OpenOffice.org / ODF Support in SAP Software
Since this is my very first blog entry on SDN, I first probably should briefly introduce myself. My name is Erwin Tenhumberg, and I recently joined SAP. In my role as an Open Source Program Manager in the Global Ecosystem and Partner Group I’m looking into all kinds of Open Source related topics. Before I joined SAP, I worked at Sun Microsystems where I was deeply involved in Open Source as well. At Sun my focus areas included OpenOffice.org and the OpenDocument Format (ODF) in addition to things like Open Source business models. In this and future blog entries I want to explain how various SAP products integrate with different open source technologies. In addition, I hope that you will write comments to my blog entries, so that I can get a better understanding of the level of open source technology support that SAP customers and developers would like to see within SAP products. Finally, I will use my blog to report about SAP’s contributions to the Open Source world like SAP’s contributions to Eclipse or the Open Source related investments by SAP Ventures. Due to my past involvement in OpenOffice.org and ODF, I was curious to find out if and where the SAP products already support the ISO standard OpenDocument Format. I was happily surprised when I found out that ODF is already supported by the SAP List Viewer component (also known as the ABAP List Viewer or ALV), which is used many many times in all kinds of areas for displaying tabular data in a grid. The SAP List Viewer component allows exporting to ODF spreadsheet files in addition to Microsoft Excel files. This feature is available on systems with release numbers 6.40 and higher and works for all 3 members of the SAP GUI family including the SAP GUI for Java. For more details about the feature please take a look at the SAP Note 876916 (https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/876916)! For example, this SAP Note lists details about supported releases and required support packages. In order to illustrate how this feature works, I provide some kind of step-by-step tutorial including screenshots below. I first thought about doing a screencast, which I still might decide to do later, but then I realized that it might be easier for others to test the feature, if they can easily follow each single step. But don’t worry! The export feature is very easy to use and intuitive. For the simple test / demo I will use a simple test report that should be available on every system. Thus, it should be easy for everybody to test the feature. O.k., let’s get started! First, a SAP GUI has to be started, and one has to login into a system. Again, please keep in mind that the release number has to be 6.40 or higher. 
After the ABAP Editor has been started via the transaction SE38, we enter the report name “BCALV_TEST_GRID” … 
… and click the “Execute” button: 
In the following screen we can simply accept the defaults … 
… and press the “Execute” button again: 
Now some airline / airfare data is displayed in an SAP List Viewer grid: 
We can call the export feature simply by clicking the “Export” button from the toolbar right above the grid: 
Clicking the button brings up a dropdown menu from which we select the top item, i.e. the one called “Spreadsheet”: 
In the dialog that pops up next, we select the middle option for the creating an OpenOffice.org / ODF spreadsheet file: 
Now we have to select a directory and file name for the to-be-exported ODF spreadsheet file: 
Once we have clicked the “Save” button, OpenOffice.org gets started and the SAP List Viewer data shows up in the OpenOffice.org spreadsheet application Calc. Since the application gets started via the mimetype assocation, this export feature should also work with any other application supporting ODF including KOffice or IBM Lotus Symphony. BTW, the ODF export feature of the SAP List Viewer component includes support for sub-totals and totals. 
In cases where the SAP List Viewer component contains address information, it’s also easily possible to create form letters from the exported data. In order to do so, one simply has to create a new text document in OpenOffice.org and call the built-in Mail Merge Wizard: 
In step 3 of the OpenOffice.org Mail Merge Wizard, … 
… one simply has to click on the “Select Different Address List…” button … 
… to add a new address list file by clicking “Add…” … ![image]()
After the ABAP Editor has been started via the transaction SE38, we enter the report name “BCALV_TEST_GRID” … … and click the “Execute” button: In the following screen we can simply accept the defaults … … and press the “Execute” button again: Now some airline / airfare data is displayed in an SAP List Viewer grid: We can call the export feature simply by clicking the “Export” button from the toolbar right above the grid: Clicking the button brings up a dropdown menu from which we select the top item, i.e. the one called “Spreadsheet”: In the dialog that pops up next, we select the middle option for the creating an OpenOffice.org / ODF spreadsheet file: Now we have to select a directory and file name for the to-be-exported ODF spreadsheet file: Once we have clicked the “Save” button, OpenOffice.org gets started and the SAP List Viewer data shows up in the OpenOffice.org spreadsheet application Calc. Since the application gets started via the mimetype assocation, this export feature should also work with any other application supporting ODF including KOffice or IBM Lotus Symphony. BTW, the ODF export feature of the SAP List Viewer component includes support for sub-totals and totals. In cases where the SAP List Viewer component contains address information, it’s also easily possible to create form letters from the exported data. In order to do so, one simply has to create a new text document in OpenOffice.org and call the built-in Mail Merge Wizard: In step 3 of the OpenOffice.org Mail Merge Wizard, … … one simply has to click on the “Select Different Address List…” button … … to add a new address list file by clicking “Add…” … 
i`m using BASIS 700 and SAP GUI For Java (710rev4), but this feature is not avaliable for me. There additional patch to be installed ?
PS.: Tks for this info, i looking for this feature for a long time.
I want know if have API to handle/write OpenDocument`s, i can`t find anything about this.
Tks,
Cleber
I don't know if I understood your request correctly, but you can find details about a number of ODF API projects on the following two wiki pages:
http://wiki.oasis-open.org/odf-adoption/OdfProjects
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/ODF_API_Workshop
Best regards,
Erwin
Regards,
Cleber
Best regards,
Erwin
Quick question, were you referring to the following function modules:
* XXL_FULL_API
* XXL_SIMPLE_API
See for example the following links:
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_40b/helpdata/pt/b3/eba0f1542811d1895c0000e829fbbd/content.htm
I just want to make sure that I'm looking at the right API's!
Thanks,
Erwin
I try find this note on service.sap.com but it returns "An SAP note with the number requested could not be found", is note 876916 correct ?
Link: https://websmp202.sap-ag.de/~form/handler?_APP=01100107900000000342&_EVENT=REDIR&_NNUM=876916
Tks,
Cleber
Even using ABAP 700 i can`t have this option, because this "cl_gui_alv_grid=>m_third_party ca cl_alv_bds=>mc_ods_frontend" return false.
When using NW 2004s SP this option appear enable but i can`t open the document created.
Best regards,
Cleber Santz.
https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/876916
For example, this SAP Note includes lists details about supported releases and required support packages.
Perhaps we will meet soon? Jim
I would like to know if there is a way to generate the Ewa's in solution manager using OpenOffice instead fo MS Word.
Thanks for you blog.
Best regards,
Erwin
Best regards,
Erwin
i surprised that ODF is already supported by SAP.
Actually i try to create a concept/protoyp for import RFC/BAPI into IBM Symphony Spreadsheet.
I have some trouble/difficulties with that, may you want here more about that.
Best regards
Sebastian
Yes, I'm definitely interested in your experiences!
Best regards,
Erwin
Very intereting Issue.
Do you know if it is possible to have the same kind of function in BI.
I would like to export web query result to openoffice instead of MS Excell ?
Regards
Very intereting Issue.
Do you know if it is possible to have the same kind of function in BI.
I would like to export web query result to openoffice instead of MS Excell ?
Regards
The note 876916 clearly suggests otherwise...
We use the latest sapgui (wingui 710 patch 9, javagui 710r6).
Any ideas on what to look for?
Thanks,
Menelaos Maglis
Is there any setting in Open Office or SAP, due to which the character set should not be asked while opening the file in OPen Office.
Thanks
Sagar
We are swtiching to OpenOffice but we have found no way to execute the option "Export / Export to XXL" en Profit Reports such as KE30 (this option appears in SAPGUI for Windows, both 6 and 7 releases).
We are on SAP ECC 6.0 / 700/0017 release level and have tested it both in SAPGUI Win 7.10 patch 11 and in Ubuntu 9.04 / SAPGUI for Java 7.10 rev 8. In SAPGUI for Java the option even dont appears.
We are also suffering the same behavior already described of having OpenOffice (both 2.4 and 3.01) asking for character set when opening an exported spreadsheet, and when exporting to StarOffice as in your example, our result is an XML file shown in OpenOffice Calc as text (with all the file content in the first two rows).
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Have you solved this issue?
Thanks
The slide show is nice.
Is there any soltion for Bex with openoffice
Regards,
satya
I have the sam issue, Have you had any solution until now ? Does anybody give you a tip about use BEX with OpenOffice ?
Regards
we are also facing the topic of integrating SAP BW (BEx) and open office. Is it possible? are there any experiences?
Best Regards
Joern
thank you for this great introduction of ODF integration.
Are there any further plans concerning OO integration? I'm particularly interested in officially supported OO integration into DOI (office document integration).
Our customer is evaluating the possibility of switching to OO, so the feature request is to view & edit (inplace) ms-office documents with no MSOffice installed on the client (OO only).
As of now it seems impossible.
I am asking a question more about the OpenSource-to-Microsoft bridge functionality. Some SAP Solution Manager documents will open automatically ONLY if MS Word is installed. Can you please advise if SAP is planning a configuration location where Open Office may be used instead? Please let me known if you prefer that i open an OSS message on this subject.
Raja Gopalan
I guess that Vice President needs to be told "it's the document format, stupid".