Maintaining Variants Automatically
You can use the process definition SAP_StoreVariant to change one or more values of a variant directly, without the need to manually edit the variant. You duplicate this process definition and edit the parameter set, the parameter names must match and the values you set must be legal values for the variant. This is especially useful when you want to have dynamic variants, for instance, a parameter that would contain the current date. With Redwood Server, this is easily implemented, as you could schedule a process daily which changes the parameter value of the variant and fills it with the current date. You can also create a chain definition, which calls the process definition and sets the values of the variant with parameter mappings. See the Chain Process Parameter Mappings section for more information on parameter mappings in chain definitions.
note
XBP 3.0 requires a logical system for the client, see Setting Up Logical Systems for more information on creating logical systems for clients.
Prerequisites
- An RFC connection has been established between the central Redwood Server and a BI or BW system, as outlined in Connecting to SAP Systems.
Additionally, the SAP System must have one of the following:
- XBP 3.0 support
- The Redwood transport files must have been installed
See Creating and Modifying Variants for step-by-step instructions on how to modify variants using the Redwood Server user interface and the syntax to specify parameters and select options.
Procedure
Duplicate and modify the SAP_StoreVariant process definition
- Navigate to "Definitions > Processes".
- Choose Duplicate from the context-menu of SAP_StoreVariant.
- Choose Refresh from the context-menu and choose Edit from the context-menu of SAP_StoreVariant_1. If there are more than one SAP_StoreVariant_#, edit the one with the highest number.
- Change the name of the process definition to reflect its purpose.
- Give ABAP_PROGRAM_NAME and ABAP_VARIANT_NAME default values.
- Add additional parameters for the variant parameters that you wish to change. Remember that you can use Redwood Expression Language to specify expressions.
- Choose Save & Close.
Result
You have create a custom process definition that will change a variant on demand, remember that you can change the parameters at submit time again, if necessary.