How to develop a SAP e-form in 5 minutes!

[chris_scott]

How can you build a SAP e-form in 5 minutes?

First you need Forms Lifecycle Manager (FLM) from Arch.

This gives you the form-serving infrastructure and the development acceleration tools.  As it's the best form server in the world, the forms are published and available for use immediately.

Second you decide between PDF and HTML forms.  PDF gives you off-line capability, HTML gives you instant mobilitiy.  For PDF forms you need SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe.  In the example below I'm choosing PDF.

Thirdly, you cheat! Well, just a little: In the same way the TV chefs pre-prepare ingredients, you build some simple ABAP snippets to drop into the form logic.

The development process involves 4 steps:

1) Firstly you define the data model for the form, using a Form Wizard in the SAP IMG.

2) Then you arrange the fields on a form template and upload back to FLM.

3) Thirdly you add the logic for form pre-population using an ABAP user-exit

4) Finally you plug in a posting adapter function in another configuration table in the SAP IMG.

Sounds too easy?  Take a look at the process:

This really works! With built-in SAP security, audit trails and managed updates.

Of course, real business processes take longer to model - but the news is that the forms can be as simple as you like: There is still a business case for simple forms, since the development process can be so quick.

With FLM we can support really simple and really complex forms processes.