A new approach to ALV Programming

[Former Member]

ALV Programming has undergone a major change over the last couple of years. First we had the function module approach - where the data to be displayed is passed to a function module like REUSE_ALV_LIST_DISPLAY. Then with the introduction of the OO concepts in 46C we had classes like CL_GUI_ALV_GRID and CL_GUI_ALV_TREE which changed ALV
Programming quite a bit. Most (almost all ?) ABAPers today use these classes to program their ALV.

If you were asked to name one improvement to this approach based on classes, what would that be? I would say that it is still a bit painful to create a screen and put a custom control container and then place this ALV Grid in that , all by myself. Especially when I want to create some test programs to answer the questions in the ABAP Forum :-)!
Wouldn't it be great if I could worry less about these and concentrate more on imporving the functionality of my ALV Grid?

This is precisely what you can do from Basis 640. You can now program an ALV in various modes (Fullscreen, Regular and List Mode), all using a single class (and without even having to create a screen ! ).

So without further ado, let me introduce you what's called  the ALV Object Model. Now, what's that ?

START-OF-SELECTION.

  CALL FUNCTION 'NAMETAB_GET'

    EXPORTING

      langu   = sy-langu

      tabname = tab_name

    TABLES

      nametab = dyntab. "dyntab now contains the field names

• FILLING THE CATALOG OF NEW DYNAMIC INTERNAL TABLE

  LOOP AT dyntab INTO wa_dyntab.

    wa_fcat-fieldname = wa_dyntab-fieldname.

    wa_fcat-ref_field = wa_dyntab-fieldname.

    wa_fcat-ref_table = wa_dyntab-tabname.

    APPEND wa_fcat TO i_fcat .

  ENDLOOP.

• CREATING A POINTER (FIELD SYMBOL) TO THE INTERNAL TABLE

  CALL METHOD cl_alv_table_create=>create_dynamic_table

    EXPORTING

      it_fieldcatalog = i_fcat

    IMPORTING

      ep_table        = dref.

  ASSIGN  dref->* TO .

• SELECT the data from the table SPFLI. If you want a

• different table, then just use a different value

• than SPFLI in the data declarations part. Or better

• still, use a PARAMETERS to take the name of the

• table name as input from the selection-screen.

  SELECT *

    FROM (tab_name)

    INTO TABLE

• Instead of if_salv_c_bool_sap=>false, you can pass the

• value if_salv_c_bool_sap=>true to this method to

• see your ALV as a list.

  TRY.

      CALL METHOD cl_salv_table=>factory

        EXPORTING

          list_display   = if_salv_c_bool_sap=>false

        IMPORTING

          r_salv_table   = gr_table

        CHANGING

          t_table        =