Mass Activities Support in Universal Connector

Universal Connector for Use with SAP® ERP supports the submission, starting, and monitoring of mass activities on the SAP system.

To work with mass activities on the SAP system, Universal Connector utilizes the following SAP ABAP programs:

FKJO_SCHEDULE
RFKK_MA_SCHEDULER
RFKK_MASS_ACT_PARAMETER

Mass Activities Process Flow

The basic process flow in working with mass activities is:

Create a template parameter record for the mass activity.
Copy the template parameter record and assign a Date ID and Run ID.
Schedule and start the mass activity.
Monitor the mass activity to completion.

The original template parameter records must be created on the SAP system using the dialogs for the given mass activity type. However, after a set of template parameter records have been created, Universal Connector can use the ABAP programs mentioned above to initiate and control the characteristics of mass activity work.

Initiating Mass Activities

Mass activities are initiated from Universal Connector by submitting and starting ABAP program FKJO_SCHEDULE or RFKK_MA_SCHEDULER. This can be accomplished by following the same procedure that would be used to submit and start any other ABAP program with Universal Connector.

For more information on submitting and starting jobs with Universal Connector, see the SUBMIT, START, and RUN commands.

Both FKJO_SCHEDULE and RFKK_MA_SCHEDULER can be used to initiate mass activities. Each program has a different approach (and different requirements) for preparing a mass activity on the SAP system. The decision of which one to use must be made by understanding the capabilities and requirements of each program and matching those to the requirements of the situation.

A discussion of the details of FKJO_SCHEDULE and RFKK_MA_SCHEDULER is beyond the scope of this document. For more information, please refer to the SAP documentation for these two programs.

The behavior of both FKJO_SCHEDULE and RFKK_MA_SCHEDULER are controlled by a set of parameters, called a variant, that apply to a specific ABAP program. Variants reside on the SAP system.

To achieve the desired results on a mass activity run, it may be necessary to modify the values of the variant used by the initiator program. In this case, initiating a mass activity becomes a two-step process:

Universal Connector is used to create or modify an existing variant on the SAP system.
Universal Connector is used to submit and start the initiator program that uses the variant.

For additional information on working with variants, see the SUBMIT VARIANT and MODIFY VARIANT commands.

Monitoring Mass Activities

Regardless of which program is used to initiate a mass activity, Universal Connector follows the same procedure for monitoring the process to completion. The MASS_ACTIVITY_WAIT command is used to instruct Universal Connector that it should perform this monitoring function (see the MASS_ACTIVITY_WAIT option.

Specifying the MASS_ACTIVITY_WAIT option will cause Universal Connector to monitor the status of the submitted / started job. In addition, as the jobs that make up the mass activity are created on the SAP system, Universal Connector detects them as child jobs of the initiator job and will begin to monitor their status as well. Universal Connector will continue to monitor the status of parent and child jobs until all jobs have completed.

Upon detecting the completion of a job, Universal Connector will optionally return the following information:

Job log: see RETURN_JOB_LOG option.
Application log (if one exists): see RETURN_APPLICATION_LOG option.
Application return codes (if they were set): see RETURN_APPLICATION_RC option.
Spooled output created by the job: see RETURN_SPOOL_LIST option.

In addition, Universal Connector will record the application return codes (if they are set) and merge them into its exit code mapping process that takes place upon program completion. Universal Connector will exit with the highest value used in the exit code processing.

Working with Parameter Records

With each mass activity run, there may be the need for parameter set adjustment.

In some cases, the ABAP program used to initiate the mass activity can perform the necessary parameter adjustments. When more detailed parameter adjustments are required, the ABAP program RFKK_MASS_ACT_PARAMETER can be used. In this case, Universal Connector can be used to run RFKK_MASS_ACT_PARAMETER by following the same procedures that would be used to run any other ABAP program on the SAP system.

For more information, see the SUBMIT, START, RUN, and WAIT commands.

The information that controls how RFKK_MASS_ACT_PARAMETER will adjust the mass activity parameter set is contained in a variant that resides on the SAP system. In many cases, it may be necessary to create or modify the contents of a variant with information that pertains to a specific mass activity. In this case, Universal Connector can be used to create or modify the variants as needed.

For additional information on working with variants, see the SUBMIT VARIANT and MODIFY VARIANT commands.