(DV-2008) ERP Report Definition

The ERP Report Test Case is a collection of Report Test Variants. After you click on Variants button a screen for Report Variants selection is displayed.

_{Creation of ERP Report Test Case}

_{ERP Test Case variant selection screen}

Here you can create a new or add an existing Report Variants into an ERP Report Test Case. All these functions are accessible from the toolbar menu.

Create New Report Variant 

Screen for creating a new Report Variant is displayed by clicking on the Create New Report Variant button (Ctrl + F3).

_{Create new Report Variant screen}

In this screen you can define:

1. RFC Destination – RFC destination that will be used for Report Variant execution.
2. Variant Description – The description of the new Report Variant.
3. Report (required) – Technical name of the report to be used for image creation.
4. Report Variant (ABAP Variant) – Variant of the specified report to be used when the report is executed. These variants can be managed in transaction SE38.
5. After Image Variant ID – ID of the Report Test Variant that is used for the after image creation. This allows you to compare the output of different Reports/Report Variants or outputs from different systems.

By clicking on Comparison settings we can define settings, that will be used at the comparison stage of the variant. If nothing is changed in comparison settings, defaults will be used. We can change the following settings:

1. Ignore Date and Time - Datavard Validate default report comparator is capable of ignoring time stamps in a number of standard formats that often cause the difference in the output of reports as they are executed at different times.
2. Compare Only Data – Datavard Validate default report comparator can ignore headers of standard reports and compare only actual table data saved in spool output of executed reports.
3. Report Comparison Type – Datavard Validate comes by default with four report comparators.
   1. Simple Report Comparator compares the output of report row by row so matching lines have to be in the same position. 
   2. Advanced Report Comparator searches for exact match of row from Before Image in After Image rows independent of the position of row.
      
   3. Report Comparator with Threshold compares each line of Before Image with each line of After Image and calculates their similarity. It evaluates if the line has a match according to the line similarity threshold with default value 1 which represents the exact match. The overall similarity of reports is calculated as the arithmetic mean of matched values.
      
   4. Python Report Comparator uses language Python on the application server layer to compare before and after image. To use this comparator there must be Python version 2.7 or higher installed on the application server and there also should be scripts loaded in the database.
      
   5. You can also select your own comparator implementation to be used. To create your own BADI comparator you need to create the implementation of Validate /DVD/EQS_BADI_REP_COMP BADI. See ERP Report - BADI comparator page for more information.
4. Use Predefined Mapping – available only with Advanced Report Comparator. Datavard Validate default report comparator can use predefined content to match some of the known differences in standard report outputs caused by different versions of the SAP system. Available only with Advanced report comparator.
5. Report Line Threshold - available only with Report Comparator with Threshold. It sets the threshold to evaluate the minimal similarity of the line from before image to any line from after image to consider it as a matched line. Valid input is float value of range from 0 to 1. The default value is 1 which means the exact match of lines.
6. Report Threshold - available only with Report Comparator with Threshold. It sets the threshold to evaluate the minimal similarity of report outputs to consider them as identical. Valid input is the float value of range from 0 to 1. The default value is 1 which means the exact match of report outputs.
7. Preset ID - available only with Python Report Comparator. When choosing Python Report Comparator as comparison type, Preset ID must be defined. More on why it is needed is described in (DV-2008) ERP Report comparison via Python - setup.

Report Test Variant is created after you click on the Continue button (Enter). 

Add Existing Report Variant 

The Add Existing Report Variant button displays all of the existing Report variants in the system and you can select one or more variants to be added into the current Test Case.

Add Report Variants of Run 

The Add Report Variants of Run button displays all of the ERP Reports that have been run in the system and you can select one of these variants to be added into the current test case.

Copy Report Variants of Run 

Copy Variants

You can create copies of Report variants by selecting multiple variants in selection table and then clicking on  Copy Report Variants toolbar button. For each selected variant new variant is created with exactly the same settings as the source variant. 

_{Copy Variants}

Generate Report Variants 

The screen for the generation of Report Variants is displayed after clicking on Generate Report Variants button (Shift+F7). 

^{Generate Report Variants screen}

In this screen you can define:

1. Description suffix – will be added to the description of generated variants, if they do not have a description specified in Reports Selection. Description of the variants is generated in the form 'Gen. Variant for $REPORT_NAME'. If the description suffix is a specified string, then '- $SUFFIX' is added to the description.
2. Reports Selection – In this table, you can specify the pairs of report names with report variant names for the Before and After Image together with their RFC Destinations. For each pair, a new Report Variant is generated. It is possible to use patterns with an asterisk sign (*) in the report name and report variant name and define more Report Variants at once. Patterns can be used only in before image report names and report variants names, after image will be created with the same names.

Report Test Variants are created after you click on the Continue button (Enter). 

Generate by standard  (by default hidden under expert setting)

The screen for the generation of Report Variants from a predefined list of standard reports is displayed after clicking on Generate by standard button.  

^{'Generate by standard' screen}

In this screen you can define:

1. Before Image RFC destination – RFC destination that will be used for Report Variant Before Image execution. Leave the field empty for execution on the current system.
2. After Image RFC destination – RFC destination that will be used for Report Variant After Image execution. Leave field empty for execution on the current system.
3. Report Variant name prefix – prefix with asterisk sign (*) or exact report variant name to be used when the report is executed. Test variants will be created for every match of Report Variants name prefix with all available Report variants of reports selected in Reports selection.
4. Reports selection – list of currently supported standard reports in various SAP modules. Select the checkbox to choose reports for the generation of test variants.

After you click on the Continue button (Enter), Report Selection is sent to the screen for generation of Report Variants, where you can check your Reports selection again. Test Variants are created after you click on the Continue button in Report Generation screen. 

Create After Images as copies

Select multiple variants and create after image variants for them. To access this functionality, in the context menu of the selected variants choose 'Create After Images as copies'. A dialog is then displayed where you can define the RFC destination that will be applied to all of the generated after image variants. All other settings are also copied from source variants.

_{Create After Image Variants as copies}

Edit Report Variant

You can edit the existing Report variants by double-clicking on them in the table view. Only Variants that are not already in use in Test Runs can be edited. If a Report Variant is already used in the Test Runs, then the details can only be reviewed, but not changed. 
When variant details are displayed, you can check where this variant is used. By pressing the Where Used  button a table is displayed that contains all Test Plan/Test Case/Run ID information where this variant is used. 

_{Where Used List for Variant}

Mass Edit Variants

You can edit more Report variants at once. Mass edit is done by selecting the required variants in the list and clicking on 'Mass Edit Variants'  button, a Dialog for mass edit of variants is then displayed. 

These are settings for comparison and variants, which are applied to every variant user selected. Changes to these values are done after clicking on 'Continue' (Enter) button. By marking the 'Edit' checkbox (on the left) only the values, which you want to be changed will be replaced in selected variants. Only variants that are not yet used in test runs can be changed by mass edit. Before the change, mass edit checks if the variant is used as before or after image in any test run. If the variant is not editable, or there is another problem, a warning/error message is displayed in the log. 

Additional options available from (DV-2008) Variant Editor:

Delete Report Variants

Deleting the existing Report Variants can be done easily by selecting the desired rows and clicking on the delete button in ALV toolbar.

Transport Report Variants

It is possible to add the specified Report Variants to a transport to be transferred to another system (with Validate installed). To specify which of the Report Variants are to be transported you need to select them from the list. There are options for filtering and sorting in the ALV table that can be used to select the specified Report Variants more easily. 

_{Selecting Report Variants to be transported}

After selecting the desired Report Variants and clicking on the  Transport Report Variants button, choose your transport request. You can select the request and confirm the transport for the selected Report Variants. 
It is important to note that the Report Variants only carry information about Validate related items, and not the transformation structures themselves so they should be imported only to the system where Validate is installed and the same reports/variants with the same structure exist.

Cleanup Report Variants

You can delete all unused Report variants by clicking on  Cleanup Report Variants button. The first screen with preselection filters of variants is displayed and you can restrict which variants should be checked for deletion. After you confirm this screen, a check is done to find all unused variants. A variant is unused if it is not assigned to any Test Case or Test Run. 

_{Report Variant Cleanup Preselection}

All variants evaluated as not used are displayed in the dialog window. When you confirm the selection in this window variants are deleted from the system.