As an ABAP Consultant, one thing that you hear and discover from Day 1 is that it is always good to use standard objects. But, there are a lot of times that we feel that the standard does not suit our requirements.
Consider a scenario for a Smartform for an SO Output. We may need to access just say 10 fields of VBAP table, but due to the restriction of smartforms that the srtucutres or tables should be DDIC structures, we either end up using the entire structure of VBAP or create a Z structure. This may not only impede the performance of the program but may also lead to compatibility issues in the future.
Here is where SAP helps us out with the Repository Information System (Transaction SE84). SE84 is a powerful transaction to display data dictionary objects and development properties.
In this blog, I will outline a few uses that I have encountered with SE84 which has helped me to greatly reduce my development times and to use standard objects as opposed to Z objects
1. Structures
Structures are one of the most used objects in SAP. Everything from passing data through interfaces to the creation of internal tables can use structures. So I believe this to be a very important point where we can, or I would say, must use standard objects to the extent possible.
To find a structure meeting your requirements using SE84,
Let’s consider a scenario where you need the data elements VBELN and EBELN together in one structure.
Just go to SE84 and enter the fields as below in the selection screen.
On execution, the transaction returns us with all the structures that meet our requirements.
Similarly, we can also find out other DDIC structures like Tables, Table Types, Views Domain etc.
This tool is especially useful in finding standard data elements meeting our requirements when we need to create Z tables or structures.
For example, if we need to find a data element of type CURR length 13.
2. Message Class
As it is said regarding any application, it should be highly interactive. This interaction relies largely on the messages that we display on the screen.
Most of the times, we either just hard code the message in the program or we create a new message class to suit our needs.
Using this transaction, we can find out the existing messages to suit our needs.
For Example, if we need to find a message to show something like “Material Not Found”,
Just enter something like below in the selection screen.
The transaction will then return all the applicable messages to suit our needs.
3. GET / SET Parameters
Many a times a requirement arises where we need to use the parameter ids of variables, or we need to know all the relevant parameter ids for a particular type of field, say “Customer”
At such times, we can take help of this tool to get a list of all the parameters that we can use to get the relevant parameter IDs.
For getting all the relevant parameter IDs, we can enter the required search term in the selection screen as below.
On execution, we will get a list of all the relevant parameter IDs that we can use.
An important advantage of the transaction SE84 is that as the screen is consolidated with all the objects that we can possibly use, it becomes a one stop shop for all our standard needs.
I would not recommend using this T code for finding out enhancement spots. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great utility. But as far as enhancement is concerned, it is my experience to always find the best enhancement spots in debug mode or through code walkthroughs. This not only helps you understand the flow and decide on the best enhancement spots, but will also help you make sure that the changes you make are as desired and does not get changed again by the SAP Standard process flow.
Hope this short tip helps you in your future assignments.
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