In the previous blogs of this series, I have discussed almost all the major functionality provided by ALP. In this blog, I’ll discuss various extension points made available to the application developers by ALP for example custom actions, custom filters, table and chart extensions.

Prerequisites

1. Make sure you have been to the previous blog of this blog series and you have rest of the sample ALP application to implement these extension points.
2. For reference, you can clone the GIT repo for this sample application which we are building.

Adding extensions to ALP

To add any available extension to your ALP application, right-click on your ALP project –> New –> Extensions

This shall bring up the template selection screen, where you should select Analytical list application and click Next.

This shall present you all the possible extension point for ALP application, which I’ll discuss one by one in subsequent sections of this blog.

Adding Custom Actions

Application developers can add custom action buttons to chart or table toolbar of an ALP application. To do this select “Action” radio button in your extension selection screen, provide an appropriate label for the action button, select the position i.e. table or chart and click on Next.

Once you have done the above steps, you will notice the following sections (sap.ui.controllerExtension) getting added to your application manifest:

		"extends": {
			"extensions": {
				"sap.ui.controllerExtensions": {
					"sap.suite.ui.generic.template.AnalyticalListPage.view.AnalyticalListPage": {
						"controllerName": "demo.alp.ALPDemo.ext.controller.AnalyticalListPageExt",
						"sap.ui.generic.app": {
							"SEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData": {
								"EntitySet": "SEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData",
								"Actions": {
									"ActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData1": {
										"id": "ActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData1button",
										"text": "{{ActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData1}}",
										"press": "onClickActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData1"
									},
									"ActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData2": {
										"id": "ActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData2button",
										"text": "{{ActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData2}}",
										"press": "onClickActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData2"
									},
									"ActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData3": {
										"id": "ActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData3button",
										"text": "{{ActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData3}}",
										"press": "onClickActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData3",
										"filter": "chart"
									}
								}
							}
						}
					}
				},

what is says is that a new extension controller (AnalyticalListPageExt) is added to this project. and all the actions are also mentioned with associated text labels, id and click handler methods which you need to implement in your generated extension controller file. You can find this extension controller under path webapp –> ext –> controller.

So let’s go ahead and implement these click event handlers:

	onClickActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData1: function (oEvent) {
		alert("SEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData1 is clicked");
	},
	onClickActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData2: function (oEvent) {
		alert("SEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData2 is clicked");
	},
	onClickActionSEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData3: function (oEvent) {
		alert("SEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData3 is clicked");
	},

Adding custom filter

Application developers can add a custom filter to ALP’s smart filter bar. To do this select “Filter” radio button in your extension selection screen and click on Next. This will add the following sections (sap.ui.viewExtension) getting added to your application manifest:

				"sap.ui.viewExtensions": {
					"sap.suite.ui.generic.template.AnalyticalListPage.view.AnalyticalListPage": {
						"SmartFilterBarControlConfigurationExtension|SEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData": {
							"className": "sap.ui.core.Fragment",
							"fragmentName": "demo.alp.ALPDemo.ext.fragment.Customfilter",
							"type": "XML"
						}
					}

The above view extension links the application to the autogenerated XML fragment file (Customfilter.fragment.xml) which contain the view definition for your custom filters. You can find this file under path webapp –> Ext –> fragment.  Let’s go ahead and define a custom filter.

<core:FragmentDefinition xmlns="sap.m" xmlns:smartfilterbar="sap.ui.comp.smartfilterbar" xmlns:core="sap.ui.core">
	<smartfilterbar:ControlConfiguration key="pricerange" index="1" label="Custom Filter" groupId="_BASIC">
		<smartfilterbar:customControl>
			<ComboBox id="id">
				<core:Item key="0" text="Item1"/>
				<core:Item key="1" text="Item2"/>
				<core:Item key="2" text="Item3"/>
			</ComboBox>
		</smartfilterbar:customControl>
	</smartfilterbar:ControlConfiguration>
</core:FragmentDefinition>

Likewise you can add as many custom filter by adding new controls to this XML fragment file. Let’s go ahead and run the application. We can see one combo box with 3 options getting added to the compact filters of the application.

Please note that the custom filters added via developer extension only gets added to the ALP’s compact filter and not to the visual filter. 

onInitSmartFilterBarExtension

The extension method onInitSmartFilterBarExtension (as the name suggests) is called when the smart filter bar of an ALP application is initialised. This extension method can be used to add some event handler to our custom filter:

	onInitSmartFilterBarExtension: function(oEvent) {
       var oSmartFilterBar = oEvent.getSource();
       oSmartFilterBar.getControlByKey("pricerange").attachSelectionChange(function(oChangeEvent){
       	alert(oChangeEvent.getParameter("selectedItem").getText() + " selected");
       },this);
    },

getCustomAppStateDataExtension

The values of this custom filter should be stored in the app state, so that it doesn’t get lost while navigation and also for the URL sharing functionality to work properly. ALP’s extension method getCustomAppStateDataExtension should be used to store the custom filter value to the app state. 

	/*
	 * Content of the custom field shall be stored in the app state, so that it can be restored later again e.g. after a back navigation.
	 * @param oCustomData  : referance to the custome data.
	 */
	getCustomAppStateDataExtension: function (oCustomAppData) {
		
		var oCustomField1 = this.oView.byId("customFilterComboBox");
		if (oCustomField1) {
			oCustomAppData.SampleFilterFieldID = oCustomField1.getValue();
		}
		return oCustomAppData;
		
	},

restoreCustomAppStateDataExtension

The value of the custom filters which was stored in app state should also be restored while inbound navigation. ALP’s extension method restoreCustomAppStateDataExtension should be used to fill the value from app state to the custom control:

	/*
	 * In order to restore content of the custom field in the filterbar e.g. after a back navigation.
	 * @param oCustomData  : referance to the custome data.
	 */
	restoreCustomAppStateDataExtension: function (oCustomAppData) {
		
		if (oCustomAppData.SampleFilterFieldID !== undefined) {
			if ( this.oView.byId("customFilterComboBox") ) {
				this.oView.byId("SampleFilterFieldID").setSelectedKey(oCustomAppData.SampleFilterFieldID);
			}
		}
		
	}

onBeforeRebindChartExtension

The filter value selected in custom filters should also change the data visualized via chart. ALP’s method extension onBeforeRebindChartExtension should be used to sync your ALP’s chart data to your custom filter values. This extension methods get triggers before the chart gets bound to the model or the binding gets refreshed.

	onBeforeRebindChartExtension: function (oEvent) {
		alert("onBeforeRebindChartExtension called!");
	},

OnBeforeRebindTableExtension

The table data should also respect the custom filter value. ALP’s method extension onBeforeRebindTableExtension should be used to sync your ALP’s table data to your custom filter values. This extension methods get triggers before the table gets bound to the model or the binding gets refreshed.

onBeforeRebindTableExtension: function (oEvent) {
		alert("onBeforeRebindTableExtension called!");
	}

onBeforeRebindFilterableKPIExtension

onBeforeRebindFilterableKPIExtension should be used to sync your ALP’s filterable KPI tag value to your custom filter values.

onBeforeRebindFilterableKPIExtension: function (oSelectionVariant, sEntityType, sKPIId) {
		if (sKPIId ===
			"demo.alp.ALPDemo::sap.suite.ui.generic.template.AnalyticalListPage.view.AnalyticalListPage::SEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData--template::KPITag::kpi::KPIRevenue1"
		) {
			oSelectionVariant.addSelectOption("Item", "I", "EQ", "item 1", null);
		}
	}

onClearFilterExtension

The values of your custom filters should also get clear when the end-user clicks on the “clear” button of the filter bar. ALP’s extension method “onClearFilterExtension” should be use to sync your custom filters with the clear button.

onClearFilterExtension: function (oEvent) {
		if (this.byId("customFilterComboBox")) {
			this.byId("customFilterComboBox").setSelectedKey(null);
		}
	}

I haven’t discussed how to enable this clear button in your ALP application yet, I’ll discuss this in my next blog of this blog series when I’ll discuss how to use the visual editor to customize your ALP application.

Customizing visual filters

onBeforeRebindVisualFilterExtension extension method can be used to change the properties of your visual filters. But one another very commonly used and important use case of this extension method is to provide a batch id to your visual filters so that the data fetch call for the visual filters having same batch id should be combined within the same batch call. By default, data fetch call for all visual filters goes as one BATCH call. This functionality is very much to performance optimization of your ALP application. 

	onBeforeRebindVisualFilterExtension: function (sEntityType, sDimension, sMeasure, oContext) {
		switch (sDimension) {
		case "Product":
			oContext.groupId = "Group1";
			break;
		case "Currency":
			oContext.groupId = "Group3";
			break;
		case "Product1":
			oContext.groupId = "Group2";
			break;
		default:
			oContext.groupId = "default";
		}
	},

Adding custom table columns

In order to add a custom column to your ALP’s table select “Column” radio button in your extension selection screen and provide an appropriate name for the view fragment and click on Next.

This will add the following sections (sap.ui.viewExtension) getting added to your application manifest:

"ResponsiveTableColumnsExtension|SEPMRA_C_PD_ProductSalesData": {
							"type": "XML",
							"className": "sap.ui.core.Fragment",
							"fragmentName": "demo.alp.ALPDemo.ext.fragment.customtable"
						}

The above view extension links the application to the autogenerated XML fragment file (customtable.fragment.xml) which contain the view definition for your custom filters. You can find this file under path webapp –> Ext –> fragment.  Let’s go ahead and add a custom column to your table.

<core:FragmentDefinition xmlns:core="sap.ui.core" xmlns="sap.m">
	<Column id="ExtensionWizard::ColumnBreakout">
		<Text text="Sample column"/>
		<customData>
			<core:CustomData key="p13nData" value='\{"columnKey": "Test", "columnIndex" : "101"}'/>
		</customData>
	</Column>
</core:FragmentDefinition>

The binding of this table can be controlled via extension method onBeforeRebindTableExtension which is discussed above.

Custom table row navigation

extension method onListNavigationExtension can be used to define navigation based on the selected rows of the table:

onListNavigationExtension: function(oEvent) {
    var oNavigationController = this.extensionAPI.getNavigationController();
    var oBindingContext = oEvent.getSource().getBindingContext();
    var oObject = oBindingContext.getObject();
    // for notebooks we trigger external navigation for all others we use internal navigation
    if (oObject.CostCenter == "300-1000") {
        oNavigationController.navigateExternal("ActualCostsKPIDetails");
    } else {
        // return false to trigger the default internal navigation
        return false;
    }
    // return true is necessary to prevent further default navigation
    return true;
 }

Conclusion

In this blog, we learnt about different extension points available to the application developers from ALP like custom action, custom filters, custom column and custom row navigation. We also learnt about various extension methods and extension APIs provided by ALP.

What Next?

In the next blog, I’ll discuss how to use the visual editor to customize your ALP application.