what is sap variant configuration and pricing
TRANSCRIPT
PUBLICSAP Product ConfigurationDocument Version: Latest – 2022-02-15
What is SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing
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Content
1 Service Guide for Pricing Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.1 What is Pricing service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.2 What's New for Pricing Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.3 What's New for Application for Data Replication and Administration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81.4 Initial Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Prerequisites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Enable the Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5 Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141.6 Administration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141.7 Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151.8 Monitoring and Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 Service Guide for Variant Configuration Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172.1 What is Variant Configuration service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172.2 What's New for Variant Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182.3 Initial Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Prerequisites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20Enable the Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.4 Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222.5 Administration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232.6 Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .232.7 Monitoring and Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
2 PUBLICWhat is SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing
Content
1 Service Guide for Pricing Service
This service guide contains all the information required by you to decide on the relevance of the Pricing service for your application or scenario. It also contains information about how to set up, consume, and run the Pricing service.
1.1 What is Pricing service
Calculate prices for configurable and non-configurable products.
The Pricing service lets your sales teams, customers, and channel partners price your products accurately and efficiently. Leverage your knowledge of SAP sales pricing to model your pricing rules and use them everywhere. That allows smooth end-to-end data flow between your cloud applications and your SAP back end. Relevant pricing data is replicated from SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA in the SAP Cloud to allow the Pricing service to use that data independently of the back-end load or availability.
Environment
This service runs in the Cloud Foundry.
Contract Type
This service requires a subscription to use it. Not offered via Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement.
Features
Document pricing Price calculation is based on pricing procedures and supports: Price, discount and surcharge calculation. Calculation rules. Currency and quantity conversion. Scale determination with different scale types. Manual overwriting for header and item conditions.
Stateless pricing Same functionality as for document pricing above, but no manual changes possible for conditions, only automatic determination. In contrast to document pricing, there is only one single API that gets all the needed input and does the price calculation.
What is SAP Variant Configuration and PricingService Guide for Pricing Service PUBLIC 3
Pricing persistence
The Pricing service provides persistence for pricing runtime data. Every change in the pricing results during the pricing process is saved in the database. Only applicable to document pricing, not to stateless pricing.
Condition technique
Use condition technique in your SAP back end to maintain the pricing rules. Condition determination for standard and custom defined condition types.
External Conditions
Item conditions with data source other than condition technique are considered as external conditions. They require input via API from an external data source. Supported calculation types: Percentage, Fixed Amount, Quantity.
Prices for configurable items
Pricing via so called variant conditions for simple and multi-level configurable products.
Taxes Simple, condition-based tax calculation like MWST is possible. However, multiple tax levels, tax exemption licenses (for example for Italy and France) or tax calculation via external tax engine are not supported.
Pricing APIs Retrieve pricing procedure details, such as dynamic pricing attributes or manual condition types, that are needed to do the actual pricing calls. Calculate a price via single call to stateless pricing or via consecutive calls to document and item pricing APIs.
Extensibility A custom web service can be specified that is called by the pricing engine for each custom routine. The customer is responsible for correctness and potential performance impact of calls to his web service implementation.
Support Content
● More information about configuration and pricing services● Differences between Pricing service and SAP ERP sales pricing● SDI installation quick guides● Troubleshooting data replication issues
1.2 What's New for Pricing Service
4 PUBLICWhat is SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing
Service Guide for Pricing Service
2022
Technical Component
Capability
Environment Title Description Action Type
Available as of
Pricing Service
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Document Pricing - Bulk Update API for Item Conditions
The new service endpoint PUT /api/v1/pricing/documents/{documentId}/itemsConditions used to modify manual conditions for several items at once and trigger repricing. If the condition id was specified for an item, the condition is updated, otherwise the condition is created.
See: Development Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing Services and API Definition
Info only
New 2022-02-02
Pricing Service
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Document Pricing – Order of Items
New input field sortOrder can be specified when creating an item to define the sequence in which items are processed in a pricing document. Pricing service guarantees stable order of item processing for non-group conditions.
Info only
New 2022-02-02
Pricing Service
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Extension Concept – Support for Additional Authentication Methods
Custom pricing routines can be implemented as web services and can be called from the Pricing service. Before, only direct connection and authentication method API key used to be supported. Now, connect the custom web services through SAP Destination service using authentication methods such as basic authentication and OAuth.
Action: Use the Destination service instead of direct calls and use more secure authentication method than API keys.
See: Extension Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing
Recommended
New 2022-02-02
What is SAP Variant Configuration and PricingService Guide for Pricing Service PUBLIC 5
Technical Component
Capability
Environment Title Description Action Type
Available as of
Pricing Service
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Extension Concept – New Capabilities
The pricing engine now passes the duration factor to custom pricing formulas. Furthermore, custom base formulas and custom value formulas cannot only overwrite the condition base or value but also the condition rate. If needed, extension implementation can ask for details of other conditions of the same item via the new filter. Projections on item fields and condition fields can be used to define exactly which data is needed. Now, it is possible to get the information about a condition’s type in custom requirements.
Action: Define projections for item fields and condition fields to reduce the amount of data that is passed to the extension implementation.
See: Extension Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing
Recommended
New 2022-02-02
Pricing Service
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Process Tax Conditions that Are Equal to Zero
Now, there is an indicator for condition types of SAP S/4HANA to control the processing of price and tax conditions with value zero.
If the indicator is not set for a condition type and the condition value is zero, the condition is not considered in the exclusion logic. Additionally, a price condition, which is not a group condition, becomes inactive, while a tax condition remains active in the pricing results.
If the indicator is set for a condition type and the condition value is zero, the condition is considered in the exclusion logic and not only tax, but also price conditions remain active in the pricing results.
Info only
New 2022-02-02
Pricing Service
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Size Limit for Pricing Documents
Pricing documents with more than 100 items are not supported. We reserve the right to reject any service calls that violate this restriction.
Action: Ensure that you do not call stateless pricing API with more than 100 items. Do not add more than 100 items to one pricing document, e.g. by copying items. When distributing items over several documents consider that configurable items can have subitems.
See Feature Scope Description for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing
Required
Changed
2022-02-02
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Service Guide for Pricing Service
Technical Component
Capability
Environment Title Description Action Type
Available as of
Pricing Service
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Supported Standard Pricing Exits – Base Formula 12 Corrected
Gross weight used not to be considered correctly as condition base when standard base formula 12 was used. This issue has been corrected.
See Supported Standard Pricing Exits
Info only
Changed
2022-02-02
Pricing Service
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Caching of Condition Records
The wrong condition record used to be read from the cache when accessing with different dates in consecutive calls. This issue has been corrected.
Info only
Changed
2022-02-02
Pricing Service
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Hierarchical Access with Direct Value
When a direct value (constant) was maintained in the column Spec. Val. Source of an access’s condition table, such access used not to be considered for hierarchical accesses (access type A). This issue has been corrected.
Info only
Changed
2022-02-02
Related Information
2018 What's New for Pricing Service (Archived)2019 What's New for Pricing Service (Archived)2020 What's New for Pricing Service (Archived)2021 What's New for Pricing Service (Archived)
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1.3 What's New for Application for Data Replication and Administration
2022
Technical Component
Capability
Environment Title Description Action Type
Available as of
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
KB Upload
Uploaded knowledge bases now support the filter plant to call the create configuration API. Also, the structurehash (ECMNR) is now returned. If you want to use these new functionalities for KBs uploaded previously, you must delete and re-upload existing knowledge bases.
Info only
Changed
2022-02-02
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
KB Upload
A test functionality has been added to test the uploaded KBs. The upload dialog has been moved to the side panel and a drag&drop functionality has been added.
Info only
New 2022-02-02
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
Configuration Replication
The configuration replication UI has been improved to state if the KB is locked. Also, a performance improvement has been done to load the variant table replication status in a faster way.
Info only
New 2022-02-02
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Service Guide for Pricing Service
Technical Component
Capability
Environment Title Description Action Type
Available as of
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
Audit Logs
Various improvements on logging audit logs in HANA IP Allowlisting, Extension traces, Replication Monitoring, KB Upload.
See the Security Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing
Info only
Changed
2022-02-02
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
Loading Pricing Condition Tables
The load of condition tables after adding a new condition table to an existing pricing procedure has been changed: now the generation status (GESTA) is being considered. Only condition tables with a valid generation status (>=4) are loaded.
Info only
Changed
2022-02-02
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
Upgrade Check
During an upgrade of the source SAP system certain data replication actions used not to be possible. There was a deadlock during this check because the delta replication was stopped as well during the upgrade. Now, the upgrade check is twofold: if a running upgrade is being determined in the replicated status table, we additionally check the upgrade status also directly in the source system.
Info only
Changed
2022-02-02
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
New Table Layout
The table layout of the administration UI has been changed to a table element that includes sorting, column personalization, and data export.
Info only
Changed
2022-02-02
What is SAP Variant Configuration and PricingService Guide for Pricing Service PUBLIC 9
Technical Component
Capability
Environment Title Description Action Type
Available as of
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
Table Personalization
The settings like column order and visible columns of tables shown in the administration UI can be stored by each user.
Info only
New 2022-02-02
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
Support Information
The getting support screen has been extended to show additional information.
See the section Getting Support of the Administration Guide.
Info only
Changed
2022-02-02
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
Connect to AVC
A check has been added to verify whether the AVC (Advanced Variant Configuration) scenario is supported by the source system.
A test button has been added to verify the connection
Info only
New 2022-02-02
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
Use Destinations for Extensions
The configuration and pricing extensions now support destinations maintained in the BTP sub-account. You now can select either destinations or the former direct connection for your customer extensions.
See the section Setting up and Tracing Extension Calls for Variant Configuration of the Administration Guide.
Info only
New 2022-02-02
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Service Guide for Pricing Service
Technical Component
Capability
Environment Title Description Action Type
Available as of
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
New usage scenario Solution Sales Configuration Cloud
A new usage scenario has been added to support the Solution Sales Configuration Cloud.
Info only
New 2022-02-02
Application for Data Replication and Administration
SaaS Applications (at CF Subscription Screen)
Cloud Foundry
Solution Sales Configuration
The table T002T was added for the replication of Solution Sales Configuration tenants.
Info only
New 2022-02-02
Related Information
2018 What's New for Application for Data Replication and Administration (Archived)2019 What's New for Application for Data Replication and Administration (Archived)2020 What's New for Application for Data Replication and Administration (Archived)2021 What's New for Application for Data Replication and Administration (Archived)
1.4 Initial Setup
Introduction
You can get started with the Pricing service using the standard procedures for SAP Business Technology Platform Cloud Foundry environment.
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1.4.1 Prerequisites
Before starting, make sure that you have all required versions of the software you are integrating. For that please refer to SAP Note 2711932 .
To exchange data between cloud solution SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing and the licensee’s local on-premise SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA back end, SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing also comprises the SDI Data Provisioning Agent, which is part of SAP HANA smart data integration. The SDI Data Provisioning Agent is an on-premise application that is to be installed and operated locally in the customer’s on-premise landscape.
For data exchange with SAP ERP systems, using a third-party runtime database obtained from SAP, such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle DB, certain restrictions apply according to the applicable on-premise license agreements for the third-party runtime databases. One such restriction is that the licensee may not access these databases directly via systems or technologies that have not been licensed specifically for use with such runtime database. Therefore, the corresponding SDI Data Provisioning Agent Adapters provided with SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing may not be used to directly access, or replicate data from, such third-party runtime databases licensed from SAP.
For third-party database licenses not obtained from SAP, please refer to the respective license agreements on the available options for data exchange via direct database accesses.
For more information about interoperability and maintenance rules for the Data Provisioning Agent, see SAP Note 2546811
Preliminary tasks or checks in the system:
● Get your SAP Business Technology Platform welcome email.● Logon to the cloud cockpit and find the global account mentioned in the welcome email.● Add users and change global account description.
When your organization signs a contract for SAP Business Technology Platform services, an e-mail is sent to the IT contact person specified in the contract. The e-mail message contains the link to log on to the system, the SAP Cloud Identity credentials, and the user ID for the specified user. These credentials can also be used for sites such as the SAP Store , SAP Community , Software Downloads and the SAP Support Portalfor example, to download Data Provisioning Agent.
You will find different information in that e-mail depending on the licensed product.
For example:
● 1x SAP Adv Var Configuration and Pricing (8011539)Required if you have licensed 1 productive tenant for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing for api-based integrations to build your own applications or integrations with configuration and pricing services.
● 2x SAP Adv Var Config and Pricing test (8011540)Required if you have licensed 2 non-productive tenants for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing for api-based integrations to build your own applications or integrations with configuration and pricing services.
● 3 x SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing (8006356)
NoteLicense 8006356 was replaced by licenses 8011539 & 8011540, see above.
Required if you have licensed 3 blocks of 10GB each of SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing for api-based integrations, to build your own applications or integrations with configuration and pricing services. With
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Service Guide for Pricing Service
only 1 block of 10 GB, one test tenant is included. To obtain one test and one productive tenant, 2 blocks are required. Each additional block after the initial 2 blocks includes the option to use the additional block for one additional test tenant for the cloud services or to expand the size of the productive tenant.
● 1 x Cloud T&D f SAP Variant Config a Pricing (8005772)Required if you have licensed 1 partner test & demo tenant of SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing for api-based integrations, to build your own applications or integrations with configuration and pricing services. Partner companies can also combine this license with partner test & demo licenses for SAP Commerce Cloud and SAP CPQ to test and demo the corresponding standard integrations.
● 100 x SAP CPQ, professional edition (8007056)Required if you have licensed 100 users of SAP CPQ, professional edition.This license does not only include one productive and one non-productive tenant for SAP CPQ, but also for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing to use the standard integration.
● 1 x SAP CPQ, prof edition, test tenant (8008154)Required if you have licensed 1 additional test tenant for SAP CPQ, professional edition, it also includes an additional test tenant for configuration and pricing services to use the standard integration.
● 1 x SAP CPQ, pro ed Commerce, orders, access (8008503)Required if you have licensed 1 block of 50.000 orders of CPQ add-on for SAP Commerce Cloud. (For detailed definition of metric orders, please refer to SAP Price List. In short: Orders is defined as the number of sales and service orders processed in a contract year by a customer and its affiliates through the cloud service.) This license includes one productive and one non-productive tenant for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing to use the standard integration. The corresponding SAP Commerce Cloud license is required as prerequisite. If additional test tenants of configuration and pricing services are needed for the SAP Commerce Cloud integration, they must be licensed via 8008154. See above.
● 1 x SAP CPQ, pro ed Commerce, GMV, access (8008501)Required if you have licensed 1 block of 12.000.000 Gross Merchandize Value (GMV) of CPQ add-on for SAP Commerce Cloud. (For detailed definition of metric GMV, please refer to the SAP Price List. In short: GMV is defined as the customer’s and its affiliates’ total annual sales gross revenue for products or services that are purchased through cloud service platforms by end users in a given contract year.) This license includes one productive and one non-productive tenant for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing to use the standard integration. The corresponding SAP Commerce Cloud license is required as prerequisite. If additional test tenants of configuration and pricing services are needed for the SAP Commerce Cloud integration, they must be licensed via 8008154. See above.
You need one tenant of SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing for every back-end client that will be connected. SAP Business Technology Platform comes with two environments, the Neo environment, and the Cloud Foundry environment, sometimes also called Multi Environment. SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing is based on the Cloud Foundry environment. Each contract provides one global account with the entitlements needed to use SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing. With it you will get entitlements for the Variant Configuration service, Pricing service and SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing SaaS application for data replication and administration.
You might want to add further users as members to that global account, or change the global account description as described in Add Global Account Members
Related Information
Getting Started with an Enterprise Account in the Cloud Foundry EnvironmentSetting Up a Global Account
What is SAP Variant Configuration and PricingService Guide for Pricing Service PUBLIC 13
Add Members to Your Global Account Change the Display Name of Your Global Account
1.4.2 Enable the Service
To know the steps that you need to follow to enable the Pricing service, please read the Administration Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing.
NoteFor the license material SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing (8006356) and the service plan default, we will report at the subaccount level the peak usage of gigabytes runtime memory per month. To view that data, please open your global account on SAP Business Technology Platform and open the menu Usage Analytics. In the section Service Usage please choose service SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing. Please also choose the subaccount and period of interest. Please note: Choosing the subaccount All Subaccounts lets cloud cockpit aggregate all the subaccounts’ peak usages. This number does not have any meaning. In cloud cockpit we cannot show you the peak usage per global account.
1.5 Development
To know how to adjust the application to consume the Pricing service please read the Development Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing Services, and do the tutorial Create an SAPUI5 Application for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing .
For an overview of the extension concept of SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing See the Extension Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing
For a detailed overview of supported pricing routines (user exits) see Supported Standard Pricing Exits.
1.6 Administration
Some initial configuration steps may be necessary to enable the service initially. See Initial Setup [page 11]
For all the information about the administration of the service see the Administration Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing.
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1.7 Security
To know the settings and configurations necessary to operate the Pricing service in a secure manner, please read the Security Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing. Please also refer to the security guide for auditing and logging information.
1.8 Monitoring and Troubleshooting
Please refer to the Administration Guide for information about Monitoring of data replication.
E-mail notifications are supported via the Alert Notification service (separate license needed for that service).
The following alert types are available:
● SAP HANA smart data integration Data Provisioning Agent status: an alert is sent if your SAP HANA smart data integration Data Provisioning Agent reports an error. This alert is not sent immediately, but after a second check is done, some minutes later, to prevent false alerts caused by brief connection issues.
● Replication failure: an alert is sent if there is an error during the replication of a table.● Get contacted by SAP Support: SAP Support will send you an alert if you need to take an action, e.g., in
case a new SDI Agent version needs to be installed.
See the section Receiving Alerts of the Administration Guide.
Service Availability
To be notified of maintenance events of SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing, visit the Cloud Availability Center and use the Cloud System Notification Subscriptions .
You can subscribe to be informed of general Cloud platform issues .
Please also refer to Cloud Availability Center and Cloud System Notification Subscriptions .
Engine Traces
In case of unexpected results in configuration or pricing, a special logging can be enabled to see how the corresponding engine calculated those values. See Engine Trace.
What is SAP Variant Configuration and PricingService Guide for Pricing Service PUBLIC 15
Reporting an incident
You can report an incident or error through the SAP Support Portal .
Please open an incident using component LOD-CPS. We recommend including the following information:
● Landscape information (Europe (Frankfurt, AWS-EU10), US (Virginia, AWS-US10), Singapore (AWS-AP11))● The URL of the service or UI page where the incident or error occurs● The steps or clicks used to replicate the error● Exact input and output data of the service call● Screen grabs, videos, or the code being inputted
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2 Service Guide for Variant Configuration Service
This service guide contains all the information required by you to decide on the relevance of the Variant Configuration service for your application or scenario. It also contains information about how to set up, consume, and run the Variant Configuration service.
2.1 What is Variant Configuration service
Configure your SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA products interactively in the cloud.
Build applications to configure your products accurately and efficiently. Use the product modelling environment in your back end to define the product model and to generate a knowledge base version. A knowledge base version is a collection of all relevant product model data such as materials, characteristics, and dependencies for a given validity date. Knowledge base is replicated in the SAP Cloud to allow configuration service to use that data independently of the back-end load or availability.
Environment
This service runs in the Cloud Foundry.
Contract type
This service requires a subscription to use it. Not offered via Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement.
Features
Simple configuration The user assigns values to characteristics of a product. All the dependencies and constraints from the configuration model are considered.
Multi-level configuration
A complex structured configuration consists of a hierarchy of products. The root product may contain one or more sub-products which are configurable. The user assigns values to characteristics of these sub-products.
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External configuration
The Variant Configuration service provides required information to enable process integration in the back end.
Advanced Variant Configuration
The Variant Configuration service can forward calls to the SAP S/4HANA for advanced variant configuration engine in the back end, bypassing the configuration engine of the service.
Configuration persistence
The Variant Configuration service provides persistence for configuration runtime data. Every change in the configuration during the configuration process is saved in the database.
Master Data APIs Get a list of knowledge bases header data, e.g. for a given product. Get all master data details for a given knowledge base id. Get maintained translations in specified language(s).
APIs optimized for UI consumption
Create an initial configuration with default values. Update characteristic values. Update configuration context (input for reference characteristics). Get details of a configuration previously created. Delete a configuration.
Configuration APIs for data exchange
Retrieve external configuration with all information from a previously created configuration, to enable the exchange of configuration data with the order fulfillment functions in the SAP back-end system. Create a new configuration from external configuration.
Extensibility A custom web service can be specified that is called by the configuration engine for each variant function (not for pfunctions). The customer is responsible for the correctness; and potential performance impact of calls to his variant function implementation.
Support Content
● More information about configuration and pricing services● SDI installation quick guides● Troubleshooting data replication issues
2.2 What's New for Variant Configuration
18 PUBLICWhat is SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing
Service Guide for Variant Configuration Service
2022
Technical Component
Capability
Environment Title Description Action Type
Available as of
Variant Config-uration
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Configurations API – New Reset Endpoint
There is a new endpoint introduced to reset an existing configuration to its initial state as if it was newly created. It preserves the context, knowledge base, and auto cleanup settings that were used for the original configuration for application to the new configuration.
See: API Definition
Info only
New 2022-02-02
Variant Config-uration
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Extension Concept – Support for Additional Authentication Methods
Variant functions can be implemented as web services and can be called from the Variant Configuration service. Before, only the direct connection and authentication method API key used to be supported. Now, the custom web services can connect through SAP Destination service using authentication methods such as basic authentication and OAuth.
Action: Use the Destination service instead of direct calls and use a more secure authentication method than API keys.
See Extension Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing
Recommended
Changed
2022-02-02
Variant Config-uration
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Intervals with Date Values in Variant Table Cells
The configuration engine used to return the error Datatype 6 is not supported when an interval with dates was specified in a variant table cell. This restriction has been removed.
Info only
Changed
2022-02-02
Variant Config-uration
Extension Suite - Development Effi-ciency
Cloud Foundry
Knowledge Bases Without Plant
Plant and BOM application used to be mandatory fields for knowledge base generation. Those fields are now optional for advanced knowledge base generation. Only configuration profiles with setting No BOM are considered if no plant was specified.
See: SAP note 3119209
Info only
New 2022-02-02
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Related Information
2018 What's New for Variant Configuration (Archived)2019 What's New for Variant Configuration (Archived)2020 What's New for Variant Configuration (Archived)2021 What's New for Variant Configuration (Archived)
2.3 Initial Setup
Introduction
You can get started with the Variant Configuration service using the standard procedures for the SAP Business Technology Platform Cloud Foundry environment.
2.3.1 Prerequisites
Before starting, make sure that you have all required versions of the software you are integrating. For that please refer to SAP Note 2711932 .
To exchange data between cloud solution SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing and the licensee’s local on-premise SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA back end, SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing also comprises the SDI Data Provisioning Agent, which is part of SAP HANA smart data integration. The SDI Data Provisioning Agent is an on-premise application that is to be installed and operated locally in the customer’s on-premise landscape.
For data exchange with SAP ERP systems, using a third-party runtime database obtained from SAP, such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle DB. Certain restrictions apply according to the applicable on-premise license agreements for the third-party runtime databases. One such restriction is that the licensee may not access these databases directly via systems or technologies that have not been licensed specifically for use with such runtime database. Therefore, the corresponding SDI Data Provisioning Agent Adapters provided with SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing may not be used to directly access, or replicate data from, such third-party runtime databases licensed from SAP.
For third-party database licenses not obtained from SAP, please refer to the respective license agreements on the available options for data exchange via direct database accesses.
For more information about interoperability and maintenance rules for the Data Provisioning Agent, see SAP Note 2546811 .
Preliminary tasks or checks in the system:
● Get your SAP Business Technology Platform welcome email.● Logon to SAP Business Technology Platform cockpit and find the global account mentioned in the welcome
email.● Add users and change global account description.
When your organization signs a contract for SAP Business Technology Platform services, an e-mail is sent to the IT contact person specified in the contract. The e-mail message contains the link to log on to the system,
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the SAP Cloud Identity credentials, and the user ID for the specified user. These credentials can also be used for sites such as the SAP Store , SAP Community , Software Downloads and the SAP Support Portalfor example, to download Data Provisioning Agent.
You will find different information in that e-mail depending on the licensed product.
For example:
● 1x SAP Adv Var Configuration and Pricing (8011539)Required if you have licensed 1 productive tenant for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing for api-based integrations to build your own applications or integrations with configuration and pricing services.
● 2x SAP Adv Var Config and Pricing test (8011540)Required if you have licensed 2 non-productive tenants for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing for api-based integrations to build your own applications or integrations with configuration and pricing services.
● 3 x SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing (8006356)
NoteLicense 8006356 was replaced by licenses 8011539 & 8011540 see above.
Required if you have licensed 3 blocks of 10GB each of SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing for api-based integrations, to build your own applications or integrations with configuration and pricing services. With only 1 block of 10 GB, one test tenant is included. To obtain one test and one productive tenant, 2 blocks are required. Each additional block after the initial 2 blocks includes the option to use the additional block for one additional test tenant for the cloud services or to expand the size of the productive tenant.
● 1 x Cloud T&D f SAP Variant Config a Pricing (8005772)Required if you have licensed 1 partner test & demo tenant of SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing for api-based integrations, to build your own applications or integrations with configuration and pricing services. Partner companies can also combine this license with partner test & demo licenses for SAP Commerce Cloud and SAP CPQ to test and demo the corresponding standard integrations.
● 100 x SAP CPQ, professional edition (8007056) Required if you have licensed 100 users of SAP CPQ, professional edition. This license does not only include one productive and one non-productive tenant for SAP CPQ, but also for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing to use the standard integration.
● 1 x SAP CPQ, prof edition, test tenant (8008154)Required if you have licensed 1 additional test tenant for SAP CPQ, professional edition, it also includes an additional test tenant for configuration and pricing services to use the standard integration.
● 1 x SAP CPQ, pro ed Commerce, orders, access (8008503)Required if you have licensed 1 block of 50.000 orders of CPQ add-on for SAP Commerce Cloud. (For detailed definition of metric ‘orders’, please refer to SAP Price List. In short: Orders is defined as the number of sales and service orders processed in a contract year by a customer and its affiliates through the cloud service.) This license includes one productive and one non-productive tenant for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing to use the standard integration. Corresponding SAP Commerce Cloud license is required as prerequisite. If additional test tenants of configuration and pricing services are needed for the SAP Commerce Cloud integration, they must be licensed via 8008154. See above.
● 1 x SAP CPQ, pro ed Commerce, GMV, access (8008501)Required if you have licensed 1 block of 12.000.000 Gross Merchandize Value (GMV) of CPQ add-on for SAP Commerce Cloud. (For detailed definition of metric GMV, please refer to the SAP Price List. In short: GMV is defined as the customer’s and its affiliates’ total annual sales gross revenue for products or services that are purchased through cloud service platforms by end users in a given contract year.) This license includes one productive and one non-productive tenant for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing to use the standard integration. The Corresponding SAP Commerce Cloud license is required as
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prerequisite. If additional test tenants of configuration and pricing services are needed for the SAP Commerce Cloud integration, they must be licensed via 8008154 . See above.
You need one tenant of SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing for every back-end client that will be connected. SAP Business Technology Platform comes with two environments, the Neo environment, and the Cloud Foundry environment. SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing is based on the Cloud Foundry environment. Each contract provides one global account, with the entitlements needed to use SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing. With it you will get entitlements for the Variant Configuration service, Pricing service and SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing SaaS application for data replication and administration.
You might want to add further users as members to that global account, or change the global account description as described in Add Members to Your Global Account.
Related Information
Administration and OperationsManaging Global Accounts and Subaccounts Using the Cockpit Change the Display Name of Your Global Account
2.3.2 Enable the Service
To know the steps that you need to follow to enable the Variant Configuration service, please read the Administration Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing.
NoteFor the license material SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing (8006356) and the service plan default, we will report at the subaccount level the peak usage of gigabytes runtime memory per month. To view that data, please open your global account on SAP Business Technology Platform and open the menu Usage Analytics. In the section Service Usage please choose service SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing. Please also choose the subaccount and period of interest. Please note: Choosing the subaccount All Subaccounts lets cloud cockpit aggregate all the subaccounts’ peak usages. This number does not have any meaning. In cloud cockpit we cannot show you the peak usage per global account.
2.4 Development
To know the tasks and procedures that are relevant for the application developer when adjusting the application to consume the Variant Configuration service please read the Development Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing Services, and do the tutorial Create an SAPUI5 Application for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing .
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For an overview of the extension concept of SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing See the Extension Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing.
2.5 Administration
Some initial configuration steps may be necessary to enable the service initially. See Initial Setup [page 11].
For all the information about the administration of the service see the Administration Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing.
2.6 Security
To know the settings and configurations that are relevant to operating the Variant Configuration service in a secure manner, please read the Security Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing. Please also refer to the security guide for auditing and logging information.
2.7 Monitoring and Troubleshooting
Please refer to the Administration Guide for information about Monitoring of data replication.
E-mail notifications are supported via the Alert Notification service (separate license needed for that service).
The following alert types are available:
● SAP HANA smart data integration Data Provisioning Agent status: an alert is sent if your SAP HANA smart data integration Data Provisioning Agent reports an error. This alert is not sent immediately, but after a second check is done, some minutes later, to prevent false alerts caused by brief connection issues.
● Replication failure: an alert is sent if there is an error during the replication of a table.● Get contacted by SAP Support: SAP Support will send you an alert if you need to take an action, e.g., in
case a new SDI Agent version needs to be installed.
See the section Receiving Alerts of the Administration Guide.
Service Availability
To be notified of maintenance events of SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing, visit the Cloud Availability Center and use the Cloud System Notification Subscriptions .
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You can subscribe to be informed of general Cloud platform issues .
Please also refer to Cloud Availability Center and Cloud System Notification Subscriptions .
Engine Traces
In case of unexpected results in configuration or pricing, a special logging can be enabled to see how the corresponding engine has calculated those values. See Engine Traces.
Reporting an incident
You can report an incident or error through the SAP Support Portal .
Please open an incident using component LOD-CPS. We recommend including the following information:
● Landscape information (Europe (Frankfurt, AWS-EU10), US (Virginia, AWS-US10), Singapore (AWS-AP11))● The URL of the service or UI page where the incident or error occurs● The steps or clicks used to replicate the error● Exact input and output data of the service call● Screen grabs, videos, or the code being inputted
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