In this issue of the UI Framework News, I would like to introduce you to the F4-help and make you aware of some precautions to consider:
One of the common tasks for a CRM developers / consultants is to provide a F4-help for a business object attribute displayed in his/her CRM component. F4-help allows the user to select a valid entry from a popup. Depending on the output mapping the F4-help can fill in one or more fields on the form it was launched from. The valid entries available in the F4-help popup depend on the input mapping provided.
For more details about input mapping and output mapping read the how-to document about F4
An object that contains a F4-help would look as below.
Pressing on the icon will open a popup and until the popup is open user will not know what kind of an F4-help it is as there are two main types F4-helps, which could be used in the business object.
- Simple Value Help
- Advanced Value Help (Which the user has the possibility to filter the results)
Implementing the F4-help is not as user intuitive the first time around compared to the other UI elements. The consultant has to either redefine the get_v method in the component work bench or provide the F4-help tag attributes (helpId, etc) to the inputField tag in a freestyle mode.
More details on how to implement a F4-help can be found here.
Please be aware that the F4-help should be used with care to avoid situations such as:
- Making sure that opening F4-help does NOT require opening subsequent F4-helps.
- The number of columns displayed in the result table should be the most significant columns from the users perspective to avoid larger popups which are not as user friendly.
- Also consider using a drop down list box instead of a F4-Help in cases where the number of rows is small as the DDLB is easier and quicker for the user.
For more interesting articles on the Web Client UI Framework check out our section in the "Relate to" area of your CRM BPX Homepage or click CRM Web Client UI Framework.
