Wednesday, November 18, 2020

SAP TCI Notes - Transport based Correction Instructions

While searching on SAP support site one may encounter type of SAP Notes having a Transport-Based Correction Instructions (TCI). Normally the SAP Notes are delivering a fix (correction) of some issues within SAP software. Software correction within SAP Note can be delivered via following channels:

·        SAP Notes automatic correction instructions

·        SAP Notes manual correction instructions

·        Support Packages (SP)

Since 2016 SAP offers one more type of the correction delivery. The TCI corrections are a new type of a channel to ship ABAP corrections with SAP Notes. On top of either manual or automatic correction instructions the TCI correction are having a set of additional attributes.

ABAP transport associated with a TCI Note has set of attributes needed for its installation like software component version, minimal SP, languages etc. TCI has its validity that restricts it to restricted to a certain SP range. Dependencies to other corrections and SPs can be defined. It is created out of correction code line and integrated into standard correction and upgrade process. The TCI is dedicated functionality affected only.

All these are enabling faster consumption of the TCI comparing to regular SAP Note with either manual or automatic correction instructions. Person who does the correction implementation does not need to have developer skills as all normally manual activities performed by the system during installation process. The TCI can be de-implement or rolled back. It supports of all transport enabled ABAP objects such as DDIC, table Content, MIME objects etc. No need for manual adjustment activities unlike during SP import and upgrade for SAP standard objects (t-codes SPAU and SPDD).

The TCI are available for NetWeaver system starting from SAP NetWeaver 7.00 SP09 and above. This type of correction is not activated in the SAP NetWeaver by default. It needs to be enabled. See SAP Note 1995550 for details on how to do it.

 

More information:

Online docu

Central Note about TCI: 2187425 - Information about SAP Note Transport based Correction Instructions (TCI)

1995550 - Enabling SNOTE for transport based correction instruction

2543372 - How to implement a Transport-based Correction Instruction

2764122 - How to check if a TCI note can be de-implemented or not

2489679 - How to identify TCI Note

Difference between SAP notes

Difference between SAP Note and KBA article

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

BW templates for generation of runtime objects

Runtime versions of BW objects are generated based on generic templates. The templates are represented as ABAP includes. They usually follow namespace RSTMPL*. Few examples:

 

IO object related templates:

RSTMPLIHEADER - Template for generation of the IOBJ routines (header)

RSTMPLIMDT - Template for generation of the IOBJ routines (master data / texts)

RSTMPLIOBJ - Template for generation of the IOBJ routines (generated)

RSTMPLIR - Template for generation of DB routines for basic chars

RSTMPLISID - Template for generation of the IOBJ routines (SID)

 

The runtime version is normally generated upon creation/activation of particular new BW object. However in case there is any ABAP code change done in the source code of the template (e.g. correction delivered by a new Support Package or by an upgrade) then the generation status of all programs that were generated based on changed template is reset. In such a case, in the BW system one can observe message like see 'Program code does not match the runtime version (generation status set)'. In particular, for BW transformation this can be seen in RSA1 while on Transformation screen in menu Extras -> "Display Transformation Program".

This means the generation status needs to be set. This can performed in several ways:

1. Manual object reactivation: In case of development system, the object can be reactivated by switching to Edit mode and activating it.

2. By object execution: During the execution of the load in case object is transformation or DTP

3. By special ABAP tools: There are some ABAP programs available in the BW system to be used for regeneration of the runtime objects, few examples:

RSDG_RSTMPLIR_GEN_ALL - Regenerates the master data update routines of the characteristics (IOs) generated based on the template 'RSTMPLIR'.

RSDG_TRFN_ACTIVATE - Reactivation GP* report of BW transformation.

 

More information:

1907561 - Program code does not match the runtime version (generation status set)

1790338 - Lock related errors during DTP data loads

1881372 - Consulting: DTP load runs infinitely long and hang after you upgrade your BW support package