ALV Grid Control (BC-SRV-ALV) 

Purpose

The ALV Grid Control (ALV = SAP List Viewer) is a flexible tool for displaying lists. The tool provides common list operations as generic functions and can be enhanced by self-defined options. This allows you to use the ALV Grid Control in a large range of application programs.

In SAP development projects, the ALV Grid Control is also used as a tool for changing and creating tables. However, this functionality is currently only used in pilot projects and has not yet been released for customers.

The following graphic shows a list displayed with the ALV Grid Control in a dialog box:

As the user sees it, the ALV Grid Control consists of a toolbar, a title and the output table displayed in a grid control. If required, the user can hide the title and the standard functions of the toolbar.

Implementation Considerations

ALV Object Model

The ALV family consists of three ALV tools: the simple, two-dimensional table (including the Grid Control variant), the hierarchical-sequential list and the tree structure. For all of those you can now use the new, unified, object-oriented API.

The old API can still be used, however we recommend using the new, unified ALV object model for programming all of your ALV applications. So, even if you plan to use the ALV Grid Control, you can now use the simplified new API.

ALV Grid Control

The ALV Grid Control uses controls technology to achieve state-of-the-art on-screen display. Like all control wrappers, the ALV Grid Control offers methods through a global class in the system which can be used to affect its behavior.

SAP does not guarantee that the methods, events and attributes of this class that are not public will remain unchanged or will be available in future releases. This is why you should not derive the class to access protected objects of the class. Using these objects makes it more difficult to upgrade to subsequent releases.

As a result of using ABAP Objects, lists are displayed through an ALV instance, and programmers make use of the event management of ABAP Objects.

Integration

Controls are software components that are installed on the local PC. In order to communicate with these components, all control wrappers use methods of the Control Framework. In this context, the ALV Grid Control is a special case as it uses a control that is already wrapped: the grid control. For the programmer, this can eliminate certain steps in the process of event management for controls.

The ALV Grid Control uses the SAP context menu to integrate standard functions. This menu can be customized to meet individual requirements.

This documentation focuses on using the ALV Grid Control in the SAP GUI for the WindowsäEnvironment or the SAP GUI for the Javaä Environment. It is also possible to display the ALV Grid Control in the Web.

Features

This is an overview of the functions provided by the ALV Grid Control. You can:

·        Display non-hierarchical lists consistently with a modern design

·        Use typical list functions - such as sorting and filtering - without extra programming effort

·        Adapt predefined list functions and their enhancements

·        Program responses to user actions (such as double-clicking a line) individually

·        Connect to the report/report interface.

For practical examples of the ALV Grid Control, see development class SLIS.

 

Constraints

The ALV Grid Control does not allow you to display block or hierarchical lists. Currently, simple lists can be displayed in single-line format only. However, users can define multiple-line format in the print preview and print the list as such.

At the moment, you cannot use tables that have object references. Similarly, the only deep structures that can be used are those described in the documentation covering the extended functionality of the ALV Grid Control (such as, structures for drag-and-drop).