So SAP Teched 2017 in Las Vegas is done. There are a lot of reviews on Teched, what we've learned, and how different or how not different it was... I promised all who attended the session DX133 - Personas or not really Personas that I would write a blog and add the demos. Why you ask? I completely messed up my canned demos. Canned Demos? How can someone mess that up? Well I didn't add them via the speaker ready room. My demos ran at about 1000 miles per hour.
I also totally misnamed my session. So I'm giving you an overview here and my demos. So of course this is a huge, monster, blog. Please do a search for what you want to find out more about.
Here we go - high level of my session. And again this is LONG.
As everyone is moving towards HANA, why take a step back into SAP GUI? I did take the step back because I watched the Open SAP Course on personas. It isn't as pretty and we can't do as much in SAP GUI. But we could personalize it. However, I wasn't using all those "old" tools. I thought probably other people had forgotten about them as well.
How many of you get requests for different things that are already in SAP? Then when you ask about it, you find out that the reason is because what is on SAP has too many columns, is missing information, or can't be totaled or sorted. Yes, me too. Remember train your user on how they can use SAPs (and your own) ALV screens. They can be "customized" to the user's "Flavor". That way they get what they want without you programming. Also as a side benifits some of those screens they thought were OK, can be screens that they like to go to. Not in this demo but also the Excel features are really nice.
Moving back to development. When I'm on a screen if I want to get details - I'd rather stay on the screen. So putting two ALVs on a screen sounds like a good idea. It also has the advantage of the ability of the user to customize what they want to see. And yes, of course, you can put more than two on the screen.
Here's a slide for you too!
These are things that we forget about. We set them for ourselves and maybe one time for our users. Perhaps it's time to revisit them. That poor person who is typing the same storage location over and over will thank you. Also as a side note you can use them for your own screens.
Table controls can be changed by the user to hide or move columns. If you create one - you can hide the entire table control, or different columns.
Little used and very powerful. Want to modify that SAP screen? How about only showing 3 fields without creating code? Making something mandatory? This is on a normal SAP Screen. The one word of caution. Don't remove a required field. Have fun with this and see how easy it is to do. The disadvantage is once you've made the changes - they have to use a custom code instead of the SAP code.
This one was awesome for me. As I was practicing my presentation I saw an awesome blog by Michael Keller. It showed how to automatically pull up more the one screen in the morning for your end user. If your user constantly is pulling up the same transactions in the morning. They would love for the system to open up all the transaction for them. Even better, the users can control which sessions are opened. If they change their mind, they can change their favorites. If this
Search helps or when you press the drop down. What do you see? Does it help the end user with finding the data that they want to get to? SAP Search helps can be "modified" or appended. That way you don't have to flip from transaction to transaction to find what you wanted. Now that is frustrating.
The first screen can look bland and not have a lot of information in it or it can be something that describes what needs to happen.
Try to use people language and look at your buttons as well as your parameters. One of the nice features of the second example is that the spreadsheet can be downloaded for the correct format.
The reason you would normally create a "SM30" or table maintenance generator is for you (IT/IS) to use. Then time goes on, and the user wants to use it. Or there are so many changes, YOU want the user to update the table. You could create an entire program to do that. However, all you have to do is use things like events to make a nice interface for the end user. Here I show how to save information - but you can pull information into the screen as well.
If all else fails or really the thing you should check out first is configuration. Screens can be changed, fields can be added, defaulted etc. Always check with that functional consultant or check with yourself transaction SPRO.
And that's a wrap! Enjoy looking through some of the old things to make your screens easier to use. There are so many other things I could show as well. BADI, User exits, Implicit/Explicit enhancements, Web Dynpro (but that is going away someone said). There are so many more. Be creative. Look at it as if it is a role-playing game. You don't want to read the instructions and neither do your user.
Not nearly as pretty as Personas. And you simply can't do everything that personas do. You can work for a better interface while you wait for that upgrade.
I also totally misnamed my session. So I'm giving you an overview here and my demos. So of course this is a huge, monster, blog. Please do a search for what you want to find out more about.
Here we go - high level of my session. And again this is LONG.
Why did I create it?
As everyone is moving towards HANA, why take a step back into SAP GUI? I did take the step back because I watched the Open SAP Course on personas. It isn't as pretty and we can't do as much in SAP GUI. But we could personalize it. However, I wasn't using all those "old" tools. I thought probably other people had forgotten about them as well.
ALV at the User Level
How many of you get requests for different things that are already in SAP? Then when you ask about it, you find out that the reason is because what is on SAP has too many columns, is missing information, or can't be totaled or sorted. Yes, me too. Remember train your user on how they can use SAPs (and your own) ALV screens. They can be "customized" to the user's "Flavor". That way they get what they want without you programming. Also as a side benifits some of those screens they thought were OK, can be screens that they like to go to. Not in this demo but also the Excel features are really nice.
Two ALV on one screen
Moving back to development. When I'm on a screen if I want to get details - I'd rather stay on the screen. So putting two ALVs on a screen sounds like a good idea. It also has the advantage of the ability of the user to customize what they want to see. And yes, of course, you can put more than two on the screen.
Here's a slide for you too!
Parameter IDs
These are things that we forget about. We set them for ourselves and maybe one time for our users. Perhaps it's time to revisit them. That poor person who is typing the same storage location over and over will thank you. Also as a side note you can use them for your own screens.
Table Controls Old technology still in SAP GUI versions
Table controls can be changed by the user to hide or move columns. If you create one - you can hide the entire table control, or different columns.
Transaction Variants
Little used and very powerful. Want to modify that SAP screen? How about only showing 3 fields without creating code? Making something mandatory? This is on a normal SAP Screen. The one word of caution. Don't remove a required field. Have fun with this and see how easy it is to do. The disadvantage is once you've made the changes - they have to use a custom code instead of the SAP code.
Variant Logon
This one was awesome for me. As I was practicing my presentation I saw an awesome blog by Michael Keller. It showed how to automatically pull up more the one screen in the morning for your end user. If your user constantly is pulling up the same transactions in the morning. They would love for the system to open up all the transaction for them. Even better, the users can control which sessions are opened. If they change their mind, they can change their favorites. If this
Search Helps
Search helps or when you press the drop down. What do you see? Does it help the end user with finding the data that they want to get to? SAP Search helps can be "modified" or appended. That way you don't have to flip from transaction to transaction to find what you wanted. Now that is frustrating.
Creating a simple report
The first screen can look bland and not have a lot of information in it or it can be something that describes what needs to happen.
Try to use people language and look at your buttons as well as your parameters. One of the nice features of the second example is that the spreadsheet can be downloaded for the correct format.
SM30 - changing it to make it more user friendly
The reason you would normally create a "SM30" or table maintenance generator is for you (IT/IS) to use. Then time goes on, and the user wants to use it. Or there are so many changes, YOU want the user to update the table. You could create an entire program to do that. However, all you have to do is use things like events to make a nice interface for the end user. Here I show how to save information - but you can pull information into the screen as well.
Configuration!
If all else fails or really the thing you should check out first is configuration. Screens can be changed, fields can be added, defaulted etc. Always check with that functional consultant or check with yourself transaction SPRO.
And that's a wrap! Enjoy looking through some of the old things to make your screens easier to use. There are so many other things I could show as well. BADI, User exits, Implicit/Explicit enhancements, Web Dynpro (but that is going away someone said). There are so many more. Be creative. Look at it as if it is a role-playing game. You don't want to read the instructions and neither do your user.
Not nearly as pretty as Personas. And you simply can't do everything that personas do. You can work for a better interface while you wait for that upgrade.
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