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To help the end user find the correct values in your Fiori app, you can enable a value help option. By default, the value help is linked to input fields on a UI screen. The corresponding input fields provide the end user with direct access to a value help dialog or other kind of visualization.
Value Help and CDS Views

To provide a value help, you first need a CDS view or database table that contains the values for the value help. Then you define the association in the consuming CDS view. Finally, you must annotate the value help to the relevant field in the consuming view.

There are two different ways how a value help can be established:
  • Based on foreign key associations - With this approach, only the key fields and the text elements of a help value provider view are exposed as value help related fields.
  • Based on modeled value help views - The second option is to precisely define the value help-relevant fields by creating a dedicated CDS view (modeled view) that is associated as the value help in the consuming CDS view.
Note The foreign key associations provide an important information when modelling business data in the CDS programming approach. The value help results from foreign key associations as a kind of side-effect - without further action. As a consequence, the value help is available automatically in numerous applications through the propagation of corresponding annotations. The modeled value help views, however, are very specific to the respective applications.
Value Help and UI Behavior
Depending on the option that you have implemented for the value help, the SAP Fiori UI provides the end user with a specific UI behavior (illustrated in the figure below):
  • With the foreign key association approach, the display-relevant properties are defined by the key (which usually represents an ID) and the text elements.
  • With the modeled view approach, on the other hand, all the fields that are defined for the modelled value help view will be made visible in the value help dialog screen. The value help dialog with multiple help value fields provides the end user with the opportunity to define his or her own input field containing multiple input data.
Remember Keep in mind that the option you used to implement the value help does not have any effect on which fields are available as a filter. It only influences which fields are available in the value help dialog.
Value help dialog screens
Figure 1: Value help dialog screens
Remember Compared to a foreign key-based value help view, a modeled view allows you to define additional display parameters, assign your own DCL, and even define specific WHERE conditions.
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