Tip: how to attach a runtime error (dump) when raising OSS incidents

[pedrofreitas]

I was inspired by the "Tip: how to find out the correct component when raising OSS messages" blog post. As mentioned in that post, not choosing the correct component when raising an incident will probably cause the processing to be delayed.

In the same way, a lot of people mention a runtime error in the issue description, but there is no information on this runtime error. Which error is it? When did it happen? And this will also cause the processing to be delayed because in order to find this out, the incident will have to go back to the customer at least once just to clarify this simple piece of information.

Sometimes the runtime error title (or also known as short dump) is mentioned, but just this title does not help us too much. Sometimes the date when it happened is missing, which will make it difficult to find it in transaction ST22 in the system. Hey, sometimes the user provided for support to use has no authorization to access ST22. It can also happen that the runtime error is attached to the message, but in the form of a screenshot, usually only showing the top information of this runtime error, but not the complete details. This can also cause message processing to be delayed.

There is an easy way to export a runtime error, with all of the relevant information, making it easy to attach to your OSS incident or to e-mails if you want to share them with someone else in your team. Follow these steps:

1) Go into ST22 transaction to find the runtime error:

2) To see the runtime error details, double click a runtime error:

3) To export it, go to menu path System > List > Save > Local File:

4) A pop-up window will come up for you to choose in which format you'd like to save it. I'd recommend either the unconverted option which will save it in a .txt file or the HTML format:

5) Another pop-up window will come up for you to select a Directory where to save the exported file and also to give it a File Name:

6) Click on Generate and the file will be saved in the Directory you just defined:

That's it!

Just check the directory you selected to save the file in and it will be there.

The full runtime error (short dump) can now be easily shared! You can attach it to an OSS incident or any e-mails you might want to send your colleagues, you can save it on to a usb drive, ...