8/13/2019 A PDF Form or Not a PDF Form

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A PDF form or not a PDF form - that is the often thequestionMarkus MeislBusiness CardCompany: SAP AG

Posted on Dec !!" !##$ #%:#& AM in ABAP"Application Ser'er"BusinessProcess ()pert"*a'a Pro+rammin+"SAP ,etea'er Platform"e.Dynpro

A common conversation with SAP customers:"So SAP has a new forms technology in SAP NetWeaver, right?"[Answer of SAP employee: Yes, its a partnership with A!oe in the P#$ area calle! SAP %nteractive $orms&'"We can now generate interactive P#$ forms from the system, enter information in them, an! up!ate the!ataase, correct?"[Answer of SAP employee: Yes, thats correct&'"So can % use this P#$ stuff to replace all my SAP screens, no matter whether they are SAP ()%, *SP or We#ynpro?"[Answer of SAP employee: No, not really&'/So 0hen doesit make sense to use a PDF1/

(oo! +uestion

-his log tries to provi!e some general answers to the +uestion when a P#$ form can e suitale in a usinessprocess& Some of the arguments or uses cases ma!e elow are very clear.cut, others are liale to cause !eate&

A couple of introductory comments:/& 0eaving the topic of print forms asi!e for the purposes of this log, you coul! argue that an interactive P#$ formis 1ust another )%, which really means an alternative way to interact with !ata store! in the SAP system&-his is no contra!iction to SAPs general )% strategy 2We #ynpro3, ecause no matter where you use a P#$ form,the technology is always eme!!e! in an SAP environment&2Note: -he creation of the form itself ma4es up aout 567 . at the most . of the overall effort involve! in creating aforms.ase! process& -he rest, in particular the ac4en! usiness logic, is stan!ar! SAP !evelopment&3

5& )sing SAP %nteractive $orms, you still !evelop in SAP& -his !oes not mean, however, that a P#$ form canaccommo!ate the comple8 usiness logic that is so often part of the SAP )%& %n other wor!s: #o not try to replacea heavy application with comple8 screen flow with a P#$ form& You wont e happy with the results&

*usiness processes that have the following re+uirements are +ood candidatesfor a!opting SAP %nteractive$orms:

2 Communicatin+ and colla.oratin+ 0ith e)ternal partiesYou interact with people outsi!e your company who nee! to provi!e !ata that nee!s to somehow get ac4 intoyour usiness systems& You want to transfer this !ata into the system in an automate! way& 2See alsoTransforming paper-based processes into electronic processeselow&3SAP e)amples:. mySAP 9P 566;: 98ception han!ling in %nvoice

8/13/2019 A PDF Form or Not a PDF Form

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SAP e)ample2in !evelopment3:. mySAP 9P: -a8 form in -a8 an! evenue =< Processes an! $orms. mySAP 9P 566:

8/13/2019 A PDF Form or Not a PDF Form

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