SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

2741926 - Application error occurs when viewing/updating permission groups or roles

Symptom

  • An application error occurs when editing, refreshing or updating a permission group or role under “Manage Permission Groups” or “Manage Permission Roles”
  • An application error occurs when using other RBP tools such as “View User Permission” and “User Role Search”
  • "Error occurred" popup appears when trying to access RBP related pages
  • Server logs show "Unable to translate field"

"Image/data in this KBA is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental." 

Environment

SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite

Reproducing the Issue

The below application error can occur when using any of the role-based permission management tools: Manage Permission Groups, Manage Permission Roles, User Role Search and View User Permission. Fingerprint will change based on the affected field(s) and scenario

error_occured.jpg

Cause

On most cases, such error messages are raised when an inconsistency exists in the database level, Data Model elements or user data.

Resolution

To make troubleshooting easier, we recommend taking the following steps in sequence. As issue persists, please proceed to subsequent steps (and, after making any of the suggested changes, please log out, log in and test again before proceeding to next step).

1. Check your instance’s Data Model and ensure that no picklist is linked to standard elements division, department, jobcode or location

Picklists are not supported on these 4 elements and should never be used. In case any of them has been assigned a picklist, please remove the picklist reference from the element definition.

You can manage your instance’s Data Model using the Manage Business Configuration UI (BCUI). Kindly check KBA 2799197 for reference. As an SAP Partner, you can also check the Data Model in Provisioning (back end) by following KBA 2752954 - How to associate picklists with standard fields (UDF Fields).

Note: it is possible to reference a picklist for jobcode element using a special attribute called strings-list-id in the Data Model. Please refer to article Standard Elements That Can’t Have a Picklist for additional details on this exception.

2. Perform an OData API Metadata Refresh by following KBA 2171588

3. Review your instance’s Data Model and User Data File to look for inconsistencies

When an element/field references a picklist, you should only use the respective picklist values to feed data into that field.

For example, let’s say your element country is linked to picklist CountryList. In the User Data File (UDF), user records should have a number assigned as their country value, never a text string. So, instead of having “Canada” written, you should have the numerical option ID of the picklist value that refers to Canada in picklist CountryList.

To look for such inconsistencies, please:

    • Identify the standard elements which have a picklist reference in your instance’s Data Model (for instructions on how to check/manage your Data Model, please refer to step 1 above)
    • For the elements/fields for which you do not want to maintain picklists, please remove the picklist reference from the instance’s Data Model and maintain your values directly in the UDF via Employee Import/Export
    • For the elements/fields for which you want to keep picklists, ensure that your records in the UDF do not contain text values, but only option IDs of values that exist in the referenced picklist. You can update the UDF records via Employee Import/Export.

4. Perform and MDF Object Definition to DB Sync by following KBA 2589774

This step requires access to SuccessFactors’ back end (Provisioning), so please engage your implementation partner or report an incident for SAP Support.

In case the issue persists even after reviewing all steps above and/or you have difficulties identifying the fields to correct, please report an incident under component LOD-SF-PLT-RBP with as many details as possible (including any changes you might have recently made to Data Model or RBP settings) for further investigation.

  • If the error is only reproducible when clicking on Active Membership in Manage Permission Groups, please refer to KBA 2789199.
  • if you are having errors particularly with Data access report story permission for Performance Management, then please refer to KBA 2833653.

@SAP Support, please refer to this KBA’s internal memo for additional details.

See Also

Standard Elements That Can’t Have a Picklist

Keywords

Error occurred, application error, RBP, update, permission group, permission role, manage permission, role, group, editing permission role, dynamic group , KBA , LOD-SF-PLT-RBP , Role Based Permissions , LOD-SF-PLT-PRV , Provisioning Changes , LOD-SF-MDF-PKL , Picklists , How To

Product

SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite all versions