I recently ran into a minor little glitch when I needed to ALE Classes with change numbers. It’s interesting, because the header of the class behaves differently than you would expect. For example, if you pull up any class type 200 or 300, there is a valid from date that is automatically defaulted as today’s date. Now, normally, this makes no difference. However, when you’re in the midst of transferring models to a new system that is under engineering change management, you could begin using a change number with a date that is effective BEFORE the valid from date of the class.
So, here’s what happens. Your class has a valid from date of today. Your ECM has a valid date of yesterday. When you transfer the classes with ALE, it will move the general tab (description, valid from date, etc.) and it will NOT be under engineering change management. Now, the ALE will fail at the characteristics because those are under engineering change management AND the class valid from date is set in the future of the ECM date… follow me so far???
Well, after all of this, there is a simple fix. In your target/source system, simply change the valid from date of the class you are having issues with. Remember, to make this change, you don’t need a change number. You can simply change the date, and reprocess your IDOC’s. Problem solved.
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike