkt-solman with a Service Marketplace logon. This is free as well. We used the recordings available and the processes listed. The downside is the recordings are not on the latest release of Solution Manager so the screens do not match up.
Using the RKT demos, we created our own swim lanes for request for change, normal change, and urgent change.
Next, we took advantage of the resources in the SAP Learning Hub (note this is with a Learning Hub subscription; Discovery edition is free). The Learning Hub explained things a little more in depth than the EGI did. Learning from courses like SM200 and End to End, we created a step by step process of what the swim lanes depicted.
For knowledge transfer to the Change Manager, Change Admin and Developers, I used UPerform to record processes like SOLAR_PROJECT_ADMIN which is used to create projects. This helped form the basis for training documentation.
Testing showed more changes needed to be made. This is where SCN helped, and by searching my issues on SCN that lead me to Dolores Correa's Stuff | SCN content which helped us figure out how to get e-mail working with Change Request Management.
I also attended an ASUG webcast given by a customer on their Change Request Management solution. They had been live with it for 2 years and in those two years never had an urgent change. I liked the idea of limiting urgent changes, if at all possible.
So a combination of EGI, Learning Hub, RKT, SCN and ASUG helped us go live with Change Request Management. We "get by with a little help from our friends" - hat tip to Ringo Starr, who is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
SAP suggests to follow SAP note 2131531 to renew the saprouter certificate signed by the new SAP CA.
In addition to the instructions that are readily available in the SAP note and the detailed instructions link, this blog provides additional information in the hopes of helping you go through this renewal process easily and with little impact as possible. For example, the steps detailed in this blog allows you to test the connection before switching live to it.
Note that with -S option you set the saprouter to listen to a different port other than the usual 3299. You can also set -V 3, so you get more trace info.
Set your SAPGUI or in transaction SM59, create a copy of your SAPOSS connection (e.g. copy to SAPOSS2).
Set the saprouter string (Msg.Server field) to use the above port
settings done action profile solman 7.1 support package 13
for information other things required check latest configguide for VAR scenario
For VAR scenario you can find a configuration guide on SAP Support Portal. Go to http://service.sap.com/support, tab SAP Solution Manager -> in left column choose "SAP Solution Manager for Partners -> Information for Service Provider -> VAR Solution Manager Setup -> Setup Documents". Expand "Administrator" area and you will find SAP Solution Manager 7.1 <SP<latest version> VAR Config Guide>
note action profile ZMIN_STD_SEND_SAP_AUTO is not there by default .you can copy from another action definition say ZMIN_STD_SEND_SAP and adapt it to ZMIN_STD_SEND_SAP_AUTO.
3.1.4 Enter container values for the action definition AI_SDK_SP_SEND_AUTO
Select the application CRM_ORDER.
In the "Customizing and Configuration" section, choose "Define Action Profile and Actions".
Select the action profile "AI_SDK_STANDARD" and double-click "Action definiton" in the tree structure on the left. Select the action definition "AI_SDK_SP_SEND_AUTO" and double-click "Processing Types" in the tree structure on the left. Switch to processing mode.
Under "Settings Method Call", choose "Change Definition".
3.1.4.1 Check the container element TEXT_ID The initial value has to be SU99. Change this (if required) by double-clicking the expression on the "Initial Value" tab. Copy the change.
Create the following container elements if they do not exist already.:
3.1.4.2
Element = DOCU_NAME
Name = DOCU_NAME
Short Description = DOCU_NAME
Select "ABAP Dict. Data Type".
Type Name = DOKU_OBJ
Choose the "Initial Value" tab.
DOCU_NAME = AISDK_TEMPLATE_AUTO_SEND
Choose "Confirm (Enter)".
3.1.4.3
Element = TEXT_ID_RESEND
Name = TEXT_ID_RESEND
Short Description = TEXT_ID which is transferred by resending
Select "ABAP Dict. Data Type".
Type Name = TDID
Choose the "Initial Value" tab.
TEXT_ID_RESEND = SU30
Choose "Confirm (Enter)".
3.1.4.4
Element = SEND_STATUS
Name = SEND_STATUS
Short Description = Status executed when automatically sent
Select "ABAP Dict. Data Type".
Type Name = CRM_STAT_RANGE_TAB
Choose the "Initial Value" tab.
SEND_STATUS = E0004
SEND_STATUS = E0010
Choose "Confirm (Enter)".
3.1.4.5
Element = USER_STATUS
Name = USER_STATUS
Short Description = Status set after automatic sending
Select "ABAP Dict. Data Type".
Type Name = CRM_J_STATUS
Choose the "Initial Value" tab.
USER_STATUS = E0004
Choose "Confirm (Enter)".
3.1.4.6
Element = AUTO_STATUS
Name = AUTO_STATUS
Short Description = Additional status set in case of automatic sending
Speakers: Marci Braybrooks-Executive Directory, SAP Solution Manager (CoreALM), Loren Blinde (University of Nebraska), Marlon Fueller (IBIS Prof. Thome AG)
person responsible will be by default the person who creates the project. if you want any other person you can assign in this page. so that he will be the admin for the project.
6. then click save
7. now in the popup screen give the details where your documents for the projects will be saved. and the click the TICK MARK
Hello everyone! In this post, I hope to add some clarity and demystify how to create custom mail forms for ChaRM. There are a few posts on the topic, however I was not able to find all of the information that I needed in one place. With this post, I hope to make it easier for you to use Mail Forms.
In this scenario, we are generating mails forms in ChaRM for transaction types, ZMCR and in the Change Documents.
This post contains the following sections:
1. Creating custom fields to appear in the mail form
2. Maintain Attribute Contents for Mail Forms
3. Create a BADI to populate the fields
4. Create a Mail Forms containing standard and custom fields.
5. To maintain the HTML in the Mail Form directly
6. Add special fields to the form like….
a) Insert a Company Logo
b) Insert a hyperlink the the ChaRM
c) Text Element Conditions
7. Test your changes
8. Update the Action and Conditions.
So here we go. All screen shots are from 7.1 SP13.
Step 1) Creating custom fields to appear in the mail form
Create a custom structure containing the fields needed in your mail form. For example, this one contains business partners, textbox contents, and other fields.
When you view the fields assigned, all of the fields in the structure should be displayed.
Note: I did encounter an issue when I was adding additional fields to the structure after it was in use. They did not always appear immediately in this list. This was because table CRMC_IM_FIELDS maintained via the view was not being updated on save. This took some trial and error. I needed to delete the attribute and re-add it and reactivate the table. It finally worked, but you may need patience. Another time when I updated the structure, the changes were immediately shown. Weird.
Step 3) Create a BADI to populate the fields
SPRO -> Customer Relationship Management -> Marketing -> Marketing Planning and Champaign Management -> Campaign Execution -> Badi: Maintain Additional Attributes for Mail Form Attribute Contents
This will create a BADI for definition CRM_IM_ADD_DATA_BADI. Assign the filter value to the name of the Attribute created in Step 2. Assign no type to the filter.
In method IF_EX_CRM_IM_ADD_DATA_BADI~CRM_IM_BPSELE, add the logic to populate the fields in the structure.
Being general, here is some high level logic. I trimmed out a lot of the logic for brevity, just so you would get the idea. But, if you have specific questions about how I populated by specific fields on my form, let me know and I’ll share more.
DATA: lv_tabname TYPE tabname,
lv_fieldname tYPE fieldname, ls_index type SYTABIX, ls_TJ30T type tj30t, ls_ct_att_value_temp type line of CRMT_IM_NAME_VALUE_TAB, ls_ext_reference type CRMT_PO_NUMBER_UC, ....
data: lt_tsocm_cr_context type table of tsocm_cr_context, ls_tsocm_cr_context type tsocm_cr_context.
FIELD SYMBOLS:<fs_table_buffer> TYPE ty_tables, <fs_att_value> TYPE crmt_im_name_value, <fs_table> TYPE table, <fs_field> TYPE any, <fs_value> TYPE any.
CONSTANTS: lc_CR_number type string value 'CRMS_SRQM_GEN_FIELDS-CRM_SRQM_NUMBER', lc_textid_longdesc type TDID value 'CR01', …..
* 1) filter check If flt_val-SCENARIO ne lc_filtername. exit. endif.
* 2) ChaRM header data clear: ls_CRMD_ORDERADM_H. read table ct_att_values into ls_ct_att_value_temp with key name = lc_CR_number. if sy-subrc = 0. ls_cr = ls_ct_att_value_temp-value. endif.
* 2b) Read CR/CD record select single * from CRMD_ORDERADM_H into ls_CRMD_ORDERADM_H where object_id = ls_cr.
* 2c) Read context case ls_CRMD_ORDERADM_H-PROCESS_TYPE. when lc_CR. "RfC * 2d) CR scope data SELECT * FROM tsocm_cr_context INTO TABLE lt_tsocm_cr_context WHERE guid = ls_CRMD_ORDERADM_H-guid.
when others. "CDs * 2e) CD scope data SELECT * FROM tsocm_cr_context INTO TABLE lt_tsocm_cr_context WHERE created_guid = ls_CRMD_ORDERADM_H-guid. "for CD guid endcase.
* 3) For all variables passed LOOP AT ct_att_values ASSIGNING <fs_att_value>. ls_index = sy-tabix.
* 3a) See if the field name is already passed to badi SPLIT <fs_att_value>-name AT '-' INTO lv_tabname lv_fieldname. READ TABLE mt_tables WITH KEY table_name = lv_tabname ASSIGNING <fs_table_buffer>.
IF sy-subrc = 0. ASSIGN <fs_table_buffer>-table_content->* TO <fs_table>.
READ TABLE <fs_table> WITH KEY (lc_product_guid) = is_bp_act-obj_guid ASSIGNING <fs_field>. IF sy-subrc <> 0. CONTINUE. ENDIF.
ASSIGN COMPONENT lv_fieldname OF STRUCTURE <fs_field> TO <fs_value>. IF sy-subrc = 0. <fs_att_value>-value = <fs_value>. ELSE. CONTINUE. ENDIF. else.
* 4) If field is not already passed, read table to populate CASE lv_fieldname. when 'EXT_REFERENCE'. "external refencence SELECT single po_number_uc FROM crmd_order_index INTO ls_ext_reference WHERE header = ls_CRMD_ORDERADM_H-guid. if ls_ext_reference is not initial. <fs_att_value>-value = ls_ext_reference. MODIFY ct_att_values FROM <fs_att_value> INDEX ls_index TRANSPORTING value. endif.
when 'PROJECT_ID'. "Project assigned to CR. There's only one per CR LOOP AT lt_tsocm_cr_context INTO ls_tsocm_cr_context where PROJECT_ID is not initial. <fs_att_value>-VALUE = ls_tsocm_cr_context-project_id. exit. ENDLOOP. MODIFY ct_att_values FROM <fs_att_value> INDEX ls_index TRANSPORTING value. when 'TEXT_LONG_DESC'. "Text box - long description clear ls_text_value. CALL FUNCTION 'Z_SM_READ_CHARM_TEXTBOX' EXPORTING P_GUID = ls_CRMD_ORDERADM_H-guid P_TEXTTYPE = lc_textid_longdesc IMPORTING PT_TEXTS = ls_text_value.
<fs_att_value>-VALUE = ls_text_value. MODIFY ct_att_values FROM <fs_att_value> INDEX ls_index TRANSPORTING value. endcase. ENDIF. ENDLOOP. endmethod.
Step 4) Create the Mail Forms. Tcode SM_CRM -> business role ZSOLMANPRO -> Service Operations. Create -> Mail Form (under section Search).
The field Attribute Context will control the fields that are available for selection. In my form, fields from standard attributes and from the custom attributes are needed. To get some of the standard fields, I set the Attribute Context to Service Request Attributes.
Select the Add Attribute button again and change the Attribute Category to Additional Fields to see the custom fields. Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Step 5) To maintain the HTML You may want to maintain the HTML directly, for example to format the fields into table columns so the labels and values up nicely. To do that, select DESIGN <->SOURCE to toggle back and forth between the HTML and WYSIWYG screens….
If you are not comfortable with HTML, don’t fear it here! Just start with the one generated automatically by the WYSIWYG setup.
To keep the sections easier to read, I inserted documentation lines like this… <!-- ROW STATUS -->
If you want to format the fields into table columns, here some logic to get you started. 1) <table class="Data3"> indicates the name of the table, so you can have several tables in your form, if you want. This small part of my html has three tables. 2) <tr> and </tr> indicate the start and end to a table row. 3) <td and </td> indicate the start and end to a table column.
This small part of the html will show the ChaRM status, the ChaRM document number, and the Multi Level categorization assigned….
Play around with the html. It's not as difficult as it looks. Also, if you miss an end indicator, for example, the tool will try to fix the html automatically. Toggle back and forth between the WYSIWYG and HTML to see your changes and the auto changes.
Step 6) Add special fields to the form…. a) Insert a Company Logo. Select Insert Picture and browse for the JPG of the logo to insert… Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
c) Create a new Text Element to be display in Production I have a hyperlink to open the ChaRM document in my mail form. Since the hyperlink for the Development and Production systems will differ, you’ll want to control which is displayed. There are a couple of ways to do that. One way to create the URL hyperlink to work in SolMan production is to update, create a new Text Element and create conditions to check the source SolMan system ID.
Cut and paste the HTML from the original Text Element into the new Text Element. Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. Return to the WYSIWYG format and remove the original hyperlink that was copied…
Since two Text Elements now exist, you need to add conditions to determine with each will be used. Select EDIT STRUCTURE to create the Mail Conditions.
Select the Attribute Context that will be used to determine the condition. In my scenario, I have a custom attribute that was created for the SolMan system id and populated in my BADI. Select the original Text Element and INSERT…. Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
On the WYSIWYG screen, select TEST SEND & PREVIEW (at the top) and select SAVE. Select PREVIEW.
Step 8) Maintain the Actions / Conditions
Locate the email action for the form. Verify the method assigned is SEND_MAIL_WITH_MAIL_FORMS.
Set the method parameter “Mail template name” to match Mail Form created in the UI (Note that it is case sensitive).
Update the conditions to generate the form when needed.
Here is the resulting email in Outlook. (I did remove the logo and adjusted format a bit manually so it would fit in the screen shot better, but you get the idea.Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Thank you for reading this long post! There was a lot to cover. I think I covered everything. If you find that I missed a part or something should have more detail, let me know and I’ll update the post.
Recently I was in discussion with prospective customer, they are having a very vast landscape and have many interfaces across systems, they are looking for sustainable application support, I was explain the components of SolMan and how Business Process operations will helps them in their day to day business. They have asked me below questions during the discussion and I felt that they are very important from a business angel and this should be known to everyone hence I have decided to write this blog.
Do we need to implement Business process Monitoring is it value the investment?
Implementing BPM will help in protecting your initial investment by stabilizing your system faster.
If your systems are not stable and you see disturbance in your regular process because of failures in interfaces and / or background processes indicates that BPM has to be setup.
This is more relevant for solutions which are just live or which are still evolving.
Can we setup Business Process Improvement along with Monitoring ?
When the business process are stable you can look for business process improvement, these are basically long processed documents based on the planned date but are still open e.g. open sales orders of last year.
These deviations are caused by :
1. Wrong configuration
2. Poor master data maintenance
3. User training gap
In general most of the SAP customers will have it difficult to activate the application specific part of business process monitoring directly with sensible threshold values because of above deviations. So its suggested to first set up Business Process Paralytics for these and clear the backlog’s, later on move to regular monitoring for these to have a control on backlogs.
These can be monitored using application specific monitors which are part of BPM.
When to implement BPA ?
BPA is an enhancement to BPM. When your business processes are stable and you want most of initial investment & achieve optimum.
BPA is used to improve the business process efficiency, we can set up a business KPI and measure it using BPA.
If your are not able to meet business KPI’s or want to improve lead time of your process e.g. complete OTC cycle in 4 hours. All these KPI’s can be set and monitored in BPA.
BPA will collect application specific data and stores in info cubes of SolMan for analysis.
When do we need to setup cross database comparison ?
If your solution is spread across multiple systems be it SAP or non-SAP and the data exchange takes place across systems, then we need a check to ensure data consistency.
Interface monitoring is already checking for failures so again why i need one more level of check ?
Interface monitoring will also do the same activity but only for the given time frame. Data consistency management should be setup as an additional safety net to discover inconsistencies that have occurred due to other causes like update termination, ABAP dump during update etc.
Hope this will be useful and will add some knowledge to readers.
Once you’ve tackled challenge one, getting your Suite on HANA system registered properly into SAP Solution Manager, the next challenge arises, getting the right packages selected through the maintenance optimizer (or landscape planner) to implement SFIN 2.0.
If you’ve got SFIN 1.0 then SFIN 2.0 is visible under add-ons. Without SFIN 1.0 (so just ERP 6), neither SFIN 1.0 nor SFIN 2.0 was visible for me under add-ons. Instead it is visible through support package stack application instead (in a nutshell, screenshots below).
I didn't really see any information source mentioning this and this can be confusing for SAP Basis administrators so I decided to post this small blog.
Note that moving your Suite on HANA system to S/4HANA SFIN 2.0 is not just a technical process, you need functional preparation before even doing any technical steps (except for SAP note implementation). Please read through all available documentation and SAP notes carefully before jumping into SUM.
I would like to share one of my experience with SAP OS/DB Migration check session - Self Service using Solution Manager. As confirmed by SAP, our client's Solution Manager fulfill the requirement to generate Migration check service as Self service, I have generated service check session with SolMan system. Below are the steps followed.
1. Pre-requisites
- Recent EWA report for the Satellite system
2. Update service content
Logon to Solution Manager system and execute t-code AGS_UPDATE
If any correction required in any of the above details, goto initial screen of prepare phase and review and correct the information prior to report planned date.
Rest of the steps follows similar to EWA report generation. Migration check report will be sent from Solution Manager to the recipients mentioned in the procedure.
Same like Prepare phase follow the steps for Go-live report after migration of Production system
This blog will list all the steps to be followed here covering how we can customize the Alert Description in Technical Monitoring workcenter without any ABAP Development.
There are lot of customers where this requirement pops up so I thought may be I will share the simple steps to achieve this requirement without any development(ABAP) effort.
Requirement - In technical monitoring workcenter, we can see a lot of alerts stating same message like "Oracle Data not Available" or ABAP system not available" for all the configured or monitored systems.
Thus, for a big list of systems where we need to filter on managed object column or create a custom query to get a system specific alert. So question arises - Is it possible to modify the subjet of an alert and include the ID/SID of the System in the subject of ALERT Itself.
Answer is Yes it is possible and let us know see how it can be achieved.
Step 1 - Create a Custom Template
In solman_setup transaction, kindly choose the Technical Monitoring ->System Monitoring Wizard and then navigate to ORACLE(or relevant database template) for modification of database alerts.
Click CREATE CUSTOM TEMPLATE button and then provide a name for your individual Production System etc( Please note that we are going to create a system specific template)
Further use Apply and Activate button to apply new configuration template.
Done.
Now if we visit our Technical Monitoring workcenter, it is possible to notice alert with respective System SIDs in the subject and no more filtering is required at all.
This is really an interesting standard customizing option which is giving us lot of flexibility to improve the usage of Solution Manager Technical Monitoring and we can also do whole bunch of other things here but restricting to topic here.
