Christopher
Stoll

Using Classification with SmartForms

Sometimes it is nice to make a SmartForm more dynamic, especially since they can be a pain to maintain for complicated labels. In cases like this my colleagues in Germany have developed this method to apply SAP classification to SmartForms.

The first step is to create the desired characteristics. Follow these steps for each characteristic that is required.
  • CT04 "Characteristics Management"
  • Create a new characteristic (ZLE_MYLABEL_FIELD1)
  • Basic Data: Data Type (Character Format), No. of chars (1)
  • Descriptions: EN (My field), DE (Meine feld)
  • Values: Char Value (1, 2, 3, …) Description (This is my field) 
  • Restrictions: Class type ZLW
  • Save
Continued after the break...

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Early Russia in 1,500 Words

The establishment of Rus was a complicated affair, whose exact origins are still not entirely clear. According to the “Primary Chronicle” a Varangian, or Scandinavian Viking, name Rurik established Novgorod at the behest of the indigenous Slavs who could not rule themselves. Rurik’s successor, Oleg, took control of portions of the Dnieper River and eventually moved the capitol to Kiev in 882 CE. Oleg unified numerous Slavic tribes, and is considered to be the first ruler of Kievan Rus.

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The Westernization of Turkey

Modern day Turkey is located in an area that was the heart of the Ottoman Empire; one of the largest Islamic empires in history. Yet today, Turkey is one of the most western style Islamic nations, and is even a candidate for entrance into the European Union. Though it's history is relatively short, the series of events that led up to the Republic of Turkey's westernized state is quite complicated. Through that history, Turkey has been able to balance the demands of maintaining a republic with Islamic traditions.

It would seem as if modern situations in the Middle East mirror aspects of Turkey's history. And, these recent events in world history may tempt Americans to believe that this transformation must have been induced by some sort of allied nation-building efforts after the world wars.1 Though the United States' history influenced the transformation, it was then promulgated by the Turks.

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SAP KS13 Tip

There are times when I need to export cost center (work center) information from SAP, and to do so I use transaction KS13 (Display Cost Centers). I have made a selection variant to make the process easier for myself. Once the results are displayed it is easy to click the spreadsheet button and then download the data into Excel.

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Domain Restricted Social Networking

Recently the company I work for decided to block LinkedIn, a business-oriented social networking website that has been available for a while now. Presumably they did this in response to the new add-in for Microsoft Outlook that allows for integration with LinkedIn. After questioning the Internet blocking policies with the gatekeepers in Germany a few times, I have given up on trying to understand them. The usual response is that it must be blocked for a reason, though no one knows who makes those decisions or why. Our policies sometimes appear to be based upon avoidance of new technologies rather than exploitation of them.

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The CSS Hunley

On a cool February night in 1864 naval warfare was shaped by an act, that in the context of the ongoing Civil War, was generally insignificant. The Confederate States’ Submarine (CSS) Hunley plunged a torpedo into the hull of the United States’ Ship (USS) Houstonic, becoming the first submersible vessel to successfully sink an enemy ship in combat. Though it did little to help the Confederacy’s cause, it was a major step for marine warfare. The South, which was sometimes perceived as being technologically inept, created the first successful submarine; a very important nautical accomplishment.

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Example SAP ABAP Class

This is just a quick reference on how to write a class definition, implementation, and object instantiation in SAP ABAP. In order to use ABAP objects you must have ECC 6 or greater, I think.

CLASS lc_name DEFINITION.
  PUBLIC SECTION.
    METHODS do_something
      IMPORTING pv_something
      EXPORTING pv_another.
ENDLCASS.

CLASS lc_name IMPLEMENTATION.
  METHOD do_something.
    ... do your things here ...
  ENDMETHOD.
ENDCLASS.

DATA lo_name TYPE REF TO lc_name.
CREATE OBJECT lo_name
lo_name->do_something(
  EXPORTING pv_something = lv_something
  CHANGING pv_another = lv_another).

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Calories in Christmas Ale for 2009

The answer is, to the best of my knowledge, 313.25!

I think that from year to year the formulation of Christmas Ale can vary slightly depending upon the availability and cost of the ingredients they use. I have noticed that the article that I wrote last year about the number of calories in Christmas Ale is starting to become popular again, so I decided to revisit my calculations and update them for this years formulation.

The number that I came up with this year is significantly higher than it was last year. I would expect an increase, since the alcohol content is up (from 6% to 7.5%), but this seems a little high (the alcohol content is up by 25%, but the calories from my calculation is up by 30%). If you are counting your calories, but don't want to limit your Christmas Ale intake by too much, then maybe you should just average this years number with last years. I mean, it's Christmas Ale, it's worth it.

Alcohol(by weight) = 76.08(OG-FG) / (1.775-OG)
7.5 = 76.08(x-1.022) / (1.775-x)
7.5 X 1.775 - 7.5x = 76.08x - 76.08 X 1.022
13.3125 + (76.08 X 1.022) = 76.08x + 7.5x
91.1 = 83.58x
x = 1.090 (in 2008 it was 1.070)

Now, we can calculate the calories:

C = 851(1.090-1)(1.090+3)
C = 313.25 (in 2008 it was 242.45)

As always, if anyone sees a error in the calculations (or if a GLBC Brewmaster would like to correct me), please feel free to post a comment or otherwise contact me.

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