Variables - Sap business one

[Former Member]

Hi I have a print layout design form designed by someone else. I would like to modify it and have noticed that it uses a variable number for one of the fields. How can i tell what the variable definition is for this variable? thankyou

[zal_parchem2 · Accepted solution]

Judi - a suggestion as I got burnt on this area - be VERY VERY careful when using variables in the Print Layout Designer (PLD). I walked into a customer's office and said the information she wanted could be included as part of the results with PLD by using the variables displayed in the system. A bit embarassed when the results came out funky and certainly not what she was looking for.

I did an extensive amount of research and submitted a ticket to SAP, and here is their reply (verbatim from the ticket):

"The fields in the other report that are showing results 'Text Type Field'

are harcoded or system fields and they only can be used by our

development team...

<u>Variables are generally not supported by us as they can be subject to

change in patches or upgrades. Please check Note 723783...

We do not guarentee that the displayed Variable Numbers are valid

and will print the correct information...</u>

Adding Variables can as well corrupt your Layout in General. Therefore

we do not encourage you to try to add your own Variables..."

By "displayed variable numbers", SAP Support was referring to some numbers I had copied down from the forms themselves and passed on to SAP asking why they were not as documented. But guess what - the variables did NOT print the same info in the PLD as what was displayed on the system! It turned out to be a real mess.

I am especially worried about the statement that variables can change in patches or upgrades and wonder if there will be some work to be done for when any PLD was modified?

[robert_czik · Accepted solution]

Hi Zal

I fully agree with your findings but my question to SAP is why do they have so many reports where user entered variables (eg date ranges etc) are not placed on the reports or on the screen. I would say that about 50% of the reports have such data missing.

So I wonder why SAP cannot complete these reports properly so we do not have to manually write the relevant variables on the report?

Robert

[former_member204969]

The documentation for 2007A contains a PDF and an XLS file describing the use of PLD variables. It is probably usable with earlier versions too.

[former_member583013]

You can preview the document with data and you should be able to See what data is being passed on to that Variable.

[Former Member]

Hi thanks for this info, i do use the view - system information on the layout but that gives me the form and item information, however that does not give me anything i can understand.

[former_member583013]

The System variable cannot be accessed by Tools > System Information. This is only applicable for Form fields.

The system variables are report variable which are part of the report template definition and I am not sure if there exist a way to find out what table column the variable is referring to?

What are really actually trying to get through this report, I might probably have a different suggestion for it.

I did notice a similar question from you in the Forum earlier (Posted: Sep 12, 2007 9:33 PM) and got some answers from William. PLease check them again if required.

Suda