Complexity in Smartforms

[Former Member]

What are the most complex and difficult parts in Smartforms since I dont see any complexities when going through the SAP documents on Smartforms

Thanks

Ricky

[Former Member]

The difficulty I find in SMARTFORMS is not so much the application itself but how to start.

Like all things in SAP, you need to first know that you are working with the best SMARTFORMS for your particular requirements. There are in fact multiple SMARTFORMS for the same or similar output. Most of your work will be actually tweaking and jazzing up the standard SMARTFORMS before you tackle making your own from scratch.

An example, you can find a /SMB* version PP Form but when you go to OPK8 to configure the print program and SMARTFORM you find that the tcode seems to only allow only SAPSCRIPT & PDF (Interactive Forms). Doh!

Then you find SAP now allows BAR CODES not requiring firmware but wait, only certain BAR CODES are set up for the new technology.

I guess what I am saying is that SMARTFORMS is easier and more dynamic than SAPSCRIPT almost to the point of being fun but then BLAM! --- getting it to utilize all the neat bells and whistles that are there just seemingly out of reach of attaining that elegant solution.

One last item, graphics --- make sure they are very clean before putting them into the repository via tcode SE78, transparent rather than white backgrounds, clean and crisp lettering done after sizing. SMARTFORMS is a teaser at times but plug away because it does make some very nice printed outputs. Honest!

Oops! One more "challenge" reading these forums where people did not take time to run through a spell check. Would be nice folks!

[Former Member]

hi

u can't find any difficulty in smartforms.. but only thing is how to make use of all node is important.

there are different types of node avialble in smartforms.. FOLDER and COMMAND and TEMPLATEs, contions for every node etc.. using theses we can include multiple layout in one form without affecting one another.. when u start working on smartform then u will get konw

[Former Member]

From a general standpoint, Smartforms is like anything else and takes some real time working with it to get used to it, but it ishould be pretty simple in most cases.

I found that the most complex part of Smartforms is dealing with logic in two levels, the graphical nodes which represent some form of logic (looping, decisions, etc), and the actual ABAP code inside the nodes. It could be difficult to troubleshoot/debug if you are not careful and end up with many nested nodes that control program flow, and adding to the complexity is each node can also contain programming logic.