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abap web dynpro on iphone , dropdown fields

Former Member
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Hi

We have created a simple webdynpro application which normally runs in internet explorer, but some users wants to access the application from portable devices.

We have tested the application in the safari browser on Iphone , and generally this seems to work without major issues. The only problem however is that dropdown boxes in webdynpro are difficult to select, and does not utilize the standard iphone "select box " functionality where the select options appears on the bottom of the screen.

My question is if anyone knows of a workaround to enable the iphone select values functionality within the webdynpro environment ?

Rgds

Eivind Langsæter

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

thomas_jung
Developer Advocate
Developer Advocate
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There is no support for Safari on the desktop within Web Dynpro yet. That support is planned for NetWeaver 7.0 Enhancement Package 2. I would imagine that the alternative rendering path that we are creating for Safari might be necessary to have any hope of rendering correctly in this situation. Even once we ship Safari support, it won't necessarily include support on the iPhone. There is no mobile device support for Web Dynpro ABAP currently.

Former Member
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Hi

Thanks for your answer. I know that there is no official support for safari, and no support for mobile devices in abap webdynpro. Howver since the solution is delivered in abap webdynpro for the main stream user on laptop pc, using the same type of technology for the mobile users is of course the simplest solution. Despite the lack of support all the functions in the application except the dropdown boxes seems to work perfectly without modifications on the iphone.

What I was looking was some kind of workaround to get "custom" field in the webdynpro environment to map to a HTML field the Iphone would recognize as a "select" field. I guess the rendering techonlogy in webdynpro probably prevents this from being possible.

Are there any alternative supported solutions for making sap applications available on an iphone except ITSmobile ?. We have done some initial testing on an ITSmobile application as an alternative , but although this works, it seems like a rather primitive solutions compared to creating applications in webdynpro , with limited support for standard dynpro elements.

Were can i go to look for information on possible development efforts ongoing which will extend support for the iphone ?.

Rgds

Eivind langsæter

thomas_jung
Developer Advocate
Developer Advocate
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>I guess the rendering techonlogy in webdynpro probably prevents this from being possible.

Most likely, that would not be possible because of the closed rendering system.

>Are there any alternative supported solutions for making sap applications available on an iphone except ITSmobile ?.

If you want to stay on the ABAP stack you have two choices - ITSmobile and BSP. BSP is probably closer to WDA in that it is MVC and OO based. You have greater freedom and therefore possibly greater development expense in the design because to build a mobile app you pretty much have to be versed in the HTML and JavaScript of that particular moble browser variant.

>Were can i go to look for information on possible development efforts ongoing which will extend support for the iphone ?.

There is nothing published yet. The desktop Safari support is planned to come later this year in Enhp2. It is currently in testing. With Safari being quite simliar on the desktop and the iPhone, you might find that the desktop Safari support also fixes the iPhone rendering, however we probably won't do full validation and support for the iPhone (at least not initially). I might have to borrow my wife's iPhone later and do an unoffical test against my 7.02 system to see if the problem with the DDLBs remain.

There are internal discussions as to if there is enough customer demand to justify the porting of the Mobile engine for Web Dynpro into ABAP. It isn't a technology issue, just a matter of if there is a enough market demand to justify the cost.

Former Member
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If you wish to develop web applications with the proper iPhone look and feel you may want to look at the iUI framework at http://code.google.com/p/iui. You can get very good results by embedding the iUI functionality into a BSP.

There is also a book available that explains using iUI - "Professional iPhone and iPod touch Programming"

A word of warning: if you want multiple pages in your application (quite typical), the BSP can only really have one main page! All of the virtual pages are implemented by sectioning or fragmenting the main structure. In short, you don't design it like a website. You should also opt for developing for Safari rendering for best results - it won't look the same in IE.

I found the best way to get around this was to write specific ABAP class methods that construct the BSP fragments at runtime, since the alternative is to encode all possible HTML variations into a BSP at runtime.

The framework will be more use if you know AJax or PHP.

From my own perspective, it was easier to move into writing native iPhone applications, which is what I am doing now.

Former Member
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Eivind,

Add parameter WDLIGHTSPEED onto the webdynpro application and you will be able to select the dropdown from an IPAD.

However, it works well in a standalone app not accessing with in the portal.

-Sudheer

frank_stdle
Participant
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Eivind, you should take a look at John's excellent blog series on SAP apps for mobile applications using open source frameworks,

I think the combination of BSP and open source frameworks such as jQuery Mobile, PhoneGap etc is a powerful and versatile solution. These solutions are device independent, and there is no problem with deployment as with native iOS apps.

regards

Frank

Former Member
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Dear All,

We have custom ABAP WD applications which are used via EP.

while using this on iPad, list box is not appearing, and while using Safari Browser on Win XP system, WD screen shows dump:

The following error text was processed in system <Prd Server> : This browser is not supported

The error occurred on the application server <app server name> and in the work process 83 .

The termination type was: ERROR_MESSAGE_STATE

The ABAP call stack was:

Method: CLIENT_INSPECTOR_CREATE_CLIENT of program CL_WDR_CLIENT_ABSTRACT_HTTP===CP

Method: IF_HTTP_EXTENSION~HANDLE_REQUEST of program CL_WDR_MAIN_TASK==============CP

Method: EXECUTE_REQUEST_FROM_MEMORY of program CL_HTTP_SERVER================CP

Function: HTTP_DISPATCH_REQUEST of program SAPLHTTP_RUNTIME

Module: %_HTTP_START of program SAPMHTTP

ECC version:

SAP ECC 6.0 EHP 5.

Regards,

Purav

Answers (1)

Answers (1)

RL999
Explorer
0 Kudos

Hi thanks for posting this.

We are many waiting for Web Dynpro to work on smart-phones, so this has general interest. Did you also check the Opera browser on the iPhone? Did you find a solution/workaround for the Dropdowns? And don't give Mr Jung so many points before he actually tells us the result of his test on NW 7.02 with his wife's iPhone ;).

Kind Regards,

Robert

thomas_jung
Developer Advocate
Developer Advocate
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Actually web dynpro in 7.02 renders pretty well on the iPhone and iPad. Of coures there is no offical support for this render, so if anything does go wrong you can't enter a support ticket. A few of the UI interaction designs (like right mouse context menus) are difficult on iOS. Others like lead selection, just don't translate very well to the small screen size. Of course there are UI elements like FlashIsland that can't possibly be supported.

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hello,

Is there any progress on this topic in the meantime (11/2012)?

SAP NW 702 SP11 (which officially supports Safari 5.1 desktop) does not seem to work at all (and now I am not talking about the iOS rich dropdown) with a simple drowdown on iPad with Safari 5.1 (iOS).

How can we have it fixed? SAPUI5 works well, I guess it must be only one JS to be changed.

Btw table scroll does not work either.

Thanks a lot for the update and your effort to fix it,

Kr,

Tamas

former_member186822
Participant
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Hello,

Is there any progress on this topic ? 

Rolf