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julia_bender
Active Participant

Hello everybody,

ever thought of visualizing your business data to make the UI of your applications livelier and more transparent to your users?

The integration of SAP's Visual Business (VisBiz) within the world of the Floorplan Manager supports exactly this scenario.

A new VisBiz GUIBB is provided from NetWeaver 7.40 SP 03 onwards and supports two scenarios:

- Displaying a geomap with VisBiz entities on it (like spots, links and areas)

- Visualizing 3D objects

In the below screenshot you can see an FPM test application displaying a VisBiz map. On the left upper side you see the navigation control. Also via your mouse you can navigate through the map as usual - you can zoom in/out, move the map around, rotate and pitch the map.

By clicking on the below screenshots you get a better display with higher resolution. After the screenshots some technical details and outlook will follow.

Within the 3D scenario you can define and display 3D objects - in your favourite color of course and also a certain opacity. For each of those objects a description can be assigned. Of course here as well you are able to move the objects around as described in the below screenshot...

Geomap Scenario

VisBiz provides several functionalities for this scenario.

Using the context menu (right-click) you can personalize the currently displayed map type as well as defining a certain map section displayed when initially calling the FPM application.

Creating application-specific entries within this context menu is of course also possible via your feeder class.

Having a deeper look into the test application you recognize that an FPM List GUIBB is on the application as well. As all GUIBBs the VisBiz GUIBB takes part in the FPM event loop - so when clicking on any destination within the List GUIBB the VisBiz GUIBB navigates to that location and presents a spot with a plane icon on it. Selecting this spot leads to a detailed description.

In the below screenshot you get an impression on how the map can look like when having changed the map type and having done some rotation activities.

Drag and Drop is also possible within the map - imagine you have more spots displayed. You can drag a spot e.g. onto another spot and take some action.

Another view on the world with Visual Business and the Floorplan Manager. Again on the left-upper side you recognize the navigation control - double-clicking the middle of it leads to the start position.

3D Scenario

Now let's come to a use case for the 3D scenario. SAP's Transportation Management uses heavily the VisBiz GUIBB already and is also using the 3D scenario for its Load Planning scenario generator. Below the 3D model of a truck is displayed - here you see on how visualization of business data makes life of a user much more easier. Immediately you see when the load capacity has reached its maximum and so the axles of the truck have changed its colors. In this case the rear axle seems to be overloaded and the boxes need to be reallocated somehow...

Again here you see on how a detailed description can look like in the 3D scenario. Just click on the below screenshot to get a glimpse on the details.

The following screenshot can be taken as a kind of a quiz if you like. So, Europeans, please be so kind and wait until next week with your assumptions and answers because you have a slight advantage 😉 So people from other parts of the world can guess which lake is displayed on the right-bottom corner of the map. Any guesses?

By the way: On that map you see another functionality of VisBiz - changing the selection mode to e.g. Lasso... Yippie Yeaaah...


Technical Details


Here some short technical cornerstones on how VisBiz has been integrated within the Floorplan Manager:

- VisBiz is an ActiveX Control and has to be installed, e.g. via the SAP Service Marketplace or the VisBiz SCN page

- within the Floorplan Manager VisBiz is integrated via a Web Dynpro HTML Island Control

- the VisBiz GUIBB is provided from NetWeaver 7.40 SP 03 onwards

- a toolbar can also be configured as already known from the List or Form GUIBB

- the application logic is defined via a feeder class implementing interface IF_FPM_GUIBB_VISBIZ

In the below coding example (click the screenshot for a more detailed display) you see the Interface-Method GET_DATA of the used feeder class for the above test application. You will recognize that the VisBiz entities are passed via the changing parameter tables CT_SPOTS, CT_LINKS and CT_AREAS. The other listed parameters you  know already from existing feeder interfaces. In the coding you will also see how to pass geo coordinates to the spot and how to build up the description (quick info when the spot has been clicked).

For those having already experience with VisBiz recognize that the "old" VisBiz version via ACF is not used here. All the issues regarding the necessary backend certificates belong to the past.

Further technical details and examples on the VisBiz GUIBB you find on the SAP Help Portal.

Outlook

Our next goal for Visual Business@FPM is providing drag and drop across UIBBs - so dragging a line from the List GUIBB to the VisBiz GUIBB and the way round should be possible.


Have fun in using the VisBiz GUIBB and stay tuned for further developments and blogs of the FPM team!

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