Archive for the ‘Debugging’ Category:

Validating Passwords on Websites

July 19th, 2010 View Comments Posted in BASIS, Debugging, Monitoring

I feel a bit ordinary writing a blog post about something as trivial as one line of javascript, so I decided to include a picture as well.

Those look like passwords... They ARE passwords....

It shows a screen from the guided procedure for Solution Manager Configuration.  The interesting part is what I have done wrong.  I’m using the javascript referred to by this link ( Show Passwords ) to display the value(s) of all password fields on the current web page.

In this case, the Administrative User values are the same, but the Administrative Password fields are different.  Since they are using the same User Source (the ABAP engine), one of the values (or both !!) must be incorrect.

Save the javascript by dragging the Show Passwords link to your bookmarks, or by saving the link to your bookmarks.  This has been tested in IE6 thru IE8 and in Firefox.


ERPtips Express free articles, April 2010

April 6th, 2010 View Comments Posted in Debugging, SAP-related sites

Every two months ERPtips Express publish a set of three of their articles as a sample of whats available under their subscription model.

This months edition includes three detailed articles.

 

BI: Getting Optimum Performance from Your SAP BI/BW Environment, by Arthur Pesa.

This article acquaints you with the different dependencies found in the BI/BW environment that can impact your system’s performance, and how to properly assess them.

Data Archiving: Archiving SAP Sales Documents, Part I: Analysis, by Breck Whitten.

There are many loopholes that can leave old data unarchived, without your realizing it. This article covers some of them, which may lead you to revisit your Sales Document archiving strategy.

ABAP: Flexible Programming Continued: Using Field Symbols and References, by Rehan Zaidi.

This article delves into how to combine field symbols and data references using a dynamic programming technique. This is quite usefull knowledge for debugging as its quite widely used in the standard SAP programs.

 

These articles are available free of charge, but get replaced by new free content every two months, again fee of charge, at http://www.ERPtips.com/Express.asp.


Finding what tables and fields lie behind an SAP transaction

January 7th, 2010 View Comments Posted in BASIS, Configuration, Debugging

A standard BASIS problem is the generic “what is it doing and why ?” question. This could be in the context of debugging a program or process, or trying to work out what configuration changes are required to make something work. It generally occurs when the development or functional team have moved on, leaving someone who knows what to do but not why – usually a user (under pressure from their boss) who just wants to get the system doing what they’ve been told it should be doing….

However, your BASIS team (or person) has to be a jack of all trades, with not just a smattering of SAP functional knowledge, but also a working knowledge of Networking, Desktop PCs, the Operating System(s) and Databases(s) their SAP systems are running on and so on.

I’ve found that the best way of dealing with this need to know something about everything is not by trying to know everything, but by knowing how to find out everything. An example of this is comes from Jerome Mungapen’s SAPLOG, where he provides a useful reminder of some of the various ways of finding what tables and fields lie behind an SAP transaction:

Have you ever been frustrated trying to find which table and field a piece of data is stored in. You can see it on the screen, and the old faithful F1 – F9 results in some useless structure information. Or have you ever started looking at a piece of functionality you are unfamiliar with wanting to find the table structures behind it in SAP. Well this article shows my favorite five ways of digging under the hood to find out what’s going on.

Jerome lists five methods, but one of them assumes you have the time (and need) to get really in depth knowledge of a given area of SAP. I’ve listed the four methods I use (plus Jerome’s extra one) in the order I’ use them when closely examining or debugging a transaction I’m unfamiliar with.

Use a Different Field

If the technical information pop up shows a structure and not a real field, just try another field on the same area of the screen. It is surprising how often this works !!

Use Where Used on the Data Element

From the technical information pop up, select the data element then press Navigate to get to the Data Dictionary. Once there, press the Where Used button.

Trace Analysis

Transactions SE30 Runtime Analysis and ST05 SQL Trace can be over-kill for determining what fields and tables are being used, but can be used to see how (for example) configuration data controls how and / or when the fields and tables are updated. It’s also useful when dealing with Z or Y code, structures and tables.

SE80 Object Navigator

This is probably more useful for a functional person, and is not available on the older SAP releases anyway. However, if you know the program behind the transaction, you can use SE80 to find all the Data Dictionary objects (including tables and fields) associated with that program.

Environmental Analysis

For those requiring a wider understanding of how a given area works in the SAP system. Jerome’s explanation of Environmental Analysis says it all.