Using XPATH statements within SAP NetWeaver 2004s BEx Web Application Designer – Part 1
Introduction
In this blog, I will give you a very simple example on grabbing information from the XML DataProvider available within the SAP NetWeaver 2004s BEx Web Application Designer. If you use a query view as your dataprovider within a web application, and want to get the technical of the query view, this isn’t available in the text elements. Therefore, you may want to write this out. This blog shows how to use a very simple XPATH that will write this out to the new “Text” web item that is available. This is the first in many examples I’ll provide in this blog series. This is the simplest example I could think of. They examples will get more involved within this series as the series goes on…
What is XPATH?
As defined on the w3schools website: “XPath is a language for finding information in an XML document. XPath is used to navigate through elements and attributes in an XML document. XPath is a major element in the W3C’s XSLT standard – and XQuery and XPointer are both built on XPath expressions. So an understanding of XPath is fundamental to a lot of advanced XML usage.” – http://wiht.link/XPath-intro
Rendering the query view technical name in a text field
In general, this is actually very easy. Follow these simple steps:
Additional Examples?
There are some great examples in the online help. See these additional examples:
- [Dynamic Parameterization of Commands | http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw2004s/helpdata/en/44/7aac356f9f6571e10000000a11466f/frameset.htm]
Summary
Hope you found this useful. XPATH will definitely help you extend the capabilities of the BEx Web Application Designer, so definitely check it out. Also, stay tuned for more involved examples in this blog series. Check out the examples in the online help as well as they are very good! </li>
Thanks, Ken Murray
I'd look at the examples I provided that link to the online help. There's a ton you can do with XPATH. Basically, all the data and values are available in the BICS_VIEW. Add the "XML - DataProvider Information" web item to the web template and when you run the web application, right click and choose "View Source". Here you'll see the BICS_VIEW xml tree and you can grab any value and dynamically assign values based on it.
Thanks!
thanks again and keep up the good work!
Ken Murray
I'm no longer working in the RIG so I'm not sure what the future roadmap looks like as much for WAD and VC. In terms of XPATH, you can read multiple values. If Brian is still at Forest, he should be able to help you out with that. If not, I'll see if I can write up an example in blog when I get a few months.
Cheers,
Prakash
just tried to create a web template as you described, but I'm getting the following error:
No Path-Values allowd for "CREATE_ITEM"
Any ideas?
Regards
Christophe
Problem solved...
I have the same problem,
but I fail to understand the instruction on the note.
After trying to imlement the solution, I get an error saying:
"Parameter WEB_TEMPLATE_ACTIONS can not be located here"
Please help
Shlomi