Customizing the User Interface

You can customize the user interface (UI) of your standard applications using several methods. The changes you make can be common to all roles in an application or you can make them role-specific (HRASRA, HRASRB and HRASRSD).

You can make the following changes to the UI:

Edit the text for a button, a roadmap step or the header area of a form
Add your own buttons to the toolbar of a roadmap step
Add or remove the Review step in a process

To make the above changes to the UI, using the methods described below, see Specific User Interface Customizing Activities.

Features

To customize the UI of your applications, you use the following methods:

Edit the Online Text Repository (OTR) texts
For more information, see Customizing the User Interface using OTR texts.
Edit copies of the standard Floorplan Manager (FPM) application configurations
You make a copy of the standard Floorplan Manager application configuration whose text you want to edit, make the required changes and then reference the new, edited application configuration from the Portal. The new FPM framework provides you with tools to copy the application configurations.

For more information on Floorplan Manager, see SAP Library under SAP NetWeaver Library SAP NetWeaver by Key Capability Application Platform by Key Capability ABAP Technology UI Technology Web UI Technology .

For more information on what standard FPM application configurations are available, see FPM Standard Application Configurations.

For more information on editing copies of the standard FPM application configurations, see Customizing the UI of Copied Standard FPM Application Configurations
The following topics provide details on other methods that allow you to make more specific changes to the UI:
- Displaying Only Direct Reports (Employees) when Starting a Process
- Using Process Groups to Customize the User Interface
- Starting a Process without Employee or Object Selection (an alternative method to using the Skip Selection check box).

The customizing method you use depends on whether you want to make a general change to the application configuration or a role-specific change. The following table describes which customizing method to use for each type of change:

Type of Change	Method
Role-specific	Edit the OTR texts
General	Edit copies of standard FPM application configurations

There is a precedence between OTR texts and application configuration texts. In all cases, OTR texts have a higher precedence. Therefore, if you want to display the text from the application configuration, you must ensure that the OTR text is left blank. Note that in the standard delivery, all OTR texts are delivered as blank texts except the OTR texts corresponding to header texts.

The following table illustrates the effects of precedence.

Examples of Precedence between OTR and Application Configuration Texts
Text Type	FPM Application Configuration Text	Corresponding OTR Text	Final Result
Button or Roadmap Step (For example, Select Process)	Choose Process	Select a Process	Select a Process
Button (For example, Select Employee)	Select Pernr	<BLANK>	Select Pernr