Identifying Problems with Documents

Integration with Other Applications > Introduction to Windchill ESI > Integrating Windchill ESI with SAP > Troubleshooting > Identifying Problems with Documents

This section describes common problems and possible causes that relate to documents. A bulleted list of common problems follows. You can use the links to go directly to the information for the problem you are experiencing. If you do not see the problem you are experiencing in the list, or the suggested course of action does not completely solve the problem, contact your system administrator.

• Can’t create a document (can’t see it in SAP)

• Can’t create a document link (can’t see it in SAP)

• A document link remains in SAP even though it was deleted in Windchill for the ESITarget plant(s)

• The document create operation appeared to be successful but warning messages appeared (40433)

• The document change operation appeared to be successful but warning messages (40445) appeared

• A document link appears in all plants, although the link was in only one plant.

• A document link does not appear in the material graphical user interface

• When attempting to view a document or BOM created in SAP, the description field is blank

• A future effectivity date for a part doesn’t appear in SAP but the document effectivity date does appear

• Change Master status 02 does not allow changes message received

• A document associated to a part does not get published to all the associated distribution targets

• Reference documents associated to parts do not get sent with the ESI response

• A document does not get published upon setting its lifecycle state to Released

• Not able to publish custom IBA for document subtype in the ESI response

Can’t create a document (can’t see it in SAP)

The following can cause this problem:

• Document number is out of range

• Invalid or missing attributes

• Invalid URL

• Incorrect or invalid ESITarget plant(s) assigned to part

• User is looking in wrong ESITarget plant(s) in SAP

• Document is not associated to a part in Windchill and, therefore, was not published upon releasing the part

• The document is associated to a part in Windchill, but the distribution target attribute Publish Related Documents has a value of No

• Leading zeros were truncated from document number

Can’t create a document link (can’t see it in SAP)

The following can cause this problem:

• Document is not associated to a part in Windchill and therefore was not published upon releasing the part

• The document is associated to a part in Windchill, but the distribution target attribute Publish Related Documents has a value of No

• Part doesn’t exist in SAP

A document link remains in SAP even though it was deleted in Windchill for the ESITarget plant(s)

There is a middleware configuration flag for requesting that document links be created in the MARA table for plant-specific document links (ESIFlags/EnableDocumentLinksToMARA). If this flag is set to true, document links are created on the MARA table automatically in SAP for all plant-specific document links sent from Windchill. Plant Specific links are also created in the MARC table. Links in the MARA table are only deleted if Windchill sends a request to delete the non-plant specific document link.

The document create operation appeared to be successful but warning messages appeared (40433)

40433: SAP returned a functional error that document already exists when invoking BAPI_DOCUMENT_CREATE2. Assuming functional success and continuing processing of the document.

The document change operation appeared to be successful but warning messages (40445) appeared

40445.*.*=failed to change a document in SAP

Documents in SAP are not plant-specific; therefore, documents sent to multiple ESITarget plant(s) in the same SAP system and client cause Windchill ESI to send redundant messages to SAP that can be safely ignored. Once the document is changed in one ESITarget plant, Windchill ESI sets its status to Released which blocks subsequent changes.

A document link appears in all plants, although the link was in only one plant.

There is a middleware configuration flag for requesting that document links be created in the MARA table for plant-specific document links (ESIFlags/EnableDocumentLinksToMARA). If this flag is set to true document links will be created on the MARA table automatically in SAP for all plant-specific document links sent from Windchill. Plant specific links are also created in the MARC table. When links are created in the MARA table the document link is visible in all plants that the object exists in through the material GUI, but is only used by the plant specified for certain business purposes.

A document link does not appear in the material graphical user interface

When links are not created in the MARA table, the document link is not visible through the material GUI, but is be used by the plant specified for certain business purposes. The link is only visible through the document GUI.

When attempting to view a document or BOM created in SAP, the description field is blank

In SAP, each free text field has a corresponding language key.

When logged in to SAP, only the document description for the language key assigned to the user populates the Description field on the Document Data tab. The Document Descriptions tab in the document user interface holds all descriptions. If you do not see the document description on the Document Data tab, it is listed in the Document Descriptions tab. The language key of the document description is set when the document is created. This value is sent in the API. This value resides as a default value in the ESIDefaults.properties file. This value is configurable.

When logged in to SAP, only the BOM description for the language key assigned to the user will appear next to the BOM number. The language key of the BOM (material) description is set when the material is created. This value is sent in the API. This value resides as a default value in the ESIDefaults.properties file. This value is configurable.

For questions related to the ESI configuration at your company, please contact the ESI Administrator.

A future effectivity date for a part doesn’t appear in SAP but the document effectivity date does appear

This is expected behavior. ESI sets the effectivity date of parts to today and that of documents to the future date.

Change Master status 02 does not allow changes message received

When attempting to release an added or deleted document link (relationship between a part and a document) from Windchill to SAP, the message "Change Master status 02 does not allow changes" appears in the Windchill ESI Transaction Log and the document links are not changed in SAP.

Windchill ESI can be configured to allow or disallow updates to document links without modifying the document version. This configuration is controlled by a global variable in TIBCO called ESIFlags/EnableDocumentECNLock.

If ESIFlags/EnableDocumentCNLock is set to true, Change Master information is written to the document object in SAP when documents are created or changed. Once a document version is released to SAP, no changes can be made to that document unless the document is revised. In this case, SAP will return the message "Change Master status 02 does not allow changes".

If ESIFlags/EnableDocumentCNLock is set to false, Change Master information is not written to the document object in SAP when documents are created or changed. In this case, changes are limited to document links and distribution targets, and can be made to the same document version without revising the document.

Changes to document data other than document links and distribution targets always require a version change irrespective of how this global variable is set. In a part-centric environment, this global variable does not apply, and document links and distribution targets can be modified without revising the document.

This behavior is observed if the global variable is set to true and a user attempts to change a version of a document that has already been released.

You may also encounter this problem if Windchill ESI has been configured so that change management using revisions is not enabled in SAP.

For questions related to the Windchill ESI configuration at your company, please contact the Windchill ESI administrator.

A document associated to a part does not get published to all the associated distribution targets

This can occur when the document is associated to additional distribution targets as compared to the related part. In such a case, the document will be published only to those targets that are associated to the part.

In order for the document to be published to the additional targets, either have these targets associated to the part, or publish the document as a standalone object or as a resulting object in a Change Notice.

Reference documents associated to parts do not get sent with the ESI response

This can occur if either of the following is true:

• The Windchill ESI preference Publish Reference Documents has a value of No.

• The reference document master that is associated to the part is not resolvable to an iteration using the value specified by the preference Reference Document Configuration Specification State. Ensure that this preference is set appropriately.

A document does not get published upon setting its lifecycle state to Released

This can occur if either of the following is true:

• The preference Launch ESI Workflow Automatically has a value of No.

• The preference Lifecycle States Triggering Publication of a Document (or Lifecycle States Triggering Publication of a CAD Document) does not have RELEASED as one of the tokens in its value.

Ensure that these preferences are set appropriately.

Not able to publish custom IBAs for document subtype in the ESI response

Custom IBAs for a document subtype are not published in the ESI response. This can occur if the following is true:

• If in the ESI response meta info file (ESIResponseMetaInfo.xml), the attribute and the subtype of the document are not defined in the MapInformation element.

Resolution: Ensure that the reusable attribute and the subtype of the document are added to the ESI response meta info file for publishing a custom IBA for a document sub type. Refer to the following example to understand the proposed resolution.

1. In the Type and Attribute Manager, go to Manage Reusable Attributes and create a string attribute as follows:

◦ Display Name: string1

◦ Internal Name: string1

2. Create a subtype of the document as follows:

◦ Display Name: Subtype_Document

◦ Internal Name: com.ptc.ptcnet.sub_Doc

3. Create an IBA (using the reusable attribute created in step 1) on the subtype of the document (created in step 2) with the following data:

◦ Internal Name: string1

◦ Display Name: string1

4. In the ESI response meta info file (ESIResponseMetaInfo.xml), update the sections as described below.

a. In the  section, add the reusable attribute string1 to subtype of the document as highlighted in yellow.

b. In  section, update <esi:typedef> by adding the document subtype (created in step 2) with the document base type and separated with the “|” symbol, as shown below or such as wt.doc.WTDocument|com.ptc.ptcnet.sub_Doc

If the ID attribute of the Map element is modified, the mapRef element should be modified with the same value.

5. Save as the ESI response XML file with a different name at the location "WT_HOME\codebase\com\ptc\windchill\esi". Restart the method server.

6. Create a document of the subtype (created in step 2) and give a value to the attribute string1. Associate this saved as document to the respective distribution target.

7. Publish this document using action Send To Distribution Target. Check if the value of attribute string1 is published in the ESI response file.

To know more about modifying the ESI response meta information file, refer the sections Modify the ESI Response Meta Information File and Points to note while modifying the ESI response meta information file in the Windchill ERP Connector Customizer’s Guide. You can search for this guide from the Reference Documents page.