Rearrange customer fields on UI to be more user friendly

[Former Member]

We are running SRM 5.0. We have a long list of customer fields both on document header and item level. The way SRM seems to work is to list them vertically on the "basic data" tab after the standard fields. If the customer fields get long enough to have multiple pages, the second page on still has the standard fields on top. This is not very user friendly. Do any of you have any experience in re-arranging the customer fields on UI so that they are contained in a separated area, e.g. a separated tab? If so, is modification of the template or codes mandatory?

Thanks.

[masa_139 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

How many customer fields do you have? How about using table-like customer field ?

Regards,

Masa

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Masa,

I am not talking about hundreds of customer fields, but plenty enough to have 3, 4 pages, or 20-50 fields. And my understanding of table type customer fields is that they are used in 2-dimensional cases, not the simple fields like what we have.

I know that in SRM7.0 the customer fields are better presented in separated tabs. But before we upgrade, we still have SRM5.0 and this spaghetti type of presentation by default.

Thanks,

Jay

[masa_139 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You can use standard ITS development technics for custom development. Filling 50 fields are a lot of work for users. You may also need to develop some auto value filling logic.

Regards,

Masa

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Masa,

By standard ITS technology, you mean to modify the standard HTML template, for example? That's precisely not what we want to do as it is considered modification to the standard and would have implication during upgrade or patches. I was wondering if there is a way, through BADI implementation or configuration, to re-arrange those fields. I feel it's a weak point in SRM if the customer fields have to be presented in such an un-user-friendly fashion. For us though, the users won't be filling them in, because the documents are transferred from R/3, so those fields are controlled and display-only in most cases.

Jay

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi. I have an idea, you could create 1 more field called "Display custom fields" and make it type XFELD. I belive this will make it a checkbox on the screen.

Then, you can use BBP_UI_CONTROL_BADI to only show the custom fields if this box is ticked. This means as default all the fields will be hidden, but if the user ticks that box and presses refresh or check then you can make all the fields appear.

You will have to use BBP_DOC_CHANGE_BADI to blank the new field when first going into the transaction though, else the fields will always appear for that shopping cart if the user ticks it once.

Regards,

Dave.

[masa_139 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The default theme is 99. You can copy SAP default and create customer theme.

Then go to SICF and assign the customer theme. It is not modification.

Regards,

Masa

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Masa. I believe this would be a viable solution to our problem.

Jay

[Former Member]

Hi. Masa is right, that is a lot of fields to have to fill in.

Do the users have to fill them all in every time? If they only have to fill some of them in depending on other criterea, you could hide certain fields using BADI BBP_UI_CONTROL_BADI to make it easier for users and also make the screen smaller.

Regards,

Dave.