DRAD-LONGTEXT_ID not unique, long texts & classification not unique for doc-object links

[tomas_talpa]

Hello colleagues,

we have run into quite confusing issue with Document Object Link assignment and GUID/LongText_ID generation.

Technical background (stating obvious, just to be clear):

• the DMS to object link is stored table DRAD "Document-Object Link", with key fields of Document and Object itself;
• then there is a field LONGTEXT_ID "DMS: GUID for allocation"; this field is than used for:
  • identification of Long Text of Doc-Obj link;
  • assignment/classification with class 048 "Object links";

The issue itself:

• each time when you create new Document-Object link (in our case you assign the DMS inforec to Purchase Order item done in ME2xN), the GUID is generated as unique for this link, i.e. combination of PO item and DMS document;
• however, if you just copy the existing object (in our case copy the PO into new one, or copy the item within PO), the GUID is copied from the original object, and therefor is not unique anymore;
• as a result, it you change either classification or long text for the new object, it applies also to old object, and vice versa;
• and it's next to impossible for the user to know that he/she is maintaining "non unique" text/classification, since only the GUID (not human readable) is displayed on the classification screen, and not even that on the long text maintenance screen;
• in other words, the classification and long text maintenance for DRAD is not unique per DRAD record, but for the DRAD-GUID field, which itself is not unique per DRAD record;

It is hard to belive that this is intended functionality of DRAD long text/classification functionality. Have you ever met this issue? SAP Notes, SDN and St.Google seem to be quite in this regard...

Is there any way how to force the DRAD-LONGTEXT_ID to be really unique?

Any insight will be highly appreciated.

Kind Regards

TomT

PS: We are on SAP_ABA version 700 patch level 0025; we've checked a number of notes, especially the 1003806 - 048 DRAD, key not processed correctly and Note 943560 - FAQ: Frequent problems in the classification system III (point 3) looked promising, but are at then end are not applicable to us.

UPDATE: I just realized that I should test it with other object as well: it is working correctly/as expected for Material Master; error is probably application specific; let's see what the OSS will tell us. Keeping question open so I can update it with result later.

[tomas_talpa · Accepted solution]

Update from OP, for whomever will stumble upon this post:

After some communication with OSS service, the SAP released a note 1772495 - DVS: LONGTEXT_ID might be duplicated correcting this error.

TomT

PS: we feel almost like celebrities now; a note issued just for our problem...

Update #02: It's a bit annoying, but with this Note the whole functionality of "copy the classification along the item" is removed. So the SAP solution to prevend duplication coming from copy function is to disable the copy at all... *sigh*