S.43 - Pre-Import Overlay Analysis

This workflow extracts objects from a list of selected custom transports on the Source (DEV) system, and identifies other transports containing common objects on the Target (PRD) system. In fact, the Source and Target systems can both be DEV, since all transports should originate in the development system. A match is done to determine the impact of importing the Source transports into the Target system.

Development Scenario

The workflow discovers transport objects that are affected by the following development scenario:

  • Developer 1 creates a transport in the Source system, containing one or more objects. She releases the transport but does not import them into QA for testing right away.

  • Developer 2 creates a transport in the Source system, with new changes to some of the same objects that Developer 1 has changed. He is unaware his version also includes the changes made by Developer 1. He releases his transport, tests his changes in QA and imports his changes into PRD unknowingly copying Developer 1’s untested changes into PRD as well.

  • Developer 1 now imports her transport into QA, tests her changes and imports them into production overlaying changes made by Developer 2 (her version was created first, therefore does not contain Developer 2’s changes).

The results are used to generate an Excel report, which includes the following spreadsheet.

ChangedAfter

This spreadsheet lists objects in the Target system that were changed after the source transport objects. If you import the Source transports into the production system, you risk overwriting those changes. The next step might be to feed these results into the ‘Compare Objects’ workflow to see side-by-side how the Source objects are different from the Target objects.

Column Description
SOURCE_TYPE The type of a transport object from the specified Source transports.
SOURCE_NAME The name of the transport object.
TARGET_TYPE The type of an object on the Target system that was changed after the Source object, and may include untested changes.
TARGET_NAME The name of the target object.
SOURCE_TRANSPORT The name of the source transport.
TARGET_TRANSPORT The name of a transport on the Source system that contains the source object and has not yet been imported into the Target system.
SOURCE_OWNER The owner of the source transport.
TARGET_OWNER The owner of target transport.
SOURCE_DATE_TIME The source transport’s last modification date and time.
TARGET_DATE_TIME The target transport’s last modification date and time.

Creating RFC Destinations

Before you begin, you will need to create RFC Destinations for the Source and Target SAP systems.

Preparing the Workflow

To prepare the S.43 - Pre-Import Overlay Analysis workflow, drag its workflow template from the Templates folder into your own workspace, and modify the workflow as follows:

To specify the Source and Target systems:

  • Select the Source System parameter and choose ‘Edit RFC Destination’ from its context menu to display the RFC Destination dialog.

  • Select the RFC Destination for the Source system, then click ‘Save’.

Repeat the above steps to link the Target System parameter to the RFC Destination for the Target system.

To specify the Source custom transports to analyze:

  1. Select the Input Transports parameter and choose ‘Edit Table’ from its context menu to display the Table Editor dialog.

  2. Enter one or more custom transport names from the Source system, then click ‘Save’.

To specify the earliest modification date for transports extracted from the Source system:

  1. Select the Start Date of Source Selection (YYYYMMDD) parameter.

  2. In the Property Editor, enter a date value in the format YYYYMMDD.

Save the workflow using the ‘Save’ toolbar button.

Running the Workflow

To run the S.43 - Pre-Import Overlay Analysis workflow, click the ‘Run’ toolbar button, choose ‘Run Now’ from the diagram’s context menu, or press F5. The currently running workflow action is marked with an animated display. When the workflow execution has completed, select the Report URL dataset and choose ‘View Details’ from the context menu to display the report.