Creating Help Views 

Procedure

  1. Select the object class View in the initial screen of the ABAP Dictionary, enter the view name and choose Create. The name of a help view should begin with H_.

    2. A dialog box appears in which you must select the view type.

  2. Select the type Help view and choose Create.

    3. The maintenance screen for help views appears. This screen has three input areas for tables, join conditions and view fields.

  3. Enter an explanatory short text in the field Short text.
  4. Under Tables, enter the primary table of the view.
  5. Save your entries.

    6. You are asked to assign the help view a development class. You can change this development class later with Extras ® Object directory entry. The key fields of the primary table are copied to the view as defaults.

  6. If required, include more tables in the view. In a help view you can only include tables that are linked to one another with foreign keys.

    7. Position the cursor on the primary table and choose Relationships. All existing foreign key relationships of the primary table are displayed. Select the required foreign keys and choose Copy. The secondary table involved in such a foreign key is included in the view. The join conditions derived from the foreign keys (see Foreign Key Relationship and Join Condition) are displayed.

    You can also include tables that are linked with a foreign key to one of the secondary tables already included. In this case, position the cursor on the secondary table and choose Relationships. Then proceed as described above.

    For maintenance and help views, there are certain restrictions on the foreign keys with which the tables can be included in the view (see Restrictions for Maintenance and Help Views). The foreign keys violating these conditions are displayed at the end of the list under the header Relationships with unsuitable cardinality.

  7. Select the fields that you want to include in the view.

    8. To do this, position the cursor on the relevant table and choose TabFields. The fields of the table are now displayed in a dialog box. Select the required fields in the first column and choose Copy.

  8. Formulate the selection conditions. To do this choose Goto ® Selection condition.

    9. The input area for the selection conditions appears in place of the input area for the fields. Maintain the selection condition as described in Maintaining Selection Conditions of Views. You can then switch back to the fields display with Goto ® View fields.

  9. Activate the view with View ® Activate.

A log is written during activation. You can display it with Utilities ® Activation log. If errors or warnings occurring when the view was activated, they are displayed directly in the activation log.

Other Options

Creating Documentation

You can create information about using the view with Goto ® Documentation. This documentation is output for example when you print the view.

Changing the Data Element of a View

Select the Mod column (modify) for the view field and press Enter. The Data element field is now ready for input. Enter the new data element there. This data element must refer to the same domain as the original data element. With the input help (F4 help) for the Data element field, you can display all the data elements that refer to the domain of the field.

If you want to assign the original data element again, you only have to reset the Mod flag and choose Enter.

Check Functions

With Extras ® Runtime object ® Check you can determine whether the definition of the view in the ABAP Dictionary maintenance screen is identical to the definitions in the runtime object of the view. With Extras ® Runtime object ® Display you can display the runtime object of the view.

Displaying the Foreign Key on which a Join Condition is Based

If a join condition was derived from a foreign key, you can display its definition. To do so, position the cursor on the join condition and choose Extras ® Foreign keys.

See also:

Help Views