Setting up a Characteristics Group
This feature is controlled via the characteristic groups in SAP so the first step is to create a characteristic group.
This can be done in the Characteristics Groups Overview (O042).
Here we need to create a group with certain endings, link \_D,\_M,\_I or \_U.
Each of these four endings triggers a specific handler in ECTR:
\_D = DocumentLinkHandler
\_M = MaterialLinkHandler
\_I = UrlLinkHandler
\_U = UserLinkHandler
In the screenshot above, the characteristic group DSCSPC_I for URL handling was created.
After the characteristic group is created, it needs to be made known to SAP ECTR.
To do so, the group ID without the certain ending to the preference plm.specifications.chargrp.basename in the default.txt needs to be added.
For this example, it needs to be named DSCSPC.
plm.specifications.chargrp.basename = DSCSPC
Adding a Characteristic to the Group
The next step is to add the characteristic to the newly created characteristic group.
This can be done in the Characteristics (CT04) menu of the SAP GUI.
Handling of Hyperlinks
The last step is to define the handling of the specific hyperlinks.
To do so, the hyperlink that should be used for the characteristic needs to be defined.
For example:
plm.specifications.baseurl.URL = https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/$NW$
In this example, it is defined that for the characteristic URL the hyperlink of Wikipedia will be used.
The preference for linking the characteristic and the hyperlink is assembled as follows:
plm.specifications.baseurl.<characteristic ID> = <hyperlink>/<characteristic value>
The characteristic value can be added to the hyperlink in two different ways: either as a neutral value ($NW$) or as a language-dependent value($SW$).
If everything is set up correctly, SAP ECTR marks the characteristic value as a link and when it is selected, the defined web page is be called.
