CREATING CUSTOM TABLES IN SAP MII 12.2

[Former Member]

Hi everyone,

I am using MII 12.2 and need to know how to create custom tables in it for defining integration architecture for an oil and gas major.

Please  could anyone suggest how to go about it.

Thanks,

Praveen.

[Former Member]

Hi Praveen!

If only the requirement is to create a custom table which can be used in  MII then it can be created on the database on which NW is mounted. Creating tables in these database are very easy.

[agentry_src]

Hi Praveen,

What is the purpose of your custom tables?  MII resides on top of NW which resides on top of a database, but doing custom tables could mean a lot of different things depending on your business case.  Most of the time, people ask for custom tables, there are MII functions or capabilities that work better in the MII landscape than custom tables.

Regards, Mike

[Former Member]

Hi mike,

Thanks a lot for your response.

The purpose of having link tables at MII is to perform :

1.      1. Value Mapping.

2.      2. Picking up master data objects based on source system objects.

I realize 12.2 has value  mapping pre-defined capabilities, but I am not sure if it will cater to my requirements , i.e.

Background:

Integrating Layer 2/SCADA->HISTORIAN with Layer 4 /ECC using middleware SAP PI and SAP MII.

Master Data :

ECC will send updates on Master data objects to Plant level MII. These values will be like FUNCLOCS, CC etc.

The values that will come from source, will pick master data values and finally these will be pushed to PM/MM via PI/XI.

Value Mapping Table:

Usually this table is present at ECC (Previous assignments, I have created them at ECC using context,agency,scheme etc). Can a similar exhaustive table like structure be created and maintained at Plant level MII instances to cater to current requirements.

Thanks,

Praveen Naithani.

[agentry_src]

Hi Praveen,

I would expect that you would find it much easier to do the value mapping in MII than using a custom table in ECC.  Just from the standpoint of having ECC available to MII all the time which can be problematic for a production environment.

As far as PI/XI goes, is there a particular reason that you want to incorporate another application in your data stream?  Depending on your specific system (like does your customer already have PI/XI in the data stream?), I would question why you wish to use it.  It is not required, but customers will dictate one way or the other.  MII has integrated PI/XI connection action blocks to facilitate those transfers if required.  Otherwise, you may be better off using IDocs with Change Pointers to maintain your master down in MII as it changes in ECC.  You can also do updates using BAPI/RFC channels back to ECC from MII.  Less network overhead and less maintenance is involved with this approach.  But again, it comes down to the customer's needs and preferences.

Hope I have given you some ideas to consider.

Regards, Mike

[salvatore_castro]

Praveen,

I do not know your requirements in a ton of detail but to me it seems like the 12.2 Value Mapping will work as is and will be more scalable and maintanable than a custom table.  Custom Tables should be done using MDO or SAP Dictionary tool and not native SQL Scripts; but that's a different topic.  Anyway you can look at the Value Mapping features here in this examples project to determine the best course of action for you but I would only consider custom tables as a last resort:

Examples 12.2 project

Sam

[Former Member]

Hi

Our requirement is to synchronize ECC Master data specific to our requirement to each plant level MII.

First picture shows our requirement to have a table of value mapping information at ECC. We will have one or many tables depending on the customer requirements.

This example table shows first 3 columns of Master data and 4^th column of SCADA TAG. We may have 3 or more columns of Master data depending on requirements.

The picture below shows the table of value mapping information pertaining to PLANT01 at MII.

The customer requires data to be replicated at Plant location.

In the above case of replication requirement of Master and SCADA TAGs can we go-ahead with the “MII 12.2 Value Mapping” approach?

We want your kind guidance in this case since we are dealing with many – to – one mapping. (But so far, I noticed default value mapping of 12.2 to be 1 –to- 1)

Could you also throw some light on how to receive master data obj’s in to these tables. (Which is preferable Idoc/RFC/XML )  customer already  has XI/PI in data stream making the landscape -> ECC- PI – MII – SCADA / Historians

[salvatore_castro]

Praveen,

Yes, the Value Mapping feature in MII 12.2 supports the "many to one" scenario you outline above as you can use wildcards and complex keys to identify the right value.  We designed this feature to accommodate a wide range of complex mapping scenarios (See the Examples 12.2 document section on Value Mapping for more details) in support of dynamic environments and processes.  I am curious how you would plan on maintaining this mapping via ERP to MII as Value Mapping does not support direct updates to the rules.  The rules however can point to Share Memory properties by using the dynamic link syntax in the expression; as an example:

#Persistent.<ProjectName>.<Namespace>.<SharedPropertyName>#

Wrapping the parameter with the # characters will tell the parser to "evaluate" this expression at runtime.  The Shared Memory properties can be updated via any MII transaction or from the MII Menu -> Data Services -> Shared Memory screen.

Also, this sounds like a good use case for the MII 14.0 Plant Information Catalog as it's designed to be the mechnism for contextualizing sensor networks with ERP & Sensor meta-data across your enterprise.  I suggest that you inquire about this feature as this will also allow you to perform programmatic updates to the catalog definition and control/manage changes.  Here's the help documentation around the services interface that this feature provides:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_mii140sp01/helpdata/en/dd/e79aaf16b541ba858a4bf4ade5741c/content.htm

Sam

PS: MII 14.0 is planned to be GA on May 10th 2013

[Former Member]

Hi Sam,

Thanks for your response!!

1. We are constrained to use MII 12.2 as client's preference.

2. I was wondering if you could please share any artifact depicting exhaustive use of value mapping in MII12.2 similar to our requirement.

3.Is there any possible alternate way to achieve it(maintaining Custom table at MII).

Thanks,

Praveen.

[salvatore_castro]

Have you looked at the Value Mapping section in the Examples 12.2 (Examples 12.2 project)document I linked to earlier?  Do you have a scenario that you think this does not cover that you can outline?  The scenario above is covered...

Sam