Is it easier to customize the user interface in webflow?

[Rickayzen, Alan]

The Screencam is in the "theatre" subfolder of the "media" folder.
And, yes, the iView looks very similar to the MiniApp so your mySAP
Workplace users won't have a problem adapting.
 
Alan
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Rickayzen, Alan
Sent: 04 December 2001 10:05
To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: RE: Is it easier to customize the user interface in webflow?
 
 
Dear Kjetil,
 
M a r k e t i n g
 
A year ago it was easy to distinguish between what ran in the Web and what
didn't. Now it is much for difficult. For example a normal R/3 transaction
which runs in the GUI for Windows can now run in the GUI for HTML without
any modifications (think of the GUI for HTML as a sort of GUI streamer). The
picture is even more blurred with the latest developments in the mySAP
components and the amount or work that is going on extending the workflow
engine for XML-based messaging over the Internet.
 
For this reason, what we used to call SAP Business Workflow is now "WebFlow"
- well strictly speaking "SAP's WebFlow Engine". If you are interested in
SAP's branding or naming convention refer to Ian Kimbell's article in the
latest SAP Insider (www.sapinsideronline.com). Enough of marketing.
 
W e b   S e r v i c e s
 
In practice, although we have offered HTML forms (SAPforms) in WebFlow, it
has not been a huge success (correct me out there if I'm wrong). This is
mainly due to the skill set needed to work with ABAP and HTML simultaneously
and the fact that a "form" can quickly turn into a "transaction", with all
the complicated logic and navigation that HTML forms generation was not
intended for.  Feedback from user group conferences was that many
consultants favored an outside in approach (we do listen) and this is the
direction we are going in.
 
Business Server Pages in the 6.10 Web Application Server also follow this
direction.
 
For these reasons we have implemented Web services, which allows an
outside-in approach to Web work item support. Basically you create a Web
service in any language you like (JAVA, Business Server Pages, ASP, PHP or
whatever your local intranet uses) and pass the parameters from the
container to the service via the URL. When the service has finished it
passes back the parameters to the workflow via another URL.  This was shown
live at Teched, at the last ASUG meeting and a recording of how this works
is available on the WebFlow service marketplace ("What's new to 6.102) .
Thank's to your feedback; Kjetil; I've found a better link for the virtual
classrom viewer. Web services can be used in a 4.0 system if you have a 6.10
Web Application Server somewhere in your system landscape and the necessary
add on. A detailed description will appear soon in SAP Insider.
 
This feature is has first customer shipment status so please let me know if
you intend to use it.
 
E a s y W e b    T r a n s a c t i o n s
 
The other alternative is to create an EasyWeb transaction (ITS) and call it
from the workflow. We're writing a paper on how to do this.
The EasyWeb version of the generic decision looks totally different to the
Windows version (or GUI for HTML version) because it has been programmed
explicitly as an EasyWeb transaction.
 
If you want a better idea of what I'm talking about, download the screencam
(25MB) of the mySAP Workplace inbox miniapp from the media section of the
WebFlow service portal. This shows 2 different work items being executed.
The first is a normal R/3 transaction being executed in the GUI for HTML and
the second is the EasyWeb generic decision (the gif is not standard).
 
 
Looking forward to seeing if anyone has read this far and has any feedback,
 
Alan Rickayzen
WebFlow Product Manager
SAP AG
 
http://service.sap.com/webflow
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Kjetil Kilhavn [mailto:KJETILK at statoil.com]
Sent: 30 November 2001 15:34
To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Is it easier to customize the user interface in webflow?
 
 
My company (Statoil) uses workflow for distribution of an approval report,
handling of rejected items from that report, invoice handling and a few
other
purposes. Any employee can receive a work item, and that is one reason why
there
is a particular focus on making the solutions as intuitive and user friendly
as
possible.
 
One idea is to use a browser-based user interface (we use the SAP GUI here
in
Statoil). Since webflow is a standard component in SAP we are wondering if
that
could be a good direction to go, but only for this/these selected particular
purpose(s) - at least for now.
 
I had a look in the archive, at messages where the word "webflow" was
mentioned
but could not find an answer to the one question that matters most: Is it
easy/easier to create a customised user interface in a webflow solution?
 
I assume that setting up the ITS etc. would only present what we have today
with
a slightly different look to the buttons. As an example we use the standard
decision task, but we would prefer to hide the "Create attachment" button.
--
Kjetil Kilhavn
 
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