Web Dynpro ABAP is the SAP standard UI technology for developing Web applications in the ABAP environment. It consists of a runtime environment and a graphical development environment with special Web Dynpro tools that are integrated in the ABAP Workbench (SE80).

The Web Dynpro model is based on the Model View Controller (MVC) paradigm, and has the following features that build on the classic dynpro model:

• Clear separation of business logic and display logic
• Uniform meta model for all types of user interfaces
• Execution on a number of client platforms
• Extensive platform independent of interfaces

You can integrate print or online PDF forms in Web Dynpro applications.

The more challenging scenario is to introduce an online PDF form that can be used as equivalent to a typical Web Dynpro view. Customers can access those online forms (once they have logged on to the SAP system) and enter the necessary data directly in the system.

In the following examples, some BAPIs dealing with user data (SU01, SU3, and so on) will be used as models.

The main controller of a Web Dynpro component, called the component controller, will call these BAPIs and supply the data. Once the component controller has accessed the data, the data is stored in the controller context (hierarchical tree where data is held).

Based on a mechanism called context mapping, the views can also access the component controller data and visualize this data using several UI elements.

To use interactive online forms in Adobe Reader, users need Reader rights. These rights allow you to enter and save data in forms. Reader rights are configured as part of the installation and configuration process of Adobe Document Services.

There are several advantages to integrating Interactive Forms in Web Dynpro, including:

• The form generation is done by the Web Dynpro framework.
• You do not need to call the ADS manually.
• Data extraction after the upload happens automatically through the context binding mechanism.
• No parsing and extracting of data is needed (no DOM table parsing, XML transformation, and so on).
• Data entered in view input fields can be used immediately inside the Web Dynpro application and, for example, can be stored in the SAP database.

To integrate a PDF form in ABAP Web Dynpro, use the Interactive Forms UI element. You can find this in the UI Elements section of Web Dynpro in the Integration group.

You can insert a form element by right-clicking on ROOTUIELEMENTCONTAINER (tree-like structure on the upper right side).

There are three important attributes of the Interactive Forms UI element:

• dataSource
  Binds against the Web Dynpro context that holds the data
• templateSource
  Name of the integrated PDF form (either a new one or an existing one)
• pdfSource
  Optional; binds to an XSTRING variable defined in the Web Dynpro context to store the binary PDF data

To download a form, use the pdfSource parameter:

• You can create the coding to access the data of the bound node via the Web Dynpro Code Wizard.
• Afterward, the binary data inside pdfSource is transferred to the following method:

   

  DATA ls_pdf TYPE wd_this->element_pdf. DATA lv_bin LIKE ls_pdf-bin. CALL METHOD cl_wd_runtime_services=>attach_file_to_response EXPORTING i_filename = 'adobe.pdf' i_content = lv_bin i_mime_type = 'application/pdf' .

• To upload a form, use a Web Dynpro fileUpload view element.-
  • The data property of this element needs to be bound to a context node of type XSTRING.
  • The data transfer into the context node happens automatically because of the context binding after the next server round trip.
  • dataSource of the view element and data property of the fileUpload view element can be bound to the same context node.
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