Data Extraction

Since SP35-1 the Process report (Transaction /PROMENTA/WS_AGE_REP) can also extract data from Promenta to use in external systems.

Since SP38-3 if you wish to export to the server instead of the local PC then you must define the Logical File Path – see below.

NOTE The Promenta Extractor transaction (/PROMENTA/WFRM_EXTRC)  is now obsolete and will be removed in a future patch.

Selection Screen

The section shown is to the lower part of the Process report selection screen.

“Output to ALV” is set by default and will show the data in user-friendly ALV format

“Output to File ” will activate the file extractor process

The file and path name can be used either :

• “On local PC” – the file is downloaded to the local PC and so can only be used in online foreground interaction. This is used for testing the extract or for exporting to desktop applications such as Microsoft Excel.
• Server file – if “On local PC” is not set then the file is downloaded to the application server. This is used for background or scheduled extractor runs.

Header options : These options add header rows to the data

• Field Name – will included the technical name of the field in the file 
• Field text – will include the field text in the file

Output File

The output file is formatted as a TAB delimited file with one row per record and a variable number of columns depending on the settings of the report. In addition the ALV layout variant can be used to format the columns or exclude columns.

Note : If any data contains TABs then the formatting will be impacted. If this is expected then a user exit can be implemented to clean up data and remove TABs.

Example file

An example file is shown below

Logical File Path

Since SP38-3 – Applies when exporting to server only

To prevent possible “File Path Transversal vulnerability” the user can no longer enter the full path to the file. Instead the BASIS team must set up a logical file path before use and the end user can only specify the file name.

Logic file name is a standard SAP BASIS activity but these notes are included only as a convenience. Please refer to SAP documentation . 

Transaction code : FILE

A) Create logical path : ZPROMENTA_EXTRACT

B) Create physical path on the server : example ==>    /usr/sap/DEV/promenta/<FILENAME>

C) Create the actual directory on the server using the server console (eg terminal etc)

D) Ensure that end-users can write to this directory.