MDA Workbench enables downloading tables of data from SAP tables.  

Features

• Transfer a list of selected fields and database tables (maintained as a mapping project) from an SAP System to:
• the active Local System Database (for use with Validation).
• a SQL Server database (connection maintained using Maintain Database Connections)

• This feature can support transfer of data from SAP clustered tables (e.g. BSEG for accounting, or KONV for conditions).

• text files in tab-delimited format

• Transfer Data from SAP operates as a background process, leaving the user interface available for other tasks while data transfer progresses.
• A progress bar in the center of the application Status indication displays progress.
• Clicking SAP to DB, SAP to SQL, or SAP to Text will initiate a background process.  

• Transfer Data from SAP can be canceled.
• While a background process is in progress, clicking SAP to DB, SAP to SQL, or SAP to Text will cancel the background process.

Options

To manage option settings, choose File and then Options from the main menu ribbon.

Options > Transfer From SAP > Prefix Table Names

Data is transferred from SAP tables, either to files or tables in the active Local System Database.  This option controls the file or table names that will be used.

TRUE = The file name or the table name in the Local System Database is prefixed with the source SYSTEM and CLIENT.  For example, if LFA1 is extracted from ECD-300, then the table name in the active Local System Database will be ECD300_LFA1.  The file name would be ECD300_LFA1.TXT.  

Compare Data from SAP functionality expects Local System Database table names to be prefixed with SYSTEM and CLIENT, and thus requires data to be transferred with this option set to TRUE.

FALSE = The table name in the Local System Database is the same as the source.  For example, if LFA1 is extracted from ECD-300, then the table name in the Local System Database will be LFA1.  The file name would be LFA1.TXT

Validation Engine functionality expects Local System Database table names to not be prefixed with SYSTEM and CLIENT, and thus requires data to be transferred with this option set to FALSE.  

Options > Transfer From SAP > Field Delimiter

During data transfer, this character is used to delimit fields. Tab is the default, but may be a problem when transferring data that contains Tab characters.  In that case, Fixed Length is the better option.

Options > Transfer From SAP > Prefix Table Names (Fixed Value)

Prefix table names with a fixed value. Example: KNA1 becomes TEST_KNA1 if this value is set to TEST. If option for Prefix Table Names = True then this value is prefixed in addition.

Options > Transfer From SAP > Prompt for SAP System

TRUE =  The application prompts for the SAP Logon for each transfer of data.

FALSE = After the first prompt, the same SAP Logon is used.

Options > Transfer From SAP > SQL Database Schema

When using the Transfer Data from SAP to SQL Server function, this is the schema that will be used for the SQL Server database.

Options > Transfer From SAP > Transfer Row Limit

You may wish to limit the number of rows transferred from an SAP system.  Also, MDA Workbench uses standard RFC-enabled function modules and is unable to determine the row count for very large tables.  For example, DD02L has more than 7,000,000 rows, but the application cannot determine the row count as a first step in processing.  This setting limits the number of rows that will be transferred for a table.  This setting is also used as a limit when the row count cannot be determined, as with very large tables.

A value of 3000000 is the default.

Options > Transfer From SAP > Transfer Using Data Services Functions

TRUE =  use function module /BODS/RFC_READ_TABLE to transfer data. The sum of the width of all columns to be downloaded is limited to 2048 bytes.  This function module from Data Services may not be available in all SAP systems.

FALSE = use SAP function module RFC_READ_TABLE to transfer data.   The sum of the width of all columns to be downloaded is limited to 512 bytes.

Note that function module /BODS/RFC_READ_TABLE may not be available in your SAP system.

Note that security authorizations must specifically be granted to use /BODS/RFC_READ_TABLE.

Options > Transfer From SAP > Working Folder

During transfer of data from SAP, files are first written to the folder chosen in this option.

If the process Transfer Data from SAP to Local System Database is used the the files are automatically deleted after transfer.

If the process Transfer Data from SAP to SQL Server Database is used the the files are automatically deleted after transfer.

If the process Transfer Data from SAP to Text Files is used then the files will remain in this folder when the process is completed.

Existing files are overwritten each time the process is executed.

Options > Transfer From SAP > Working Folder - Delete Temp Files

During data transfer, temporary data files are written. If this option is TRUE then the files are deleted at the end of the transfer process.

Transfer With Filter

There is the possibility to filter the records that will be transferred from an SAP system. When transferring data from an SAP system-client it's not always desirable to transfer all rows of data.

• To support this functionality, two fields have been added to the Segment object.  Both fields are maintained via the full edit screen for a Segment (access this by double-clicking the row selector for a Segment).  The two new fields are named:
• Filter Field
• Filter TBALE-FIELD

• The field named "Filter Field" can be used to:
• maintain a simple where clause for the transfer of data.
• point to a field that will be filtered based on a list of values in local system database database.

• Filter TBALE-FIELD can be used to:
• specify a table and field in the local system database database that will produce a list of values.

• Example Transfer Filter Scenario 1 - Filter records based on a fixed value.
• This scenario is useful for transfer of Text Tables when you may wish to only transfer the English text.
• For example, consider text table T134T that includes Article Type Descriptions in several languages, with the language designated by column SPRAS.
• To transfer only the English texts, enter full edit mode for segment T134T and maintain Filter Field with:  SPRAS = 'E'

• Example Transfer Filter Scenario 2 - Filter records based on a list of values in the local system database database.
• This scenario is useful for transfer of data based on records from a previously transferred table.  For example, Business Address Services base table ADRC is typically very large and therefore time consuming to download.
• For example, consider table KNA1 that includes all Customer Master records, and consider table ADRC which is the base table for all Business Address Services records and may contain a very large number of records. Let's say you want to transfer data for all Customers, or a subset of Customers, and also want to transfer the associated ADRC records.  In other words, you only want to transfer the ADRC records that are relevant to the transferred KNA1 records.
• For example, to transfer only the Customers in KNA1 with a Customer Account Group (KTOKD) value of 0100, enter full edit mode for segment KNA1 and maintain Filter Field with:  KTOKD = '0100'
• For example, to transfer only the ADRC records for the Customers that transfered to KNA1 in the Local System Database, enter full edit mode for segment ADRC and
• maintain Filter Field with:  ADDRNUMBER
• maintain Filter TABLE-FIELD with:  KNA1-ADRNR
• Notice that field Filter Field contains the field in ADRC that will be filtered (ADDRNUMBER)
• Notice that field Filter TABLE-FIELD contains the hyphenated table name and field name (TABLE-FIELD) that will produce a list of values by which to filter ADDRNUMBER.
• Lastly, because the records transferred for ADRC depend on the records transferred for KNA1, it then follows that KNA1 must appear before ADRC in the sequence of project Segments (i.e. the list of tables to be transferred).

Execution Overview - Transfer Data from SAP to Local System Database

You'll primarily use the buttons on the External Data ribbon.

• Maintain SAP Connections
• Create or Choose a Local System Database.
• Create a Mapping Project with a list of SAP database tables.
• Choose File and then New Map to create an empty mapping project.
• Choose Import Segment on the External Data ribbon tab to import an SAP table definition.  For example, import LFA1.
• When the table definition is imported, the primary key fields are active by default.   Select any additional fields to be imported.
• Click the Transfer - SAP to DB button on the External Data ribbon tab.
• Click the Database Browser button to open a database browser window to view transfered data in the Local System Database.

Suppose you had a list of tables for which you wanted to extract data from ECC. You need to create a mapping project and import the table definitions one at a time into the mapping project before using Transfer Data from SAP to extract the data. But there's an easier way to create the mapping project. Here are the steps:

• Choose File and New Map to create a new and empty mapping project.
• Create a list of table names in Excel or in a text editor such as Notepad; one table name per line.
• Use Control + C to copy the list of table names to the Windows clipboard.
• With an empty mapping project, click the Tables Map button and respond to the prompt. If you click Yes then the unique list of table definitions from the Windows Clipboard will be imported into the empty mapping project.

Execution Overview - Transfer Data from SAP to SQL Server Database

It's the same process as above, but instead of the data being transferred to the active Local System Database the data is transferred to an external SQL Server.

• Maintain SAP Connections
• Maintain Database Connections
• Create a connection to a SQL Server database. For execution of this process, you'll require SQL Server authorization sufficient to drop and creates table.
• Create a Mapping Project with a list of SAP database tables.
• Choose File and then New Map to create an empty mapping project.
• Choose Import Segment on the External Data ribbon tab to import an SAP table definition.  For example, import LFA1.
• When the table definition is imported, the primary key fields are active by default.   Select any additional fields to be imported.
• Click the Transfer - SAP to SQL button on the External Data ribbon tab.
• Click the Database Browser button to open a database browser window to view transfered data in the SQL Server database.

  Execution Overview - Transfer Data from SAP to Text Files

It's the same process as above, but instead of the data being transferred to the active Local System Database the data is transferred to tab-delimited text files.

You'll primarily use the buttons on the External Data ribbon.

• Maintain SAP Connections
• Create a Mapping Project with a list of SAP database tables.
• Choose File and then New Map to create an empty mapping project.
• Choose Import Segment on the External Data ribbon tab to import an SAP table definition.  For example, import LFA1.
• When the table definition is imported, the primary key fields are active by default.   Select any additional fields to be imported.
• Click the Transfer - SAP to TXT button on the External Data ribbon tab.
• The transfer process will save the TXT data files in the folder chosen in Options > Transfer From SAP > Working Folder.