To use Transparent Tables for Forms, you need to turn on the PSCD_TRM_TTF feature in the Switch Framework using the SFW5 transaction.
In the Tax and Revenue Management system, we use forms to submit tax information. These form details are set up in another system called Internal Service Request. After setting them up, they can be shown as either a Web Dynpro component or as Adobe forms.
However, regardless of how the form looks, the details are saved in the Business Document Services as a type of code called XML-string. This method has two problems:
- Before checking the details, we need to pull them out of this XML-string.
- Saving the details this way takes too long.
To fix these issues and make the most of the HANA database system, SAP has introduced a second way to store data using Transparent Tables. In the diagram above, these forms are labeled as Transparent Table for Forms or TTF.
A new flag allows the activation of the data storage in Transparent Tables for forms.
For a new form (which has no form data stored yet) you have to activate the TTF storage on the Additional Data for Scenario screen.
This has no impact on the customizing of the form, only additional customizing options are visible. They are used to activate the new storage at form level.
Old and new storage techniques can be active for different forms at the same time, but not within the same form.
If the Activate TTF switch is checked, additional parameters are displayed, including the Generate button. It is used to generate the Transparent Table for the scenario/version.
Caution
Generation status can be:
- Initial (red)
- Partial (yellow)
- Complete (green)
The status is always set to Partial if the list of ISR fields is changed.
The Table Name (Main) field is the name of the main form table. The user can display a list of all (sub-) tables by pressing the button on the right of the field.
A pop-up window with a simple hierarchy tree will be shown and navigation to the transaction AXTSHOW (Enhancement Analyzer) is supported.
The Nr Entries (Main) field shows the number of forms already stored.
Each generated table gets a system-generated table name, which has the following structure: Z/MANDT/ISR Scenario/Group name (for sub-tables, optional).
When generating TTF for a BRFplus table, sub-tables are created.
Example: Z800ZVAT00000000 is the main table and Z800ZVAT00000001 is the sub-table.
Caution
If a version is already TTF-enabled, the sub-table setting must be defined before saving a field. When TTF is enabled, saving Form View Fields or TRM Fields Attributes triggers the table generation, and rearranging of fields in generated tables is not allowed.
ISR Scenario
Only one main table is generated and used to store the form fields for all versions of a scenario.
When creating a new version of the ISR scenario on the notes section, the following assumptions are made:
- It is always possible to add fields to existing versions.
- A new field can be assigned to an existing sub-table or to a new sub-table.
- Fields cannot be removed, if they were introduced in previous versions of a form.
- The assignment (or non-assignment) to sub-tables must not be changed for already existing fields.
- If a field is added in one version, it is not visible in the ISR field list of other versions.
- If a new field is added in one version, which already exists with the same name in another version, an error message shall be thrown in case of deviating attributes.
- The maximum number of fields in the ISR field list is 999.
You can check table TFMCA_TTF_LOOKUP for every generated table.
