Variant Configuration

[Former Member]

For our client the project team decided that there should be an overhaul of the current variant configuration. Basically this means that an existing class X and class Y (both class type 300) will be replaced by a new class Z of class type 300. Class Z contains most characteristics from class X and Y, renamed characteristics from X and Y and includes some new characteristics as well.

With the 'standard' classification i have no problem in making these kinds of changes in classified objects. With the variant configuration it's a different kind of story as there are also things like variant tables etc.

I am performing an impact analysis to determine whether making this change is possible and how it should be done (from a developer's perspective as without any doubt ABAP will be needed).

Knowing the complexity of the variant configuration (dependencies etc.) i was wondering if anybody ever did a conversion like this or knows if it even is possible.

[Former Member]

For our client the project team decided that there should be an overhaul of the current variant configuration. Basically this means that an existing class X and class Y (both class type 300) will be replaced by a new class Z of class type 300. Class Z contains most characteristics from class X and Y, renamed characteristics from X and Y and includes some new characteristics as well.

With the 'standard' classification i have no problem in making these kinds of changes in classified objects. With the variant configuration it's a different kind of story as there are also things like variant tables etc.

I am performing an impact analysis to determine whether making this change is possible and how it should be done (from a developer's perspective as without any doubt ABAP will be needed).

Knowing the complexity of the variant configuration (dependencies etc.) i was wondering if anybody ever did a conversion like this or knows if it even is possible.

[SuhaSaha]

Are you talking about variant configuration via CU41 ?

And if i understand correctly you want to remove the classes X & Y and replace them with a new class Z. Now you want to know if this is feasible technically. Correct ?

[Former Member]

hi ,

there are chances for the feasibilty of your requirement. Just explore and debug CL30N . there will be a standard FM to filter materials as per the characteristics chosen. If we can do some R&D on that FM, we could conclude your requirement's feasibility.

Thanks

Seema

[Former Member]

Indeed, we want to remove some variant classes from the material master and replace them with a new one. I've seen that in order to achieve the above, ECM is needed. So far so good though.

But here's where my concern is: there are still transaction data (sales orders, deliveries etc.) containing the configuration based on the old variant classes. And that 'old' configuration should be replaced as well. Mind you, removing the old variant classes from the material master does not remove the configuration (characteristics values) from the transaction data.

For historical transaction data (closed documents etc.) that's not a a problem. But for the open documents we want to see only the new configuration (characteristics).

I'm currently investigation the possibilities of removing the 'old' configuration data from said transaction data. But if someone has some ideas on it or has actually done this before, i would love to hear about it.

[Former Member]

In the end no need for complex conversions or whatever in the system.

The client decided to do a full load (and conversion) into a new SAP system.