SAP S/4HANA Fiori and Cloud Adobe Forms

In SAP S/4HANA Fiori and Cloud, Adobe forms are a standard technology used to process application objects (such as purchase orders, contracts, or invoices) in PDF format. Output management in the cloud and Fiori provides the requirements for form template development and maintenance, data merging, data processing, and output determination for forms.

Maintain Form Template

In today's technology, it is possible to maintain form outputs in Fiori. For this, Fiori offers an application where we can select and customize the design or choose and use standard templates.

Advantages of Maintain Form Templates

All existing templates can be viewed in a list and filtered according to the assigned languages and countries. Additionally, a new custom template can be created for a specific language. Since creating a form within the application is quite simple, preparing forms via Fiori saves developers a significant amount of time. Moreover, the application provides users with an almost flawless form appearance.

Part-based form templates consist of content templates and a master form template. These templates can be edited in Fiori.

Master Form Templates

Master form templates contain static information such as logos and footer data. This data may vary from organization to organization and can be customized. Standard form templates include different layout definitions for the included template pages. These definitions contain the mentioned static texts, logos, and addresses.

Content Form Templates

Content form templates are form templates used to display non-static and application-related data. These form templates also use master form templates to display data such as logos and footer information. Unlike form templates in SAP ERP, part-based form templates in SAP S/4HANA must be edited outside of SAP GUI.

Translations

Form templates support multiple languages. A customized or pre-delivered form template has an original language in which additional translations can be created. Translations are versions of the original language form template. This means that the overall design (graphic layout, structure, and used elements) remains the same, but language-dependent texts are replaced with translated ones.

To edit translations of custom form templates, the "Edit Translation" function in the Maintain Form Template application can be used. Translations can be added and deleted for preloaded system languages. Additionally, the translated form can be downloaded as an XDP file to preview in Adobe LiveCycle Designer.

Custom Font Adjustments

Custom fonts can be used in custom form templates. These custom fonts must be embedded in the PDF. For this, the "Embed Font in PDF" feature in the Maintain Form Template application should be used.

To use custom fonts in form output, the corresponding custom fonts must be uploaded to Adobe Document Services (ADS) using the Adobe Document Services Configuration application.

For developing custom form layouts, the corresponding custom fonts must be installed on the same Windows machine as Adobe LiveCycle Designer.

Accessing Previous Versions of Custom Form Templates

Previous versions of your custom form templates can be accessed and downloaded. Additionally, two versions can be compared at the object level.

Objects are identified through the text reference ID or (if none exists) via the object path in the form template. The comparison displays deleted objects, added elements, and other changes. Differences are detailed in the XML structure of the elements.

Implementation of the Maintain Form Templates Application

Technical information and documentation of the application can be accessed through the Fiori App Library. This makes it quite easy to implement the application into the Fiori Launchpad. To access the application, it is sufficient to create a role that includes the catalog of the application, assign the created role to the relevant user, and activate the OData services of the application.

Data Connection for Form Templates

Instead of the previous ABAP Dictionary-based interface for data retrieval, the data connection for new part-based and independent form templates is established via SAP Gateway services.

You can contact our consultants for your SAP Fiori, S/4HANA and SAP technologies development needs.