Real Time Information Director User Documentation

RTID Metadata Language
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Variant Documents
Typically, each SAP instance handles some data elements differently, or the same
instance requires different tag mappings in different circumstances. Variant document
definitions provide a way to deal with the differences, by creating a separate document
metadata class for each SAP instance or circumstance. You can use a file-comparison
tool to see the differences between variant document definitions.
Information in the header of an inbound document identifies the variant. (This
characteristic distinguishes a variant document from an aliased or substitute document, to
be described later.) For example, the header identifies the sending system; when source
systems use slightly different forms of the same document, this header element is the best
choice for selecting among variants.
An important distinction between variant and base documents is that, whereas a base
document definition specifies both format and content metadata, a variant document
definition specifies only format metadata. The variant document definition uses the
content metadata of the corresponding base document.
Specifying a Variant Document
To specify a variant document, you create a class that has a unique name and extends
VariantDocumentDefinition.
You implement a constructor for your Variant Document. This constructor calls the
superclass with the following parameters:
• Selectable variantSelector. This parameter specifies the header information used
to establish which variant an inbound IDoc represents.
• String variantName. This parameter specifies the variant form of the IDoc in an
outbound document.
• IDocSegment idocSegment. This parameter contains the format metadata for the
variant IDoc.
• Update and query options. See “Update and Query Options for Document
Definitions.”
Example:
Here is an excerpt from a variant of the ORDERS05 IDoc. The class
IhubOrders05FusionAP extends VariantDocumentDefinition. The document definition
contains only format metadata.
The class constructor calls the superclass constructor with three parameters:
• The first parameter identifies the variant, which is Sources.FusionAP. This
header field is used to recognize the inbound documents defined by this variant.