F4 Help?

[Former Member]

Hello Gurus:

I am working on ECC 6.0 NetWeaver 7.0 with designer 7.1. We are not using any ISR.

We wish to have a (screen) transaction implemented thro interactive adobe

form(s). Can an adobe form be developed to replace a screen in all aspects? Can search help similar to those in SAP screens be made possible? Can something like a PO be entirely created using adobe forms, with search helps for material, assignment, etc?

I have hit a dead-end, I was able to get a dropdown list, but not a seach help. I tried different elements in the native, activex webdynpro and ISR library. I also tried ZCI for the form property. The down-arrow appears at the field but nothing happens on click. I have read many blogs, notes etc that say a search help is possible. What am I missing, some Basis patch, front-end patch or some scripting? Please advise.

Thankfully,

Fred.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi

Form is not meant to replace the screen.

It is just to go paperless with zero user training.

Nitesh Shelar

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Nitesh,

Appreciate your time and opinion.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

This statement is not entirely true. A form could easily be used as an alternative to a complete SAP transaction. Look at transaction MM01 for example. There are various data views and over 100 input fields. Using an Interactive Form, you could tie into the BAPI / web service for this transaction and replace the front-end with an Interactive Form.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

... that's right, as you can enter only the data you need in one (simple) form.

Indeed a form is not meant to replace heavy screens and/or applications: /people/markus.meisl/blog/2006/12/22/a-pdf-form-or-not-a-pdf-form--that-is-the-often-the-question

Regards,

Francois

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks a lot guys for your time and thoughts.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Fred, and other SDN experts,

I have also been struggling to find a clear answer to same problem. <b>We would just like to know the best way (if there is one) to populate our dropdown lists in Adobe forms using RFC.</b>

Simply put, we would like to display dropdown lists in Adobe form, as the user would see if they were actually executing the transaction in R3, <b>but how do we get the values for the dropdown list?</b> I am referring to transaction IW21.

I have posted a separate thread on this issue, but I haven’t gotten a clear answer yet? Do I need to use “RFC_READ_TABLE” to get values, and write code to populate the dropdown lists?

My Thread:

Any help or guidance on this issue would be much appreciated. This has been a very frustrating for us.

Thanks,

Rob.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Rob,

Please check and the blog 6793 mentioned there.

I hope this helps.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I will try it tomorrow morning; I looked at the blog, and its built on ABAP code. My project is web dynpro Java. Would you know of the Java way of doing this?

thanks,

rob.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Rob,

Take a look at OSS Note 1013227. Did that help?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Fred.

I am able to display values in dropdown list if I use some LOOP to fill in my context values.

According to the OSS note, they are filling the context using the following loop:

for(int i=0; i<100; ++i){

DDLValueSet.put("DDLKey" + i, "DDLValue" + i);

}

<b>My real question is how do I get these values using my BAPI?</b> I don't want to hardcode these values (from 1 to 100), I want to get the valid values from the backend, and then run a loop to fill my dropdown list.

<b>For example,</b> I am using the BAPI "BAPI_ALM_NOTIF_CREATE", and this BAPI requires and input field called "Notification_Type"; so is there any function in the BAPI that will give me the valid values for "Notification_Type"

I really appreciate your help.

Thanks,

Rob.

[krishanu_biswas · Accepted solution]

Hello Rob,

I think, Fred has just suggested you to follow the note...not to hardcode the values those are there in the note.

You can do it this way:

Your BAPI should be bound to a RFC model in Web Dynpro. You can then bind this model attribute to component controller's context attribute and that in turn should be bound to the context attribute of your view controller. Map it to the Adobe DDL and thats all you need to do.

The whole idea here is that you somehow have to bring the value set from your BAPI till the Web Dynpro Context and the rest will fall in place automatically.

Best Regards,

Krish

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the very useful replies, but please read my current situation below:

I have mapped the context from BAPI model, to component Controller, to all my Views. I can verify that the context is binded correctly because when I submit my Adobe form, and execute the BAPI, <b>everything works great</b>, and all the information is getting stored in R/3.

<b>Issue: </b>

At design time, or runtime, The DDLs in Adobe forms never get any values. I have tried all kind of DDLs (Enumerated, Native, Web-Dynpro Value Helps). So, now I am thinking that I need some additional Code to get the values from backend, and then populate the DDLs. So, I am now experimenting with the BAPI_ HELPVALUES_GET.

<b>If you think that I don’t need to use this additional BAPI (BAPI_ HELPVALUES_GET) to get values in DDL, then please let me know with some details. I would really appreciate it.</b>

Also, it would be better if you guys reply to my other thread so I can give you guys some points.

Thanks,

Rob

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Rob,

With my limited knowledge, (and lot of ignorance), at this point, I would say YES, you need to use some coding to bring in the values for the DDL from R/3 to the form. Sadly, the adobe form is not going to be as functional as a dynpro. (Anyway, why would SAP do it, as many would start using pdfs and turn away from dynpros)

Gurus, please speak up, tell me I am wrong or right.

Thank you,

Fred.

Nb: Not to worry about awarding points for me. I am too old for learning, leave alone grading