Customizing PDF based forms for Handout-Talent Review Meeting

Hi all,

While working on a project I got stuck on a development based on Print workbench.

The following document can help to understand this tool and can serve as step by step guide.

This document is based on a specific scenario in HR module ->Succession Planning -> Talent Review Meeting where Handouts are created to review talents.

Hopefully this helps to understnd the basic flow of development.

Thanks and regards,

Harshada Patil

Colagate Palmolive(I) Ltd.

Handout is the document generated through Talent Review Meeting as a part of Succession Planning.

Step 1. Analyze from where this document is triggered and the configurations / customization involved.

1. Check where Talent review meetings are generated

2. Click on any of the meeting which will launch the TRM …Here you will see option to generate Handout document.

3. Clicking on any one option above will create Handout – PDF document which generally consists of following pages

· Cover page

· Agenda of TRM

· Summurized calibration grid showing PP( Performance / Potential) of all the Talents which are part of this Talent Review Meeting

· Short profile display of individual talent

· Detail profile display of individual talent

Step2 : Now try to understand the technical flow how this document is generated

1. This document is generated as result of method CREATE_HANDOUT_DOCUMENT from class CL_HRTMC_RM_UTILS (Available in Package PAOC_TMC )

2. Just glancing through this method will explain how the document is generated

3. Set a external debugging point for this method and try to create handout

4. This will help you to find the formkey (application form name )for each page.

5. This assignment is done in customization which is available at following path

Step 3: Understand what this Parameter value is

1. It is name of a application form – object developed as part of Print workbench

2. Follow steps given below to build your own applications.

Print workbench design consists of following components

1. Form class

2. Application form

3. Form used for layout design – Sapscript / Smartform / ADOBE form

To start with design refer tcode PWB as below

Step 1: Create Form class

Select the appropriate type of form which you want to create for layout.

Now Form class is ready for design. Create child node

For example if we are creating this application to represent talent profile of employee, the final output here is created as child node of form class.

Note following fields :

Name : any name for the child node

Table / Structure : This should be a existing reference from DDIC. Since we are creating employee talent profile , here reference is given as HRMC_S_PDF_TALENT ( can be categorized as input field)

Description : Description regarding node

DDIC structure: This structure will be auto generated based on the hierarchy which is created for the node. See next screen shot for details about how this structure is generated.

Activate Form class and then follow following steps

Now if you click on tree structure of node Result you will see additional

This shows that the read routine can be created to read values in structure. Also now if you double click on DDIC structure ZTEST_STR_TALENT the details will be available

Now create child nodes for RESULT node – the way in which you want to derive the final structure. In this case we might want to retrieve employee personal details/ education / employment history etc.

First child node we will create as personinfo. Decide the type based on whether there will be multiple values available or a single value for this structure. In personifo we can retrieve name / DOB / Nationality ..So its multiple value against this node , hence type selected as (1:n). Again the structure referred from dictionary can be used to create multiple entries as attribute name and attribute value.

Generated types will be created as shown in above step. Note the naming convention suggested is <prefix>_str_<node name> for structure and <prefix>_tt_<table type>

Now activate your form class again. Generate DDIC objects and check structure ZTEST_STR_TALENT now , the you can see the change

In this way all the components can be added to our required object.

Add the required structures to Node RESULT using the same steps as discussed above.

Now the class is ready to be used. Activation of this class also generates the report and subroutines for handling data retrieval. This code can be viewed by clicking on below highlighted option or by double clicking on Library name