The Report Painter allows you to easily and quickly define Report Writer reports. The Report Painter covers a large part of the Report Writer functionality.
You define a report on a form that displays the rows and columns as they will appear in the report output (WYSIWYG concept).
You can perform all actions needed to define the report from this form. It is no longer necessary to define sets beforehand for each characteristic (dimension); you have the option to enter characteristic values directly.
You access the Report Painter via the Report Writer menu as well as via the menu of those applications that use Report Writer reports (Tools -> Report Painter). In addition to the "Create report", "Change report" and "Display report" functions, you can also call up the respective functions for the "model". Models are one-dimensional, predefined blocks for rows and columns which you can include in a Report Painter report. This is useful if for example, a large number of your reports have the same or a similar structure.
Library maintenance has been restructured to meet the requirements of the Report Painter. You now maintain the categories "Characteristics" (previously "Fields"), "Key figures" (new) and "Predefined columns" (previously "Data set entries").
Characteristics are non-numeric fields which you can use to limit the amount of selected data (for example, controlling area, fiscal year).
Key figures are numeric fields that can be evaluated in the report (for example, total costs, activity quantity).
Predefined columns are made up of a key figure and one or more characteristics and are used to help you quickly define columns which you use frequently (for example, actual costs in the current fiscal year, fix plan costs in the closed fiscal year).
In each of these categories, you must first select the objects allowed for the respective library. In the "Position" field, you can define the order in which the objects appear in the Report Painter selection lists. This allows you to place those objects that are used frequently at the beginning of the selection lists. You can also define that objects can be used in the Report Writer, but are not offered in the Report Painter. You do so by selecting the objects without making an entry in the "Position" field.
You do not need to do any preliminary work if you are using the standard SAP libraries delivered with the system.
If you want to create reports for your own libraries, you must maintain these libraries accordingly.
The reports created by the Report Painter (RP) are stored in a separate folder, but are in the same name range as the Report Writer (RW) reports. When generating the relevant report group or when copying into a Report Writer report, the reports are only temporarily transformed into the Report Writer format. This means: