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Author's profile photo Enda Fennelly

How to mass update Material Classification in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Introduction

 

In SAP S/4HANA Cloud  Master Data, there are 2 useful apps  ‘Export Master Data’ and  ‘Mass Maintenance for Master Data’ that can be used for the Product Master and Business Partner areas to allow a customer to export master data to Excel for filtering/reporting purposes and also for mass update of data to reduce manual effort

 

A little-known gem of these apps is that it also allows the Export / Mass update of Classification as well!

 

For Classification, the initial creation is uploaded using the  Migration Object ‘Object classification’ in the app “Migrate your data” but afterward if you wish to mass update the classification assigned to an object such as Material ( class type 001 ) there is no Classification app like transaction CLMM for SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

 

The API and Interface API_PRODUCT_SRV and PRODUCTMDMBULKREPLICATEREQUEST respectively support the update of  ( POST / PATCH / PUT ) for Product Master Data fields but does not include Classification

 

There is an API for Classification which is  API_CLFN_PRODUCT_SRV but it only allows READ operation and not update (POST / PATCH / PUT ) as of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Essentials Edition 2102

 

The use of these 2 apps ‘Export Master Data’ and  ‘Mass Maintenance for Master Data’ allow update of classification as a workaround till dedicated classification apps / APIs are available in  future releases

 

What Apps and Roles are needed to follow this blog post to mass update material classification?

The following example was tested in an SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2102 Essentials System.
The User involved has 2 roles SAP_BR_PRODMASTER_SPECIALIST and
SAP _BR_PRODUCT_CONFIG_MODELER assigned.

 

With the role SAP _BR_PRODUCT_CONFIG_MODELER you are able to access the ‘Manage Characteristic’ and ‘Manage Class’ apps to create the characteristics involved and to add them to a new class of type 001 ( Material Class )

 

With the role  SAP_BR_PRODMASTER_SPECIALIST  you are  able to follow the process of creating the products involved and then use the apps  ‘Export Master Data’ and  ‘Mass Maintenance for Master Data’ to download, change and reupload to mass change the classification

 

Creating the Test Data

 

The example consists of 2 products, 4 characteristics of different formats, and 1 class of type 001 – Material Class

 

Step 1: Creating the characteristics

  1. Open the app ‘Manage Characteristics’
  2. Input characteristic name, for example, COLOUR and Create button
  3. Input description and in the dropdown for Data Type, select ‘Character format’
  4. Under Value assignment – select “Single-value”
  5. Press Enter
  6. For the field ‘Number of chars’, input a value for a number of chars, for example, 8
  7. Navigate to the values tab
  8. Input a char value’s and description

Repeats steps 1 to 8 and create different characteristics of type ‘Numeric Format’,’ Time Format’ and ‘Date Format’

All characteristics have the Value assignment – select “Single-value”

 

Characteristic%20values%20maintained%20for%20Colour

Characteristic values maintained for Colour

 

Characteristic%20values%20maintained%20for%20Length

Characteristic values maintained for Length

 

Characteristic values maintained for Date

 

Characteristic%20values%20maintained%20for%20Time

Characteristic values maintained for Time

 

Step 2: Creating the Class

  1. Open the app ‘Manage Classes’
  2. Input class name
  3. Input class-type 001
  4. Press create button
  5. Input class description
  6. Navigate to char. Tab
  7. Input chars created from Step 1
  8. Press save

 

Class%20with%20Characteristics%20assigned

Class with Characteristics assigned

Step 3 Creating the product (s )

  1. Open the app ‘Manage Product Master Data’
  2. Click on the create button
  3. In the Create Master Data Record popup, input a product number (for example PRODUCT_1), Material Type (FERT Finished Product ), Base Unit ( EA ), and a product description
  4. Press ok
  5. Navigate to the Classification tab
  6. Click on the button “Click here to assign a class”
  7. In the popup that appears, input the class created previously in Step 2 (of type 001)

 

Assign%20the%20class%20to%20the%20Product

Assign the class to the Product

      8.In the dropdown for each characteristic, select a value

Classify%20the%20Material

Classify the Material

      9.SAVE when finished evaluating all characteristics

 

Repeat steps 1 – 9 for how many materials you wish to test with

 

Process for mass updating the material classification

 

     Exporting the material and its classification to excel using the app ‘Export Master Data’

 

  1. Open the app ‘Export Master Data – Products’
  2. For the field “Select specific Fields” – press the F4 / popup window
  3. Press the button ‘show filters’
  4. Search for field MARA-MATNR_EXTERNAL
  5. Press the select button
  6. In the ‘Table Name’ field, input AUSP
  7. Clear the field ‘Field Name’ (was MATNR )
  8. Press the ‘Go’ button
  9. Select all entries returned

 

Select%20all%20fields%20for%20AUSP

Select all fields for AUSP

10.Press the ‘Ok’ button

11.Under “Select Products”, input the materials you created previously in Step 3

 

Selection%20criteria%20filled%20for%20products

Selection criteria filled for products

  1. Under ‘File Format’ – select ‘Office Open XML (*xlsx )
  2. Press the Export button
  3. Press ‘Export’ on the popup

 

Popup%20before%20exporting%20to%20Excel

Popup before exporting to Excel

 

     Changing / Understanding the Exported File

 

Open the Excel file created in the previous step. The Excel file has 2 tabs‘MARA – Basic Data’ and ‘MARA_AUSP – Characteristics’

The Tab ‘MARA – Basic Data’ contains the materials  and  ‘MARA_AUSP – Characteristics’ contains the characteristic values

The characteristic values for an object are maintained in the columns  ATFLV, ATWRT, DEC_VALUE_FROM, DEC_VALUE_TO, DATE_FROM, DATE_TO, TIME_FROM, and TIME_TO

 

To understand the formatting of how the values are stored please check the KBA

1568641 ‘How are the values for the different Characteristic Data Types saved in the table AUSP’

Update the excel sheet with new values ( in accordance with what is already defined for each characteristic in the Manage Characteristic app )

 

    Uploading%20the%20changed%20Excel%20sheet%20and%20mass%20updating%20the%20Product%20Classification

 

Uploading the changed Excel sheet and mass updating the Product Classification

 

  1. Open App ‘Start Mass Maintenance – Products’
  2. Press the Browse button
  3. Navigate and select the Excel sheet that was updated with the new classification values
  4. Press Open
  5. Maintain a Description and press save
  6. a message ‘ A new process is being created is shown
  7. A screen will appear with the number of records (Products) to be changed and the field MARA_AUSP-ATWRT shown under “Fields in Scope”

Mass%20Maintenance%20App%20initial%20stage

Mass Maintenance App initial stage

  1. Press the ‘Start’ button
  2. A message ‘ Process started’ is shown

It is now in the stage ‘Stopped for Review (Edit)’.

Here you can see under the bar graph what is planned to be changed ( in orange ) and what is left unchanged ( in blue )

 

Stopped%20for%20Review

Stopped for Review

If you wish to review in more detail the values that are planned to be updated, please use the button ‘Edit Records’ and navigate to tab Characteristics. Here you can manually update a value if it was not set in the excel sheet that was uploaded. Press the back button takes to the ‘Stopped for Review (Edit)’ page.

 

Manual%20update%20fo%20characteristic%20value

Manual update fo characteristic value

  1. if you are happy with the intended changes, please continue the message ‘Process continues’

11. The progress will finish in status ‘Completed’ and the Bar chart will appear in Green

Completion%20of%20classification%20update

Completion of classification update

 

If you check now in the Manage Product Master Data app, the products should now be updated with the new classification!

 

 

Known Restrictions

 

Please refer to the KBA 2791935 about the update of “overwritten” characteristics in the app ‘Start Mass Maintenance – Products’

 

Documentation

Object classification – General template

Fiori app Mass Maintenance for Master Data

Fiori app Export Master Data

https://blogs.sap.com/2021/02/08/s-4hc-export-master-data-apps-access-missing-key-fields/

 

Conclusion

I hope the blog post helped provide a way to mass update material classification till a decided app or tool for classification that supports all class types is made available to do it

Any questions or feedback would be appreciated!

If you have any requests for other blog posts you would like created under SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Research and Development please let me know.

 

If you have any questions please raise them also at Answers

 

 

 

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      22 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Rich Hardy
      Rich Hardy

      Is the Export Master Data app only available in SAP MDG? Thanks in advance!

       

      Author's profile photo Enda Fennelly
      Enda Fennelly
      Blog Post Author

      yes, the app Export Master Data is only applicable to MDG.

      Author's profile photo Rich Hardy
      Rich Hardy

      Thank you. That's very unfortunate. Hoping it would be available in S4 as well.

       

      Author's profile photo Enda Fennelly
      Enda Fennelly
      Blog Post Author

      Sorry, I might have misunderstood your question.

       

      if you're asking if the app available in S/4HANA On-premise then yes, it is

       

      Please check the Fiori Library like below

      https://fioriappslibrary.hana.ondemand.com/sap/fix/externalViewer/#/detail/Apps('F3251')/S19OP

      but it only always export the following under MDG :

       

      • Business Partner
      • Business Partner Relationship
      • Product

       

      Author's profile photo Rich Hardy
      Rich Hardy

      Enda, we found the app and it's in our S4 system, but when we try and export the data, nothing happens. No error messages etc. The transaction just runs and runs.

      Author's profile photo Enda Fennelly
      Enda Fennelly
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Rich ,

       

      Please make sure the ODATA services below are activated in the

      transaction /IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE

       

      MDC_EXPORT_SRV
      MDC_PROCESS_SRV__1405
      MDC_PROCESS_SRV__147
      MDC_PROCESS_SRV__194

       

      Please also ensure the correct role SAP_BR_BUPA_MASTER_SPECIALIST or  SAP_BR_PRODMASTER_SPECIALIST is assigned

       

      If still, the app is hanging, i would recommend creating an incident for it

      ( component CA-MDG-CMP-FIO )  so it can be checked what is causing  the issue

       

      Best Regards

      Enda

       

      Author's profile photo Rich Hardy
      Rich Hardy

      Hello Enda, thanks again for your quick response. These services are all active and still no luck. We're going with your suggestion to create an incident.

      Best regards,

      Rich

      Author's profile photo VEERA VENKATA PAVAN KUMAR ADAPA
      VEERA VENKATA PAVAN KUMAR ADAPA

      Hello Enda Fennelly,

      will the above process is worked in s4 Hana on-premise edition?

      Regards,

      pavan.

      Author's profile photo Dominik Philipp
      Dominik Philipp

      Hello Enda,

      Thank you for your entry. I've been testing the mass maintenance app for a while now and have a question:

       

      Is it possible to mantain class characteristics which are included in the class but not maintained on master data level? So far the mass maintenance job simply ignores the additional row in the excel sheet.

       

      Kind regards,

      Dominik

      Author's profile photo Enda Fennelly
      Enda Fennelly
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Dominik,

       

      Do you mean that the characteristic is not valuated / blank at the master data level ?

      Is the characteristics open for input in the Manage Product Master Data app ?

       

      i need this information to check in our internal systems.

       

      Thank you

      Enda

      Author's profile photo Dominik Philipp
      Dominik Philipp

      Hello Enda,

      Thanks for the quick response.

       

      Exactly, the characteristics are blank at the master data level and open for input. I used the export master data excel sheet as you did and added a row with the information for the explicit characteristic (copied it from a dummy material, where the specific characteristic was maintained).

       

      Thank you very much,

       

      Kind regards,

      Dominik

       

      Author's profile photo Enda Fennelly
      Enda Fennelly
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Dominik ,

       

      Thanks for the clarification , i reproduced the issue in our Cloud System .

      i dont know the reason and if the behaviour is intended .

      ive raised it internally and il get back to you if i hear anything

       

      Best Regards

      Enda

      Author's profile photo Enda Fennelly
      Enda Fennelly
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Dominik ,

       

      if you want to maintain a characteristic, which is empty, you have to add a new row in table

      mara_ausp using file upload and maintain the value "i" for Insert in the row _ACTION_CODE.

       

      You can find an example in our FAQ document:

      https://www.sap.com/documents/2021/09/4aa709b7-f77d-0010-bca6-c68f7e60039b.html

       

      Best Regards

      Enda

      Author's profile photo Dominik Philipp
      Dominik Philipp

      Hi Enda,

      Thank you very much for the information, this solves my issue completely.

       

      Best Regards

      Dominik

      Author's profile photo Enda Fennelly
      Enda Fennelly
      Blog Post Author

      Great 🙂

      Author's profile photo Dmitry Yakovlev
      Dmitry Yakovlev

      Hello, Enda!

      Is there any oData / SOAP service for creation material with classification?

      I mean, not in 2 steps (1-create Material 2-create classification for material), but create material classification at the same step of material creation.

       

      Thanks!

      Dmitry.

      Author's profile photo Enda Fennelly
      Enda Fennelly
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Dmitry ,

       

      An oData / SOAP service that does both in one step is not available.

      Classification is considered a separate 'external' object to Material which is why it needs the second step to update

       

      Best Regards

      Enda

      Author's profile photo Dmitry Yakovlev
      Dmitry Yakovlev

      Hello, Enda!

       

      Thank you for the reply!

      Yes, classification doesn't look as an easy issue ))

      And could you say, please if it possible to create material with oData service API_PRODUCT_SRV with "one shot" - Basic Data views, Sales views, Accounting views etc.?

      Sorry, maybe it's obvious, but I am quite new in this.

       

      At the moment I can create those views only step-by-step running the separate payloads:

      1st run - Basic Data

      2nd run - Sales views etc.

       

      How the payload file should looks like?

       

      Thanks!

      Dmitry.

      Author's profile photo Pascal Willemsen
      Pascal Willemsen

      Did you look at the API specification? It contains an example with a deep entity POST. This works fine in our system.

      https://api.sap.com/api/OP_API_PRODUCT_SRV_0001/resource

       

      Author's profile photo Andres Gabriel Perez
      Andres Gabriel Perez

      Hi Enda,

      when I upload the file, the following message appears: "No process template for goal Basic Mass Update and OTC 194 does exist".

      I don't have any idea what that means...

       

      Thanks,

       

      Andrés.

      Author's profile photo Christian Neumann
      Christian Neumann

      Hello Andrés,

       

      Did you find a solution for the error "No process template for goal Basic Mass Update and OTC 194 does exist"?

       

      Thanks in advance.

       

      Best regards

       

      Christian

      Author's profile photo VEERA VENKATA PAVAN KUMAR ADAPA
      VEERA VENKATA PAVAN KUMAR ADAPA

      Hello Neumann,

      I got the same error. any solution?

       

      Regards

      Pavan