Creation of a View cluster

By T.N.Swapna

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.

Click here to continue...

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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.

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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.

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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.