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Use

Component and application configuration concepts refer to design processes that were implemented at design time by application developers. Personalization and customizing activities, on the other hand, take place at runtime and are performed by users or administrators.

Personalization

The end user of a Web Dynpro application can influence, to a certain degree, the appearance of the view displayed in the browser. The Web Dynpro Framework provides the option of changing some of the properties of the Web Dynpro built-in configuration (see Component Configuration ). The central modification option relates to the visibility property. Without any additional effort for an application developer, the end user of an application can use this property to hide or display individual UI elements in the view currently displayed.

End users can therefore mainly only hide elements on the screen. But they can also move table columns, define the number of rows visible in a table, and predefine values.

Note

To open the relevant dialog process, the user positions the cursor on a UI element, opens the context menu, and chooses the relevant option from the User Settings submenu.

Sometimes, however, it can be appropriate to personalize properties that were created with the help of component-defined configuration in the context of the configuration controller. In this case, the dialog for access on behalf of the user to values of the configuration controller context must be created and programmed in a separate view explicitly by the application developer.

Caution

Note that the system saves the data for the Web Dynpro built-in and component-defined personalization together for each memory action (including actions such as an end user removing a button at runtime). However, you can specify that the system should save only the changed explicit data and not the entire content of the configuration controller. To do so, call the SUPPORT_DELTA_HANDLING on the IF_WD_PERSONALIZATION interface.

In addition, the jump from the personalization view to the personalization dialog must be created and implemented actively.

In the WDR_TEST_PERS_IMP_EXP demo application, which is contained in your system in the SWDP_TEST package, you will find a special personalization view called PERS_VIEW.

Note

You can define separately for each Web Dynpro component that Web Dynpro built-in personalization for the end user/administrator is not required.

Deactivation of Personalization

You can deactivate personalization options at two levels:

  • In the application, you can define that the end user is to have no personalization opportunity at all ( WDDISABLEUSERPERSONALIZATION application parameter).

  • You can define that Web Dynpro built-in personalization is not required for individual components. To do so, choose Start of the navigation path Edit Next navigation step Configuration Data End of the navigation path, and enter not allowed for Web Dynpro built-in configuration data .

These settings must be made by SAP application development. As a result, the user does not see the entry in the context menu and any old, stored data cannot be used.

Preset Setting

The InputField and TextEdit input-ready UI elements can be given a default value in end user personalization. As an end user, you do this by opening the context menu of the UI element and choosing Set Current Value as Default .

Embedding Web Dynpro Built-In Configuration Options in the Personalization Dialog

If a personalization dialog is created explicitly by application developers, it can be appropriate to also embed the personalization of the Web Dynpro built-in configuration option for example, on an additional tab page. In this case, the user would have the advantage of uniform handling. Embedding takes place with the help of a component interface already provided, whereby further programming of this Web Dynpro built-in part of the personalization dialog is no longer required.

The prepared Web Dynpro component interface to be used is called IWD_PERSONALIZATION and provides an interface view that, in turn, must be embedded in the window of the component used. This interface has a method called INIT_PERSONALIZATION, which is called in a method of the main component (for example, WDDOINIT of the component controller). The reference to the view controller for the view element to be personalized as well as the ID of this view element must be passed to the INIT_PERSONALIZATION method.

Customizing: User-Independent, Client-Wide Modifications

While a single user during a personalization process can manipulate his or her own settings, an administrator has the option of executing Customizing settings for all users. Technically, this procedure is not different from personalization; both take place at runtime of an application. The difference lies in the range of the settings. In addition, for these global settings an application must run in a special administration session. This is always automatically the case if an application was started in the portal in the preview session. Independently of the portal, you can start an application in the following manner from within the workbench in administration mode:

  1. Double-click the name of the application in the object list.

  2. In the Web Dynpro Applications menu in the upper, left-hand corner of the Workbench window, choose Start of the navigation path Test Next navigation step Execute in Admin Mode End of the navigation path.

The configuration mode is passed to an application as the sap-config-mode=X URL parameter .

Note

All the adjustments made by the administrator in admin mode are stored as client-specific. Presently no option is available for structuring smaller user groups on an administrative basis. Since cross-client adjustment applies to the respective configuration, the structuring of smaller groups can be implemented currently through the maintenance of different configurations.

You start personalization by calling up the context menu for the respective UI element in your application. In the corresponding context menu for an administrator (that is, with URL parameter sap-config-mode=X), in addition to the standard settings administrators have the option within a UI element container to sort either single lines ( Grid, Matrix and RowLayout) or single elements ( FlowLayout).

Note

Administrators require special authorization for client-wide modifications. This can be a developer authorization or the special authorization S_WDR_P13N. You cannot create configurations at design time with this authorization, but you can make modifications at runtime.

These modifications are valid for all users but take place in the current client only.

Customer-Defined Enhancement Fields (Custom Extension Fields)

The context of a Web Dynpro application is often based on a structure of the ABAP Dictionary. Customers can enhance these structures by adding any number of fields without modification (append structures) or by using CI fields (customizing includes). You can make fields of append structures or CI fields visible at runtime using client-wide adjustment in the application layout.

More information:

DEMO_CUSTOM_EXT_FIELDS

More Information

You can find information about personalization options provided by the SAP List Viewer for Web Dynpro ABAP in Personalization in the SAP List Viewer .