Notification activity LT indicator not set due to irregular parallel processing

[reginaldinho]

Hello Community,

I have a very strange case happening with activity long texts in PM notifications. Please find below the scenario:

1. User calls IW42 from a custom built transaction and the order number is filled in the screen and all of the operations listed;
2. User populates all of the confirmations for all operations in IW42;
3. We have the requirement that activities must be populated with the start date/time and end date/time populated;
4. For each activity the user can populate a long text and when they do, in IW42, the image of the long text that has been created is shown;
5. The user will then perform the technical completion from the confirmation and subsequently save in the same session/transaction.

99.9% of the time, the activity long text is saved correctly in the notification and the icon shows correctly in IW23. In 0.1% of cases the activity long text is saved and what happens here is very strange, the icon is not shown in IW23. I realise that the INDXT not being updated has already been looked at in the post https://archive.sap.com/discussions/thread/1933660, however, here the problem is different:

• The notification is saved and the activity with the short text is created in QMMA;
• The activity long text header is created in STXH and long text is available in the cluster table;
• The long text indicator is not populated in the notification in IW23;
• When in IW22, clicking on the activity long text create Icon, the long text appears.

When checking STXH, it is possible to see that the user has created two or more records on STXH at exactly the same time (HH:MM:SS) as completely different notifications processed earlier during the users working time. We have checked with users regarding use of two or more parallel sessions and pressing save quickly, but this is not the case. Each time they have stated they are only inputting in one session.

Our current gut feeling is that the two or more previous texts are hanging and have not been committed to the database although all other attributes were saved at the correct time (or a couple of minutes earlier)

Has anyone else faced this? Does anyone have a potential solution?

[reginaldinho · Accepted solution]

Hello All.

We have finally managed to reproduce the issue using dynamic lock points in our live system and speaking with the end users. Please see below for your information should this happen to you.

Steps to recreate the IW42 issue from IW38

• 1.Start IW38 with your chosen selection variant
• 2.In the alv select the line of an order and go to the menu Order -> Confirmation -> Overall completion confirmation. This will lead to transaction IW42.
• 3.In our IW42 screen we have the time confirmation box, Items, Activities and Malfunctions. Fill in activity text ‘activity1’ (we do not have a catalogue for activities as this is a free text), start date, end date, start time, end time (times cannot be 00:00:00)

• 4.Press on the long text button
• 5.Enter some long text in the Long Text editor

• 6.Go back to IW42 main screen by clicking on the back button
• 7.Now click on the cancel button (F12) and reply ‘NO’ in the popup about saving the data
• 8.In the ALV , select the same order and go to the menu Order -> Confirmation -> Overall completion confirmation. This will lead to transaction IW42.
• 9.Press on the long text of the activity, even without having put an activity in.
• 10.You will now see the long text of the previous step. Don’t change anything and just go back using the back button.
• 11.Note the icon remains black and the little lines have not been put in to state that a long text has been created. So apparently, no long text is considered.
• 12.Click on ‘save’
• 13.Now select a different order in the ALV and go through the same confirmation process as above.
• 14.Fill in activity text ‘activity2’, start date, end date, start time, end time (times cannot be 00:00:00)
• 15.Press on the long text button
• 16.Enter some long text in the LT editor and press the back button

Save the data and go back in IW38.

When you check the tables and the dates, you see the missing indtx indicator and the date/time of creation of the 2 long texts is the same in table STXH.

I have the impression sap needs somewhere an additional free memory ID as is done in FM TEXT_MAINTENANCE_INITIALIZE (TEXT_MAINTENANCE_INITIALIZE)

FREE MEMORY ID 'SAPLSTXD'.

FREE MEMORY ID 'ITX1'.

[peter_atkin]

Hi Peter,

I havent seen this particular error before.

Does it occur if you use IW42 without your custom built transaction?

Open an OSS Message to SAP to see what they recommend, although probably ask you how to reproduce the issue.

PeteA

[peter_atkin]

Peter,

Ask your developers if its possible to trap the error programatically, then dump an anaysis file on to server for review.

PeteA

[reginaldinho]

Hi Pete,

Thank you for replying. We have extreme difficulty in reproducing this, using IW42 or doing the call from our custom built. In fact, in 8 days of trying, we have managed to reproduce it once (with breakpoints everywhere imaginable).

Also, the custom built transaction does a call transaction to IW42 and populates just with the order number and simulates the enter so the operations are shown.

When saving the confirmations, there are various validations performed in user exits, however, we have not found that these have an impact at all. In short, no smoking gun.

The options that we have looked at are:

• Is STXH locked by another development performing processing at the same time in or a batch job? So far found nothing to suggest this;
• Are there any dumps happening at the same time as the text is committed for the first notification? Again, nothing at any of the times around this;
• We have checked if anything has been transported at those times. A resounding no.

I have one case a day in Production and always at different times during the day.

An odd one indeed.

When we find the cause and the solution I will update the post.

Thanks

Peter

[reginaldinho]

Hi Nic,

Thanks for replying. We already update the long text indicators ourselves, so this is what makes this a strange case.

Thanks

Peter

[NTeunckens]

There are known issues upon the use of "SAVE_TEXT" FunctionModule, as this add the LongText, but does not Set the LT-indicator itself ...
(Our Custom Logic underwent a similar issue, but for us the Update LT-Indicator on Confirmation did not execute.)

See SAP-KBA 1982719 "Long texts cannot be displayed - Usage of function module SAVE_TEXT" : link

Extract :

"Long text indicators must be updated.
Every object is using its own field

• Orders : field AUFK-LTEXT
• Operations : field AFVC-TXTSP
• Confirmations : field AFRU-TXTSP
• Notifications : field QMEL-INDTX
• Notifications tasks : field QMFE-INDTX
• Maintenance plan: MPLA-LTKNZ
• Maintenance item : MPOS-LTKNZ
• Equipment : EQKT-KZLTX
• Functional locations : IFLO-KZLTX
• Task list : PLKO-TXTSP
• Operation task lists : PLPO-TXTSP

Where possible you should use the corresponding application BAPIs instead of function SAVE_TEXT (for example BAPI_ALM_ORDER_MAINTAIN with import parameter IT_TEXT for order long texts). If there are no BAPIs available and you are using function SAVE_TEXT, you need to update the long text indicators by a program of your own."

So I would reference this SAP-KBA upon contacting SAP Support. As far as I know, SAP actually advised you to Update the LT-indicator yourself ...