Frequently asked questions about Generic Object Services (GOS)

Frequently occured problems in Generic Object Services (Services for Object)

• 1. The „Generic object services" (GOS) is not available for a user
• 2. The GOS is not available in an application at all
• 3. Problem while displaying "Generic object services" or some service is not functioning correctly
• 4. Authorizations in GOS
• 5. Service "Store Business Document" is inactive
• 6. Some attributes of attachments are not displayed in attachment list (title, creator name, time)
• 7. Performance problem while opening "Generic object services"
• 8. Where are the documents stored while using "Generic object services"

Issue

Answer

Generic object services are only available for dialog users. Please check the user type for the appropriate user in tr. SU01 under „Logon data". User type must be „Dialog".

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Issue

Answer

A) In order to allow the "Generic Object Services" to be used for a business object of an application, the object must be published. Normally this is done in standard applications. If this is not done, the responsible application component must be informed to publish the business object for GOS.
B) A prerequisite for point A) is an existing and correctly defined business object in the Business Object Repository (transaction SWO1)
C) Some applications (for example sales and distribution) deactivate the object services in standard. This can be activated with user parameter SD_SWU_ACTIVE. For more information, please read the note: 598073 - Message "No service available"

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Issue

Answer

How the GOS is displayed and how it works, mainly depends on the table SGOSATTR. This defines:

• The structure of the service list
• The classes for each service

It is advised to check the structure of this table in these cases.
This table could contain:

• Customer defined services (in thei case it is always recommended to check the behaviour with the standard table contents, e.g. delete all non-standard entries from table SGOSATTR)
• Incorrect standard services, like J3RF_IMCD

For more information please read the note:
1401005 - GOS: Services are not started correctly (sporadic)
961713 - Structure of SGOSATTR table

Execute the check report RSGOSCHECK from note 1873544, with this report followings can be checked:

• Multiple first services
• The modifications from standard
• Available GOS BAdI implementations

The most common cause for empty GOS (services and icons are not displayed) is that multiple first services exist. This is shown in result of report RSGOSCHECK:

• If one of the first services is J3RF_IMCD, check KBA 2030396.
• If there are customer own entries in table SGOSATTR (like IXOS_XL for instance), check the attachment of the note 1401005 to get more info how to insert non-standard services in table SGOSATTR correctly. (Name of this document is "How_to_maintain_SGOSATTR.pdf")

Services can also be customized in transaction SGOS (table SGOSCUST) as of basis release higher than 610.

This could be also a reason for a non-standard behaviour of one or more services. Please also check whether a service was modified in this way.

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Issue

Answer

Regarding the authorization concept in GOS, please check KBA 1539457.

General informations can be found in the following note:

491271 - Authorizations for generic object services

The only thing what should be checked is, that the attached documents in the attachment list can be modified/deleted by the:

-Owner of the appropriate document

-Users with SAPoffice administrator authorization (authorization object S_OC_ROLE).

This behaviour is written in the note:

825348 - Authorizations for changes in the attachment list

For more information about authorization object S_OC_ROLE, pay attention to the note:

552127 - FAQ: SAPoffice - Authorizations

However a new authorization object was created to separate the authorizations in GOS attachment list and in SAPoffice. This could be useful if a user should have the SAPoffice administrator authorization, but should not be able to have full access to the attached documents in the attachment list. For this purpose you can use the new authorization object S_GOS_ATT (and the new role SAP_BC_GOS_ATTACHMENT_LIST), as written in the note
1293080. However this is only available from a specified support package (basis release 700 or higher), and cannot be implemented with a note correction.

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Issue

Answer

As this service uses the archive link interface, some archive link settings must be done to activate the „Store Business Document" for this application. The relevant business object of this application must be an existing object, which can be checked in transaction SWO1. It is mandatory to set this business object in transaction OAC3, where you can define some important attributes, like:

-the document type, which must be set in transaction OAC2

-the content repository, where the attached document should be stored (transaction OAC0)

-the table, where the link between the business object and the document is stored

For more information, please check:

-online help on component BC-SRV-ARL:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/4c/e65a717e173ec6e10000000a42189b/frameset.htm

-Customizing in transaction SPRO:

 SAP NetWeaver >> Application Server >> Basis Services >> ArchiveLink >> Basic Customizing

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Issue

Answer

In this case probably the service „Store Business Document" is used.

For more information check the ArchiveLink Wiki here: http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/x/AI7_Eg and the SAP KBA 1513057.

On the other hand, if you choose the service „Create Attachment", the document is stored as SAPoffice document using the Knowledge Provider interface (KPRO), and not via ArchiveLink. In this case we are able to display the title, creator, ....

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Issue

Answer

Performance problem can have several reasons and solutions/workarounds:

A)

When displaying documents from the GOS attachment list (e.g. PDF files) a local copy is placed onto the PC of the user. During a later start of the GOS attachment list, the system tries to delete these local copies again.

The performance will be bad, if the sysetm has a huge list of documents to delete, but we cannot find them on the local PC. For example, the user got a new PC or has deleted the local files manually, or has worked on another PC for a while. Then we try to delete all these files but have no success and we will keep trying the next time the attachment list is opened - again and again.

To solve this problem, please delete all records from table SOPCPATH. This is the table keeping the location of the local copies. This table is read to try to delete all the files. It is doing no harm if you delete the table for the affected users (or all users).

If the users often work on different PCs, eg. if you have a free seating concept in your office, you should delete the local files during logout of the users at the end of the day. To activate this feature, please apply the correction from note:

791677 - SAPoffice: Temporary copy during display of PC documents

The given user should clean the SAPworkdir directory on her/his PC also.

(so the corresponding entries from SOPCPATH)

B)

In cases the attached documents are stored in an HTTP content server, than please check whether the following workaround improves the performance.

The saphttp.exe is an RFC server program on the frontend. This is normally accessible. Problems can occur if for example a firewall exists between frontend and the application server. A connection test is therefore performed prior to the initial usage for security reasons. When this fails, usage of the program is stopped for the rest of the session. You can also check the peformance of the connection test to rfc destiantion SAPHTTP in tr. SM59.

By setting the user parameter SAPHTTP_RFC_CHECK_TO to FAILED, the usage can be totally deactivated. You can do the settings for this via tr. SU01 for a user.

In this case the saphttp.exe on application server will be used. (RFC destination SAPHTTPA)

(Similar to this the user parameter SAPCMS_RFC_CHECK_TO can also be set)

C)

Rarely the cause can be also a bad performance during accessing the table SWW_WI2OBJ. For this it is necessary to set the indexes according to note:

725721 - Incorrect index on the SWW_WI2OBJ table

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Issue

Answer

Main notes in this issue are:

530792 - Storing documents in the generic object services

904711 - SAPoffice: Where are documents physically stored?

Related Troubleshooting Guides, Notes & KBAs

GOS Troubleshooting guide

SAP KBA 1513057: Attributes like creator name, original file name, creation time are missing in attachment list of "Services for Object" for some attachments

SAP KBA 1539457: Authorization concept while modify/delete attachments from Attachment list of Services for Object (GOS)

SAP KBA 1778520: Services for Object Button not present in sapgui classic

SAP KBA 1813208: Message "Document changed due to security requirements" (SO596) displayed and the HTML formatting ruined for an attachment

SAP KBA 1849203: Error message Database error for <GET DATA FROM KPRO> (SO013) and/or File could not be exported (SO315) when opening a document in Attachment list

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