Technical Articles
Onboarding 2.0 – Additional Onboarding Data Collection UI Configurations
Overview:
New hire can provide data on custom UI screens presented during Additional Data Collection step. Onboarding 2.0 provides the ability to design custom UI screens using MDF objects and configuration UI’s.
In this blog, we are going to discuss the end-to-end configuration using Extension Center and configuration steps for designing UI with examples such as
- Display instructional long text
- Display fields in flow or form layout
- Show fields in groups and conditional hide/show using config UI rules
- Show group as collapse or expand
- Show/hide field on first page load using config UI rules
- Show/hide fields if user selects value on UI
- Configure default document as attachment
- Browser and upload attachment
- Link to UI page which open as URL
- Handling different labels on UI
Let’s get started with Extension Center.
How to use Extension Center to configure Additional Data Collection
Extension Center is a one-stop page for creating and managing custom elements in SAP SuccessFactors. From here, you can create entirely new elements as well as edit existing ones to meet your business needs.
Pre-requisite to set up Additional Data Collection configuration: You must enable Onboarding 2.0 with all pre-requisites for the Onboarding process creation. RBP should be enabled for additional data collection objects such as Onboarding data collection configuration, Onboarding data collection user configuration and custom UI objects (if they are defined as RBP secured) to new hire as well as responsible users.
Pre-requisite to access Extension Center: You must enable Provisioning switch under Company setting “Enable Extension Center — requires “Enable Generic Objects” and “Enable the Attachment Manager”.
With this you will be able to access Extension Center from Admin Center.
Follow below steps to create custom objects and config UIs from Extension Centers:
Step 1: Create Extension. Navigate to Admin Center-> Extension Center-> Create SuccessFactors Extension
- Provide Tile and External Code.
- Click on Action Save Extension.
You will see “Add New Object” option once you save the extension.
Step 2: Click on Add New Object.
- Add fields as per your requirement
- Set Data Type for field “externalCode” = Auto number
- It is mandatory to add field “cust_userConfig” for association. Select Data Type = Generic Object and Valid Values Source = ONB2DataCollectionUserConfig
Similarly, you can add more objects as per your requirement.
Step 3: Associating Objects to ONB2DataCollectionUserConfig
- Navigate to Admin Center-> Extension Center->Add Existing Object
- Search for ONB2DataCollectionUserConfig object and Save
- Click on Relationships
- Give the Label and Name appropriate to the association
- Select Destination Object name as custom object that needs to be associated (e.g. Uniform)
- Select Multiplicity as “One to One”
- Select Type as “Join by Column”
- Click on the expand arrow, this opens additional setting section.
- Set the Source Object Column to “internalId” and Destination Object Column as “cust_userConfig”
Step 4: Add UI for custom object
- Navigate to Admin Center-> Manage Configuration UI
- Enter the Id for Config UI
- Select your MDF Custom Object that you have created in step 2
- Delete the system field and keep only fields which you would like to show to new hire
Step 5: Add custom UI created in step 4 to ONBDataCollectionConfig
- Navigate to Admin Center-> Manage Data and search for “Onboarding data collection config”
- Select “DEFAULT_DATA_COLLECTION_CONFIG” in second search box
- Click on Take action
- Search custom object created in step 2 and add into “List of UI Items Configurations” list
- Save the changes
New Hire will see below screen which you have designed in above steps
Let’s discuss configuration steps for designing UI with examples.
Example 1: Setup long read-only text on UI
By default, 255 characters will be shown on UI. You can set long description using the following configuration steps
Configurations:
- Custom Object definition:
Create custom field on the object with
-
- Maximum length = <as per maximum length> (By default it is 255 characters)
- Data type = String
- Visibility = Read Only
2. Manage Configuration UI:
Set up below properties on config UI screen
-
- Show Label = No
- Display As = Large Input Field
-
- Close Properties pop up.
- Create Config UI Rule to populate default text in text field
-
- Click on Manage UI Rules and Add New Rule
- Select text field which is configured in Custom object in previous step and add text which you would like to show on UI
-
- Go back to Config UI screen
- Click on Edit Properties
-
- Select rule on OnInit Rules as shown below
Example 2: Display fields in groups with layout as form or flow
Fields can be shown on UI placed horizontally or vertically. You can do this using layout setting as mentioned below.
-
- Click on Add Group
- Drag and drop fields in the group
- You can add multiple groups, group name start from group 0, group 1 and so on.
-
- Click on Edit Properties
- Select Layout
Example 3: Show Group as Collapsed or Expanded
Add Groups and drag/drop fields under groups. Groups can be shown as collapse or expand using below settings.
- Click on Edit Properties for Group
- Select Collapsible = Yes
- Default Collapsed = No or Yes as per your design requirement
If Default Collapsed = Yes, then Group show as per below screenshot
If Default Collapsed = No, then Group show as per below screenshot
Example 4: Show fields on first load
You can define default UI conditions to display or hide fields on screen
-
- Set Default Value using Rule
- Select Rule on “OnInitUI” rules
Example 5: Show or Hide fields on condition
You can define UI rules to display or hide fields on screens as per values selected on UI by the new hire.
Set a rule such that other fields display on UI when user selects “Yes” for “Do you want to enroll”.
Before
After
- Create UI Rule
- Select Rule for field in “onChange UI Rules”.
Example 6: Default Attachment
If a new hire wants to read through the policy or additional information before providing his preferences, then you can attach default documents on UI screen. New hire can click on this document and open or download it.
Follow below steps for configuration
Step1: Create custom object which will hold default policy document and this attached document will be shown on UI screen to new hire e.g. “Transport Policy” document as shown in previous screen.
- Create custom object with fields
- externalCode = string
- add custom field e.g. “attachmentPolicyLink “ of type = attachment
- Set externalUserVisibility field Visibility = Read Only
Step 2: Create and Add “Onsave” rule to set externalUserVisibility for attached policy document = yes on object created in Step1.
Step 3: Go to Admin Center ->Manage Data and Create new instance of object and upload policy document
- Search Object in Create New search box
- Enter mandatory fields and browser and attach document in field e.g. “attachPolicyLink”
- Save object
You will see attached document as shown in below screenshot
Step 4: Associate custom object created in Step 1 with object which is used for Config UI screen.
With this association setup, Policy attached document will show in “Transport and Parking” UI.
Step 5: Setup Initialize rule on “Transport and Parking” to show attachment pre-populated UI screen
Example 7: Upload attachment
New hire can be asked to upload some documents as a part of additional data collection.
Define a custom object with one of the field as attachment.
New hire can browse for attachment and submit data.
Before
After
Example 8: Add Link to UI page
New hire can get links added on Configuration and click on link takes him/her to the web page.
Step 1: Add link on Config UI and click on Edit icon
Step 2: Enter URL and Link Display text. You can choose Show Label = No and Open In = New Window.
Example 9: Add User define title for page
By default, page tile will be same as object name. You can format title as mentioned in below steps
Step 1: Click on Edit Properties of Config UI
Step 2: Enter text to be shown as title in “Title Format” field and Click ok.
In case, if you have configured custom object as secured then make sure you provide role based access to External User role.
custom object set as Secured Yes in object definition
External User role with custom object permission
I hope you have good understanding of how to design custom UI after reading this blog post.
The regular product documentation will be updated based on a release cycle. It can be found here: SAP Help Portal .
Thanks Smita Jalit you have answered various queries in single blog. It is very useful thanks a lot


Thanks Rupesh!
Great blog Smita 🙂
Thanks Nathan!
Insightful!
This was very helpful. Thank you!
This is absolutely amazing Smita, very helpful blog.
One query here - In the long text field, can we add 'points' to it. Like bullets or may be different points in different line. I checked in my system and does not seem to be possible. Can you please confirm?
In case of 'Example 1' of this blog (long read only text), customer wants to enter different points in different line.
No, you can add only plain text and no formatting is allowed.
Thanks!
Smita Jalit : As per above requirements, In CDC object we have configure Example1 long read only text with the hep of OnInit Business Rule. But Customer want to translate it into different language. It is possible to translate either via Business rule like If Preferred Language is in Spanish then text should be in Spanish or else English.
Hi Abdul,
Was able to translate in my demo using business rule.
3308656 - How to translate Instruction Text on the Custom Data Collect Step - Onboarding - SAP ONE Support Launchpad
Best Regards,
Chancelle
SAP Product Support
Really helpful Smita, thanks a lot!!
Hello Smita!
One question can this apply as well for "Provide personal Data" section?
Hi Smita,
Great Blog. Do you know if its possible to add an object that can have multiple records? i.e. If you created a qualifications object. The Onboardee would have more than one qualification.
Hi Smita,
is there any way other than people analytics to see the data?
When the form is not yet submitted, we could give our recruiters access (even though it's write-access), but as soon as the form is submitted, we did not find a way yet to conveniently access the data.
Thanks and best regards,
Philipp
Hello Smita,
I have a question related to the Instructional instructional long text field in the Additional Data Collection step.
Is it possible to make this field available to the onboardee translated in multiple language, since we have multiple country set up?
Regards,
Girish Choure
Hi Girish,
Try using this KBA.
3308656 - How to translate Instruction Text on the Custom Data Collect Step - Onboarding - SAP ONE Support Launchpad
Best Regards,
Chancelle
SAP Product Support
What a wonderful article. Many Thanks.
Hi Smita Jalit and SAP Community,
Great Blog, very helpful.
I just have a question, the Additional Onboarding Data Collection Step can be done by another user different from the candidate? or it only can be done by the candidate?
Really appreciate your help.
Kind regards,
Juan
Hi Smita Jalit and community,
Has anyone tried using the RFT field = Yes to get more formatting options?
I've tried it and it opens an HTML formatting window (see image below) but it will not save successfully.
Hoping someone has some insight!
Thanks,
Camélia
Hi Camelia Lahlou,
I think you should put the HTML code in the Init rule, not in the UI, because you can't save it that way.
Bests,
Ivett
Hi Smita Jalit and community,
I have tested the long description, because my client gave me more than 2000 characters, but if I set it up like this I get an application error and the object does not show up to the onboardee. However, if I reset it to 1000 characters, everything is fine. So there is a 1000 character limitation, although I can't find a description of it.
"An application error occurred. Please try again later, or notify support if the issue keeps occurring.
errorId=null, timestamp=null, errorMessage=Bad escaped character in JSON at position 1139, errorName=SyntaxError, server=244sc33bcf14, versionInfo=Release%3A%20b2211p21e.20230322003503%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20Server%3A%20244sc33bcf14%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20Timestamp%3A%202023-03-26T15%3A02%3A15.345%2B0000%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20Theme%20Id%3A%207kkk6yh0l0%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20SAPUI5%20Version%3A%20%2Fverp%2Fvmod_v1%2Fui%2Fsapui5-main%2Fresources_1.102.6%2Fresources%2F"
Bests,
Ivett
Hi Ivett Emma Nagyné Tóth
I believe that the text used for the 2000 character test, at position 1139, has a value that the system does not accept. Try replacing the character to validate it.
I found in your error message description: ...errorMessage=Bad escaped character in JSON at position 1139...
Normally, special escape characters are usually represented by \ (backslash)
Hope it works
Regards,
Wilson Barros
Hi,
Following "Example 8: Add Link to UI page", can we add Employee ID as a token to the generated URL?
We need to direct the onboardee to a third party system, and that system needs to know some organizational information regarding to this onboardee (like country and entuty), so we need the URL to reflect some onboardee identification.
Thank you,
Efrat
Hello Smita!
This blog is amazing! It helps clear a lot of out doubts.
One query, with the introduction of Configurable New Hire feature in Onboarding since 1H2023, would all these UI configuration be applicable to the normal custom MDF Objects appearing in the Personal Data Collection step as well?
Thank you!
Regards,
Max