Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Transport Management in Practice
In the first section of the chapter we have covered the Transport Management concepts and
the internals of the underlying transport control program. SAP has provided a more user-
friendly tool for performing transports in the system using SAP Transport Management Sys-
tem (STMS). It is recommended to use STMS for performing all transport management
activities. STMS tools will call the underlying transport control program to perform imports
into the target systems.
Development and Customizing Work
In SAP systems, a developer creates new tables and ABAP programs to meet the require-
ments of the business that the standard software does not address. The functional expert will
configure the system so that its business processes execute the business need. The changes
performed by both the developers and configurators in the development system are collected
as change requests or transport requests.
Workbench Requests
A developer creating either a new ABAP program or table triggers the capturing of this in-
formation in a change request referred to as a workbench request. Workbench requests are
generally client-independent repository creation or change activities. All workbench re-
quests can be displayed, changed, and released using transaction code SE09.
Customizing Requests
SAP provides a tree-like hierarchical structure referred to as an Implementation Guide
(IMG) to the functional experts to configure the system. Transaction code SPRO is used to
start the Implementation Guide. Tasks in the Implementation Guide, when executed, will
direct the configurators in the maintenance of the relevant configuration table. Once the
configuration table entries are maintained and saved, the system will trigger a change re-
quest referred to as a customizing request. Customizing requests can be displayed and re-
leased from transaction code SE10. Most of the customizing requests are client-dependent.
Release a Transport Request
A transport request or change request can be a workbench request or a customizing request,
and can be released in the source system. When a change request is released using transac-
tion codes SE09 and SE10, the underlying transport control program (tp) is called with the
export option and a cofile and a data file are written to the common transport directory.
STMS configuration will allow transports released from the development system to be
routed and populated in the target quality assurance system, where they are ready for import.
The next section of this chapter will cover the STMS configuration steps in detail.
