ABAP, NetWeaver, ERP Tutorial

Introduction

SAP WebGUI has another name called ‘SAP GUI for HTML‘. This UI technology is based on integrated ITS and present all the data in the browser.

The SAP WebGUI generates HTML pages for every SAP screen. This means you do not have to create any templates. There are some technical restrictions due to the browser, however, and certain transactions may not function in the SAP GUI for HTML. This must be decided for each case. The use of controls can result in this restriction.

Use SAP WebGUI

First of all, you need to activate ITS WebGUI. You can find a comprehensive tutorial from here.

After the service is activated, it can be accessed using following url pattern: http://www.yourcompany.com/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui?sap-client=100. You can login in using account valid in the specified client. Internet Service WEBGUI is the start point of the SAP WebGUI.

By default, all the transaction can be accessed in the browser if the option ‘SAPGUI for HTML’ is ticked in the transaction definition.

Adapt Default SAP WebGUI

In some case, you need to change the default layout or add some other functionality in the default generated SAP WebGUI. For example, SAP SRM uses ITS technology to show the screen in browser and its own specific style. For this reason, we need to adapt it using Web Application Builder.

Step 1. Create an Internet Service

In order for you to log onto the SAP system and start a Web application, the Internet Transaction Server (ITS) requires a relevant Internet service. This is created as a development object in the Workbench and includes further components that represent components of an ITS-based Web application. In addition the services have to be defined in the Internet Communication Framework (ICF) using transaction SICF.

An Internet service can contain the following components:

• Service description: parameters that describe how the service is to be carried out. The most important of these are the logon data and, details of the transaction that is to be carried out.
• HTML templates: Templates are used to implement the graphic user interface and dialog logic of the Web application.
• MIME objects: These can be icons, graphics, Java applets, or sound/video components that you use to extend the user interface in the Web environment. There are language-specific and non-language-specific MIME objects.
• Language resources: A language resource contains all the texts that are required to execute a service in a particular language. They ensure that the ITS-based application is not language-specific.
• JavaScript files: A collection of JavaScript functions can be rolled out to a separate object.

A concrete instance of a service is defined by a theme. A theme has its own set of HTML templates, language resources, MIME objects and JavaScript files, and gives a service a particular appearance. The actual function of the service remains unchanged.

Step 2. Generate HTML Templates

For screen-based Web applications you can select the transaction screens for which an HTML template should be explicitly generated.

Generating templates explicitly is useful if the SAP GUI features are insufficient for your needs and you would need to adapt the standard generated template anyway and you would like to improve the layout. This is the case for example when you want to insert hyperlinks.

Step 3. Extend HTML Templates

Once you have created an HTML template, you can change the generated source code. To do this, you must be familiar with the basics of HTML and HTML^Business.

HTML^Business is an extension of standard HTML developed by SAP to allow SAP screen data to be merged dynamically with information on HTML templates and to make it easier for the ITS to exchange data between the SAP system and the Web Server.

For more information, see HTMLBusiness Reference.

Step 4. Publish a Service

In the case of a separate ITS, templates and MIME files are published on the ITS server; the integrated ITS obtains this data directly from the database at runtime. However, the templates and MIME files must be published on the site INTERNAL. This process is necessary to activate changes to the templates (that is, the changed templates are only used at runtime after publishing).

Links

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/en/a6/81073a070b11d5969700a0c94260a5/frameset.htm

https://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/EP/12+ITS+WebGUI+-+Activation+%28Back+End%29

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_47x200/helpdata/en/4b/fd24c4529511d480aa00c04f99fbf0/frameset.htm