BC425 Enhancements and Modifications
BC425
R/3 System
Release 50A
30.10.2000
0
nSystem R/3
nRelease 4.6A
nJanuary 2000
n50035048
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(C) SAP AG BC425 10-24
nYou can adjust the R/3 System to meet your needs in the following ways:
Customizing: This means setting up specific business processes and functions for your system according to an implementation guide. The need for these changes has already been foreseen by SAP and an implementation procedure has been developed.
Personalization: This means making changes to certain fields' global display attributes (setting default values or fading fields out altogether), as well as creating user-specific menu sequences.
Modifications: These are changes to SAP Repository objects made at the customer site. If SAP delivers a changed version of the object, the customer's system must be adjusted to reflect these changes. Prior to Release 4.0B these adjustments had to be made manually using upgrade utilities. From Release 4.5A, this procedure has been automated with the Modification Assistant.
Enhancements: This means creating Repository objects for individual customers that refer to objects that already exist in the SAP Repository.
Customer Developments: This means creating Repository objects unique to individual customers in a specific namespace reserved for new customer objects.
nCustomizing and most personalization is done using tools found in AcceleratedSAP; customer developments, enhancements, and modifications are all made using the tools available in the ABAP Workbench.
nIf your requirements cannot be met by Customizing or personalization, you may either start a development project or try using a CSP solution (= Complementary Software Product).
nA development project falls into the customer development category if the SAP standard does not already contain functions similar to the one you are trying to develop. If, however, a similar SAP function exists, try to assimilate it into your development project by either enhancing or modifying it, by using a user exit, or simply by making a copy the appropriate SAP program.
nModifications can create problems, as new versions of SAP objects must be adjusted after an upgrade to coincide with modified versions of SAP objects you have created. Prior to Release 4.0B these adjustments had to be made manually using upgrade utilities. From Release 4.5A, this procedure has been automated with the Modification Assistant.
nThus, you should only make modifications if:
Customizing or personalizing cannot satisfy your requirements
Enhancements or user exits are not planned
It would not make sense to copy the SAP object to the customer namespace.
nThe Business Engineer is made up of all SAP implementation tools. These include:
The R/3 Reference Modelcontains all of the models used to describe R/3 (the process model, the data model, the organization model)
The Implementation Guide (IMG)
A complete list of all Customizing changes
nPersonalization accelerates and simplifies how business cases are processed by the R/3 System. During personalization, individual application transactions are adjusted to meet the business needs of your company as a whole or even to the needs of specific user groups within your company. All unnecessary information and functions found in the transaction are switched off.
nGlobal display attributes allow you to define default values for specific screen fields. You can also suppress individual fields or table control columns in a particular transaction, or even a whole screen.
nRole-based menus, favorites, and shortcuts allow you to adjust menu sequences to reflect the needs of different user groups within your company.
nModifications are changes to SAP objects in customer systems. They are:
executed with the help of user exits (these are subroutines reserved for customers that have been inserted in objects in the SAP namespace)
'hard-coded' at various points within SAP Repository objects.
nCustomer developments are programs developed by customers that can call SAP Repository objects. Example: A customer creates a program that calls an SAP function module.
nThe enhancement concepts embody the reverse of this principle: SAP programs call Repository objects that you, as a customer, created or changed. Example: You use a function module exit called by an SAP program. You can enhance your system at the following levels:
in ABAP programs (function module exit)
on GUI interfaces (menu exit)
on screens by inserting a subscreen in an area specified by SAP (screen exit)
on screens by processing customer code that refers to a specific field on the screen (field exit)
in ABAP Dictionary tables or structures (table enhancement)
nSAP provides two ways to enhance tables and structures with fields.
Structures
Customizing includes ("CI includes")
nBoth techniques allow you to attach fields to a table without actually having to modify the table itself.
nAppend structures may only be assigned to a single table. A table may, however, have several append structures attached to it. During activation, the system searches for all active append structures for that table and attaches them to the table.
nAppend structures differ from include structures in how they refer to their tables. In order to include fields from an include structure in a table, you must add an '.INCLUDE...' line to the table. In this case, the table refers to the substructure. Append structures, on the other hand, refer to their tables. In this case, the tables themselves are not altered in any way by the reference.
nAppend structures allow you to attach fields to a table without actually having to modify the table itself. Table enhancements using append structures therefore do not have to be planned by SAP developers. An append structure can only belong to exactly one table.
nIn contrast, CI_includes allow you to use the same structure in multiple tables. The include statement must already exist in the SAP table or structure. Table enhancements using CI_includes do, however, have to be planned by SAP developers.
nThe purpose of a program enhancement is always to call an object in the customer namespace. You can use the following techniques here:
A special exit function module is called by the SAP application program. The function module is part of a function group that is handled in a special manner by the system.
Business transaction eventsThe SAP application program dynamically calls a function module in the customer namespace.
Business add-insThe application program calls a method of a class or instance of a class. This class lies in the customer namespace.
nProgram enhancements permit you to execute additional program logic in SAP application programs. SAP currently provides the techniques outlined above.
nThe advantages and restrictions of the particular enhancement techniques will be discussed in detail in later units.
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