Configuring and Personalizing the ALV Output 

You can configure Web Dynpro applications and therefore specify at design time which details are presented to the user during their work and which are not. In addition, administrators and users can make and save their own settings at runtime and therefore adjust the application by means of customization and personalization (see Personalization and Configuration).

In the ALV component there are also various options for modifying a standard set of properties and providing users with suitable variants depending on their business needs. Unlike in the rest of the Web Dynpro environment, however, you cannot make this configuration at design time. At design time, it is possible that the structure to which the configuration relates has not yet been specified. For this reason you cannot, as is usual, use the application configurator to configure your ALV output.

Personalization, Configuration, and Customization of an ALV Output

Depending on who is modifying the ALV output, a differentiation is made between the following strategies:

●      Personalization: One of the functions of the ALV output that is available to users is the saving of views. Users can save information about column structure, sort criteria, filter conditions, various display options, and so on, in an unlimited number of views. This means users can always display the ALV output with their preferred properties. However, these views are only available to the user who created them. Other users cannot see these views. This form of modification of the ALV output is referred to as 'personalization'.

●      Configuration: Application developers can neither create nor delete views using the classes and methods of the ALV configuration model. They can, however, start their ALV component in a special mode, create an unlimited number of views for it, and deliver these views with the product. Views that application developers save in this way are stored as configuration data records and are transported and delivered together with their ALV programming. This form of modification of the ALV output is referred to as 'configuration'. The following sections describe the options available when saving configuration data records:

○       Saving Configuration Data Records

○       Specifying the Initial View of Applications

●      Customization: At customer sites, administrators can change the views they provided or insert their own views. These views are then available to all users client-wide. This form of modification of the ALV output is referred to as 'customization' (see User-Independent, Client-Wide Modifications in Personalization).

For configuration and for customization, you must start the application in the respectively required mode and make the necessary settings at runtime.

Views and Data Structure of the ALV Configuration Model

All settings that the user saves in a view for an ALV output relate to the fields of a specific data structure of the ALV configuration model. If, for example, you load another structure, it may no longer be possible to apply the settings of the view (see SET_DATA).

You must therefore ensure that the system can uniquely assign a view to both the current application and the data structure that is currently loaded. You flag the data structure with a unique key (KEY). All views that the user saves from now on are given this identifying key (see Configuration Key).

You can get all settings for a view using method GET_CONFIG_DATA in the interface controller of the ALV component (see GET_CONFIG_DATA).

For information on showing and hiding UI elements for views, see Providing Standard ALV Functions.