Add an FK reference using PD scripting

[Former Member]

I have the columns defined in the (parent/child) tables.  The parent table has a single column PK.  How do I use PD scripting to add a reference from the child to the parent and to identify one of the existing child table columns to be used in the reference?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[GeorgeMcGeachie]

Do you want to create many references at once? Rather than scripting, you could use Excel import to create references and select Join attributes.

[Former Member]

I have 70+ tables needing the same reference.  Each table references the same parent twice.  Hence the request for scripting.

I am not married to scripting, if Excel import can do the same.  Does using Excel need me to enter each and every reference?

[GeorgeMcGeachie]

Each row in an Excel import creates or updates an object - 70 references means you need 70 rows. The simplest sheet would only need two columns - Parent Table and Child Table. If you import from this, the FK columns will probably all have the same name as the parent column, unless you have >1 reference between the two tables, or your rolenaming policy is not the standard one (see model options).

You ought to also add a 'Name' column to Excel, using a function to create something like

"Parent_table <--- Child_table" - these names will appear in the PD browser - beware duplicates, though.

[Former Member]

Thanks George.  I got it working, mostly.  Additional PD wholesale change will bring everything to the level I wanted.  But I thought that I would find out exactly how to get it right 100% as part of the import.

Here is a sample scenario.

1. Two tables: Parent with column Parent Key (int) as the PK.  Child with columns Father Key (int) and Mother Key (int) and Child Name (varchar(50)).
2. Here are my Excel sheets:

The import did create references F1 and F2.  "Father Key" at the Child was renamed "Parent Key" and "Mother Key" was renamed "Par_Parent Key".

The child column datatypes remain as "int".  My real data model uses domains.  The resulting domains after the import became "null".

Again, I could use a PD wholesale action and the column names and to change the domains.  But what did I do wrong?

Here are the some of the output lines:

Importing data from table Reference

  2 object(s) created

Importing data from table Reference.Reference Join

Error: Could not set attribute ParentTableColumn for Reference Join 'F1.' with value 'Column 'Parent.Parent Key'' (Cannot set value 'Column 'Parent.Parent Key'' for attribute Parent Table Column of Reference Join 'F1.': Parent Table Column cannot be null.)

Error: Reference Join 'F1.' will not be imported due to missing link extremity

Error: Could not set attribute ParentTableColumn for Reference Join 'F2.' with value 'Column 'Parent.Parent Key'' (Cannot set value 'Column 'Parent.Parent Key'' for attribute Parent Table Column of Reference Join 'F2.': Parent Table Column cannot be null.)

Error: Reference Join 'F2.' will not be imported due to missing link extremity

  no object created or updated

[Former Member]

This scenario that I reported looked identical to that in the thread http://scn.sap.com/thread/3774419.  I wonder if it is caused by a bug in PD or some additional Excel tabs or columns are need to control the import.

Thanks.