I was searching for Digital Personnel Files in SAP HCM, how it appears, how we can implement, step by step process etc, But I was not succeed. Later I explored and implemented the same successfully and thought of sharing the step by step process for others who looks for this.
Many of the HCM consultants don’t know about DPF(Digital Personnel Files) functionality in HCM, appears under HR Administrator services which is mainly based on SAP Records Management (Now a days, calling as SAP Netweaver Folders Management).
DPF is a HCM component comes under HCM Processes and Forms. Its a central storage of all the documents relevant to the employee of a company. In simple terms it provides central access to all employee documents and simplies the tasks of HR administrator. It would have predefined structure and layout, the document storage would be more effective. For ex: DPF for an employee contains all the scanned documents of offer letter, Hike letters, certificates, passports etc in a predefined sturured way. Also able to include Infotypes,BOR Objects, Circulars, Workflows etc in a digital record.
I had some experience on SAP Records Management and using that I have implemented sample DPF functionality with a folder structure contains some infotypes, BOR object and provision to upload scanned documents, which is shown step by step below.
As the DPF functionality is based on SAP Records Management (RM), first we need to do some basic work on RM side.
First we have to create a record model (tcode: ORGAZINER), which will have a folder structure that should appear as record. Sample record model that I have created is as shown below:
Apart from standard attributes, we can add some more attributes as per our requirements. These attributes would be useful for record search and reporting purpose.
We can use standard RMS_ID ‘ASR_DPF’, which is the top entity under that we will keep all DPF related stuff.
I used standard Service Providers for Archive link documents, BOR objects, HCM Infotypes, General documents, Records and Record Models.
Under Service Providers, we will create custom element types for record model by copying standard element types or we can use standard ones as it is. We will do this in tcode: SRMREGEDIT.
In element type we have to assign classification parameters and connection parameter values based on type of element. The important connection parameter is document class which would be the content repository for that particular element.
After creating element types and parameter assignment, record model would be created with these element types in ORGANIZER. For each component in record model we have to assign element type id and anchor data as shown below.
The next important activity after the above set up is content repository settings, where exactly the document gets stored. We can check the existing content repository information under tcode OAC0. Also you can create new repositories from here. But in records management we generally create content repositories directly from SPRO -> SAP NetWeaver -> Application Server -> Basis Services -> Archive Link and we can check the created repositories in tcode DMWB as show below. For all the element types we create different content repositories and assign them in connection parameters. Also we maintain attribute information for all the element types under instance attributes tab as shown below. These attributes would be helpful for searching documents/records or other reporting purpose.
Here the documents would be stored or retrieved using standard HTTP interface. We can use SAP content server or any third party external content server (Ex: FILENET). The connection settings would be done by Basis consultant.
Here we have to know type of documents: Normal Documents and Archive Link Documents. We have different element types for them and we have to select accordingly while designing record model. With Normal Document element type, we can maintain versions, check-in, check-out etc functionalities would be available, where as Archive link documents, will not have versions, check-in/out functionality. This is just for storing a document and will not be changed.
Now we have Record Model, Service Providers and Element Types. Next question should be how to create a Digital Personnel Record for particular Personnel Number. Normally we use event linkages configuration with receiver function module to create personnel records. We maintain event linkage configuration based on our requirements when exactly we need to create the record. Receive function module should have the logic to create a record, elements automatically when ever the specific event is fired. For the time being I have used standard program (Tcode: SRMRECORDSCREATE) for HCM digital personnel records. Example screen shot with necessary selection criteria as given:
Once we run this program, the HCM Digital personnel record would be created and we can check the same in tcode ORGANIZER. We attach the documents against specific element types and once we save it, the documents gets stored in content server as per the settings in element type configurations.
SAP Records Management has provided a standard functionality to search Records, Documents, which is ‘Document Finder’, appears under SPRO -> SAP NetWeaver -> Application Server -> Basis Services -> Archive Link -> Document Finder Customizing. We have to difine document area and create a Query class to find out Records or Documents based on our requirements. We have standard Tcode: OA_FIND which is based on Document Finder customizing, from where, we can search for documents with necessary attributes. Example screen shot given below:
Finally how the record appears for end user, where it would be linked for Personnel number. The solution is GOS (Generic Object Services). I think most of the ABAP developers know this functionality and not explaining much in this blog. We have to design our code in GOS Class, to retrieve already created HCM Digital Personnel File Record. Example screen shot given below:
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