Preparing Form Output

Use

You can output forms in the following ways:

Type of Form	Output
Output form	Output to printer Output to archive In this case, the form is forwarded to ArchiveLink. ArchiveLink is a communication interface that manages archiving systems in the SAP system. You can use it to output business data as a form. Output as e-mail (or fax) A form that has been returned to the application program can be forwarded to Business Communication Services, from where it can be sent as an e-mail or fax. Note No spool request is generated in this case.
Interactive Offline Form	Output as e-mail E-mail dispatch proceeds in the same way as for output forms, but you must also set up inbound processing for the returned completed forms.

Type of Form

Output

Output form

Output to printer
Output to archive

In this case, the form is forwarded to ArchiveLink. ArchiveLink is a communication interface that manages archiving systems in the SAP system. You can use it to output business data as a form.
Output as e-mail (or fax)

A form that has been returned to the application program can be forwarded to Business Communication Services, from where it can be sent as an e-mail or fax.

Note

No spool request is generated in this case.

Interactive Offline Form

Output as e-mail

E-mail dispatch proceeds in the same way as for output forms, but you must also set up inbound processing for the returned completed forms.

Prerequisites

The form is sent to the output media through interfaces. The SAP system must be configured to be compatible with each output medium. If you want to output to a printer, you must configure a PCL-compatible printer.

Procedure

To control the output of the form, you use various fields in a structure with the type SFPOUTPUTPARAMS. The system transfers these fields as parameters (IE_OUTPUTPARAMS) to the function module FP_JOB_OPEN when the form is called in the application program.

More information:

Example:Calling Forms in an Application Program

Form Interface Parameters of the Application

Preparing Output to Printer

The default setting for form output is to a printer, that is, when you call the function module FP_JOB_OPEN, you use the initial values of the structure. You can modify the print parameters and the spool dialog parameters by setting the fields accordingly.

More information:

Controlling Form Output Using Spool Processing

Making Forms Available for External Applications

SAP Printing Guide (BC-CCM-PRN)

SAP Note 1009567 Information published on SAP site about restrictions

Preparing Output to Archive

For form output With Dialog, you set the Archiving Mode in the spool dialog. You have the following options:
- Archive Only (Archive)
- Print and Archive (Archive)
For form output Without Dialog, specify the archiving mode in the ARCMODE field of the structure mentioned above.
- Archive only: SFPOUTPUTPARAMS-ARCMODE = '2'
- Print and archive: SFPOUTPUTPARAMS-ARCMODE = '3'
  
  Note
  
  You control the output of the spool dialog by using the parameter NODIALOG.
Make at least one entry in the table with archive indexes (SFPDOCPARAMS-DARATAB).
The system forwards the form to ArchiveLink.

More information:

Storing Outgoing Documents

ArchiveLink

Preparing Output as E-Mail or Fax

Make sure that the SFPOUTPUTPARAMS-GETPDF field is set in your application program.
The system sends the generated form back to the application program, where it can then be forwarded to the interface of the Business Communication Services.

Note

If the parameter GETPDF is used to request that the PDF be returned, the system does not generate a spool request. This means that if you also want to output your form via the spool, you have to call the form output again in your program. The parameter GETPDF must have the value space.

More information: Business Communication Services

Specifying Language-Specific Fonts

If an output language differs from the original language of the form and not all characters can be displayed, you can specify the font to be used (see Specifying Language-Specific Fonts for Form Output).