Introduction

This topic discusses searching SAP for Functional Locations or Equipment when online and, where required, retrieving the found asset record to your BlueWorx application.

Business and SAP Context

Organisations often have extensive asset records in their SAP system. It's not practical nor optimal to take all these records to the BlueWorx application. For that reason BlueWorx syncs records contained in profiles assigned to users, directly or through assignment of Work Orders. However, users can encounter situations where they view the records of assets in need of maintenance, or need information about those associated with assets they are working on. 

In addition to searching for assets (FL or Equipment) whose records are available in the application users can search for assets from SAP and retrieve their record. Such records will remain on the device and be accessible to the user until the next full sync with SAP. Having returned a record from SAP, a user can then retrieve other related records (when online) using the asset record structure and detailed historic information for assets. In this way a user can move up/ down/ across asset structures with a degree of freedom to find, retrieve and interrogate the asset records they need. 

In addition, because the retrieval can be used for records already on the device and because it retrieves the whole record, you can use this functionality to get Classification values for a record which might not be synced to the device, given that only those assets with Notifications or Orders normally have such data on the device.

Important Information

This functionality was introduced in Support Pack 10.

Authorisations

The asset data (FL and Equipment) synced to BlueWorx from SAP is controlled by the BlueWorx User Profiles assigned to a User, along with Work Order and Notification assets assigned. This asset data is largely retrieved from BlueWorx controlled SAP tables having been pre-prepared for fast retrieval by scheduled jobs and asset change events. Because of that process, when a User typical syncs with SAP, SAP authorisation controls at the asset record level are by design not invoked. When using the new online search functionality, control over the records returned is invoked in two ways:

  • Firstly users can not search in Plants not included in one of their profiles. This controls the search request and results
  • Secondly when a user elects to download a record from SAP, we invoke calling the standard SAP BAPI's for the FL or Equipment request which checks for SAP maintained authorisations for the user

Classification Data

For Users that don't have active Standard or Master data profiles that include Classification data, when they initiate the retrieval of asset data (FL and Equipment) using the Online Search or the asset record Refresh Data option, the only classification data that will be retrieved are those for Characteristics (and associated Classes) linked to Inspections for that asset.

Assets Flagged for Deletion

The search results will return Functional Locations and Equipment flagged for deletion. This is by design and allows users to retrieve records for assets that may be subject to or have already undertaken decommissioning. This same logic is applied to Work Order assets with the 'Take All Technical Objects' configuration enabled.

Contents

The search SAP function can be initiated from the following locations (when online):

Search SAP for assets using search criteria

Searching

1. Select the Reference tab.

2. Select what field you want to Search using one of the following criteria:

  • Functional Location ID
  • Equipment ID
  • Technical ID
  • Inventory Number
  • Sort Field
  • Manufactures Serial Number
  • Description and Asset Type

3. Enter the value you want to search For - this is in upper case.

4. Select a single Maintenance Plant, it's values are limited to those derived from your User profiles and is defaulted from either the source objects Maintenance Plant (i.e. if coming from a Notification or Work Order) or your SAP User Maintenance Plant PID WRK where it has been maintained.

5. Select an Object Type - this is not required but is highly recommended to reduce the scope of the search and results.

6. Select the Search Online button. Results will be limited to 1000 records and the user will be warned where SAP records exceed this limit.

Search Criteria Order and Use of Wildcards

Searching in SAP for assets, unlike searching the FL and Equip records in BlueWorx, requires that the search criteria be in order. SAP wild cards (i.e. the * value that's familiar to SAP GUI users) are applied automatically around the search criteria you enter and within any spaces. Examples:

Search SAP from BlueWorxSearch Execution in SAP
BLUE TRUCK*BLUE*TRUCK*
BLUETRUCK*BLUETRUCK*

Search Example

In the following example we have searched for '285' as part of the technical ID of Air Conditioning objects in Plant 1000. 

Note that in the results list there's a column that shows the values for your selected search criteria - in this case the Technical ID, to help you identify the right asset. 

Select and Retrieve Record from SAP

Selecting a record from the list will retrieve the entire Functional Location or Equipment record from SAP to BlueWorx where it will remain until the next full sync. You will then be navigated according to where your search request came from. For example: back to a Notification or Order if you initiated the asset search from there; or to the retrieved Functional Location or Equipment record if you initiated the search from the My Assets page.

Search SAP for assets using SAP spatial criteria

If you're using BlueWorx spatial layers then you can search for assets from within the Map. This is detailed in the following article Map Page - Display Filter Tab and is initiated using the Map tab which is visible from various Asset search helps, excluding Install Equipment.

On display of the map, navigate to the area you want to search and use the Display > Filter > Asset option to select those values you want to see and choose the Apply button:

Having reviewed the assets displayed you can select one for retrieval from SAP and to populate the field you initiated the asset search from (where appropriate):

Search SAP for assets using ESRI layer spatial criteria

If you're using ESRI spatial layers, and you have maintained a shared key in ESRI for your SAP asset records, then you can search for assets . This is detailed in the following article Map Page - Display Filter Tab and is initiated using the Map tab which is visible from various Asset search helps, excluding Install Equipment.

On display of the map, navigate to the area you want to search and use the Display > GIS Layers option to select those layers you want to see:

Having reviewed the assets displayed you can Select one:

Where properly maintained, the selected record should have a URL tag indicating a link value between the ESRI and SAP record has been configured. On selection of that field is will populate the standard SAP online Search value (as detailed in the sections above) ready for you to refine, search, select and retrieve the asset record from SAP: