ST12 - storing additional information and managing...

former_member192616 · ‎10-30-2009

ST12 - storing additional Information and manage the traces

In other blogs it was mentioned that ST12 only stores the ABAP trace in the database. While this is true there is an option which allows you to store additional information e.g. the summary of a SQL trace and additional information manually together with the trace. This blog shows this option together with some hints on how to manage the collected traces.

Before you start:

Please read the "Before you start" section in this blog first:

Single Transaction Analysis (ST12) – getting started

The Annotation Window:

After an ABAP trace has been imported into the database by ST12 you can add annotations to the trace. This is done by clicking on the annotation button (nr. 1 in figure 1).

Figure 1: Annotations

Note: In older versions of ST12 the annotation window may appear BEHIND your SAP GUI window but you will see the window as a separate window in your taskbar or if you minimize the current SAP GUI window.

In the appearing pop up you can add some notes to the trace. It can be very useful to add the SQL trace summary as text to this note. By doing so you can at least store SQL trace summary data like "executions", "execution times" or "identical %" together with your ABAP trace. This can be very helpful if you would like to compare these figures after you have optimized a program since the old SQL trace might be overwritten then. Together with the SQL trace summary you might want to save things like the used variant or processed data volume for the traced execution.

By clicking on the save button in the popup window (nr. 2 in figure 1) the notes are stored together with your trace.

In the main screen in ST12 at the bottom you can see all stored traces of ST12. If you scroll to the right you can see a column which indicates if there is a separate note stored together with the trace (nr. 3 in figure 2) . By clicking on the annotation button (nr1 in figure 1) you can open the annotation in display mode again. There is a change button next to the save button in the annotation window (see figure 1) if you would like to make changes to the note.

Managing the traces:

Since ST12 never deletes traces automatically you may wonder how you could get rid of old traces.

Getting an overview of available traces:

There is a list button (nr. 3 in figure 2) which shows you all traces in a full screen list. This list offers a better overview on the available traces.

Deleting a single trace:

If you mark one trace in ST12 in the main screen you can see some details of the trace in the left part of the screen (nr. 4 in figure 2). Next to the details there is a delete button which deletes the marked trace.

Deleting multiple traces:

In the menu path Utilities - Delete old trace analysis (nr. 5 in figure 2) you can perform a mass delete. All traces up to a specific date can be deleted in one go. New versions of ST12 offer a multiple select in the ALV grid in the list (nr. 3 in figure 2) as well.