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Lessons Learned from Adobe Forms Development
 
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Introduction
I have been working on a few projects where I have used the new Adobe Forms tool from within the ABAP side of the WebAS 640 (Transaction SFP). These projects use the Adobe tool to create printed forms not interactive ones. Basically I have a BSP application that I need to produce a nicely formatted printed version for. Although my first form took about a day to design because I was still learning the tool; my latest one only took about 45 minutes total (that includes writing the print program, the form interface, context mapping and of course the form design). I would like to share these experiences, specifically focusing on the techniques that once learned made it possible to go from 1 day to 45 minutes of build time.
We will start by looking at the BSP application that I am trying to represent in the Adobe Forms Tool.
Long Text Area
The first place where I thought I was going to have a problem was with my Long Text Description. Back in R/3 this is Document Information Record Long text stored like most long - in multiple records with fixed length (132 characters in this case). For my BSP application I had already concatenated all these text lines into single string for passing to the textView element. I originally thought that I would have to go back to the separate record format. This is what I have done in the past with SapScript. As it turns out I can just pass the entire string through to the Adobe Form. It will pick the Carriage Return/Line Feeds that I inserted into the string for proper display in the BSP page. All I had to do is set the following parameters on the field in the designer.
Tables
It is fairly common to have tabular data within SAP form output. Although I really like the Adobe forms designer tool, the creation of tables is one area where I though the process was cumbersome. I nice table designer like we have in SmartForms would be appreciated. Once I had done a few tables however I found that the process wasn't too bad. There certainly are more and better visual formatting options for tables within the Adobe tool.
I had sent my internal table through the Form interface and added it via drag and drop to the Context. I could see the table, and its components in the data view of the forms designer.
You start the table creation process by dragging a subform object from the Library palette/Standard tab. This first subform represents your entire table, so place it where you want your table to be. Also resize it large enough to easily insert additional elements inside the subform area.
Next you need to insert two more subforms. One will become your header and one will become your table body.
Now you can insert the individual fields that will make up your Table header and body elements. You can insert static text, text fields or any of the other standard form elements. Drag and drop the fields from your internal table represented in the Data View to bind to the data from your context. The size that you make the individual elements doesn't really mater at this point nor does your exact alignment. You can see that they are quite a mess in my designer at this point. They will be resized in a few steps. Notice that you have to type static headers. I never found an easy way to bring in field titles. You can see from my screen shot earlier that the language dependent field descriptions map through the interface and into the content. You can see them in the data view under Descriptive info. It sure would be nice if these automatically mapped to the table headers or to text fields that are bound to context items.
Finally we are ready to turn this mess into a table. We return to our highest level subitem that represents the table itself. We need to go to the Object palette, Subform tab. The default Subform type is Position Content. We need to change this to Flow Content. Now a new option opens up that allows us to choose the Flow Direction. For this element we choose table. Now we reach the point where we will define our column sizes. A new field has appeared where we must list all the column widths separated by commas. We had two columns that we will make 4 inches each.
The process is now repeated for the subform that represents our table header and our table row.
The layout in the designer now looks much nicer.
What we have so far will give us a nice looking table with exactly one row. We must go into the subform that represents our table row and in the Object Palette/Binding tab make the proper setting so that the row will repeat for each item in the internal table that is bound from the context. To do this we set the Repeat Subform for Each Data Item option. If you want to get fancy you can even set an overflow leader so that the table header is repeated if the table must span more than one page.
Images and Icons
My BSP application has a table that displays standard SAP Icons in one of the columns. I needed to find a way to also display these icons within my form. Because they are derived from the data in my internal table, I have no idea at design time which images I might need. Including static images is actually quite easy in the form designer. You add the image field to your form. Then you double click on the image field. This will bring up a file browser where you can choose an image accessible via your local machine. The image will be uploaded and either linked to or inserted into your form definition. You can set this option via the Object Palette/Draw tab. There is a checkbox called Embed Image Data.
However static images were not going to cut it for my need. The first thing I decided to do was to get my Icon content into a binary string variable so that it could be passed into the form interface. I accomplished this with the following code.
We already have the internal table the contains our icon binary content in our context. Now I needed to manually add the special element type of Graphic to the table node of the context.
There are two types of Graphic Nodes within Adobe Forms Context - Graphical Context and Graphical Reference. With Graphical Reference, you only have to supply a URL where the image content can be read from. I had originally started to use this option and just pass the URL to the icons. However there appears to be a bug in my WebAS 640 SP12 system that produces a short dump for this type of graphic node if it is placed in a table node (Updated 7/18/2005: This problem is now fixed via OSS note 862915). This left me with only the Graphic Context Option. I therefore just supply the fields of my table that contain the content and the mime type. Also note that there is a bug in SFP in 640 SP12 that causes the Graphic Context not to syntax check if the mime type is supplied via a content attribute instead of static string. This problem is also solved via OSS note 862431.
The graphic node now appears within your data view in the forms design and can be dragged onto the form and placed within a table row subform. I did find one problem however. When it drug this node element over to my form, it didn't generate a image field. By default it created a text field. I had to manually change it to an image field.
Form Paging
When I first printed my form everything looked good, until I found an example that should have wrapped around to a second page. Instead the content ran right off the first page and that was all I got. The Form Designer really seems to default to fixed position content. With lots of variable length table output, that just doesn't work well. I found that I needed to change some settings ont eh Main SubForm that all of my content lived within. This subform needed to be changed from Position Content to Flow Content. Since I just wanted my content to flow out like a continuous report I only have one Master Page with a single content area. However with the use of multiple Master Pages and Content Areas within them, you could have static content (such as a header area) that repeats on each page mixed with variable content (like the table items). The following were the settings that I came up with that best fit my needs on the Main SubForm.
Form Output
In the end I was quite happy with the results of integrated my Adobe Document in with my BSP application. Because the resulting document is printed from the Server, I just created a small printer dialog much like the one in the SAPGui for producing the form output.
Also because I had used the Adobe tool, the default format is PDF. Therefore I don't have to do any conversion if I want to offer the content as a downloadable PDF file as well. There is a flag in the output parameters structure of the open Job function module (FP_JOB_OPEN) called getpdf. If you mark this flag, the binary content of the document will be returned to your application in the formoutput return structure. This single binary string is all ready your document in the PDF format. No further manipulation is necessary.
In case anyone is interested this is what the finished document ended up looking like in PDF, I have included some screen shots. I have marked over the top of some sensitive information. I should also note that capturing the form as an image and shrinking it did lose some of the detail of the lines and shadows around the tables and table headers.
Thomas Jung
Thomas Jung is an SAP Technology Solution Architect focusing on Custom Development Tools - particularly in the areas of ABAP and User Interface Technology.
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- Read external files for Offline Forms
2010-03-22 10:47:52 Maria Monteverde
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[Reply]
Hi Thomas,
Really nice and useful blog!.. I had a question. Is possible to populate some drop down fields, tables, etc from an external file in an offline forms? I'm asking this because we need to have a material master reference in a form and we're not connected to the network.
If the answer is yes, how can I achieve this?
Thanks a lot!!!
Best regards!
María Margarita- Read external files for Offline Forms
2010-03-31 17:32:10 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
I don't know. That is quite outside the scope of this blog discussion and outside the scope of the SAP provided functionality. There is nothing SAP provides to read a client side file. This would only be possible via some standard Adobe document functionality (via ActionScript). Somehow I have my doubts it would be possible however. It would seem like a security risk if any PDF document could read other files from the filesystem. I believe that PDF has similiar sandbox restrictions as when you are running in a browser - otherwise hackers would use this as an exploit.
- table control in Adobe forms
2010-02-02 09:49:47 Neha Sharma Business Card [Reply]
Hi Thomas, thank you for this informative blog; one question that came to my mind was, why dont we use the table control and instead use subforms? what is the significance of the table control? and how do we use it to bind the individual cells to the context elements- table control in Adobe forms
2010-02-02 09:54:58 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
Keep in mind that this blog was written in 2005. That's a lifetime when it comes to technology. :) At the time there was no table wizard or UI element and you had to use Nested Subforms.
Now the Lifecycle Designer has both and the easiest way to build a table is to just drag and drop a context node onto the form layout.
- Interactive forms using ABAP
2008-11-11 21:00:06 S Kumar Business Card [Reply]
Hi Thomas,
Is it possible to design Interactive forms in ABAP. I have a requirement for a client using R/3, there is no Portal involved so WebDynpro ABAP is not an option.In this case I am wondering is this a possibility using general ABAP.
Cheers
Senthil
- Interactive forms using ABAP
2008-11-11 21:14:09 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
>there is no Portal involved so WebDynpro ABAP is not an option
I don't understand why WDA is not an option. WDA will function correctly without a Portal.
>In this case I am wondering is this a possibility using general ABAP
It is not recommended. You should use WDA for interactive forms. It makes the binding of the XML based form interface much easier. Outside of WDA you would have to treat the interactive form like an offline form and do a lot of the processing yourself.- Interactive forms using ABAP
2008-11-11 21:26:52 S Kumar Business Card [Reply]
Hi Thomas,
Thank you so much for the prompt reply. I used WDA before but only with portal. Do I have to use the URL of the WDA application to run it on the web page or can I create custom transaction using WDA application to execute it.
Cheers
S Kumar- Interactive forms using ABAP
2008-11-11 22:07:14 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
You can do either. You can of course access the URL directly. You can assign the WDA application to a role - and it will appear in the easy access menu. You can also assign to a TCODE. You can create a parameter transaction for SAP transaction WDYID.- Interactive forms using ABAP
2008-11-12 15:10:14 S Kumar Business Card [Reply]
Hi Thomas,
Thank you for the valuable help.
Cheers
S Kumar
- Interactive forms using ABAP
2008-11-11 21:14:07 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
>there is no Portal involved so WebDynpro ABAP is not an option
I don't understand why WDA is not an option. WDA will function correctly without a Portal.
>In this case I am wondering is this a possibility using general ABAP
It is not recommended. You should use WDA for interactive forms. It makes the binding of the XML based form interface much easier. Outside of WDA you would have to treat the interactive form like an offline form and do a lot of the processing yourself.
- Import a pdf and merge with specific fields in interactive forms
2008-09-26 05:50:18 Gerard ANDRE Business Card [Reply]
Hello Thomas,
I want to know if it is possible to import a external pdf in a form without changing specific texts or fields which have been created in the form.
Actually, I have no issue to import pdf with SFP with this option: Preserve Appareances.
I've added specific texts and fields. But if I want to import another pdf file, the specific texts and fields are deleted.
Is there a way to keep the specific data but change the pdf in background?
Thanks for your reply.- Import a pdf and merge with specific fields in interactive forms
2008-09-26 06:03:35 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
I'm afraid that I don't know of any way to reimport a new starting PDF and not lose the fields that you have added to the form.
- interactive forms
2008-02-26 02:13:47 Mielcarek Tomasz Business Card [Reply]
Hi Thomas,
it may be a little OT, however I think you may know the things that I'd like to ask you about.
I generate a form and send it via email to a client. Could you tell me whether he is capable of making a subform or a single control (e.g. a textfield) disappear in the interactive form (e.g. by checking a checkbox or sth like that)? And if not - is it possible (and how) to add some kind of bookmarks while generating this kind of form that would make it easier to move between pages (especially when you have plenty of them)?
Thanks in advance for the reply.
Tom.- interactive forms
2008-02-26 04:51:20 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
In short there is nothing in the standard design tool that will do what you describe. However you can code JavaScript within your form. you might be able to create some custom scripting that will hide and show sections of the form. I tend to try and avoid this kind of scripting in Adobe Forms because of the security concerns - especially when sending the form outside your organization.
As far as bookmarks - I have never tried that. I don't know - even if the lifecycle designer let you put in bookmarks, I don't know if the ADS will render them. They are listed as a supported UI element. You might just have to experiment to try it out.
- Images not displayed through print program
2007-12-02 22:54:51 gagandeep singh Business Card [Reply]
hi
my aim is to display a image based on sales organization.
i have maintained a custom table in which i am storing the urls of the images stored on server.
Using a select querry in print program i am retriving the url from table in a variable (lv_name) and passing that url to ADS FORM.
In ads form i have placed a image and a text field. The URL of the image is assigned a value of text field(containg url path) in form calc.
Problem is the image is not displayed when i run my print program.
I have done R&D on this and found following
1) When i assign same URL to the textfield's default value and hit PRINT PREVIEW in SFP then that image is picked and displayed on form. but when i run that form from my print program(default value still intact) then image is not displayed.
my concern is why is it that image is displayed in print preview and not when i am calling my form from program.
I am using the below code to call a ADS Form..
TYPE-POOLS: abap.
START-OF-SELECTION.
DATA: ls_params TYPE sfpoutputparams.
* Form Processing Output Parameter : Request PDF return
ls_params-getpdf = 'X'.
* Start of Form Processing
CALL FUNCTION 'FP_JOB_OPEN'
CHANGING
ie_outputparams = ls_params.
TRY.
DATA: lv_name TYPE fpname,
lv_funcname TYPE funcname.
*Get the function module for Form
lv_name = 'ZSREE_ICI_TRAINING_PDF01'.
CALL FUNCTION 'FP_FUNCTION_MODULE_NAME'
EXPORTING
i_name = lv_name
IMPORTING
e_funcname = lv_funcname.
ENDTRY.
DATA: customer TYPE scustom,
bookings TYPE ty_bookings,
connections type ty_connections.
DATA: fp_docparams TYPE sfpdocparams,
fp_output TYPE fpformoutput,
filename TYPE string,
path TYPE string,
fullpath TYPE string,
data_tab TYPE TABLE OF x255.
* Form Processing Form Parameter
fp_docparams-langu = 'EN'.
fp_docparams-country = 'US'.
* fp_docparams-fillable = 'X'.
CALL FUNCTION lv_funcname
EXPORTING
/1bcdwb/docparams = fp_docparams
scustom = customer
bookings = bookings
IMPORTING
/1bcdwb/formoutput = fp_output.
* End of Form Processing
CALL FUNCTION 'FP_JOB_CLOSE'.
cl_gui_frontend_services=>file_save_dialog( EXPORTING
default_extension = 'PDF'
CHANGING
filename = filename
path = path
fullpath = fullpath ).
CALL FUNCTION 'SCMS_XSTRING_TO_BINARY'
EXPORTING
buffer = fp_output-pdf
TABLES
binary_tab = data_tab.
cl_gui_frontend_services=>gui_download( EXPORTING
filename = filename
filetype ='BIN'
CHANGING
data_tab = data_tab ).
cl_gui_frontend_services=>execute( EXPORTING
document = filename ).- Images not displayed through print program
2007-12-03 11:39:10 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
I really don't know why that would be the case, but in general that is why I prefer the embedding of the image content approach that I used in this blog. When you only link to the URL, you have the advantage of a smaller PDF document but the complication of the client hosting the PDF has to access the URL at runtime. This leads to many different variables like security and firewalls. So is your URL a relative path or a full URL? Where does the URL actually point to - storage on the SAP server or somewhere else? Is there any security on that location?
- Good Presentation
2007-07-12 23:38:08 prem kumar Business Card [Reply]
Its really a good blog,can we proceed with the same for normal application
- Good Presentation
2007-07-13 05:05:52 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
>can we proceed with the same for normal application
I'm not sure what you mean by normal application. Print based Adobe forms can be called from function modules in the background, inside dialog and list programs - as well as BSP, Web Services, and Web Dynpro applications.
- Icon Background Color
2007-05-02 02:49:49 Alex Koelbel Business Card [Reply]
Hi Thomas !
Really nice Blog.
I see in your example, you have the same effect, as me in my Adobe Lifecycle Designer Application.
The background-color of the dynamically integrated icons, are in such a bad pink color... The original icons, doesn't have such a background color in the mime-repository.
Have you any idea to avoid this unaesthetic effect ?
Thanks in Advance & Kind regards.
Alex.- Icon Background Color
2007-05-02 06:26:01 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
The bad pink color is the transparency mask. When these images are used on a web page, the transparency mask is replaced by whatever the background color is. Unfortunetly either PDF Reader or the ADS rendering doesn't support this feature.
The only work around I know of is to download the files, edit them in an image editor to remove the mask, and then reupload them to the MIME repository in a folder of your own. You wouldn't want to overwrite the standard icons - they wouldn't function correctly in a browser if you did and the changes would be overwritten in Support Packages/Upgrades anyway.
I did download and edit some of the more common icons when I worked at Kimball for use in Adobe Forms.
- Content Graphic
2007-03-28 07:45:06 Technique Consultant Business Card [Reply]
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for your weblog.
For my first form, I need to include a dynamic company logo. The issue is that these logos are SAP Script Text.
In SAP Library, it is said that graphics have to come from Mime Repository.
So is there any solution to use a graphic that points to a SAP Script Text.
Thanks,
Alain.- Content Graphic
2007-04-02 14:34:15 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
Well Interactive Forms by Adobe requires the graphic content to be supplied via URL or as binary content. It does not support the SAPScript Text format.
Now if you are refering to Graphics stored as Text, this format is obsolete even within SAPScript. However the replacement approach actually stores the documents as Bitmaps in the BDS (Business Document Store). It should theroteically be possible to read the files from the BDS and process them into binary strings and pass them into the Adobe Forms.
You might want to have a look at the function module, SAPSCRIPT_BITMAP_GET, to see how this reading from the BDS is done within SAPSCRIPT. This should get you most of the logic you will need.
- Overflow table in pdf
2007-03-28 06:55:47 Noelia Martinez Business Card [Reply]
Hello Thomas,
I have a table in a form for PDF.
The problem comes when the number of rows is big and there is not enough space in the first page.
I want the content to be shown in next page but the tab 'pagination' is disabled and i can not configure it.
Any solutions?
Thanks in advance.- Overflow table in pdf
2007-04-02 14:21:08 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
Have you read the "Form Paging" section of this weblog? It has the instructions to perform what you are looking for. Make sure that he main form of your page is set to flow content. If you have positioned content, then 'pagination' will be disabled.- Overflow table in pdf
2008-02-14 05:54:39 Mielcarek Tomasz Business Card [Reply]
Hi there,
I have a quite similar problem: I succeed when the table fits in at most two pages. But when there are hundreds of rows and the table spans for 3 or more pages - the header is shown twice: only at the beginning of the table and right after the first page break. I'd be really greatful if you could help me out on that.
Thx in advance.
Thomas
P.S.: And all the forms on the page are set to flow content.- Overflow table in pdf
2008-02-15 05:02:06 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
I'm afraid that I don't know of any special trick for getting the header onto the subsequent pages. I've never seen that problem actually. Usually the tricky part is getting the header to repeat on the 2nd page. Once you have that, the following pages usually work just fine. You might have simply encountered a bug (either in the designer or the ADS) and you might want to open a support ticket on the problem.
- Overflow table in pdf
2008-02-14 05:57:26 Mielcarek Tomasz Business Card [Reply]
I forgot to add: I'm using Adobe LiveCycle Designer 7.0 - if that may be any useful hint to you.
Thx again
Thomas
- Passing values of internal table to PCR
2007-01-31 02:07:40 Adeline Md Isa Business Card [Reply]
Hi,
This is certainly a fantastic weblog! Thanks so much for it!
BTW, I'm now creating a table for my PCR as well. I've already managed the form bit (subforms etc) but am unsure of how to pass the data from my internal table to the table in the form.
I believe I would need to populate the values in SPECIAL_DATA of the QISR BADI, but could you please give me some pointers for this? I've tried other forums but had no luck.
Thanks again!
Regards,
Adeline.- Passing values of internal table to PCR
2007-01-31 08:29:53 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
There really isn't much that is special about passing an internal table into a for. You can define an internal table within an existing interface parameter or create a new parameter for it. You can always create a data dictionary table type and then the internal table can be imbeded within another structure or table definition. If that doesn't clear things up, send me an email and I can respond back with some screen shots of what I am talking about.
- PDF complexity
2006-12-12 13:53:14 Prasad Sheth Business Card [Reply]
Hello,
This is indeed a great blog.
We have 3 very complex smartforms in CRM system and we need to map the templates in the Adobe forms. On a scale of 1 - 10 I would say 10.
What is the complexity Level that PDF forms can handle?
Regards
Prasad- PDF complexity
2006-12-12 21:54:07 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
Well it is difficult to draw a 1:1 comparision without knowing what the forms are actually displaying. That is because some of the things you can do in Smartforms are easier to do in Adobe and some are more difficult. Tables for instance, in my opionion, aren't as easy - hence the reason for detailing how to do them in this weblog. Although I can't off the top of my head think of a situation in SmartForms that you absolutely can't do in Adobe.
However overall Adobe Forms provides a far superior design tool. I would say on average any Samartform should be just as easy if not easier to build in Adobe once you get the hang of the tool.
- technical environment for abobe forms
2006-11-07 04:02:12 laurent gallula Business Card [Reply]
Hi,
Have we to make a special software or hardware installation to use the adobe forms technology in a ECC5 environment?- technical environment for abobe forms
2006-11-07 04:25:27 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
There is no special hardware needed, but there is some additional software. The Adobe Document Services must be installed on the J2EE engine and then you must configure the connection to your ABAP engine. The communication between ABAP and ADS is done via Web Services. The installation portion is quite simple. The ADS comes as a package that just has to be deployed to the J2EE.
- Subtotals in table
2006-08-21 09:04:46 Jose Manuel Cala López Business Card [Reply]
Thomas,
It is possible in WAS 640 to do a table with subtotals using Adobe Designer 6.0?
Something as:
Key1 Key2 Key3 Value
Key1 Key2 Key3 Value
Total Key3 Value
Key1 Key2 Key4 Value
Total Key4 Value
Total Key2 Value
Total Key1 Value
Regards.- Subtotals in table
2006-08-21 10:03:19 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
You probably want to ask that question in the forums as I have never tried to implement something like this. I don't believe that in 6.40 there are any table control level processing events like we used to have in SmartForms.
- Subtotals in table
2006-08-22 00:14:59 Jose Manuel Cala López Business Card [Reply]
Thanks for your quick answer. I ask that question in the forums.
Regards.
- Subtotals in Adobe Form Table
2006-08-21 08:57:17 Jose Manuel Cala López Business Card [Reply]
Thomas,
It is possible in WAS 640 to do a table with subtotals using Adobe Designer 6.0?
Something as:
Key1 Key2 Key3 Value
Key1 Key2 Key3 Value
Total Key3 Value
Key1 Key2 Key4 Value
Total Key4 Value
Total Key2 Value
Total Key1 Value
Regards.
- Blacked out text
2006-06-29 02:18:23 Nigel James Business Card [Reply]
I love the way you black out the text - very CIA, NSA or something equally secretive. Great blog.
- Where do I see the actual file?
2005-12-02 16:35:52 Parthasarathy Narayanan Business Card [Reply]
Hi,
I am trying to use the getpdf option in "fp_docparams".
My requirement is to get the file in my abap code and save the pdf file in a file folder.
I do not see any parameters by which I can get this file either in FP_OPEN_FORM nor in the generated function module.
Can anyone help?
Thanks.
- Where do I see the actual file?
2005-12-02 16:50:28 Parthasarathy Narayanan Business Card [Reply]
This is in continuation to my earlier post..
I see an import parameter called "FORMOUTPUT".
It has 3 parameters: pdf, pdl, pages.
I am sure "pdf" has te data I need. I need to figure out the way to download.
Thanks.- Where do I see the actual file?
2005-12-12 06:39:24 Thomas Jung Business Card [Reply]
The parameters you have found should do the trick. The PDF variable should contain the entire output document in PDF format. This variable is a single binary string.
The question really comes to how and where to do you want to download this. In my example I am using a BSP page. The binary string is the perfect format for placing into the response object.
However you sound like you might want to download to the person's PC. Is this using the SAPGui?
If so you first need to turn this binary string into an internal table. You will use CL_GUI_FRONTEND_SERVICES to download the content, but unfortunetely that won't accept the binary string. I like to use the function modules from group SCMS_CONV. They are great for convertion to and from binary string/string and internal tables.- Where do I see the actual file?
2006-11-03 21:33:10 Li Zhang Business Card [Reply]
Hi Thomas,
I have built an adobe form and interface, the code to collect data and pass it to the form. All these are tested in R/3 and work great. But I have hard time calling the form from BSP application. Your form is displayed in a BSP page. Could you show me some sample code you used in BSP page?
Thanks,
Li- Where do I see the actual file?
2006-11-06 08:33:17 Thomas Jung
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[Reply]
>All these are tested in R/3 and work great. But I have hard time calling the form from BSP application. Your form is displayed in a BSP page. Could you show me some sample code you used in BSP page?
That part is actually rather trivial. The only thing specific to the adobe forms development is know how to extract the PDF document as a binary string.
That can be done rather easily by the generated function module for your form.
First of all when you call the function module FP_JOB_OPEN you can specify several parameters. Use the following parameter to tell the system that you are going to later want a binary string with the PDF output in it:
ie_outputparams-getpdf = 'X'.
call function 'FP_JOB_OPEN'
changing
ie_outputparams = ie_outputparams.
Now when you call your generated function module you will get the formoutput:
call function i_funcname
exporting
/1bcdwb/docparams = fp_docparams
sflight = isflight
importing
/1bcdwb/formoutput = fp_formoutput
exceptions
usage_error = 1
system_error = 2
internal_error = 3.
There is field PDF (fp_formoutput-pdf in this example) that is a binary string. It has your document in PDF format all ready to go.
Now as far as adding it to your BSP application - that has been documented in several other weblogs (look at the listing of BSP weblogs - Brian McKellar has a particularly good one on the subject of handle of non-html documents that was published very early in SDN's lifetime). At this point it is just a binary content that can be downloaded similar to XML, or an Excel File. I prefer the Cached Response Method, but have a look around and you will have several approaches.
- Where do I see the actual file?
2006-12-06 14:57:01 Li Zhang Business Card [Reply]
Thanks so much Thomas. This is such a wonderful blog. I have got my PDF printing functionality done in our Performance Management application.
Now I have one more question. A new request comes up for the application. Supervisors would like to have ability to save all appraisals in his/her group into one PDF document. I have tried different ways, but without any luck. I am guessing the trick is to somehow combine all fp_formoutput-pdf strings together and pass to http response object. I did simple concatenation but it only shows the last appraisal document. Any ideas or suggestions you might have?
Thanks again,
Li- Where do I see the actual file?
2006-12-07 08:12:47 Thomas Jung
Business Card
[Reply]
Well the problem is that the binary string that you receive back is fully formatted - meaning that it already contains all the technical header and metadata information in the Adobe Reader format. It isn't just data that can be concatenated together as you found out. You would have to reproduce this technical metadata (I have never tried that since the ADS does all that work for you).
In the past I have taken a different approach this problem. I produce individual PDF documents (binary strings) and then put them together in one ZIP file (using CL_ABAP_ZIP). This way the user only has to download one file, but the individual PDFs are all contained inside the zip file.- Where do I see the actual file?
2006-12-08 09:31:10 Li Zhang Business Card [Reply]
This is really a good idea. I saw some discussions in Forum for this matter. It looks like SAP is working with Adobe to have some solutions for it, won't be availabe at least until mid 2007. But I can present the ZIP file approach to my users now.
Thanks Thomas:-)
Li
- Excellent Weblog
2005-07-14 22:55:57 Matthias Zeller Business Card [Reply]
Thomas,
thank you for this excellent Weblog. I remember we talked about this project at the ASUG conference, but this description clearly exceeded my expectations. This is a great guideline for everyone developing PDF output with Web AS 6.40.
Also I have good news for you. For our next release we are working on a much improved support of tables. I have seen the first version just recently and it is really slick and very developer friendly. We will show this for the first time to the outside world at TechEd.
Again I am excited to see our technology being used by customers to improve business processes.
Cheers!
Matthias
Sr. Product Manager
Adobe Systems
- Example pdf?
2005-07-13 23:50:39 Business Card [Reply]
Hi Thomas,
nice one :) But can you show us the example pdf? After reading the complete weblog it would be nice to see how the final result looks like.
regards,
Thomas- Example pdf?
2005-07-14 06:29:58 Thomas Jung Business Card [Reply]
I was so focused on the particular development tips that I never even thought that someone might be interested in seeing the form output. Thanks for the suggestion. It has been added.
- Wow!
2005-07-13 21:06:32 Craig Cmehil Business Card [Reply]
And yesterday I was wondering where you were hiding, silly me! This is a fantastic blog! Way to go!- Not hiding
2005-07-14 06:33:23 Thomas Jung Business Card [Reply]
Believe me I have not been hiding, just very busy. :)
Between TechED (can you believe it is just 2 months away), ASUG, an Enterprise Portal Implementation, ERP2004 Upgrade, Unicode Conversion, normal development, and a few other things I can't even discuss yet; things have been rather hectic.
- Not hiding
2005-07-14 07:30:27 Craig Cmehil Business Card [Reply]
I know the feeling, things to write about and projects to do - life is been rather busy not to mention TechEd which unbelievably is only 2 months away!
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