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Archiving object is central element of data archiving and defines the unit that can be archived and deleted from the database as a whole. In simple words, an archiving object determines which database tables are accessed during archiving. Here tables are very important because the data from various tables combined together forms a complete business object and archiving process must make sure that a complete business object, for example a financial accounting document, is archived and then deleted from the database.

Apart from the tables accessed, an archiving object also contains archiving programs and customizing settings. So, we can say that an archiving object consists of following parts :

1) Data declaration :
As I explained above, this defines the database tables which forms a complete business  object.

2) Archiving programs
These are the programs which runs during archiving to actually access, read, archive and delete  data from database. Below are same

Write program : This program reads data/business objects from the database and then writes them sequentially in archive file.

Delete program : This program deleted the data/business object from the database. The program reads an archive file to make sure that the business object is in  the archive file and then delete it from the database.

Preprocessing program : This is an optional program which is not present in all archiving objects. This program prepares data for archiving. For example, in archiving object FI_ACCPAYB, this program set an indicator/flag to X against a business object which means that the business object can be archived and subsequently deleted from the database.

Postprocessing program : This is an optional program and is not present in all archiving objects. This program performs some data processing tasks after archiving. For example, when you perform archiving of financial accounting documents by using archiving object FI_DOCUMNT, a flag/indicator is set in some of the tables to indicate that this business object is archived. The business objects doesn’t get deleted at the time of archiving from those few tables. Postprocessing program is used to deleted those records which were marked as archived during archiving.

Reload program : This is also an optional program which is not present in all archiving objects. As the name suggests, this programs reloads archived business objects from archive files to database. Archiving object FI_DOCUMNT contains a reload program.

Read program : This program is used to display an archived business object.

3) Customizing settings :
This is used to define the archiving-object-specific parameters for a specific archiving session. Since these are specific to archiving object therefore varies depending on the object. For example, Commit counter, size of archive file may differ for FI_DOCUMNT and FI_ACCPAYB.

This was a description of an SAP archiving object. Below are some of the examples of SAP archiving objects :

FI_DOCUMNT : For archiving financial accounting documents
FI_ACCPAYB : For archiving vendor master data
FI_ACCRECV : For archiving customer master data
FI_MONTHLY : for archiving customer, vendors and G/L account transaction figures.

You can view all the standard archiving objects present in an R/3 system by using transaction AOBJ.

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1. SAP Archiving – Find Tables Included in Archiving Objects
2. SAP Archiving Procedure
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4. SAP Archiving – Important Customizing for Archiving Object FI_DOCUMNT
5. SAP Archiving – Archive Administration SARA