✒️ABAP / El diseño de los menús Por Jaime Gomez Arango

GUI STATUS

The GUI Status is an independent component of ABAP programs, providing users with a wide range of functionalities on the program screen. It comprises the Menu Bar for navigation, Standard Toolbar with essential buttons, Application Toolbar/Button Bar for transaction-specific actions, and Function Keys for keyboard shortcuts.

• Menu Bar: The basic tool for navigating through different screens of a system transaction. It includes transaction-specific functionalities and fixed options for all transactions, namely System and Help.
• Standard Toolbar: Of particular interest, as it contains essential buttons for common actions such as save, search, enter, print, etc. This toolbar is always present in any SAP screen, and certain icons may be enabled or disabled based on the transaction.
• Application Toolbar or Button Bar: The functionalities displayed here depend solely on the executed transaction, offering basic options for controlling the current application: create, modify, display, delete, copy, etc.
• Function Keys: Keyboard shortcuts to access various system functionalities.

Steps for Creating a GUI Status:

• Access the standard transaction SE80.
• Enter the program name and press enter.
• Once the program is created, Right-click on it and select Create / GUI Status.
• In the next window, enter the GUI Status name and a description. Leave the "Status type" as "Normal Screen" and click the continue button.
• On the right side of the screen, you'll find the components of the GUI Status.
• Expand the list in the "Application Toolbar", and in the first blank item, input the corresponding function code for the button. Press enter.
• A dialog box will appear, indicating no text assigned to that function; press the continue button to create a new one.
• In teh following dialog box, complete the details for the new button:

• Function Code: Used to name the button.

• Function Text: Corresponds to the text displayed to the right of the button icon.

• Icon Name: The icon displayed within the button, chosen from a variety accessible by pressing F4.

• Info Text: The help name of the button, visible when the mouse pointer is left still over the button for a few seconds.

• Press continue, and in the next dialog, assign a ShortCut to the button, having the same effect as clicking the button with the mouse pointer.
• With the created button, you'll see the first item in the Button Bar.

GUI STATUS - CREATING PUSHBUTTONS

To create buttons, we'll access the list on the pushbutton bar.

• Here, we'll create a button whose function is to clear the DNI input field, with the visible text on the screen being "Delete DNI." In the first blank item, we enter the function code for button execution, which will be "DELETE_DNI," and press enter.
  
• Next, we'll see a dialogue window indicating that there's no text assigned to that function, and we can choose between creating static or dynamic text, for which we'll need to use a previously declared variable in the program.
  
• After pressing continue, we'll see another window where we fill in the details for the new button.
  

• Function Text: Used to give a name to the button.

• Icon Name: The icon displayed on the button on the screen. This can be chosen from a variety of icons by pressing F4.

• Info Text: The button's help name. This will be displayed when we hover the mouse pointer over the button for a few seconds.

• Then, we press continue again and in the next dialogue window, we'll assign a function key to the button, which will have the same effect as clicking the button with the mouse pointer.
  
• A transaction can have many different statuses. It won't be necessary to redefine all status objects, as many objects defined in one status can be used in others. For example, it's possible to create a menu bar to be used throughout the transaction.
  
• Finally, with the button created, we'll see the first item.
  
• Here, we press enter on the code DELETE_DNI and fill in the Icon Text field in the following window, which will be the text displayed within the button on the output screen.

GUI STATUS - CREATING FUNCTION KEYS
We're going to create function keys that allow navigation in the GUI Status of dynpro 0100.

• To do this, we'll access the list in the function keys, type the code RW in the corresponding text box for the BACK key, and double-click on it.
  

• Then, we'll see the following dialogue window which we'll complete with the values as follows:
  

• In Function Type, we'll enter the function type of the key, which for this case will be 'E Exit command.'
  

• We'll do the same for the EXIT and Cancel function keys, entering the function codes EN and EX and configuring the function type as 'E.'

GUI STATUS - CREATING MENUBARS

To create a menu, we enter the name of each dropdown in the available space. Up to six menus can be included in the menu bar. In addition to user menus, the system will automatically add System and Help.

Each menu can have up to 15 entries, each of which can be another cascading menu or another function.

To open a menu or submenu, we double-click on the name. Each entry consists of a function code and a function text or menu text. Pressing F4 will show a list of functions we can use.

Up to 4 levels of submenus can be added. For functions, simply indicate the function code for the function text to appear automatically if the code already exists. We can define the attributes of a new function by double-clicking on the defined function.

For a cascading menu, it's not necessary to indicate the code, and we can develop the submenu options by double-clicking.

Using the standard transaction SE41, GUI Status can be copied from one ABAP program to another.

SAP implements function keys to allow quick access to commonly used system functions by the user. The function keys we refer to are those found at the top of our keyboard, namely, keys F1 to F12, which simply allow us to access certain functions of our interface without needing to specifically reach for them with a mouse movement. To create function keys, we only need to define them in the menu painter by assigning them a function code. SAP reserves the following function keys that cannot be changed by the user: F1 for help, F3 to go back, F4 for possible entries or matchcode, and F12 to cancel.

GUI TITLES

GUI Titles in ABAP programs provide a structured and user-friendly interface, enhancing clarity and organization. Here are the steps to create titles for a Z program using SE80:

• In SE80, right-click on the program name.
• Select "Create" / "GUI Titles".
• In the subsequent dialog, assign a title code and description.
• Click Titles (all) to view all created titles.
• Activate titles by clicking on the Titles button.

CREATING THE TRANSACTION ASSOCIATED WITH THE DIALOG PROGRAM

To do this, we proceed by accessing transaction SE93 (for creating associated transactions) or alternatively through transaction SE80.

• In SE80, we position the mouse over the program and select the option to CREATE/TRANSACTION.

• In transaction SE93:

• Enter a name for the transaction and a description.

• Select the option DIALOG TRANSACTION, and proceed.

• Then, enter the name of the dialog program in the PROGRAM field and the number of the dynpro being executed in the DYNPRO NUMBER field.

• Finally, save the transaction.