Transaction ME21n (Will not run as a BACKGROUND SESSION)

Question

The requirement is to generate Purchase Orders (Stock Transport Orders to be precise).
The RFC has to create a session which will be executed...say...before midnight to generate the sto (TC -> SM35).
I have used BDC inside my RFC calling the transaction ME21n. It runs fine as a foreground session, but will give a error if the session is run as a background session (Due to the dropdown lists in ME21n I guess).
The solution I figured out is to use ME21. This does execute in the background successfully.
But given the fact that ME21 is the OLD transaction and ME21n (enjoy sap transaction, right?) to be the one to be used now, my dilemma is in choosing ME21 and risk the scenario of this transaction being obsolete and not supported the SAP for technical support in the future.
Can any body please help me on this.
Thank you.
Message was edited by: Sai Sanathan

Answer 1

hello,
with transaction VL10BATCH you can create new variants, and shedule background jobs. This should work.
However, you need another user role. (on the last tab of the selection screen of VL10B)
It is the F code profile you have to change. With this profile you can choose whether a list needs to be shown, or whether the deliveries have to be created right away (without showing the list). The second option should work in background. After delivery creation, you can check the   log using transaction V_SA.
So you need to create a selection variant with changed user-role for the backround job.
You can maintain user-roles via transaction VL10CUA.
You can input-enable user-role via transaction VL10CUV.
If you don't want the users to be able to run VL10B without showing the list, you have to create your own scenario, and use VL10X to start this scenario. Although this is not really necessary.
I hope this makes things more clear for you.
regards,
Joris.
Here is a copy of the OSS-note (310022) I was talking about:
Symptom                                                                               
o  For regular planning, you want to transfer the delivery creation
       in a job to the system administration. Here, you have           
       difficulties.                                                                               
o  Background processing of Transaction VL10* does not generate    
       deliveries but only a list in the spool.                                                                               
Additional key words                                                   
VL10BATCH, VL10A, VL10B, VL10C, VL10D, VL10E                                                                               
Cause and prerequisites                                                
Solution                                                               
For planning the delivery creation in background processing you must                                                                               
o  activate a user role for immediate creation of deliveries (in the
       standard system, the immediate delivery creation is deactivated 
       for all user roles for reasons of safety),                                                                               
o  create a selection variant for one of Transactions VL10*.                                                                               
Activation of the user role for background processing                  
The user role controls the entire processing of the delivery list.     
Within Transactions VL10*, you can display and maintain the user role on
the "User role" tab page. You can carry out the maintenance also via   
Transaction VL10CUA. Note 301578 describes how to make a user role ready
for input.                                                             
An F-code profile is linked to the user role. The F-code profile       
controls the internal process of the transaction. Two F-code profiles  
are provided in the standard system:                                                                               
o  0001 Display delivery list                                                                               
o  5001 Supply delivery list                                                                               
In the user role you want to use for background processing, you have to
replace F-code profile (not "AllowedDialogFCodes") 0001 with profile   
5001:                                                                               
1.  Call Transaction VL10CUA for maintenance of the user roles.                                                                               
2.  You might want to copy one of standard user roles 5001 to 5103 that
    is planned for processing in the background to a separate role in 
    the customer namespace, for example, 9001 or Z***.                                                                               
3.  Branch to the detail view of the user role and change the entry for
    the F-code profile from "Display delivery list" to "Supply delivery
    list".                                                                               
Creation of the selection variant                                                                               
1.  Call the desired Transaction VL10* and branch to the "User role" ta
    page. Do not use Transaction SE38 or VL10BATCH for variant        
    maintenance of VL10*.                                                                               
2.  Here, enter the user role that you have maintained for background 
    processing.                                                       
    Caution! If you use a user role with an F-code profile for the    
    immediate creation of deliveries, you receive no dialog with a    
    shipping due list but the deliveries are created immediately at the
    start of the selection!                                                                               
3.  Enter the remaining selection criteria on the various other tab   
    pages.                                                                               
4.  Select function "Goto -> Variants -> Save as variant..." and save 
    the selection criteria entered as a variant. You might classify the
    variant as "Only for background processing", in order to avoid a  
    start of the delivery creation in the dialog by mistake.                                                                               
5.  Make sure that the objects of selection screen 1060 have been saved
    and that checkboxes "Save field without values" are not filled with
    all objects (in particular in Release 4.6B) for the desired       
    settings.                                                                               
You can schedule the selection variant via Transaction VL10BATCH for  
regular use in the batch.                                             
And also the OSS-note (301578) about input-enabling user-role:
SAP Note No. 301578                          22.08.2005           Page 1
Number              301578                                              
Version             4 from 08.05.2000                                   
Status              Released for Customer                               
Set on              08.05.2000                                                                               
Language            EN                                                  
Master language     DE                                                  
Short text          VL10: Ready to input status of user role                                                                               
Responsible         SAP AG                                              
Component           LE-SHP-DL                                           
                    Delivery Processing                                 
Long text                                                                               
Symptom                                                                 
On the selection screen of transaction family VL10*, the selection      
criteria in the 'user role' tab are no longer ready for input of Release
4.6C.                                                                               
They are delivered in the standard SAP system not ready for input.                                                                               
Additional key words                                                                               
Cause and prerequisites                                                 
As of Release 4.6C, the ready for input status in the 'user role' tab is
linked to settings in the scenario and the user role.                                                                               
1.  In order to get the ready for input status for the "Role" field, set
    "Allow assignment" to 'X' in the scenario that you are using        
    (Transaction VL10CUV or SM31, V_T186V, T186V-ALLOW_USER_ROLE = 'X').                                                                               
The system administrator (Customizing authorization) can then       
    determine whether only the user role preset in the system is allowed
    or whether any number of other user roles may also be used for this 
    scenario.                                                                               
2.  For the check box "Use list profile" and therefore all possible                                                                               
settings for the "user role" tab, the ready for input status in the
    user role can be allowed in "Chang. attrbute" (changeability of the
    attributes).                                                       
    Set this field with Transaction VL10CUA for the used user role to  
    'X' (Transaction VL10CUA, or SM31, V_T186, t186-CHANGE_ALLOW = 'X').
Background:                                                                               
The settings in the scenario and user role have in the course of time  
become so wide-ranging and far-reaching that an additional feature had 
to be implemented: a system administrator must be able restrict the    
changes by the end user at different levels .                                                                               
You now have the option of determining for every user role whether that
settings determined on the selection screen may be changed again.      
You also have the option of determining in every scenario in which this
user role is used whether the change is allowed for another user role.                                                                               
In the context of the fixed link of the scenario to a transaction and  
therefore to the authorization concept of mySAP.com - user-roles can be
controlled at user level - whether the settings for the user role tab of
the selection screen of VL10* may be changed by a user or not.                                                                               
Solution                                                               
Maintain setting in scenario (VL10CUV) and user role (VL10CU)          
(Customizing authorization required).