LSMW is a very powerful and easy-to-use tool for data transfer, for which lots of materials are available on SCN and SAP marketplace:
http://service.sap.com/lsmw
http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-26158
http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-4092
Unfortunately most of the projects I've been involved in use it for initial data migration only.
However LSMW comes with a program to transfer data to the SAP system periodically. So why do we always develop custom programs when it comes to periodic interfaces? Is it really because each interface has its own very specific needs?
No.
I'm convinced the reason for it can be found in those 5 major missing features regarding periodic data transfer:
- LSMW doesn't support logical files (for legacy data).
- When dealing with interfaces it is a common practice to transfer files from initial repositories to archive/error repositories. Surprisingly LSMW doesn't provide any option to move the import file.
- Within "Field mapping step", LSMW editor to add abap rules is anything but user-friendly.
- During "Convert data" step, and unless you code it yourself in "processing times" :
- LSMW doesn't add skipped records to an error file for later re-processing
- LSMW doesn't offer the possibility to log every message into SLG1
LSMW version 4.0 was delivered in 2004.
What if SAP now released an upgraded version 5.0 to address those pain points ?
:smile:
PS: I wish I could submit an idea on https://cw.sdn.sap.com/cw/community/ideas but no session is open for data migration at the moment.
