SAP EWM PPF Configuration: How to Create and Test Custom PPF Actions

How to create and test a SAP EWM – Custom PPF Action

PPF Action is a tool for the generic execution of functions and processes. Help in triggering actions like Print, email fax, and labels.

It also triggers automatic subsequent documents and workflow.

PPF Purpose:

• Printing
• Communication with other systems like SAP ERP or GTS
• Sending XI messages
• Asynchronous updates between business objects within SAP EWM
• Execution of loosely coupled actions into the business process with the goal of having a separate application log
• Generic option to enable customer extensions of SAP EWM processes, especially for asynchronous processes, printing and workflow

The below example is done for Warehouse Order related PPFs, but the same process applies to all other PPFs.

Navigate to the associated config in SPRO

Select the relevant Action Profile

Select the Action Definition you want to copy.

Give your PPF Action a name. It must not be the same as the one you’ve copied else it will be difficult to identify when you maintain the PPF Condition shown later in this document.

Copy all the associated entries

Save your changes

Make sure your action is not marked as “Inactive”

Select the Action Definition and then select the Processing Type

If you need to use custom logic to influence the result of the PPF action e.g. different information on a label, then you need to define a custom method as shown below. Select the “Create” option. Note: You will need an ABAP developer key to do this.

Create a new BAdi Filter

Name the custom implementation

Provide the implementation short text and then add a custom filter as shown below.

Activate the implementation.

Go back to the PPF Action by pressing F3 and now select your custom filter.

Save the change

Now you need to create the PPF Condition. This is where giving your PPF Action a unique name instead of copying the standard name will come into play.

Show the technical names and then select the associated Action Profile

Create a new entry as shown below and select your PPF Action

Compare the Schedule Condition and Start Condition of the standard PPF Action you used when creating when creating the custom entry and then maintain the same entries on the custom action as shown below

If you want to be able to manually create the PPF action e.g. via the Warehouse Monitor, then you need to add a 2^nd entry as shown below.

Make sure that the 2^nd entry as the “Default Settings…” unchecked as shown below. No Schedule or Start Conditions are required in this instance.

You may need to create condition records for the custom PPF Action. Tcode – /SCWM/PRWO6

Specify the maintenance group

To create a new entry, select the field shown below and specify the condition type. Maintain the required entries. Here you will specify the custom action definition and associated form. The result is that the custom action definition will be determined when the maintain conditions are true.

A practical tip to debug the custom method: PPF Actions are called asynchronously to the object that creates them and this makes it difficult to debug. In order to easily debug you should change the processing time of the PPF action to be done using a report. This means that the action is created, but not triggered to execute.

To execute the PPF you need to use T-Code SPPFP

Specify the relevant entries shown below to display the entries.

On execution, Select the relevant entry and then execute. The code should now stop in your custom method if you have added a breakpoint.

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SAP EWM PPF Configuration plays a key role whenever a warehouse process needs to trigger an action automatically, like printing a label, sending an email, or kicking off a follow-up document. PPF Actions in SAP EWM let you map these everyday results to system events without having to write a program each time something has to happen.  

While SAP delivers many standard PPF actions right out of the box, most real projects, you know, still end up needing a custom PPF action sooner or later to cover a specific business requirement. It could be, for instance, printing a label in another format or passing data to an external system. This guide goes through the full flow of creating, setting up, and verifying a custom PPF action in SAP EWM, and it also highlights the usual consultant pitfalls people hit, plus a couple of best practices, so you don’t get stuck in rework later.

Common Errors in SAP EWM Custom PPF Configuration

Even experienced consultants sometimes run into a couple of recurring problems while setting up Custom PPF Actions in SAP EWM. Here are the usual culprits, pretty much every time, more or less:

• Action not triggering at all: This most often shows up when the new action is still set to “Inactive”, or when the Schedule or Start Conditions don’t really line up with the ones on the standard action it was copied from.  
• Same name as the copied action: If you don’t rename the custom action cleanly, it later feels hard to identify while you keep PPF Condition records, and it can even get in the way of the original action.  
• Custom method not executing: Usually, this comes down to a missing or wrong BAdi filter, or the implementation not being switched on, after creation.  
• PPF Condition not firing: If the condition records are not maintained properly using the PPF transaction in SAP EWM (/SCWM/PRWO6), then the system just won’t know when it should apply that custom action definition.  
• Hard to debug: Because PPF actions run asynchronously, a lot of consultants find it difficult to trace what’s going on when the behavior isn’t right , especially during the first round of tests.

Best Practices for SAP EWM PPF Configuration

• Make sure your own custom PPF Action Configuration in SAP EWM has a unique, meaningful name, like don’t reuse the standard action’s name, ever.  
• After copying it, double-check you didn’t leave it sitting in “Inactive” or something like that, because that’ll break everything.  
• Try to match the Schedule Condition and Start Condition exactly the same way as the standard action does, unless there is a specific reason to tweak them.  
• If you need manual triggering, for example, from the Warehouse Monitor, don’t forget to add that second entry and leave “Default Settings” unchecked.  
• Also, keep those condition records tidy and correct, using the proper maintenance group and condition type, so the system figures out the right action on its own , without you fighting it later.  
• Before you go live, switch the processing time to “run via report”, so the action is created but not auto-triggered.  This is way easier for debugging, especially if you want a breakpoint.  
• And please test with T-Code SPPFP first, don’t just assume it’s done because the live process seemed ok for a moment.
  

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is PPF in SAP EWM?
PPF (Post Processing Framework) is basically a tool in SAP EWM, used to kick off assorted actions, like printing, emailing, or sending those system messages, and even starting follow-up documents automatically. It does this based on defined conditions, inside some business process.

2. What is the purpose of Custom PPF Actions in SAP EWM?
With a custom PPF action, you can kind of extend the usual SAP EWM behavior, so it fits a very particular business need, like printing a label in a custom format, sending data to another system, or triggering a unique workflow step that the standard actions simply do not cover.

3. How do you create a custom PPF action in SAP EWM?
You can create a custom PPF action by going into SPRO and copying an existing Action Definition, then just give it its own unique name. After that, you copy the associated entries too, the whole set of details. And if you need any custom logic, like behavior that is a bit different, you ll want to create a BAdi implementation with a custom filter.

4. How do you test a custom PPF action?
You can test a custom PPF action with T-Code SPPFP, so you can see the relevant entry and manually run it there. If you set the processing time to “via report,” it can also help you debug the custom method, like stopping at a breakpoint. It’s kind of straightforward, but there, you get the view and then the manual execution.

5. Which transaction code is used to execute PPF?
In SAP EWM, the transaction code SPPFP is used to trigger and then watch PPF actions, like a follow-up, so you can see how those activities are running.

6. What is SPPFP in SAP EWM?
SPPFP is the transaction used to show, choose, and do by hand PPF action entries. It’s pretty handy for testing those custom PPF actions before they go live in the real business process.

7. What are the common issues in SAP EWM PPF configuration?
The most frequent issues include the action being marked “Inactive”, with mismatched Schedule or Start Conditions, plus missing or inactive BAdi filters, improperly maintained PPF Condition records, and trouble debugging actions because they run in an asynchronous sort of way.

Blog By: Nitin Kumar

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