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Author's profile photo Michael Vollmer

ChaRM: A Boost to Your 7.20 Project After the Content Activation Is Done

Overview:

With SAP Solution Manager 7.20 Support Package Stack 3, the 7.20 release is general available.

One of the conceptual changes is that the new Solution Documentation function replaces the SOLAR transactions (SOLAR01, SOLAR02).

The big step from SAP Solution Manager 7.10 to 7.20 is performed by the so-called Content Activation.

If you used Change Request Management in SAP Solution Manager 7.10 already, you copied the standard transaction types, for example, the SMCR (Request for Change) or change documents such as the SMHF (Urgent Change), SMMJ (Normal Change) to the customer namespace.

 

When you perfromed the content activation, the existing open documents are reassigned from solar projects to solutions, branches and new change cycle types. All this happens automatically.

You might ask though if this is all that has to be done to get the standard process running. In general, SAP Solution Manager Configuration (SOLMAN_SETUP) provides good guidance for steps such as role update.

Yet, as it contains a lot of optional activities depending on what you have adjusted in the change management process, you might easily oversee and not plan some topics.

 

That’s why I created this blog. To give you an overview of what has to be done after the content activation. This is based on my experience as back office contact at SAP working with four ramp-up customers.

Certainly, I cannot make promises here but I am confident that this blog should will boost your project.

If you are not sure, please check the standard or Solman Setup. I would like to point out to you that the release info for SPS 3 is quite detailed for Change Request Management.

 

What I do not cover here:

I will concentrate on CRM WebClient UI and Change Request Management framework and not go into role updates, replaced transactions, e.g. ‘/TMWFLOW/PROJ’ which is replaced by the administration cockpit, RZ70, LMDB.

 

What you need to do after the content activation is finished

 

  1. Adopt the UI configuration.
  2. Integrate into Solution Documentation.
  3. Adapt customer code for SOLAR functionalities for Solution Documentation

 

  1. Adopt the UI configuration

Some SAP standard fields and assignment blocks are obsolete, some are new. Therefore, the UI configuration for your customer transaction type needs adaption.

 

Prerequisites

You copied the UI configuration in release 7.10 by adapting the object subtype to your copied customer (Z/Y) transaction type as shown in the screenshot below (the example illustrates a general change).

 

Strategy:

 

First rule: Never enhance the standard default UI configuration!!

If you enhance UI configurations, always copy a standard UI configuration and adapt the object subtype to your copied customer transaction type. Never enhance the standard default configuration, marked in the screenshot below. This could lead to the CRM Web UI taking the enhanced default configuration for each transaction type that doesn’t have a UI configuration with the transaction type as the object subtype. This can lead to unwanted side effects.

/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/default_1012697.jpg

 

 

There are two ways to adopt the UI configuration:

 

  • delete the existing customer specific UI configuration for the customer transaction type and copy the standard again. This is best if you have no additional not more than five customer fields added. You are finished then. If you have additional customer fields it depends how many. Most customers know these fields and are more familiar with adding them to the newly copied customer UI configuration.
  • Delete the old standard fields from the copied UI configuration and add the new standard fields. Interesting if you have lots of customer fields added and it’s less work to delete the old and add the new SAP standard fields.

UI configuration.jpg

How do you get there?

Call transaction ‘BSP_WD_CMPWB’ (UI Component Workbench) and enter the relevant UI component. Go to the Views section. The relevant adaptions have to be done in the Header (the Details assignment block) and overview views (where it is defined which assignment blocks are visible). Follow the arrows in the screenshot above.

 

UI component for specific standard transaction types (and your specific customer transaction type):

 

Header UI Component Transaction type
AIC_CMCR_H SMCR (request for change), outside Change Request Management: SMBR (business requirement), SMIR (IT requirement)
AIC_CMCD_H

All change documents: SMAD (administrative change), SMCG (general change), SMHF (urgent change), SMMJ (normal change) and SMTM (defect correction)

All change cycles: SMAI (continual cycle), SMIM (phase cycle) and SMRE (release cycle). Note that normally change cycles do not need to be copied. Therefore, 99% of these cases here don’t need to be adopted. An exception are customers who enhance the change cycles.

 

Obsolete Fields and Assignment Blocks:

 

With the general concept being changed from SOLAR to Solution Documentation, some SAP standard fields in the header view are now obsolete for the UI:

– Project (//BTAICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.PROJECT_ID)

– Solution (//BTAICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.SOLUTION_ID) with the description (//BTAICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.SOLUTION_DESC)

– Project Cycle (//BTAICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.PROJECT_CYCLE_ID) with the description (//BTAICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.PROJECT_CYCLE_DESC)

– Installed Base (//BTREFOBJMAIN//STRUCT.IB_BASE) with description (//BTREFOBJMAIN/IBIBASE)

– Component (//BTREFOBJMAIN/IBINSTANCE) with description (//BTREFOBJMAIN/IBINSTANCEDESC)

 

For the overview view the assignment blocks ‘Project’, ‘Solution’ and ‘Documents’ are obsolete.

 

Let’s take a look at an urgent change of a 7.10 release:

obsolete fields.jpg

In the header view, you will see the following:

obsolete fields2.jpg

obsolete ass blocks.jpg

Remove those assignment blocks as they are out of interest if you want to check old closed documents of 7.10. Then set them to ‘Hidden’. Later, a user can display them in manually via personalization.

 

New Fields and Assignment Blocks:

 

New SAP standard fields in the header are:

 

– Change Cycle (//AICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.PROJECT_TITLE)

-Phase (//AICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.USER_STAT_DESC) has been relocated

– Type (//AICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.RELEASE_TYPE)  with release no. (RELEASE_NUMBER)

– ID (//AICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.RELEASE_CRM_ID)

– Landscape (//AICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.SLAN_DESC)

– Branch (//AICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.SBRA_NAME)

– Development Close (//AICREQUESTCONTEXT/STRCT.DEV_CLOSE_DATE)

– Go-Live Date (//AICREUQESTCONTEXT/STRCT.GO_LIVE_DATE)

 

New assignment blocks are:

 

– Solution Documentation (replacing the former ‘project’, ‘solution’ and ‘documents’ assignment block)

– Transport-related Checks

new ass blocks.jpg

Because all new SAP standard fields and assignment blocks are relevant, they should be displayed.

 

Configure Status-Dependent UI Element Control of the New Fields:

Please be aware that the new fields need a customizing for all Status in the acitivity ‘Configure Status-Dependent UI Element Control’. Otherwise the UI Elements will be in Display mode or Buttons inactive.

2. Integrate into Solution Documentation

The new change recording feature for change request management brings significant benefits for release 7.20. Summarized documentation becomes visible in the productive branch when the change from the transport is imported into the production system, e.g., the change document reaches its productive status.

 

This integration has been implemented via Change Request Management framework actions and consistency checks. Starting with Support Package Stack 3,you find a description in SAP Solution Manager Configuration (SOLMAN_SETUP) in the Change Request Management area in 9.3.

solman setup.jpg

We’ve tried to describe it in greater details so we hope that it provides sufficient support.

 

3. Adapt customer-specific code for SOLAR functions for Solution Documentation

A quick reminder that if you did customer enhancements depending on the PROJECT_ID field, these enhancements need to be re-implemented. As SAP cannot see what is enhanced, this has been done with the help of consultants and developers.

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      14 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Vivek Hegde
      Vivek Hegde

      Great info. as usual Michael.  Pretty excited to know that 7.2 is now become general availability. Let the exploration begin ! 🙂

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Michael,

      Excellent Post. I have some doubt in ChaRM- Solman 7.2 version

      1. From 7.2 Solution documentation is replaced the project concept. whether we need to create  the solution and add the logical component group and activate the task list

      2.what is the role for logical component group in ChaRM? it is replacing the logical component?

      3.In 7.1 we have SMMM and SMMN transaction type for task list. but in solman 7.2 it is replaced to  SMAI (continual cycle), SMIM (phase cycle) and SMRE (release cycle)? what is the role for SMAI, SMIM and SMRE in 7.2 ChaRM.

      4. Currently we are using template project for solution documentation , after ChaRM project creation we link the template project and activate the ChaRM.So the team storing all the technical, functional, test results... attached to the template project for single source of truth concept. but in solman 7.2 version no project concept. how the template project concept is handle in 7.2 version . how we can use Global template project for SolDoc and link to ChaRM for document upload in solman 7.2 version?

      Rg,

      Karthik

      Author's profile photo Michael Vollmer
      Michael Vollmer
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Karthik,

      I had to check with some colleagues to get the answers...

      1. As far as I am informed, solution, the logical component and logical component groups are created automatically during the process of content activation. And the replacement of the old by the new cycles leaves the task list like it was before (active or inactive). Normally a customer has only one solution.


      2. Logical component groups: group logical components, which belong together. In 7.1, customer needs to have several logical components with the same systems included. E.g. if customer has a 5 system landscape. E.g. DE1, QA1, DE2, QA2, PR1, in this case in 7.1 the customer has a logical component LC1 with assigned systems  DE1, QA1, DE2, QA2, PR1, and a logical component LC2 with assigned systems DE2, QA2, PR1. In 7.2 there is one logical component group with 3 logical components: Production with assigned system PR1, Maintenance with assigned systems DE2 and QA2, and Development with assigned systems DE1 and QA1.

      For ChaRM this means, logical component groups (grouped in change control landscapes) and branch information is used to define the particular development systems for a change cycle.

      The advantage is that you need to have one technical system only in one logical component.


      3. SMRE is the release cycle for the new release management functionality in 7.2. Releases are numbered (major and minor releases) and share one task list per landscape / release version. They are sequential dependent and are created in the 'Release Planning' area in CRM Web UI.

      SMIM is the 'Phase Cycle' meant to be used for projects.

      SMAI is the 'Continual Cycle', meant for bug fixing, w/o normal change.


      4. Regarding Template Projects;

      Since we don’t have Solar Projects anymore, we also don’t have template projects anymore. There is a plan to have something similar in the future, but there is no final statement, when this will be implemented.


      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Appreciate your reply Michael.Thanks

      Author's profile photo Rahim Kassam
      Rahim Kassam

      Hi Michael,

      Thank you for this great information. My question is similar to Kartick's Q3 about SMIM.  What is the security role for this? After upgrade, my user (with SAP ALL and SAP NEW) can select/edit Landscape and Branch in "Create --> Change Cycle", however my test user cannot.  I cannot find any information on this.  Your help would be highly appreciated.

      Thanks,
      Rahim.

      Author's profile photo Michael Vollmer
      Michael Vollmer
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Rahim,
      unfortunately the Forum seems not to have a mail notification or I was not yet able to define how to activate it. So, in General for UI Control we have the authorizaion object SM_FIELD with the relevant values. You can find keys in the SPRO customizing'Configure Status-Dependent UI Element Control' or in Solman Setup.

      The authorization object is maintained in the SAP_SOCM_* functional roles which are part of the Composite roles SAP_CM_*_COMP for Change request Management. You will find it in Solman Setup where you copy roles.
      In General the Change Manager SAP_CM_CHANGE_MANAGER_COMP is able to create and maintain SMIM.
      Hope that helps,
      Michael

      Author's profile photo Rahul Yedapally
      Rahul Yedapally

      Thanks Michael. Nice Blog !!

       

      Just want to Know how do we delete Assignment block .

      Remove those assignment blocks as they are out of interest if you want to check old closed documents of 7.10. Then set them to ‘Hidden’. Later, a user can display them in manually via personalization.

      Author's profile photo Michael Vollmer
      Michael Vollmer
      Blog Post Author

       

      You can just bring them to the left side with the Little arrows in the middle (between the two lists).

      Author's profile photo Karthik Paramasivam
      Karthik Paramasivam

      Michael,

      What is the workaround when SolMan system 7.2  is temporarily unavailable for ChaRM.

      we need to follow same SAP note 1528657? or any new procedure for ChaRM 7.2 version?

      Rg,

      Karthik

       

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Michael,

      Indeed very informative blog. We have few questions here. We recently upgraded to SolMan 7.2 and we are unable to see Project details when we execute CRM_UI. We are referring KBA 2394599 - How to handle your Z transaction types after the upgrade to 7.2. However, we are not able to see our custom transaction types updated in AICV_PROC_EDIT2 and  AIC_V_TRTY_MAP2.

      We have our custom code written under component AIC_CMCR_H, AIC_CM_SCOPE_D with custom enhancement set. We are not able to see our projects on the ChaRM portal even though we have activated these projects and we could see these projects in solar_project_admin.

      Any suggestion/direction how we should proceed in this case ?

      Thanks and regards,

      Abhiijit.

      Author's profile photo Michael Vollmer
      Michael Vollmer
      Blog Post Author

       

      Dear Abhíjit,

      I would advise you to create a ticket for this. Support will then look into on the System,

      thanks,

      Michael

      Author's profile photo Dustin Floyd
      Dustin Floyd

      Abhijit, do you have Focused Build installed?  A new version of a note was updated today that fixed a similar issue I experienced.

      2517814 - Cannot return any search results in Change Cycle/Phase F4 help search in change document - Solution Manager

      Author's profile photo Tabea Steiner
      Tabea Steiner

      Dear Michael,

      Thank you for this blog post! I am trying to make field Go-Live Date editable for SMIM. Authorizations are in place and I configured the field on WebUI, however the endtires made are not being saved. Do you have a clue what needs to be done/checked?

      Is there a UI Element for the GO-Live date to configure in "Status Dependet Control of UI Elements"? Do you know which one?

       

      Thank you for your input

      Tabea

       

       

      Author's profile photo Tabea Steiner
      Tabea Steiner

      After checking back with SAP I now know that the fields I was so happy about are only intended to use for SMRE and not for SMIM or SMAI 🙁

      "SAP

      Hello Tabea,

      Currently the 'Key Dates' section is intended for Release Cycles and not Phase/Continual Cycle.  A development request can be submitted to request this functionality."