Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records By Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC Editor's Note: SAP® pricing expert Matthias Liebich has found some nifty ways to convert pricing data. And he wants SAPtips readers to know that you don't have to be a “super techie” to take advantage of some of these techniques. And that's important, because as Matthias points out, if you can avoid paying for custom conversion and use a tool that SAP provides instead, you should be able to save some serious time and money. In this comprehensive “how-to” guide, which was written for both functional and technical SAP users, Matthias explains how to use the LSMW tool to automate the conversion of pricing data from legacy systems to R/3. This thirty-sixpage paper is comprehensive enough to serve as the main guide for such a conversion. With this paper to refer to, SAPtips readers should have a clear understanding of each step in the process, from the initial conversion preparation phase to the final step of running the batch data conversion. Matthias closes the white paper with some tips for adding new condition tables after the initial setup, and a few recommendations for optimal conversion results. Introduction SAP states that between twenty and forty percent of implementation costs are consumed by data migration tasks, which can mainly be attributed to the writing and testing of custom conversion programs. Available since R/3 Release 3.0F, SAP provides a free tool (don’t we all love that?) called the Legacy System Migration Workbench, or, for short, LSMW. This standard tool converts legacy data to SAP and can reduce your conversion cost and time by more than 30%. Generally speaking, the LSMW does 3 things: • • •
Imports legacy data from spreadsheets or sequential files. Converts data from source format to target format based on LSMW defined rules. Imports data to R/3.
At first sight, LSMW looks technical in nature. However, please do not stop reading this white paper if you are a functional user. Stay with me, because LSMW is designed to be used interactively. To prove my point, this white paper will show you through step-by-step instructions how easy it is to set up a conversion object in LSMW. I also supplemented my explanations with lots of screen prints. For our example, we will convert pricing condition records from a legacy system with the batch input method. I promise you that you can set up this pricing conversion in less than three hours! LSMW and R/3: Release Compatibility Originally developed to support the migration from the mainframe SAP R/2 system to SAP R/3, LSMW functionality increased throughout multiple release changes. The applicable LSMW release for your SAP R/3 release is: • • • •
LSMW 1.0 for SAP R/3 3.0F-3.1X LSMW 1.7 for SAP R/3 4.0-4.5 LSMW 1.8 for SAP R/3 4.6 LSMW 3.0 for SAP Systems with Web Application Server 6.10
Our example is executed with LSMW 1.7 on a SAP R/3 4.6C system (note that while you can run LSMW 1.8 only on 4.6C, you can also run older versions such as 1.7 on 4.6C, which is what this client did).
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records LSMW can be used for different kinds of modules (FI, SD, MM, CO, etc.) and offers different input techniques such as batch input, direct input, IDOC, and BAPI processing. LSMW does not provide a static conversion program. The conversion program is generated based on the mappings and rules defined in the LSMW setup. Although LSMW takes care of loading information to SAP, you will still need to develop extract programs in your legacy system to provide the data to be loaded. LSMW projects can be transported, but can also be maintained directly in each system (test, production) individually. When transporting the project, all sub-projects and objects linked to it are transported as well. I always recommend transporting the project to ensure consistency across the promote-to-production path. Detailed documentation about LSMW, as well as conversion examples, can be found at the SAP service site http://service.sap.com/lsmw (OSS user ID required). OSS support is available under BC-SRV-DX-LSM. NOTE: LSMW is not delivered with the standard SAP R/3 system, but can be downloaded for free from the service Web site mentioned above. Authorizations With the installation of LSMW, standard authorization objects are delivered that can divide responsibilities between setting up the conversion objects and actually executing the conversion. Detailed authorization information can be found in the quick reference guide on the Web page mentioned above under LSMW-Media Center-LSMW Version 1.7 (or the version that is applicable to your SAP R/3 release)-Literature LSMW 1.7. Conversion Preparation Before you start configuring LSMW, make sure that the following tasks have been completed: •
Determine if LSMW should be used. Identify which conversion technique will work best. For example, small amounts of data might not warrant the effort to set up the LSMW object. Converting with the batch input technique might not be suitable for converting large amounts of data either, so in these cases, you might opt to use IDOCs or BAPIs. SAP’s rule of thumb for processing data with batch input is about 10.000 records per hour, which can greatly vary depending on your hardware. At the end of this white paper, I will make some suggestions on how to speed up processing time by setting up your conversion files. I was able to convert 700,000 condition records in less than 24 hours, which is three times SAP’s guideline.
•
Complete pricing configuration. All condition types with their respective access sequences and condition tables have to be in place.
•
Map all legacy fields to SAP R/3 fields. Write down all fields of all condition tables that should be converted. This will help to define the file structure that you are going to load to SAP. An example of such a structure, and the one we will use in our example, is shown in Figure 1. In this case, we are going to convert condition types PR00, K005, and K007 with their respective condition tables A005 and A007. This structure needs to be filled by the extraction program from the legacy system.
NOTE: A detailed checklist for preparation tasks can be found on the LSMW service Web site under LSMW-Media Center-your applicable version-Literature LSMW. Copyright © 2004 by Klee Associates, Inc. www.SAPtips.com
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records Cond Table Sales Dist SAP Material type Nbr Org Chnl Division Customer Number PR00 005 1000 01 101619 mat-001 PR00 005 1000 01 101619 mat-002 PR00 005 1000 01 101619 mat-003 PR00 005 1000 01 101620 mat-004 PR00 005 1000 01 101621 mat-002 PR00 005 1000 01 101621 mat-003 K005 005 1000 01 101619 mat-001 K005 005 1000 01 101619 mat-002 K005 005 1000 01 101619 mat-003 K005 005 1000 01 101620 mat-004 K005 005 1000 01 101621 mat-002 K005 005 1000 01 101621 mat-003 K007 007 1000 01 02 101622 K007 007 1000 01 02 101621 K007 007 1000 01 02 101619 Figure 1: Pricing Conversion File Layout
Price Rate UOM 100.00 EA 75.00 EA 34.00 EA 100.00 EA 75.00 EA 34.00 EA 1.50 EA 3.00 EA 4.50 EA 5.00 EA 2.00 EA 0.75 EA 5.00 3.50 2.75
Rate Unit USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD
Valid on Date 20040101 20030615 20030930 20040101 20030615 20030930 20040101 20030615 20030930 20040101 20030615 20030930 20040101 20030615 20030930
Valid to Date 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231 20051231
Conversion Steps The LSMW conversion project can be divided into two main steps. Step 1 is the set up of the conversion project that includes defining the conversion technique (BDC, IDOC or BAPI), the source structure, and the field mappings. Step 2 is the actual execution of the conversion.
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records Step 1: LSMW Setup a. Set Up Conversion Project Entering transaction LSMW will bring you to the Legacy System Migration Workbench. Enter a project name, a sub-project, and an object. The combination of these three values identifies the unique rules for a specific conversion, in our case, the conversion of stock prices. There are no naming conventions. For our example, we assume that our project is “Conversion”, our subproject is “Pricing” and our object is “Stockprice.” Click on the “Create entry” button be asked to enter a description for each of the fields (See Figure 2).
. You will
NOTE: A customer master object could be created later with its own rules and conversion technique under the same project.
Figure 2: Legacy System Migration Workbench
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records After selecting the “Execute” button , the system will show the interactive process guide with all necessary conversion steps in chronological order (see Figure 3). The steps shown are the minimum steps required for a successful LSMW conversion. This screen also shows when a step was last executed and by whom.
Figure 3: LSMW Steps for Setup and Conversion
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records Selecting the button opens a selection screen that allows the option to add additional steps (see Figure 4). If you would like to revert to the minimum steps required, select .
Figure 4: Selection of LSMW Steps
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records b. Maintain Object Attributes After selecting all desired steps, it is time to start setting up the LSMW rules for the pricing conversion. First, the conversion object attributes have to be defined. To do this, select step “Maintain Project Attributes” (see Figure 3). The object name is proposed from the initial LSMW screen as well as the user maintaining the object. For our purposes, we want to select the data transfer “once” since we are not making periodic changes. Select the object type and the import technique. For our pricing conversion example, select “0070” (condition record) as the object. Choosing the pull-down on the “Method” field will automatically bring in the standard SAP pricing conversion program “RV14BTCI”, which can be reviewed when selecting the detail glasses next to it. Save the settings as shown in Figure 5. NOTE: This is the area where you could choose BAPI or IDOC import techniques for other object types like sales orders or customers.
Figure 5: Definition of Object Attributes
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records c. Maintain Source Structures Now we select the “Maintain Source Structures” option. The name of the structure is freely definable. Since all of our data will be stored in one file, we only set up structure “PRICE_RECORD” (see Figure 6). If data would be stored in multiple files, all of these files and their hierarchical relation to each other would have to be defined here. Save the structure.
Figure 6: Definition of Source Structures
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records d. Maintain Source Fields Next, we need to “Maintain Source Fields.” There are several techniques on how to do that. •
Fields can be entered manually one by one as shown in Figure 7 by clicking the “Create field” button
• •
.
To enter the data in table format all at once, select the “Table maintenance” button (see Figure 8). Another possible way to create source fields is through copying (for example, from KNA1 for . Fields then can be customer master data) by selecting the “Copy Source Fields” button copied from a tab delimited text file, standard SAP Data Dictionary tables, or from another object (see Figure 9).
After all necessary fields of the structure are defined, they can be altered, if necessary, after double clicking their field name. A separate window opens, showing field information like field length, type, and its description. For example, you might have copied a field from a standard SAP structure and want to make it a selection field for subsequent steps (we will see the effect during “Read/Convert Data”). To do this, mark the check box for “Selection parameter” for “Read data/convert data”. After all necessary modifications are done, save the source fields. NOTE: The structure defined here has to match the structure of our conversion file (see Figure 1). This means besides the fields of the condition tables, all other fields like condition type, rates, and validity dates have to be defined here as well.
Figure 7: Definition Of Source Fields
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records
Figure 8: Maintain Source Fields in Table Format
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records e. Maintain Structural Relationships The next step in the set-up process is “Maintain Structure Relations” which defines the relationships between the source and target data structures. Depending on which conversion object was selected in the object attributes (in our example, condition records), SAP proposes all applicable structures and their hierarchy (see Figure 10). It is indicated which structures are mandatory to be populated (in our example BGR00 and BKOND1) and which ones are optional (for example, in our conversion we are not dealing with scales, therefore we don’t need to assign a source structure to target structure BKOND3). To assign the structure we previously defined in step “Maintain Source Fields,” select each applicable BDC structure and then click the button. Since we only have one structure, it will be automatically assigned. If we had had multiple source tables, a pop-up would have let us select which structure to assign. After all structures are assigned, save the configuration.
Figure 10: Assigning Source Structures to Target Structures
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records f.
Maintain Field Mappings And Conversion Rules
“Maintain Field Mapping And Conversion Rules” is the most difficult part of the setup, but also the most important one. Depending on the structures that were selected in the previous step to be used in the conversion, more or fewer fields are displayed. Although SAP mentions that no ABAP is needed to accomplish a successful LSMW conversion, we will need to add some code for the pricing conversion. This is due to the nature of the condition technique and the variable key of the condition tables. (The key differs per condition table depending on which fields are in the table.) ABAP is needed to fill this key correctly. I will limit the ABAP sections to a minimum (since you can get really creative if you want). When accessing this LSMW step for the first time, not all options might be displayed (for example, you are not able to add any kind of custom ABAP code). To enable additional options, , which lets you select up to six additional options. Select click on the “Display Variant” button all of them and click on the check mark (see Figure 11).
Figure 11: Additional Conversion Options
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records The first area to maintain is _GLOBAL_DATA_. This is the place to define global data definitions and declarations like variables, internal tables, etc. Here we will define internal tables for the key of each condition table we are trying to convert. In order to add this code, double click on GLOBAL_DATA_. This opens the ABAP editor (see Figure 12). For our example, we are using the standard condition tables A005 (Sales organization, Distribution Channel, Customer, Material) and A007 (Sales organization, Distribution Channel, Division, Customer). In addition, we define internal tables for temporary fields and the variable key. After adding all necessary code, save the editor and click the green arrow back. You can see the added code now under the _GLOBAL_DATA_ section (see Figure 13). Save the changes.
Figure 12: ABAP Editor for _GLOBAL_DATA_
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records
Figure 13: Defining Global Data Structures
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records The first target structure to map is BGR00, which includes general batch input objects (see Figure 14). Depending on your preferences, the default settings can be changed. For our example, I changed the BGR00-XKEEP field from a space to “X”, which will keep the BDC session after it is successfully processed. The space setting would have deleted the session. To make the change, double click on the field as described above to get into the ABAP editor. Another suggestion, which is not described in detail for this white paper, would be to change the BDC session name (BGR00-GROUP) to something more meaningful than the default object name, such as the condition type that is converted or a date stamp.
Figure 14: Batch Input Structure for BDC Session “BGR00”
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records In structure BKOND1, we are going to fill the variable condition key with the individual condition tables depending on which table number is defined in our conversion file record (see Excel conversion file in Figure 1). We define this in _BEGIN_OF_RECORD_. As before, double click on the field to add code in the ABAP editor. Fill the target table number with the number in our conversion file record (PRICE_RECORDTABNUM). Then call a perform routine (we are getting to the code for this later in the form routine section) that will retrieve the respective condition table key, with which we fill the BDC structure variable key (G_VAKEY-VAKEY). We are doing this for every condition table needed in our conversion (A005 and A007). The complete code can be seen in Figure 15.
Figure 15: Batch Input Structure for BDC Header Data
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records For fields in this structure that always have the same field value, we can define fixed values such as the transaction code we want to use for the conversion. To add a fixed value, right-click a field (for example, TCODE) and select “Insert Rule”. From the proposed options, select “Fixed value (reusable)” (see Figure 16).
Figure 16: Setting Fixed Values
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records On the next screen, confirm that you want to change the transaction code. The following screen displays the details about the transaction code field. Under Value, enter “VK15” and click the check mark (see Figure 17). Save the setting. For our example, repeat these steps for field KVEWE (field value “A”) and KAPPL (field value “V” – for those of you who always wondered, the “V” stands for the German word for Sales = Vertrieb).
Figure 17: Maintaining Fixed Value “VK15” for Field Transaction Code
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records For the remaining fields in structure BKOND1, we need to assign the source fields of our source structure to the target fields of the SAP BDC structure. In order to do this, select a field (for example KSCHL) and click on the “Assign source field” button . A pop-up screen (see Figure 18) will show all fields of the source structure we defined above (see Figure 7). Select KSCHL to assign our condition type. Repeat this step for field KOTABNR and assign our condition table number field. Save the settings.
Figure 18: Assigning Source Fields to Target Fields
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records In structure BKOND2, no development is needed. We only need to assign our source fields, as described above for the following target fields (see Figure 19): Assign PRICE-RECORD-DATBI to DATBI Assign PRICE-RECORD-DATAB to DATAB Assign PRICE-RECORD-RATE to KBETR Assign PRICE-RECORD-RATEUNIT to KONWA Assign PRICE-RECORD-PRICEUOM to KMEIN
Figure 19: Batch Input Structure for Main Data
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records In _BEGIN_OF_RECORD_ we added perform commands for structure BKOND1. The respective form routines are maintained under _FORM_ROUTINES_ (you are correct; double-clicking that field opens the ABAP editor). To populate standard SAP table A005, we fill the variable condition table key as shown in Figure 20 with the sales organization, distribution channel, customer, and material number of our source structure. We create one form routine per condition table to be converted. Save your settings.
Figure 20: Form Routines to Populate Variable Pricing Key
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records g. Maintain Fixed Values, Translations, User-Defined Routines The last step in the LSMW setup is to “Maintain Fixed Values, Translations and Individual Routines”. In case we would not have maintained fixed values in step f) above, we would be able to manually add them here (see Figure 21). After saving the settings, the LSMW setup for our pricing conversion is complete.
Figure 21: Maintaining Fixed Values
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records Step 2: LSMW Conversion a. Specify Files Now it is time to convert the legacy data from our conversion file. Save the Excel file in Figure 1 as a tab delimited text file on your PC. Make a note of where you saved the file. In LSMW step “Specify Files”, select “Legacy data On the PC (frontend)” and click on the “Create entry” button . The following screen allows you to browse your PC and network directories to select the file you just stored as the tab delimited file. Select all the fields as shown in Figure 22 (make sure you select the Tabulator delimiter), click on file that you would like to convert.
, and save your settings. Repeat this process for each
Figure 22: Specify Conversion Files
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records b. Assign Files In this step, we assign the file we just specified as our source file. When the source data is read in the next step, the system knows which file to process. To create the assignment, select the button. If multiple files were source structure PRICE_RECORD and click on the specified in the previous step, all of them are proposed in a pop-up screen (see Figure 23). Select the file you wish to process. Once the file is assigned, save. After one file is successfully processed (in the next steps), its assignment needs to be deleted before we can assign a new file. To do this, select the actual file and click on the “Delete Assignment” button
(see Figure 24).
Figure 23: Selecting Files for Source Structures
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records
Figure 24: File “Conditions_Convert.txt” Assigned to Conversion File
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records c. Read Data In the “Read Data” step, the assigned source file is read. As I mentioned in step 1(d) above, all source fields with the selection of the “Selection parameter” for “Read data/convert data” field are shown here as available selection fields. These can be used to segment the type of data to be read. Also, the selection field “Transaction Number” can be used to limit the number of records to be read. To eliminate the header line of our source file to be processed, exclude “Cond” as a condition type. Execute this step with the settings as shown in Figure 25. The resulting report will display the number of records read and written (see Figure 26).
Figure 25: Selection Screen for Read Data
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records
Figure 26: Results of the Read Data Step
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records d. Display Read Data The source file we just read in the previous step can now be displayed in table form. This is a good control step to see if any corrupted or unnecessary data was selected. The selection screen lets you limit the number of records to be displayed, which can be useful when processing a large number of records (“From line” and “To line”, see Figure 27).
Figure 27: Limiting Number of Records to Be Read in Step “Read Data” The resulting display (see Figure 28) shows each individual record with its respective fields. Clicking on a line will display all information for this line in a separate screen (see Figure 29). This might be useful if the record length would exceed the width of your screen.
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records
Figure 28: Read Data in Table Form
Figure 29: Read Data Record in Detail View
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records e. Convert Data In this step, the conversion program is being generated based on the rules specified in the LSMW setup. As in the “Read Data” step, you see selection fields based on the settings in the source fields (see Figure 30). There is no need to specify any selections. Execute the program. The resulting report (see Figure 31) shows how many records were processed and how many records were written
Figure 30: Selection Screen for Converting Data
Figure 31: Results of Data Conversion
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records f.
Display Converted Data
As in the “Display Read Data” step, the converted data can be displayed. The number of records can be limited here as well (with “From line” and “To line” – see Figure 32).
Figure 32: Selection Screen for Displaying Converted Data The resulting display shows the conversion structures BGR00, BKOND1, and BKOND2 (remember, these are the structures we defined and mapped fields for in the setup stage) with their respective data (see Figure 33). It is also possible to see the detail of an individual record by clicking on it once (see Figure 34).
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records
Figure 33: Displayed Converted Data
Figure 34: Converted Data Record in Detail View
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records g. Create Batch-Input Session Finally, after all the hard work, this step will create the batch-input session based on the converted data from the object above. The sessions that are being generated are named the same way as the LSMW object (STOCKPRICE). The selection screen defaults the maximum number of records per transaction and other counters as seen in Figure 35. Leave the settings as is. After executing the program, a message indicates the opening of a BDC session. After processing the data, another message indicates when the BDC session is closed. Confirm both messages. NOTE: If there are more records in the conversion file than the limit indicated below, a second session is opened and closed. This continues until all records of the conversion file are processed. CAUTION: If this step is executed twice, the number of BDC sessions and their content are duplicated.
Figure 35: Selection Screen for Creating Batch-Input Sessions
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records h. Running the BDC session Since we did not change the group name of the BDC session in the LSMW setup, our created BDC session is displayed after executing this step, named like the LSMW object STOCKPRICE button. You can then decide if (see Figure 36). Select the session and click on the you want to run the session in foreground or in batch. If you are running the session for the first time, I always recommend doing so in the foreground. Step through at least one full transaction to verify that all fields are in the right place. If there are issues, you can easily exit out of the session, fix the problem, and re-run the conversion steps. The conversion program groups the data from our file automatically in a way that a separate transaction is executed for each condition type, condition table, customer, and potentially different validity period (see Figure 37 and 38).
Figure 36: BDC Session Overview
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records
Figure 37: Pricing Create Transaction Part 1
Figure 38: Pricing Create Transaction Part 2 The completion of the BDC session completes our pricing conversion. Copyright © 2004 by Klee Associates, Inc. www.SAPtips.com
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Utilizing LSMW for Pricing Conversions A Different Approach to Converting Your Legacy Pricing Records "But I want to convert a new condition table – what now?" Relax. The main work is already done. Let’s assume that you have a condition table A900 that includes the sales area, customer group, and material group. First, you have to decide where in your Excel spreadsheet these fields should be inserted. Assume for now that the customer group is placed right after the customer field and the material group right after the material. Going back to our initial LSMW conversion setup, complete the following additional steps: 1)d): Add the two new fields to your source fields. It is important that these fields are inserted in the same order as they appear in the Excel spreadsheet. 1)f): Changes need to be made in three places: • • •
_GLOBAL_DATA_: Add an internal table G_VAKEY_900 for table A900 _BEGIN_OF_RECORD_: Add perform for table A900 _FORM_ROUTINE_: Fill variable key with the fields of table A900
Voilà. You see, once the LSMW object is set up, it is really easy to expand it. A Few Recommendations We used a simple structure for our example with only a few records for multiple condition types. Obviously, you will use the LSMW tool for larger amounts of data than this. I advise using one spreadsheet per condition type. You could still include multiple condition tables for this particular condition type in the same spreadsheet. As indicated in step 1)f), the BDC session name could be coded to include the condition type, making the identification of the BDC sessions easier. Otherwise every BDC session would be called “STOCKPRICE”. In addition, you will be able to run multiple BDC sessions in parallel, making the conversion process even faster. Conclusion I sincerely hope that this white paper showed you the benefits and power of the LSMW tool and provides a viable option for your conversions. Remember, besides converting legacy data, LSMW can also be used for loading master data or documents based on information that is stored in spreadsheets. One last thing. Did it take you longer than 3 hours to set up your LSMW object? I hope not, since I like to keep my promises. Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC. Matthias has over 12 years of SAP SD consulting experience, acquired during numerous full life cycle implementations in the US and Germany. He is SD certified and has extensive hands-on experience in new implementations, upgrades, mergers, divestitures and bolt-on integration. Beyond the core SD functionality, Matthias is an expert in the areas of Pricing, Contracts and Rebates. In addition to his cross-module functional knowledge, he is also proficient in ABAP, enabling him to play a leading role as link between functional and technical teams. He can be reached at
[email protected].
Copyright © 2004 by Klee Associates, Inc. www.SAPtips.com
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