Automating line-item data entry for purchase orders via SAPGUI scripting

Automating line-item data entry for purchase orders via SAPGUI scripting

How would you like to type hundreds of line items in purchase orders? Or, even worse, how about entering by hand an item description like this one: "BOWMA-TORQ HX HD CAP SCR 1/2-13X1-1/2"? If the items do not exist as material numbers, you have no choice but to type their description by hand.

Maybe you've been copying and pasting to save some typing. But, wouldn't it be better to have the computer read the data from a source file and enter it for you? Just picture the computer enter item by item with all their respective data while you do something more productive, or talk on the phone, or just sit down and relax for a bit.

You can increase your productivity and save yourself from a lot of typing by using SAPGUI scripting. That's right! SAPGUI scripting comes in handy when you're thinking about automation. It's a great tool to emulate user interaction, enter data and perform repetitive tasks. The best part of all: SAPGUI scripting is free -- it comes with SAPGUI for Windows -- powerful and easy to use.

In this article, I will show you how to put SAPGUI scripting to work for you. For demonstration purposes, I will present you with a recent assignment I took on to help my users enter more than a hundred purchase-order line items in just a few minutes. No joke -- read on and I'll show you how it's done!

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AUTOMATING LINE-ITEM DATA ENTRY VIA SAPGUI

 Home: Introduction
 Step 1: Setting the stage
 Step 2: Activating SAPGUI scripting
 Step 3: Preparing the input data file
 Step 4: Recording the data entry
 Step 5: Analyzing the VBS script
 Step 6: Automating the VBS script creation
 Step 7: Running the VBS script program generator
 Step 8: Playing the VBS script to enter the line items
 Step 9: Troubleshooting
 Review: Conclusion and more resources

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Giovanni Davila, technical author and SAP Basis expert
Giovanni Davila is an expert in SAP administration on the Windows platform. He has authored the critically-acclaimed books "SAP Basis Administration" and "SAP Basis Administration for Windows". He also wrote an article for the SAP Professional Journal titled "System Database Copies – Made Easy".
Copyright 2005 TechTarget

This was first published in August 2005