Introduction to Background Jobs

(For the Beginners)

A SAP background job defines the program or group of programs which are going to be executed by the background work processes.


Components of the Background Jobs

A background job has the following components:

¨ Job name. Defines the name assigned to the job.
¨ Job class. Indicates the type of background processing priority assigned to the job.
¨ Target host. It's the SAP instance where the job will be executed.
¨ Job steps. A job step defines the program (either ABAP or external) which will be executed.
¨ Start time and repeat interval. Define when the job will be started and whether it should
be periodically executed.
¨ Job print lists. These lists specify the printing parameters for the job output.
¨ Job log. The logs for the jobs include log information about the job execution such as starting
time or any other information coded in the programs.
¨ Job spool recipient list. A recipient list can be used for specifying one or more recipients
who will receive automatically the spool list generated by the job.



Starting Background Processing

Starting background processing means to reach any type of job definition screen in order to specify the needed data for the background execution of programs. There are several ways to start the background processing system:

¨ From the initial job definition screen
¨ From the ABAP reporting service screen. From any menu, you can select System Services
Reporting, then enter the report name. The reporting screen includes the option for
background execution by selecting Program Background from the menu.
¨ From the ABAP workbench editor. On the editor initial screen, enter the name of the program
in the input field and select Program Execute Background from the menu.
¨ Sometimes working with business applications, especially navigating through the many
information system and reporting functions, the system allows for background execution.

The last three methods mentioned are virtually the same thing, though the system can display different selection screens. With these three methods of starting background processing, after indicating background execution, the R/3 system displays the Execute report in background screen. The job will have automatically included the report as the first job step, whereas the user has to enter additional job definition fields, such as the job class, target host, start time, and so on.