The first time you open up transaction SWNCONFIG all those options can be very confusing.  There’s several tutorials out there that give you step-by-step instructions, but still leave you unclear on what you’ve actually done.  Here’s a high-level diagram I put together to help illustrate the relationships between the different configuration sections.

(click to expand)

The arrows represent references.  For example, part of defining a Filter is associating it with an existing Category.  So you can see the order in which you must complete your config: start at the end of the flow, with Delivery Schedules and Types, and work your way back up to Filters and Schedule Selections.

One other thing to note is that Message Templates, Delivery Schedules, and Delivery Types are global, while everything is specific to a Scenario.

The start time is required while the end time is optional.  So, what happens when you specify a start time without an end time?

You might assume as I did that the schedule will run at the specified interval from the start time to the end of the day.  In actuality though, SAP ignores the interval and runs the schedule once at the start time.  If you want the interval taken into account you must specify both the start and end time.

Of course the first thing we checked is that we had the M conversion rate set up correctly in transaction OB08, which we did.  The interesting thing about the error is the date with all zeros.  Even though the conversion rate was defined the program couldn’t find it because nothing is in effect on 00/00/0000.

Eventually we figured out that the function module uses the Translation Date (t_bkpf-wwert) to find the conversion rate.  We were leaving this blank date which resulted in the above error.  Populating this field with the correct value resolved the issue.

Looking closer, I saw that most of these entries were basically debugging messages: Entering and Leaving messages for each method that was called.  I don’t need that level of logging in production, so can I reduce it without turning off logging altogether?

Eventually I found that there is a parameter to control the level of logging.  It is maintained in transaction SWNCONFIG under General Settings.  The parameter name is MAX_PROBCLASS and you can set it to a value between 1 (Very Important) and 4 (Additional Information).  If no value is specified a default value of 4 is used.

You can see some additional information on this parameter by looking at the documentation for the data element BALPROBCL in SE11.

/SAPSLL/PR – Product master

/SAPSLL/CTSNUM -List of HTS codes and ECCN numbers and their GUIDs.

/SAPSLL/CTSNUMC -List of Schedule B numbers and their GUIDs.

/SAPSLL/PNTPR – Product master mapping.  This table has the actual product number (PRVSY).  You can use this table to look up the product’s GUID (GUID_PR).

/SAPSLL/PRCTS – Product Master – Global Customs Tariff Numbers.  Lists HTS codes and ECCN numbers for a product.

/SAPSLL/PRCTSC – Product Master – Country-Specific Customs Tariff Numbers. Lists Schedule B numbers for a product.

Most major objects have a BAPI wrapped around them.  In these cases you can call the function module behind the BAPI methods from your ABAP program.  To find the BAPI and related function modules use the transaction code BAPI.  Browse through either the hierarchical or alphabetical list until you find the object of interest.  Expand the object and you will see all the operations available for that object.  Select one of the operations and a new window will appear with the details of that operation including (surprise!) the function module associated with that operation.

Sometimes you get lucky and the function module has an intuitive name.  In this case, a quick search from SE37 will turn up some good possibilities.  For example, searching for *USER* finds hundreds of function modules for every type of user-related operation you can think of.

Unfortunately, some objects do not have an associated BAPI, nor an easy-to-find function module name.  Here’s a method that has worked for me in these situations:

Go to the screen whose functionality you are trying to recreate.  In this example I was looking for a function module to create a PRT.  The TCode to manually create a PRT is CF01.

Select Status from the System menu and look at the last 4 characters of the program name – in this case, CFST.

Now go to SE37 and click the function module search help.  Put the 4 characters into the function group name and search.

You can also try searching for function modules (not function groups) using the pattern *CFST* or *CF_ST* (using the characters specific to your scenario).

In this case, I was able to find a less-than-intuitively-named function module to create PRTs.

The first thing I always do with a new function module is pull up the documentation in SE37.  Unfortunately, SAP didn’t feel it was necessary to document this one.

A disabled documentation button always looks so sad.

The next stop was Google: 7 results, mostly SDN posts, and none of which offered the comprehensive reference I needed.  I also tried an xSearch [OSS ID required] of the SAP Support Portal: 14 results here, consisting of the same SDN posts and some old OSS notes.  Bummer.  Last stop: much trial and error in the Function Module Test screen discovering which fields the FM requires you to populate and what values it expects for these fields.  Hopefully by documenting what I learned here I can save someone else the trouble.

First, let’s look at how the different table parameters relate to each other:

There’s a couple other tables that are used for output.  We’ll get to those later.  Now let’s look at the fields in each table. I’ve highlighted the required fields.  The function module will fail if no value is passed for any of these fields.

HDR_DATA

Note: Some optional fields omitted for brevity.

HDR_REFERENCE_DATA

HDR_PARTNER_DATA

Note: Some optional fields omitted for brevity.

HDR_DATE_DATA

HDR_DIMENSION_DATA

HDR_VALUE_DATA

HDR_DUC_VALUE_DATA

HDR_COUNTRY_DATA

ITM_DATA

Note: Some optional fields omitted for brevity.

ITM_REFERENCE_DATA

ITM_PARTNER_DATA

ITM_DATE_DATA

ITM_DIMENSION_DATA

ITM_VALUE_DATA

ITM_DUC_VALUE_DATA

ITM_PREFERENCE_DATA

Note: I haven’t used this table so there may be more required fields than the ones I have highlighted.

DOC_ADDRESS_DATA

Note: Some optional fields omitted for brevity.

RESULT_LEGAL_CONTROL

Each row in this table is either for the document header or one of the items.  If it is for the header, SERV_STAH and QUAL_STAH will be populated while ITEM_NUMBER, SERV_STAI, and QUAL_STAI will all be empty.  If it is for an item, ITEM_NUMBER, SERV_STAI, and QUAL_STAI will be populated while SERV_STAH and QUAL_STAH will be empty.  All the services and their corresponding status categories can be found in the table /SAPSLL/TCO210.

RETURN

This table is the standard BAPI return table.  If the call was successful there will be at list one entry in this table with a type of ‘S’.

MAP_ERR

This table lists all the mapping errors resulting from invalid parameter values or incorrect configuration.  Sometimes you have to do a little detective work to interpret these results.  For example, if you use an invalid plant code this table will have the plant code in the OBJ_NUM field with an OBJT value of ‘F’ (Legal Unit) since the legal unit is derived from the plant code.

First I concentrated on reducing the horizontal size of the screen elements.  This turned out to be pretty easy: I created a custom generation style using this excellent walkthrough.  I overrode the _COMPUTE_WIDTH_STRING method and changed the emfactor value from 1.0 to 0.8.

The vertical dimension proved more challenging. I knew I could save a lot of space by removing all the empty lines at the bottom of every screen, but it took me a while to figure out how to do this.  Here’s the solution I ended up with: In my custom generator class, I overrode the _CONTENT_EMPTY_SPACE method, which is called for every empty cell.  In the case of a empty row the generator writes a single empty cell that spans the entire screen.  To trap this condition I added the following check:

IF pi_columns = _screen_header-columns. 

Inside this block I grabbed the value of the style attribute ( l_replacement-value) and added ” height:1px; “.  Now all the empty rows are shrunk down to 1 pixel in height, effectively removing them.

One last trick – our mobile devices use Internet Explorer which has a feature where the vertical scrollbar is always visible, even when it’s not needed.  I added the following entry to my catmobile.css stylesheet to hide the vertical scrollbar and regain some screen real estate:

Client, name, or password is not correct; log on again

We finally discovered that the password textbox on the standard login page has a max length of 8 characters. Since longer passwords are valid in SAP, we ended up customizing the login screen to accommodate longer passwords.

To do this, we copied the CL_MOBILE_SYSTEM_LOGIN class to a Z class, and modified the HTM_LOGIN method.  This is the method that outputs the html code for the login page.  You’ll see in the html for the password textbox that is has “maxlength=8″.  Modify this value and activate the class.

To tell ITSMobile to use your custom class, go to transaction SICF (we had to have our Basis group do this) and find your ITSMobile service.  Double-click it to open the modify screen.  Go to the “Error Pages” tab and click the “Configuration” button next to the “System Logon” option.  In the “Logon Layout and Procedure” section, make sure the “User-Specific” option is selected, and enter your Z class name in the Class field.  Adjust links and Images, reactivate the service, and the custom login screen should be in place!

I’ve implemented the sequential Document Parking workflow (WS00400032), and had it tested and working beautifully.  After moving to a new client for testing, users were complaining that parked documents were not posting after the workflow had completed.  I checked the log and saw the the posting step was not completing:

I checked session logs and background jobs to see if WF-Batch was getting hung up somewhere, but no dice.  I found a couple posts that said if an error is encountered the step would abort but never show an error message.  I checked ST22 as the other posts suggested, still no luck.

Then, while reviewing the workflow log for the hundredth time, I noticed an error message at the workflow framework level: Execution interrupted (SWF_RUN 611).

Alas, even armed with an error number to search on, I was still unable to find an issue.

So, I resorted to firing up the debugger, anticipating hours of reading SAP code.  Instead, after only a few function calls, the program exited unsuccessfully, and I saw a message about the program needing to be regenerated.  I am using a customized version of the FIPP business object, so I went to SWO1, regenerated my ZFIPP object, and ta-da, everything was back to normal.