Creation of a View cluster

View Cluster

A view cluster is the set of objects, such as views, reports or tables, which belong to one business function. The data can be arranged either hierarchically or non-hierarchically in view cluster. A view-cluster transaction edits the complex cross-table data in a view cluster. The transaction navigation box shows the complex business object with its components or sub objects.

Example:

Let us create a View Cluster on Material Details. The view cluster would include three tables namely, MARA, MARC and MARD. We need to create maintenance views for each of these tables.

Maintenance view for Table MARA

To create maintenance view for the table MARA follow the procedure below. Go to transaction SE11. Give a view name say ZMM_V_MARA and click on ‘Create’. Give a short description, enter the table name as MARA and click on the tab View fields.

By default all the key fields would be added. We can add more fields by clicking on the button Table fields.

Now Save and activate the view.

Maintenance view for Table MARC

Follow the same procedure as above. In the Tab View fields, give ‘S’ in the column ‘P’ for the fields MANDT and MATNR as shown in the screen shot below:

This is because the fields MANDT and MATNR would be filled in the view for MARA and thus they act as subsets and appear as header data when we create entries in view cluster.

Maintenance view for Table MARD

Follow the same procedure as above. In the Tab View fields, give ‘S’ in the column ‘P’ for the fields MANDT, MATNR and WERKS as shown in the screen shot below:

This is because the fields MANDT, MATNR and WERKS would be filled in the view for MARC and thus they act as subsets and appear as header data when we create entries in view cluster.

Table Maintenance Generator for ZMM_V_MARA
Now, for each view we need to create a table maintenance generator, which has to be done as follows:

The table maintenance screen appears. Here give the details as in the screen shot below. This table maintenance is for the view ZMM_V_ MARA.

Before creating a table maintenance generator, create a function group say ZFG_MATERIAL from the transaction SE80. After the function group is successfully created, enter the function group name as shown in the screen shot. Also select Maintenance type as ‘One Step’ and give the Maintenance Screen no. as ‘1’ in the Overview screen and click on the button ‘Create’.
Similarly, create the Table maintenance Generators for the views ZMM_V_MARC and ZMM_V_MARD. The screen shots for these views would be as follows:
Table Maintenance Generators for ZMM_V_MARC and ZMM_V_MARD
 

Note that the Overview screen numbers would change for each view. It would be ‘2’ for the view ZMM_V_MARC and it would be ‘3’ for the view ZMM_V_MARD.

Creating view cluster
The pre-requisites for creating the View Cluster are now ready. Go to transaction SE54 and select the button ‘Edit View Cluster’. Enter the view cluster name as say ‘ZMM_VC_MATERIAL’ and click on ‘Create’.

An information message would pop up saying

Continue by pressing ‘Enter’. The following screen appears. Give a short description and click on ‘Object Structure’ as shown in the screen shot below:

On Clicking the ‘Object Structure’ the following screen appears. Select the ‘New Entries’ button to enter the maintenance views created to form a cluster.

Enter the values as shown below:

The entries would be entered in a hierarchical manner. The short text is the description of the view. The ‘Predecess’ column specifies the predecessor of that view. So in this case, the predecessor of ZMM_V_MARA is ZMM_V_MARA itself. The predecessor of ZMM_V_MARC is ZMM_V_MARA and the predecessor of ZMM_V_MARD is ZMM_V_MARC. The ‘DEP’ column explains whether the entry is a Header entry or a Dependent entry. It is ‘R’ for the view ZMM_V_MARA, because it is a header entry and does not depend on any other view. Whereas, it is ‘S’ for ZMM_V_MARC and ZMM_V_MARD, because ZMM_V_MARC is dependent on ZMM_V_MARA and ZMM_V_MARD is dependent on ZMM_V_MARC. The column ‘POS’ specifies the sequence of the views. In the column ‘Start’ select the radio button against the entry for ZMM_V_MARA as it comes first in the hierarchy.
After entering the above entries, press ‘Enter’. Three pop-ups for each view would appear as shown below. Proceed further by clicking on ‘Enter’ key.

Now select each line and click on ‘Field-dependence’ button. A pop-up appears saying ‘Field dependencies successfully generated’.

Generate the field dependence for the views ZMM_V_MARC and ZMM_V_MARD in the same way. Now, save the entries and go back to ‘Header Entry’ folder. Activate the view cluster. A pop-up appears as shown below. Click on ‘Yes’.

The view cluster is now created successfully.
Note:

1.       The view cluster can be created on the tables whose data has to be stored in a hierarchical manner.

2.       One has to check whether proper foreign key relationships are maintained between the tables appearing in the cluster. Sometimes while generating the Field-dependencies, errors may occur if the foreign keys are not maintained properly. 

Testing the View Cluster

From the initial screen of the transaction ‘SE54’ give the view cluster name and click on ‘Test’. 

 

Since we have created the view cluster on standard tables MARA, MARC and MARD we observe that all the existing entries would appear. The screen shot below shows all the existing entries of the table MARA. In order to see the corresponding Plant details for the material, just select an entry and double click on Plant details as shown below. 

 

The plant details would appear. In the same way for the corresponding storage location details, select an entry and double click on Storage details as shown below. 

 

In the above screen shot the material selected in the Material details view would appear as a header entry. The storage location details are as follows: 

In the above screen shot the material selected in the Material details view and the plant selected in the Plant details view would appear as header entry.