Program for Equipment creation

[Former Member]

I was given a one line spec as mentioned and I was doing R&D and found that can be aheived by FM: ITOB_EQUIPMENT_CREATE & RFC/Bapi: BAPI_EQUI_CREATE

What is the difference between this both.when to use which.

Can any one give me any sample code using the FM:ITOB_EQUIPMENT_CREATE

Thanks,

Kiran

Edited by: kiran dasari on Oct 25, 2008 12:04 AM

[Former Member]

one line specs never work. If it is really a one line, go back to the person and ask him to see what does he really want you to do, else you would create a complete different application than what he wanted

[uwe_schieferstein]

Hello Kiran

If you check the business object EQUI (transaction SWO1) you see that its "Create" method is implemented by BAPI_EQUI_CREATE. Another BAPI that is available is BAPI_EQUI_CREATE_BY_REFERENCE.

In contrast, ITOB_EQUIPMENT_CREATE is neither RFC-enabled nor do you find any usage (on ERP 6.0).

In addition, you should have a look at transaction IBIP ( Batch Input Utility : PM ).

Regards

Uwe

[Former Member]

Thanks for you reply.

We are just concentrating on four fields:

Validity date,

Equi Type,

Serial No

Material No

and partner info like end user, sold to and ship to.

So our functional people thought ITOB_EQUIPMENT_CREATE

would be beter so we can avoid lots of mapping data with the other BAPI.

we dont really need a rfc as we will run the program in our own box and upload with the help of a file data.

I saw the changing structure of ITOB_EQUIPMENT_CREATE.I dont find any partners fields.So if i use this FM to create equip, how can i update the partner info also.These seem to be the mandatory fields in IE01 for equip type S.

Any more clues please.

Thanks

Kiran

[Former Member]

Letting functional people give technical advice is about as good as programmers giving business advice.

Stick with the BAPI.

Rob

[Former Member]

Any thoughts on this please.....

Thanks

Kiran

Edited by: kiran dasari on Oct 28, 2008 1:16 AM

[Former Member]

What else are you looking for. Uwe provided what you asked.

[Former Member]

I want to know how I can use ITOB_EQUIPMENT_CREATE .

As I typically dont require a BAPI and our Functional team also is not alowing us to use that.

Thanks

Kiran

[Former Member]

As I said - don't let functional people tell you how to write a program. The FM they want to use is not documented and not released for customer use. The BAPI is both.

If you use the FM, you may have to call some other FMs before or after that you know nothing about.

The BAPI is the correct way to proceed.

Rob

[uwe_schieferstein]

Hello Kiran

Your answer disqualifies both yourself and your functional team.

When I need to access a business object I always search for the highest available abstraction to achieve this:

(1) Search for a class

(2) Search for a BAPI (no matter whether I need its RFC capability or not)

(3) Search for a local function module

(4) Do a SELECT on the table(s) as "ultimo ratio"

BAPIs are usually very stable interfaces and therefore the first choice to access business objects. In addition to what Rob already said I like to describe BAPIs as "Dialog without Dialog" meaning that they do the same validations as the corresponding dialog transaction (local fm's may or may not do this) and therefore ensure the integrity of the incoming data.

If your function team even forbids to use BAPIs this simply means they have little knowledge about software quality in ABAP programming.

And if they urge you to use fm ITOB_EQUIPMENT_CREATE against all odds then let them do the development themselves.

Regards

Uwe