Offering Input Help

The Web Dynpro runtime environment provides generic UI services for the application development. Web Dynpro features the following types of input help UI services:

• Input help containing predefined values

  If for a UI element only predefined values are allowed, you provide input help containing the set of allowed values. Depending on the expected amount of values, you use different UI elements:

  • Short list (up to 50 entries)

    To provide an input help containing a small list of constant values, you use the DropDownByKey UI element. This creates the simple value selector (SVS).

    More information: Providing Short Value Lists (SVS)

  • Long list (more than 50 entries)

    To provide an input help containing a long list of constant values, you use the InputField UI element. This creates the extended value selector (EVS). The EVS can display a large set of constants within a specific dialog box, equipped with scrollbar, a sort and a filter function.

    More information: Providing Long Value Lists (EVS)

  In both cases the entries to be displayed in the value list are retrieved from a simple data type's enumeration of value/description text pairs.

  Note

  By default, the maximum size of a simple type value set for a SVS input help is set to 50. When the value set size exceeds the configured sap.valuesetlimit.maxondemand value the dropdown list is replaced by an EVS popup dialog.

  More information: Configuring the Web Dynpro Runtime Environment

  To make use of the generic SVS or EVS input help, you declare the data binding between the UI element and a context attribute of data type simple type.

• Input help containing search result values

  In some application scenarios, input help is needed to search for objects from R/3 backend or Enterprise JavaBeans or Adaptive Web Services instead of constant values. For this, Web Dynpro provides a generic input help service called OVS (Object Value Selector).The user defines some search criteria for an input field and starts the search query. The search results are displayed in a table. After selecting a row in this search result table, the required value is transferred back to the input field.

  More information: Providing Search Result Value Lists (OVS)

1. Decide, what kind of values should be offered in the input help value list, when the user triggers input help. Insert the corresponding UI element in the view of your Web Dynpro application.

2. Implement the required context attribute declarations accordingly and perform the further necessary steps as described.