Tree Control in SE10 with GUI 740

[Matt_Fraser]

Hello all,

I've just upgraded my workstation from GUI 730 to GUI 740 (yes, yes, I know, late to the game), and I am struggling with some issues in the user interface. Specifically, in SE10 (and perhaps other transactions), the expand/collapse tree control seems to have disappeared entirely. For instance, with GUI 730, I'm used to SE10 looking something like this:

Note all the expanded (and two collapsed) controls, allowing a hierarchical display of the systems and transports, and ultimately of transport contents.

After upgrade to 740, however, the controls disappear, replaced with a shaded blank area, and clicking that area does not produce the expected behavior:

For instance, when clicking where the + symbol should be to the left of the two listed transports, instead of expanding the display to show the tasks under those transports as one would expect, it duplicates the behavior of double-clicking on the transport number itself, thus opening an entirely different screen. It is still possible to expand the hierarchy by right-clicking on a line and choosing Expand from the context menu, but this is much more cumbersome.

I tried this with different themes, including Blue Crystal, Corbu, and Signature (pictured in the screenshots), and also in Signature with "Corbu style icons" turned off, but it didn't make any difference. I also tried it against both NW 7.01 and NW 7.4 backends, and it didn't make any difference.

This is with GUI 7.40 compilation 3 (and therefore patch level 8), the latest available at this time. I know patch 9 is coming out in roughly a week, but I didn't see anything in the list of known bugs (Note 2035293) that looked like it described this problem. My OS is Windows 7 sp1, pretty well hotfixed up.

Has anyone else encountered this, and if so, how did you resolve it?

Cheers,

Matt

[LutzR · Accepted solution]

Hi Matt,

this is a known old one with unkown cause (at least to me). Have a look e.g. at

Some SAP fonts are not registered correctly during install. This happens at our place once in a while, no idea why. Our fix: register fonts manually or install GUI a second time.

Cheers,

Lutz

[Matt_Fraser · Accepted solution]

Well, the solution turns out to be even less prosaic than that. Today the problem is gone! What did I do to resolve the situation, you may ask? Well, that's a good question.

I shut down overnight, and booted up again this morning.

That's it. No re-install. No re-registering of fonts (though I was setting out to do just that when I thought "Hmm, let's just make sure the problem still exists first").

So, I'm not completely comfortable with a number of things about this whole client upgrade process, including this aspect, but the solutions are the classic "reboot" and it works.

I'd rather not force a reboot on these upgrades where it's not needed, as that just pisses off users, but that might be where I need to go. We'll see in my testing how often this comes up.

[LutzR · Accepted solution]

Hi Matt, great to learn this. So thats why it is so unpredictable at our site: I personaly experienced it after more than 50% of my own installations but we don't have many complaints from real life users after mass rollout. Most users probably did a restart befor they entered a relevant transaction. What a fun.

Cheers,

Lutz

[Matt_Fraser · Accepted solution]

Even the process of upgrading the client in the first place needed an odd reboot. We use AWUS here, so naturally I wanted to test the "automatic" trigger of the upgrade after I upgraded the Installation Server. I restarted AWUS on my workstation, it detected the update available, and then.... nothing. It just hung. Every time. Then I rebooted my workstation, and this time AWUS kicked off the upgrade just fine.

Even upgrading the Installation Server required me to reboot the workstation from which I performed it. I would kick off NwUpdateInstServer.exe, and it would just hang. Then after a reboot, it worked fine.

Maybe I have something really odd going on with my workstation. I'm hoping that's the case.

[Juwin]

Long long ago, I had faced a similar situation, with an older version of the GUI. In my case, just the icons were incorrect, functionality of open/close was working. Later I figured out that it was the font file that was corrupt.

Thanks

Juwin

[Matt_Fraser]

Cris,

My wdttree.ocx is 7400.3.8.380, same as yours, so it seems the right dlls are loading.

Lutz,

Thank you! So far, mine is the only workstation I have upgraded (sick it on myself before subjecting everyone else to it), so I have a sample set of 1. I figured I'd better resolve this issue before pushing it any further. Anyway, this looks promising and I'm going to give it a try.

--Matt

[LutzR]

Hi Matt, one addition: in technical terms this is no tree control but a good old ABAP list emulating a tree by WRITE statement. So this definitely has nothing to do with ocx files. I learnt ABAP in the late nineties as SAP employee and I always get into a reminiscent mood when seeing transactions like this.

Cheers,

Lutz

[cris_hansen]

Hi Matt,

I am using SAPGUI 7.40 (7400.3.8.3345) and running SE10 in my 7.40 test system brings:

The result is presented with SAP Signature Theme.

Ok, I'm running Windows 10 OS here - but I'll check with other OSs in a few minutes.

I couldn't find notes from bc-fes-ctl or bc-fes-gui that would match the issue you are facing.

Maybe there is a setting that needs to be adjusted?

Kind regards,

Cris

[cris_hansen]

Hi Matt,

I recall a case from 04.2015 - the issue was not reproduced by our development support using patch 3 of SAPGUI 7.40. It is strange that with patch 8 you are facing it.

I'll keep looking for a solution or explanation for the behavior...

Cheers,

Cris

[Matt_Fraser]

Thanks, Cris.

Could it be an artifact of an upgraded Installation Server? In this case I'm testing upgrading my Installation Server from 7.30 to 7.40, and then from there my workstation client the same.

Cheers,

Matt

[cris_hansen]

HI Matt,

I would check the library versions: just look in the "About..." "Loaded Dlls".

Maybe the wdttree.ocx is the one you should look for. I have file version 7400.3.8.380 in my local PC.

I tested in a few remote locations using SAPGUI 7.40 pl 8, and all of them are presenting the expand/collapse button in the tree (running SE10 in the same system).

Kind regards,

Cris