Creating Web Applications with the BEx Web Application Designer (SAP Library

Creating Web Applications with the BEx Web Application Designer

Use

You can use the BEx Web Application Designer to create a BEx Web application (an HTML page with BW-specific content) quickly and easily.

You can find background information on the following steps under From Web Template To Web Application.

We recommend that you create your first Web application with the BEx Web Application wizard in order to familiarize yourself with the Web Application Designer. See Creating Web Applications with the Web Application Wizard.

Procedure

Create a Web template

To create a new Web Template, choose or Web Template ® New. (When you start the Web Application Designer, a new Web template is created).

Insert a Web item

Drag a Web item from the Standard tabstrip of the Web Items window and drop it into the Web template. The Web item appears in the Web template.

When you select a Web item from the Web Item window, you get an explanatory text in the area underneath the Web item.

Give the Web item a name by overwriting the default text under Name on the General tab strip in the Properties window.

Set the data binding.

In the Properties window, on the General tab page, in the DataProvider area, describe the data provider. Overwrite the existing text under Name, or select a new data provider using the pushbutton and overwriting the proposed text.

Select a query with

or a view with

respectively to assign a data provider to the Web item.

To create a new query, call the Query Designer by choosing Tools ® Query Designer

To create a view on the basis of a query or another view, choose Tools ® View Definition ® Based on a Query or Based on Another View. In the BEx Open dialog box, select an existing query or an existing view. The standard template appears in a separate browser window. Define your view there, enter the Description and Technical Name and choose Save View. You can now use this view as a data provider.

Make settings for the Web items.

In order to make special settings for the Web item, choose the tabstrip Web Item.

For the chart and map Web items, you can also call up the dialog for changing attributes using the symbols or on the toolbar.

Specify the properties by

Selecting the relevant checkbox
Manually entering a value (for example, with Heading)
Manually changing the default value
Double-clicking the default value and choosing another value from the dropdown box that automatically appears
Choosing values from a list
Creating values in a list in tabular form

Click on each property for a description of the individual properties. The descriptions are shown in the area underneath the properties.

Add further Web items.

Repeat steps 2 – 4 to integrate further Web items.

Note the position of the cursor in your template when adding further Web items. The cursor position determines where the new Web item is added. See also Designing the Layout of Web Templates..

Make sure that you execute the data binding and Web-item-specific settings for the correct Web item. To make changes to a Web item, select the item in the layout view. In the header of the Properties window, the system displays the Web item for which you can change the settings. As an alternative to selecting the individual Web items, you can use the dropdown box to toggle between the properties of individual Web items.

Design the layout of the Web template

In the Web Application Designer, you can create your Web template in the same way as in familiar HTML editors. See also Designing the Layout of Web Templates..

Change the Web template properties.

To change the Web template properties, select the Web template in the header of the Properties window from the dropdown box. See Determining Web Template Properties, for a description of the settings you can make.

Store and execute the Web template

To save your Web template, choose or Web Template ® Save.
To view your Web application in the Browser, choose or Web Template ® Publish in Browser.

You have to save the Web template before publishing it on the Web. You are therefore asked to save the template when you execute it, if you have not already done so. See also From Web Template to Web Application.

To assign a Web template to a role, choose Publish ® In Role...

To place the URL of a Web template on a clipboard, choose Publish ® Copy URL to Clipboard. To do this, you must have saved the template once already.

Result

The browser is started and the Web application you created is opened.

If you want to print your Web application, you can enter a print stylesheet for the respective Web template. You can see the selection of print stylesheets only in the HTML view. For further information, see Print Stylesheets.

Processing Web Templates Further

You have the following options for editing the HTML source of a Web template:

You can edit the Web template directly in the HTML view of the Web Application Designer. To do this, in the Web Application Designer Template window, choose the HTML tab.

Edit the HTML.
Choose Undo in the lower-right area of the Template window in order to withdraw the changes you have made.

To check the edited HTML, in the lower right area of the Template window, choose Validate.

The changes made to the Web template are not transferred to the Web template at this stage.

The system starts the Web template validation automatically when you:

Choose the Layout or Overview tab.
Change the properties in the Properties window on the Web Item tab.
Save the Web template

The Web Application Designer dialog box appears. This is where you are asked to transfer the HTML changes or correct any errors.

Choose Yes if you want to transfer the changes to the Web template permanently.

The changes are transferred into the Web template.

Choose No to reject the changes.

Choose Cancel to continue editing the HTML.

You can also edit the Web template with an external HTML editor.

To process a Web template further using an external HTML editor, choose Web Template ® Export to File... Your Web template, that is the HTML file, is stored on a file system of your choice. You can call it up from there with your HTML editor.

If you have selected an HTML editor in the Web Application Designer using Tools ® Settings, this is started automatically.

To call up a Web template that you have edited in the HTML editor (that is, the edited HTML file) in the Web Application Designer again and edit it there, store the file on your file system again. In the Web Application Designer, choose Web Template ® Import from File... and specify the names and location of the saved file.

To download a Web template directly from the server, that is, without opening the Web Application Designer, choose Web Templates ® Download File from Server. The Web template (the HTML file) is stored on your file system.
To upload a Web template that you edited in an HTML editor directly to the server, that is, without opening it in the Web Application Designer, store the file on your file system again. In the Web Application Designer, choose Web Template ® Upload File to Server and specify the name and location of the saved file.