Adobe Interactive Form ABAP code problem

[Former Member]

We have SAP R/3 47 Enterprise system running WAS 620 with ABAP stack only.

We are looking forward to convert our 30% custom travel application to make use of Adobe interactive forms.Also we are planning to move to WAS 640 which will be a technical upgrade on the Enterprise backend.After this upgrade is it possible to convert the ABAP screens using the ABAP Webdynpro and rebuild the travel application with minimum efforts..?

We do not have any idea when webdynpro for ABAP will be released..!

Also with the currently available Java webdynpro we understood that we can only communicate to the application using Bapis/RFCs to include Adobe interactve forms and in that case should we re-write the entire application to use Bapis and RFCs inorder to pass the params to and fro to the Adobe interactive forms..?

Please suggest us the right way to handle this situation..!

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Dennis,

Maybe for the first point with respect to conversion and effort, this entirely depends on how complex the screens are.

Yes as of now it is feasible to use BAPI/RFC to achieve the communication with the Web Dynpro, for data fetch and data store. So you would definitely need to provide RFC/BAPI that would encapsulate the functionality.

There are some options though not recommended so I would say atleast to my knowledge there arent any other options.

Regards,

Pavan

[Former Member]

Hello Dennis,

You can explore the option to use the ISR Framework.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2004/helpdata/en/4e/3120386827c23ce10000009b38f842/frameset.htm

This is a solution that now supports Adobe Interactive Forms also. Earlier it used to support the HTML/ITS Forms etc.

Using these you can define your scenarios, attach the Adobe forms to it, create context data etc. ISR framework provides us with standard BADI's that we have to implement for our scenario.

There is a Webdynpro(JAVA) application known as ISR provided, using which we can execute the scenarios.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Shubham

[Former Member]

Hi Dennis,

>After this upgrade is it possible to convert the ABAP screens using the ABAP Webdynpro and rebuild the travel application with minimum efforts..?

Some words on the dynpro conversion tool:

Like Web Dynpro for ABAP, the dynpro conversion tool will be shipped in 2005 with Web AS 7.0, which is part of NetWeaver 2004s and thus the basis for mySAP ERP 2005.

Dynpro design time conversion is a tool that automatically generates a Web Dynpro for ABAP component and corresponding view metadata from the screen sources of an ABAP program. It is a pure design time tool and does not provide any runtime support for the generated Web Dynpro for ABAP objects. In particular, converting flow logic of the screen program and calling ABAP modules is out of scope. That means, the resulting Web Dynpro component will not be ready to run directly after conversion.

The conversion tool will not change the ABAP code that was called by the screen program. As a result, all UI objects contained in the ABAP code, like GUI controls or ABAP lists, are not included in the conversion. These objects have to be rewritten using Web Dynpro for ABAP.

Further steps need to be undertaken after running the conversion tool:

- Correct the layout (the generated layout can only be an approximation of the underlying screens),

- Separate business and UI logic in the ABAP modules.

- Rewrite UI-related operations like validation and navigation, which were formerly part of the flow logic and the ABAP modules, in the Web Dynpro controllers.

- Encapsulate the business logic in services (or function modules), which are called from the Web Dynpro for ABAP model components.

Therefore, I would be careful talking about minimum effort for conversion of ABAP programs to Web Dynpro components. That very much depends on the existing ABAP coding.

Kind regards,

Antje Boehm-Peters

SAP NetWeaver Product Management

[markus_meisl]

Hi Dennis,

while it is correct that you will be able to use Interactive Forms based on Adobe software with Web Dynpro ABAP, this may not be the easiest and fastest way for you at this point.

As you state correctly, to be able to use Interactive Forms you need Web AS 6.40, which is part of SAP NetWeaver 04 and was shipped as the basis of mySAP ERP 2004. Until you upgrade to ERP 2004, you will have to carefully assess the efforts involved to move your application to Interactive Forms.

Web Dynpro ABAP will be shipped in 2005 with Web AS 7.0, which is part of NetWeaver 2004s and thus the basis for mySAP ERP 2005. Only with this release will you be able to combine WD ABAP and these forms.

If you choose to use Interactive Forms before, the best way to do it is to use the Adobe integration in Web Dynpro Java. Use for example Adaptive RFC to supply the data from your Enterprise backend to the Java application, which needs to run on Web AS 6.40, and generate the PDF there. This is an OK procedure for interactive forms usage, but not recommended by SAP for high-volume print scenarios.

You can also create interactive forms in the ABAP transaction SFP, but will have to write code to pass the data back to the backend, whereas Web Dynpro uses its context to do so.

Hope this helps.

Markus Meisl

SAP NetWeaver Product Management