Smartform : What is best out of these two?

[Former Member]

Hi Friends,

Can anyone tell me, what is the best option of these two?

If I do coding in Print program, what are the benefits and disadvantages?

And if I do entire coding in smartform only...then what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Regards.

Pradeep Singh Dhadwal

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Pradeep,

This is depends on secnarios:

Scenario: 1: if you are developing a fresh development including the form and driver program. then give load to Driver program not on form level.

Scenario 2: if you copy the standard SAP form to Z- form using standard driver program. Give a load / program change in Smartform level. becuase Stanadrd driver pgram is used by some other business transactions

Scenario 3: if you requirement is copy the standard driver pgm and need business changes then instead of applying the logic chang in Form lvel, always prefer to have load in Driver program.

Gerenal Reason:

Not to give any load in the presentation server, All the transaction and selection should be in Driver pgm. that will improve your performance.

Sriram Chellappa

[Former Member]

Hi,

The basic disadvantage of coding print programs..is the allocation of memory and performance. Whenever you use the driver program to call a script..data is fetched from a transaction (consider the example of transaction) to driver program first and then to the script to get displayed. Performance get affected because driver program occupies certain memory. There is also an execution delay because of driver program.... moreover it requires more man hours to code.

This can be avoided in SMARTFORMS. You can directly call your form from the program and coding may be done in form if required.

<b>SMARTFORMS</b>

SAP Smart Forms offers the following advantages:

Creating and maintaining forms requiring half the time

Adapting forms without any programming knowledge due to entirely graphical user interface

Integrating input elements into the HTML output, which enables you to use a form in Internet applications as well

The Smart Forms replace the SAPscript forms. SAPscript forms will still be supported in the future; you can use them without making any changes for years to come. You can even use SAPscript texts in the Smart Forms. Migration of SAPscript forms into Smart Forms is supported.

<b>Integration</b>

SAP Smart Forms allows you to execute simple modifications to the form and in the form logic by using simple graphical tools; in 90% of all cases, this won't include any programming effort. Thus, a user who is familiar with the tool but has only rudimentary programming knowledge can configure forms with data from an SAP System for the relevant business processes. The result of the form development is a Smart Form. After it is activated, the Smart Form is similar to a callable function module in the SAP System.

The logic of the form is mapped entirely in the Smart Form. To print a form, you call it from within an application program, in which you retrieve the application data to be merged into the form. As data retrieval and form logic are separated, you must only adapt the Smart Form if changes to the form logic are necessary. The application program passes the data via a function module interface to the Smart Form.

<b>Features</b>

<b>Tools</b>

To develop a Smart Form you use the Form Builder in which you describe the attributes of the Smart Form by using the integrated graphical tools, such as the Form Painter for the layout of a form page or the Table Painter for the design of table output. The form logic is represented by a hierarchy structure (tree structure) that you construct of individual nodes together with the relevant attributes. Besides using existing nodes for global settings you may create, for example, nodes for the output of texts, of tables, or of graphics. To make changes, use Drag&Drop, Copy&Paste, and select different attributes. These actions do not require writing coding lines or using a Script language.

You can check individual nodes as well as the entire form and find any existing errors in the tree structure. The data flow analysis checks whether all fields (variables) have a defined value at the moment they are displayed.

<b>Tables</b>

You can include static and dynamic tables into a Smart Form. Dynamic tables enable you to display tables whose size is determined only at the moment of their output by the number of the table items to be displayed. Table functions are:

Line feeds in individual table cells

Event-controlled output of table headings and footers

Integrated calculation of grand totals and subtotals

Colored boxes and shadings in tables

<b>Miscellaneous</b>

To position output on a form page you use windows. Besides using simple windows for displaying output of fixed length there are special window types, for example, for continuous text or for distinctions between the original and a copy of a form.

You can include background pictures as graphics, which you can either use as copy templates for a form or print as background graphics.

You can specify spool attributes in the form to allow for postage optimizing.

<b>Interactive Web Forms</b>

You use HTML output to integrate forms into Internet applications. This allows you to use the same Smart Form both for printing and for the Internet application. The layout of the form in the web browser corresponds to the print layout.

You can enhance the web forms with input-enabled elements, allowing the recipient or user of a web form to change or supplement data. The data the user entered can either be queried by the Internet application or be evaluated automatically by the system.

Regards,

Vara

[Former Member]

Hi,

I don´t see disadvantages if you do the coding in SmartForms; in fact, there´s an area in your form for this porpuse. You should use the interface to pass the values to the form and within, you can process those values. About performance, it´s going to be just the same where the code is executed.

Regards

[Former Member]

Hi,

Driver progarm is there to call the smartforms .

So you should not code much in that as passing all those resulted values in to the smartforms is cumbersome.

Suppose you are living at one place and constructing a house somewhere else then all the building materials should be unloaded at construction site not at your leaving place , if you do again you have to carry it the construction site .

Similarly Only some of the basic parameters that we get from the selection-screen fields of that program should be passed to the smartforms .

Remaining selection should be done within the smartforms progarm lines node .

That is the best option.

Regards,

Guru

Message was edited by:

Guru Prasad