RF Screen Enhancement
Radio Frequency is a technology used to send data through the air. There is a remote wireless scanner (RF gun or any other handheld device) which accepts the data and transfers it to the nearest Access Point. This access point is a network device which allows a connection to some server.
The user does transactions on a screen on the remote wireless scanner which directly translates to a screen in R/3. Since RF transactions are mostly carried out on an RF gun (shown below), the screen needs to be much smaller in size (usually 20X16) to fit the gun screen.
RF transactions are special transactions. The specialties being the following:
- The screen sizes are considerably smaller.
- The screen logic is simple and user-friendly.
- RF does not provide support for some of the advanced SAP GUI features such as tab strips, Active X controls, etc.
Of course there are many more features, but this should suffice for a start.
SAP’s Radio Frequency Solution
The solution allows one to directly run SAP transactions on Radio Frequency (RF) equipment like handheld RF gun, or even forklift devices. SAP does not use any further middleware to connect the devices to R/3. Because the screen sizes vary for the different RF devices, SAP has developed special transactions with very easy-to-use-and-enhance logic.
Since no middleware is used, the SAP's RF solution is economical. Also, it reduces the effort required considerably. Since the entire Business Logic lies inside the ABAP workbench, users with a little knowledge of ABAP can easily use and enhance the existing functions.
SAP's Radio Frequency Solution helps enormously in Warehouse Automation. You can actually carry-out SAP transactions on the RF device, while moving around in the warehouse, with much ease.
Here is how it is done:
First, you need a terminal (scanner, RF device). This device must be configured for vt220 emulation and configured to connect to the SAPconsole server.
SAPConsole - SAP's native character-based radio frequency solution designed to translate GUI screens into character-based screens. SAPConsole by itself does not contain any business logic. All functionality is maintained within R/3 and all development for SAPConsole transactions is performed inside the ABAP workbench.
The SAPconsole server will be a standalone box and you have to install a telnet client on your handheld devices to communicate with your backend system. You exchange information through a character based interface.
You will need to configure your sapconsole using the administrator in the control panel. Once all of this is setup, you can then run transaction from R/3 on your device; there will be some configuration for setting up the menus and.
RF transactions and screens are developed the same way we develop any other GUI, with the only difference being that the RF screens are usually much smaller.
A Case Study
Business Scenario: RF Screen Enhancement
Requirement:
Develop a custom putaway transaction.
This scenario required a custom transaction for putaway in a warehouse. The customer had provided logic based on which goods had to be moved from one bin to the other in a warehouse.
Now, when you navigate to the Putaway screen through transaction LM00, there are five pushbuttons for various options. It was here that a new pushbutton for the Custom putaway was required.
Solution Developed
Depending on the logic provided by customer, a custom putaway transaction with various screens was developed. One thing to be taken special care of is to design the screens keeping in mind the handheld device screen. RF screens are usually close to 20X16.
Due to the size limitations on an RF screen, we try to limit the function keys to as few as possible.
The Client wanted custom functionality on F1 and F4 functions which are generally reserved for Help and value request.
Here is how we assign F1 and F4 to the function codes developed by us:
In the PF status screen, navigate to Utilities->F Key Consistency.
This opens a screens with all the possible Fn keys listed including F1 and F4 which otherwise are reserved.
We can easily assign the custom FCodes against the F1 and F4 Keys!
Once the transaction has been developed, there lies one last step. How do we display our transaction in the standard RF menu? There are two SAP tables in which are used to maintain the RF transactions' information.
The tables are:
- T313A- Dynamic Menu Management
- T313B- Dynamic Menu Management- Text table
The standard SAP RF transactions use the same screen in different transactions. The menu is dynamically picked and displayed based on these two tables depending on the user input.
An entry was created in both these tables so that the Standard putaway transaction shows the new "Custom Putaway" screen.
T3130A takes the Warehouse Number, Main Menu, Sequence at which we want our custom transaction to appear in the menu, and the name of the transaction developed by us.
T3130B takes the Text and the Short text which should appear in the menu against our custom putaway transaction.
Once all this is place, you are good to go!
Either directly run your transaction or navigate to it through LM00.
Cheers!
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