Extracting IMG2 Excel

Extracting SAP’s Configuration IMG to Excel
Introduction
This article outlines the steps necessary to extract a copy of the SAP IMG nodes into excel and
clean them up into a simple grid.
Why?
So the first question you might ask is why would you want to extract the thousands of nodes of
the IMG into an excel file. From my experience I have been asked to perform this task on many
projects, primarily to help with scope definition and assign and manage responsibilities. This
may seem redundant these days, with the integrated tools that allow for project management in
solution manager that allow you to represent this hierarchy and report against it in many ways.
However in the fog of a time constrained implementation I can assure you that the learning curve
and access issues to all the necessary tools, often causes things to spiral down to the lowest
common denominator of representing information in a system that most people have on their
computers and are familiar with. In most cases this ‘lowest common denominator’ is excel.
What can I do with this?
I have used an excel extract of the IMG on multiple projects for the following reasons, but I’m
sure you could think of many more
• Create a list of in and out of scope nodes to assist with scoping

• Assign formulas to ‘estimate’ work and skills mix for a given scope
• Assign ownership of nodes within projects with multiple disparate teams
• To form a document management system to track configuration documentation
• To track configuration completion for project management
Extracting the IMG to Excel
Preparing the IMG format
The first step in extracting the IMG is to ensure that it is represented in the right format to allow
extraction. The default display settings do not allow extraction.
Go to transaction SPRO
Jerome@MungapenConsulting.com | www.mungapenconsulting.com Page 1

Select Settings > User Specific
Make sure that the ‘Disp. Struct. with tree control’ is not checked
From SPRO go into the SAP Reference IMG


Displaying additional Node information
Although many of the more recent IMG nodes do not have a transaction code associated with them the
older ones do and every node has a unique identifier that helps identify duplicate nodes that are
repeated throughout the IMG. I find it useful to display this information as part of the extract. To do this,
from within the SAP reference IMG select Additional information > Display Key > IMG activity
Now when you open an IMG node down to the most detailed level you will see an additional key

These keys are unique for a specific configuration node so you can use this to identify replication.
Additionally the last four or five digits are often the tcode of the configuration node if one exists. E.g. in
the highlighted example above the tcode OMJI takes you directly to the block for goods movements.
Before extracting to Excel it is necessary to open all nodes (or as many nodes as you want to extract) as
the extract only takes the levels open on screen. To do this use the expand all button a the top menu
Extracting to Excel
With the open IMG now just go to the system menu and select System >List > Save > Local File


Select spreadsheet as the doc type form the pop up
Then choose a location and filename to same your file and press generate


Cleaning up the Excel File
Now the fun begins as the Excel file is in a hierarchical format that you may want to clean up. Open the
file in Excel
The file will look something like below (In my example I extracted only the MM areas as open hence the
columns may vary depending on what you extract)
As you can see the IMG folders are nested, and depending on how deep the configuration node is it
could be in different columns. However as we added the IMG activity column this is always in the same
column and can help us identify which nodes are configuration nodes versus folders. I personally like to

build the IMG structure into every line, and then delete the non configuration nodes afterwards. I.e. in
the example above I only want to keep rows with an entry in column I, but without the structural
information it is not clear what each node is i.e. Define prioritizations doesn’t mean anything on its own
without knowing it is Materials Management > General Settings for Materials Management >
Requirement Prioritization > Define Prioritizations
So this will take some manipulation to get the data in this format. There are many ways to do this but
the simplest way I have found is to do as follows
Initial worksheet clean up
Firstly remove the blank rows and columns at the top and left
So that the words ‘SAP Customizing Implementation Guide’ are in cell A1
Determine the lowest Node
In this step it is important to determine the lowest node where an entry exists for each record this will
enable the correct copying of data in the next steps
Firstly insert a row above row 1 and number the columns with data from the extract 1 through 10
Next in the first empty column after the data (K) enter the following formula
This looks complicated but basically it just copies the number in row 1 where there is writing. (You may
need to modify this formula based on what elements of the IMG you extract)
=IF(A2<>"",$A$1,IF(B2<>"",$B$1,IF(C2<>"",$C$1,IF(D2<>"",$D$1,IF(E2<>"",$E$1,IF(F2<>"",$F$1,IF(G2<>"
",$G$1,IF(H2<>"",$H$1,0))))))))
This will then indicate the lowest level of detail for each record; you can copy this formula down all of
column K

Next you must copy and paste just the values in place to avoid any formulas in column K so for this
select the column copy then paste special as values. We only want to use this values for configuration
nodes for all other rows we want to set the value 1. So for this we create the following formula in row L
Copy this formula down column L for the whole dataset, then copy column L and paste the values over
column K
This has the result of showing the lowest level of a configuration node and showing level 1 for all non
configuration nodes
Create formula to copy from cell above
In Cell A2 use the formula below to read the value form the cell above

=IF ($K3 = 1,A2,IF(A$1>$K3,"",A2))
This formula will copy the line above (unless there is a configuration node at a higher level)
Press control C to copy to the clipboard, now highlight columns A through H only (you do not want to
have the IMG activity column selected)
Select all blank cells
Now this is the magic. To select all the blank cells in the columns you have highlighteduse the select and
find menu and select > goto special function

Select the blanks option
Paste formula to blanks using control V
You’ll now get a file that looks like below

In the initial rows there is some copying of the level numbers this can quickly be cleaned up though
manually after the values have been copied below
Copy whole region as values
Firstly deselect the current selection by clicking in cell A1.
Then use the select and find menu and select > goto special function again and this time use the current
region option

This should select all of your data. Now use the control C to copy
Then use paste special and values to overwrite the forumulas with text

Now you have just cells of text. You can manually clean out the numbers from the first few rows. You
can also delete columns K and L at this point (configuration level)
This will give you a much cleaner spreadsheet
Delete non configuration nodes

Now reduce the size of the spreadsheet by keeping only the configuration nodes. This can be done by
filtering on the IMG activity column for blank rows and removing them.
To do this insert change the cell values in row one from 1,2,3 etc to . I use L1, L2, L3 etc and
configuration node as below

Now select the whole area again using the find and select function this time using current region
function
Now insert a table with headers

Now select the configuration column drop down in the table and deselect all values and select only
blanks
This now shows only the non configuration nodes
Select all rows and delete them, now you can remove the filter to leave only the IMG configuration
nodes
Now you have an excel spreadsheet with only the configuration nodes in the IMG each with their full
menu path structure contained in that record

Unfortunately SAP parses longer names to an extra column so in some cases the ends of words are in
column J you could manually copy them back into the correct column or just delete it.

What Now?
Now you are free to add your own columns to show scope, ownership, completion, and documentation.
So it’s really up to you how you use this spreadsheet.
Should this be done on all projects? Probably not. There are better tools provided in solution manager
etc for managing scope / etc. however if your team is diverse and for infrastructure and training
purposed you do not want to roll out formal tools to a large number of users , you can generally rely on
most people being able to open and update an Excel spreadsheet. And with Microsoft’s tight integration
with other office products, a detailed project plant is only a few clicks away

Extracting IMG2 Excel

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Extracting SAP’s Configuration IMG to Excel

• Create a list of in and out of scope nodes to assist with scoping

Extracting the IMG to Excel

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