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Function documentationUI Modeling

 

You use UI modeling when processing the product model. You can change the display of the configuration screen for a particular product. This means, for example, that you can provide your Web shop customers with a UI that is different from the one for the employees in your company.

Note Note

You define the general display of the UI in the Extended Configuration Management (XCM). You use the UI modeler to define how the system displays a particular product.

End of the note.

Example Example

In a call center, only order changes for configurable products are typically taken; no products are completely reconfigured. It is therefore important for the agent to see all characteristics on a single page; images are not important for him or her. On the other hand, for the Web shop customer, it is better if the configuration is distributed across multiple pages in the case of complex products. In the Web shop, it also makes sense to present the characteristics in a visually attractive way, with images.

End of the example.

Features

You can create one or more UI models for each version of a product model.

You assign a particular scenario (for example, Web Channel B2B, Web Channel B2C, or Sales and Service) to each UI model. If you have chosen Sales and Service, you can also assign, if required, a particular business role to the UI model. You can thereby adjust the configuration screen to the requirements of the sales employees in your company, for example.

The following display options are available:

  • For each characteristic, you can determine the individual display. If the descriptions of the characteristic values are, for example, so long that they are not completely visible in a dropdown box, you can display the characteristic values with radio buttons, or for multiple-value characteristics, with checkboxes, to make the descriptions completely visible. Note that you can also choose to display all options in the master data of a characteristic.

  • You can arrange the characteristics on multiple pages; these are shown to the user one after another. You can, for example, separate the hardware characteristics and the software characteristics of a computer from each other, by showing them on different pages. You can also make settings so that the user can only switch from one page to the next when the configuration on the first page is complete.

  • If images or other additional information are stored for products, characteristics, or characteristic values, you can decide whether they should be displayed. For more information, see Making Images and Other Information Available.

  • You can view the UI model that you created in the simulation, before you save or delete it.

Restrictions

  • UI models are linked to a particular runtime version of your knowledge base. If you download a new version from SAP ERP, you need to set up a new UI model.

  • UI models cannot be transported to other SAP CRM systems.

  • UI models are stored in SAP CRM and are not available when using the Configuration Engine (formerly the Internet Pricing and Configurator or IPC) outside of SAP CRM (for example, in SAP ERP).

  • UI models are linked to the knowledge base, but not to a particular product. If your knowledge base contains multiple products, the same UI model is applied to all products, which the system may not display correctly.

  • Some engineering changes to the underlying product model such as changing the characteristic type can cause runtime errors. Therefore, you must only make those changes in a new version of the product model.

Activities

  1. On the overview page of the product in assignment block Product Models, select a product model for processing.

  2. In the product model, choose the entry UI Models and then New.

  3. Enter a key and a language-dependent description for the new UI model.

  4. Assign a scenario to the UI model, and a business role if required.

  5. Choose Edit UI.

    This takes you to the UI modeling environment.

  6. You can make the following changes:

    • You use Edit Property to edit the layout of the characteristic values for each characteristic.

      • Should the characteristic value be expanded or not?

      • Should a help link appear, and if so, what should the text be?

      • Should images and other information be displayed, if they are available? If so, in what format?

    • When you select a characteristic, you can choose, under Change UI Type, whether its characteristic values should appear expanded (as radio buttons or checkboxes) or collapsed (in a dropdown box).

    • You can extend the product configuration across multiple pages:

      1. Choose Add Page, to add a page.

      2. In the graphical page display, under the box for the respective page, choose Texts to give names to the individual pages.

      3. In the configuration screen, on page 1 for example, select the characteristics that should be displayed on page 2, and in the graphical page display under the box for page 2, choose Move or Copy.

      If you select the field Wizard Mode, the user can only switch from one page to the next when the configuration on the first page is complete.

    • You can delete individual groups and characteristics.

      Note Note

      You can delete groups and characteristics only if there is more than one of them, that is, if you have copied them on another page. It is not possible to change the product model itself.

      End of the note.

    • In the preview, you can generate a display to see how your customer sees the result of the configuration.

    • In the simulation, you can see how the configuration screen is displayed to the customer.