What's New in Floorplan Manager for Web Dynpro ABAP

Several new or changed features are available for Floorplan Manager for Web Dynpro ABAP.

Support of Blue Crystal Theme (New)

You can now apply the new SAP standard theme Blue Crystal to FPM applications to give them a Fiori-like appearance.

You can enable this theme by setting URL parameter SAP-THEME to the value sap_bluecrystal.

For restrictions regarding Blue Crystal support, see SAP Note 2000125 Information published on SAP site.

Generic User Interface Building Block (GUIBB) (New)

Carousel GUIBB

FPM introduces a new GUIBB for displaying an interactive image carousel in an application. At runtime, users can move through the images within a frame on the screen, selecting those for which they require additional information. This component uses the Web Dynpro ABAP HTMLIsland UI element. For this component to be visible in your applications at runtime, your browser must support HTML5 and be viewed only in Standards Mode.

Generic User Interface Building Blocks (GUIBBs) (Changed)

Changes have been made to the following GUIBBs:

  • Analytics GUIBB
    • Performance optimization. Internal processing was optimized for large data sets by leveraging the supply range functions of the Web Dynpro ABAP DataGrid UI element provided with SAP_UI SP07. This change is automatically enabled for all consumers; there is no need to adjust anything.
    • New look for Bookmarks dialog box (personalization). This dialog box has been reworked to match the look and feel, and the behavior of the Personalization dialog box of the List ATS GUIBB.
    • Swap Axis action. The default toolbar no longer contains the button Swap Axis; this is replaced by a Drilldown button-choice containing the Swap Axis action.
    • In all exposed windows of the Analytics GUIBB, the terms shown have been aligned and adjusted for better end-user understanding. This is especially true for the content of the toolbar inside the Query Results Grid (BICS_GRID_WINDOW), and for the context menu in the same window.
    • Input help (F4 help) improvement in the search feeder class: multi-selection, and dependent variables. Using the input helps (F4 helps) to input data into the search criteria fields at runtime has been improved; multi-selection of suggested values is now possible (that is, if the related variable supports multiple values). Additionally, choosing the F4 help for a variable that is dependent upon another variable now triggers the display of another search window showing both variables, allowing the user to fine-tune his search in a clear and easy manner.
  • Chart GUIBB
    • Developers can now change any property of the Chart GUIBB at runtime without the Chart being reinstantiated on every round-trip or FPM event. This applies to all properties displayed in the General Settings panel in FLUID (except Chart Type and Personalization ) for this component. This feature is made possible by the interface IF_FPM_CHART_SETTINGS and its methods, accessed through the GET_DATA method in the feeder class.
    • Developers can now set the chart’s selection. This is achieved using the interface IF_FPM_CHART_SELECTION_FACTORY, accessed through the GET_DATA method in the feeder class.
  • Search GUIBB

    • Location of Saved Searches at runtime. Developers can now decide on where the Saved Searches dropdown list box should be located at runtime. The Saved Searches Location field in the General Settings panel of FLUID allows you to place Saved Searches either above or besides the screen title. Placing Saved Searches besides the screen title provides more space on the screen for other features. The default setting for new Search components is besides the screen title.

    • A new field, Check Mandatory, is available in the General Settings panel. When this field is selected, the system checks to see that all mandatory fields have been completed by the user at runtime; the system displays an error message if this is not the case.
    • A new field, Field Type, is available in the Attributes panel of FLUID to display the type of the search input field.
      The following field types exist:
      • Text
      • Alpha Numeric
      • Numeric
      • Date
      • Enumeration
      • Boolean
      • Multi Value
      • Free Text
    • Input Prompt for Free-Text Search. A new field, Input Prompt, is available in the Attributes panel of FLUID for fields of type Free Text. This allows developers to prefill the free-text search criteria field with text prompting the user what to type. Text entered in this field at design time overrides text provided by method GET_DEFINITION of the search feeder class (field INPUT_PROMPT of exporting parameter ET_FIELD_DESCRIPTION).
    • It is now possible to dynamically disable or enable search criteria.

      The following attributes were added to the feeder method GET_DATA of interface IF_FPM_GUIBB_SEARCH:

      CT_FIELD_USAGE Field usage to change. The field usage consists of the field attributes which might change at runtime (for example, enabled, and visible).
      EV_FIELD_USAGE_CHANGED Indicates whether the field usage has been changed by this method.

      If the field usage of a search criteria is set to READ_ONLY and a value is assigned for this criteria, this criteria is disabled in the search component.

  • Hierarchical List (Tree) GUIBB

    • Performance optimization. Users will experience a marked improvement in response times when the nodes of a Tree GUIBB are collapsed or expanded at runtime. This performance enhancement is relevant only for lists containing 5000 or more rows.

  • List ATS GUIBB

    • Row-specific value-sets for a dropdown list box. The dropdown list box that can be used in this GUIBB has been updated with a new feature. This allows developers to create dropdown list boxes with a different set of values displayed in each row of a table. For example, a column in a table has the display type Dropdown List. At runtime, the dropdown list box in row 1 displays the values A, B, and C. However, the dropdown list box in row 2 displays the values, D, E and F.

    • You can now retrieve information about the current visible columns. To allow this, method GET_VISIBLE_COLUMNS was added to API IF_FPM_LIST_ATS_UI_INFO.
    • The Grouping and Sorting tab in the Personalization dialog box has the new checkbox "Hide Column Label in Grouping Header". Mark it to remove the column header labels from the rows that contain the grouping information in the hierarchy column.
    • The content of grouping columns is now also taken into account for the search functionality in filter and find mode.
  • Form, Form Repeater GUIBBs

    A new field, Input Prompt, is available in the Attributes panel of FLUID for fields with Input Field or Dropdown List display types. This allows developers to prefill an input field or dropdown list with text prompting the user what to type. Text entered in this field at design time overrides text provided by other methods, for example, text provided in the method GET_DEFINITION of the feeder class (field INPUT_PROMPT of exporting parameter ET_FIELD_DESCRIPTION), or text provided by a reference field in method GET_DEFINITION of the feeder class (field INPUT_PROMP_REF of exporting parameter ET_FIELD_DESCRIPTION).

Application Creation Tool (ACT) for BICS (Business Intelligence Consumer Services) (New)

A new ACT is available for BICS users that allows developers to create analytical applications using the FPM Analytics GUIBB. All components of this GUIBB can be added in the ACT, for example, the query results grid, and the navigation and information panels. You can access this ACT through the FPM Workbench (transaction FPM_WB).

Overview Page (OVP) Floorplan (Changed)

  • GUIBB toolbar buttons. There are changes in the Select Toolbar Elements dialog box concerning buttons that provide standard functions for use in the individual GUIBB toolbars inside an OVP floorplan. The changes are as follows:
    • Maximize Button

      This button is now available for all GUIBB toolbars.

    • Export to Excel, Personalize and Search Buttons

      Export to Excel, Personalize and Search buttons are now available for the List ATS and Tree GUIBB toolbars. However, these functions must first be set as exposable actions in the relevant feeder class.

      Additionally, the Personalize button is available for the Chart GUIBB toolbar if it is also set first as an exposable action in the relevant feeder class.

    • Edit Button

      This button is now available for the List ATS and Tree GUIBB toolbars. Its visibility in the Select Toolbar Elements dialog box is dependent upon the value of the Edit Mode field (under Additional Settings in the General Settings panel of the OVP floorplan). If the value of this field is Edit or Read-Only, the Edit button is available automatically in the dialog box in the Standard Functions section.

Flexible UI Designer (FLUID) (Changed)

  • More/Less mode in General Settings. Users can now toggle between two display types of the General Settings. By default, only the most essential settings are displayed. When users select the More… link, all available settings are shown. The state (more/less display) is persisted when you navigate to another view.
  • New groups were added to the General Settings (for example Accessibility ).

Maximize Mode for GUIBBs (Changed)

  • Up to now, it was only possible to add a Maximize button to the panel header toolbar of individual GUIBBs inside an OVP configuration. Now it is possible to set a flag in the GUIBB configuration to add the Maximize button to the toolbar inside a GUIBB. This means that the GUIBB does not have to be integrated in OVP. This is useful for nested GUIBBs. For example, you may want to allow users to enlarge a specific GUIBB inside a tabbed GUIBB.

    The feature is available for the following GUIBBs:

    • Visual Business GUIBB
    • Chart GUIBB
    • Hierarchical List (Tree) GUIBB
    • List ATS GUIBB
  • The new event parameter FPM_MAXIMIZE_STACK can be added to a Maximize button for an assignment block in OVP. By default, only the GUIBB for which the maximize button was pressed is maximized. However, if event parameter FPM_MAXIMIZE_STACK is set to value ‘X’ for the corresponding FPM event, the entire stacked panel of the GUIBB is maximized. This allows users to quickly switch between assignment blocks in maximize mode.

Image Quickview (New)

A new type of quickview is available - the Image Quickview. This quickview displays a type of tooltip containing just an image. As with other types of quickview, developers can assign it to individual elements of a GUIBB such as a column, so that, as the user moves the mouse over the column contents at runtime, images relevant to the cell contents are displayed. In addition to configuring your own image quickview in the Quickview panel of FLUID, FPM provides a standard, ready-to-use image quickview.

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