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Migration Impacts When Using Sort String Identification in SAP
If you choose to use the SAP Sort String attribute to uniquely identify duplicate BOM items, then - as part of your Windchill Enterprise Systems Integration data migration activity - all BOM components in SAP must be initialized with an appropriate Sort String value to ensure operational integrity in data transfers. Also, the Sort String attribute must be reserved to exclusively support integration betweenWindchill PDMLink and SAP.
In particular, as part of your SAP data migration to support integration with Windchill PDMLink, the Sort String attribute must be populated for all components and substitutes on all BOMs in SAP with the following information:
The Sort String value of all components must have the default value defined in the ESIDefaults.properties file. “000” is the predefined value for new Windchill Enterprise Systems Integration installations.
The Sort String value of each substitute must be populated with the existing Alternate Item Group value defined in SAP for that substitute.
Failure to populate these attributes correctly will result in data inconsistencies.
Refer to the section "Accounting for Issues with Uniquely Identifying BOM Items in SAP" for more information.