Output in XFP Format 

Use

Using the XML interface for PDF-based forms (XFP), external applications outside the SAP system can access and process the contents of forms. The XFP output contains all form data in XML format, but does not contain any layout information about the form.

Software partners can receive a certificate from SAP for products that access the XFP interface. For more information, see the Software Partner pages at http://www.sap.com/spp.

Integration

XFP output corresponds to XSF output for Smart Forms and RDI output for SAPscript.

Prerequisites

Since XFP uses spool processing, at least one printer of device type XFP must be set up in the system.

In spool administration, we recommend that you set up an XFP output device. By default, this output device is used as a virtual device for connecting to the external application. You can override this default by setting the output parameter IE_OUTPUTPRAMS of the function module FP_JOB_OPEN accordingly (the ABAP Dictionary reference is SFPOUTPUTPARAMS-XFPOUTDEV).

See also: SAP Printing Guide (BC-CCM-PRN).

Features

The XFP output is activated at runtime by the calling application program. The XML data can be displayed in two different ways:

·        XML data stream with context evaluation

The data stream describes the structure of the PDF-based form at runtime with the data integrated from the application program. This means the form context is already evaluated, together with all its conditions.

·        XML data stream without context evaluation

The data stream contains the data from the application program, but the form context has not been evaluated.