Exchange Object Linkage - How does it work?

[Former Member]

Hi,

I have a question regarding the following Standard Work Manager Delta Update behavior:

• A Work Order in the Work Manager is updated, when the description of the Work Order has been changed in SAP.
• However, a Work Order is not updated, when the description of the Functional Location of the Work Order has been changed in SAP.

I did some reading and I found something called "Exchange Object Linkage Settings" that sounds like it should be used for the use case above. The problem is, that it does not seem to work as I would expect.

Here is some description from the smp_agentry_sap_framework.pdf, page 78:

Exchange Object - Linkage Settings The Linkage Settings tab allows the exchange objects that are linked together to communicate with each other. The communication is one-directional, with the exchange object sending information to the object(s) listed in the Linked Exchange Objects List. When there is a value change to the exchange object, that value change information is passed on to the linked exchange objects. The linked exchange objects then go through additional processes related to the value change.

In the Config Panel, one can see that in the Standard Work Manager, there is a linkage between Functional Location and Workorder:

According to the above description, I would expect that, when changing the Functional Locations description, that information is passed to all Workorders with that Functional Location.

• BUT HOW? It is not entirely clear to me how and what information is passed where. I would expect, that in the end, all related entries in the workorder exchange table will be updated with a new time stamp. (How else could the client get the information that the workorder is to be updated?)
  This is not what I can see! When changing the Functional Locations description in SAP, I see that the Functional Locations exchange table entry is updated, but the corresponding Work Orders exchange table entry is not changed.

Does anybody have an idea how this feature is supposed to work? Maybe, there are some configuration steps necessary? Any input on the would be highly appreciated.

Regards, Daniel

This question came up in , I hope it will get a better visibility and hopefully some helpful answers in this seperate discussion.

[syam_yalamati · Accepted solution]

Hi Daniel,

   The high level process steps are as follows :

1. Process main exchange object, in this case Functional Location, update exchange table with time-stamp.
2. Check for linked Exchange Objects, in this case there is one object "SWM60_WORK_ORDER"
3. Process linked exchange object 'SWM60_WORK_ORDER' using Synchronous Linkage process

• Identify all the Work Orders which is associated with above Functional Location
• Process each Work order by satisfying all filters from the Work Order Exchange Object
• Update Work Order Exchange table with the proper time-stamp

Hope this will help.

Regards

Syam

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

thanks for the quick reply. From your description, this the linkage process is exactly what should be used for the "use case" I described above. I guess I have to check the code from the linkage process to better understand why I am not seeing the work order timestamps being updated.

Regards, Daniel