Understanding the User Interface 
The BRFplus user interface (UI) consists of a workbench that enables you to maintain your business rules. You can create, modify, and delete objects. The workbench provides access to all the BRFplus objects available in a system. While the workbench enables you to model all the BRFplus-specific rules content, this purpose can at the same time be understood as an intentional limitation: The workbench does not provide any tools for integrating a BRFplus application into your host application from which you want to call BRFplus. To accomplish this, you need to implement the respective calls in the source code of your application.
You can start the BRFplus workbench in one of the following ways:
In the backend system with transaction BRFPLUS.
In the web browser with the BRFplus workbench URL that is specific for your system landscape.
The role BRFplus Administrator (SAP_BC_FDT_ADMINISTRATOR) has been added to your user profile.
The BRFplus workbench consists of two main panels, the Navigation Panel and the Object Manager panel. The workbench also provides a couple of general features through the Menu Bar. The Status Bar shows the back end system and client where you are currently logged on, the logon user and language, and the current UI mode.
The workbench has the following two UI modes:
Simple Mode
This UI mode is recommended for the business user. It concentrates on business-relevant settings and hides most of the technical details that are only needed for administrative tasks.
Expert Mode
This UI mode is for the business expert or developer. In Expert Mode, you have access to a number of additional tools needed for administrative or cleanup tasks. Besides, some of the more technical functions are only available in Expert Mode (for example, the Return to active version function used to discard changes that have been made to an inactive object).
You can switch between the two modes using the Workbench menu.

BRFplus Workbench
The Menu consists of the following:
Workbench
You can perform workbench operations such as create an application, show the current objects in the repository, configure the user settings, toggle the UI between simple and expert mode and add the current object as favorites.
Tools
The availability of tools depends on the UI mode you choose. The simple mode activates only the simulation tool. The other tool components are available only in expert mode.
Application Usage
You can use the application usage tool to query the applications that are being used by the selected application or query other applications using the selected application.
Application Cleanup
You can delete unused objects from the application using the application cleanup tool.
Simulation
You can provide input for the context data objects of a function and simulate the execution for test and debugging purposes.Simulation is similar to function module testing.
Transport Analysis
You can analyze and check the consistency of all the BRFplus objects in a transport request.
Web Service Generation
A third party user can process the rules defined in BRFplus using the web service generation tool.
XML Export and XML Import
You can transport active versions of the BRFplus objects from one system to another (provided both systems support BRFplus).
Help
The Help menu lets you open the Help Center pane at the right border of the window. Here, you find a link that leads you to the context-specific application help for the type of object you are currently working on. In addition, the menu offers a legend that explains the most important icons used in the workbench as well as the meaning of the typographic conventions used in the user interface.
You can browse through the BRFplus object repository using the Navigation Panel on the left hand side of the workbench window. In the Personalization settings, you can decide whether the objects shall be displayed with their technical name or with their short text.
The objects shown in the navigation panel are not simple entries in a flat list. Rather, each object is the entry point to a hierarchy of subelements and usages. You can drill down through the object hierarchy by clicking on the triangle sign to the left of each object.
An application entry in the navigation panel serves as an entry point to the different object types of which the application consists, all the object instances for each type, their usages in other objects, which again serve as the starting point for a new drilldown.
For each object, the system provides a visual indication of the object's status:
Object type: The symbol to the left of an object's name indicates what type of object it is (application, various expression types, functions, etc.)
Typeface: Objects shown in bold characters are transportable (otherwise, they are local to the current system).
Note
This setting is inherited from the application to which an object belongs. Whether an application is transportable or not depends on the development package to which the application is assigned.
Traffic light: Objects with a green traffic light are active and can be used in an application.
The BRFplus objects presented in the Navigation Panel can be arranged in different views. In the Personalization settings, you can define for each view whether it shall be displayed or not. In addition, you can define which of the different views shall be active when the system starts up. The following views are available:
Repository
You can access all objects of all applications in the repository. The Repository view allows for an in-depth analysis of an object via a recursive drilldown into the object's subobjects as well as into the object's where-used list.
Recently Used
You can easily access those objects that you have recently been working on. This list can hold up to 20 objects.
Favorites
You can view all the objects that you have added as your favorites. This is useful if you want to keep a permanent list of objects you are interested in but do not work with every day.
Catalog
You can define catalogs that serve as a container for a subset of objects and access it from the repository.
Note
The Recently Used and Favorites views present a flat list of objects without the additional drilldown capabilities of the Repository view. However, you can easily access the drilldown function by choosing Show in Repository View from each object's context menu.
The Work Area panel is the place where you can display and edit objects. On top of the screen, the system displays the General section with the header data of the object. This section is generic and is available for all types of objects supported by BRFplus. The settings that are specific for a particular object type are shown in the Details section below the General section.
The Status Bar provides the following administrative data related to the running session:
System
System ID
System client to which you are logged on
Time zone setting of the database server
User
User name
Logon language
Time zone setting of your user account
Current UI mode (Simple vs. Expert, see section above)