SAP Interactive Forms By Adobe for Web
Dynpro
You can define an interactive form based on Adobe technology for the Web Dynpro user interface (UI). For an efficient and straightforward development of the user interface, you use the Adobe Designer tool with editor and the Adobe UI elements within the SAP tool environment for Web Dynpro development. In addition, special Web Dynpro form UI elements are available for the form development in the SAP environment. They can be selected by the form developer on a Web Dynpro tab page of the element library of the Adobe Designer.
The feature set of Interactive Forms By Adobe for Web Dynpro also provides support as following:
● Creating and manipulating PDF forms with or without using the InteractiveForm UI element. The PDF document architecture is usable via several APIs. A typical usage case for this function could be that you might need some forms containing context data, e.g. for reporting purposes, but you do not have the need to display the form at the frontend.
● Appearance of a form can be influenced by making settings, for example for enabling full screen mode directly after client rendering, hiding menu and status bar. Also controlling the zoom level, directly via the server, is possible.
● PDF forms can consist of dynamically programmed parts for the output on client side. For example, the user can enable or disable parts of a form simply by selecting a radio button.
● Data in a PDF document can be unpacked and stored on the server in XML format. By this, the data is also available for other applications as well as for workflow and enterprise scenarios based on XML. Also data flow in the other direction is possible: From the server to the Adobe frontend the data can be transferred and then be displayed to the end user.
● In the case of a render error which someone might get with an occuring exception when creating a PDF document on the Adobe Document Server ADS, the user gets a generated PDF error file containing information for subsequent debugging activities.
● For the output of printer-specific documents, the framework supports the Printer Control Language (PCL) and Post Script (PS). The user can create a new PCL/PS file via template, and the data using the same procedure as for creating the PDF documents. Furthermore, a PDF document can be converted into a PCL/PS file version.
Form UI Elements
● Pushbuttons
○ CheckFields
○ SubmitToSAP
● Input help
○ ValueHelpDropDownList
○ EnumeratedDropDownList
○ EnumeratedDropDownListNoSelect
● Disabling the Adobe toolbar
○ HideReaderToolbar
Data Flow
When designing forms using the template, a manual import of a scheme definition is not required. The SAP system generates a scheme definition file with an associated form context and provides this file to the designer. In Adobe designer tool, you find the logical context level in the Data View of the Adobe Designer environment.
The view context structure with its appropriate nodes and attributes is used for data definition itself. This context definition is part of the XML file .wdview and to be carried out in the Controller/Context Editor.
With the value definition in the Context Editor, the logical data source in the integrated Adobe Designer tool is also available since the names of the nodes and attributes are transferred automatically. There is one exception to this rule: If only one node with one or several attributes was defined for the interactive form, then the value attributes defined in the Context Editor are mapped onto the data view of Adobe Designer. The form context mapped in the Designer shows the logical view to the XML file .xdp.
The structure of .wdview is as follows:
Context <DataSource> <ValueNode1> <ValueAttribute1> <ValueAttribute2> … <ValueNode2> <ValueAttribute4> <PdfSource> |
According to the structure of .wdview, the structure of the .xdp file is as follows:
<DataSource> <ValueNode1> <ValueAttribute1> <ValueAttribute2> <ValueNode2> <ValueAttribute4> <PdfSource> |
With the definition of the form UI elements, the names of the value objects are transferred automatically from the data source or the context definition. The .xdp file on tab page XML Source contains the node and attribute values in the form of elements the XML file. All Web Dynpro form UI elements, such as list box fields, check or submit pushbuttons, are bound to the form UI using tag <bind match="dataRef"></bind> with a reference (ref="$record.).
Source Code of .xdp
… <template xmlns=“http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-template/2.1/“> <subform name=“DataSource“ …> <field name=“ValueAttribute1Name“…> <bind match=“dataRef“ ref==“$record.<ValueNode1>[*].<ValueAttribute1>“/> … </field> <field name=“ValueAttribute2Name“…> … </field> <field name=“ValueAttribute3Name“…> … </field> </subform> </template> … |
The InteractiveForm UI element definition triggers generation of XML file <ViewName>_<FormName>.xdp which is saved in workspace directory
/<AdobeProjectName>/src/configuration/Components/<PackageName>.<ComponentName>.
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