SAP Note

Header Data

Symptom

SAP GUI for HTML bases completely on Web technologies. This note describes functionality different or not available in SAP GUI for HTML.

Other Terms

SAPGUI, browser, WebGUI, HTML GUI, HTMLGUI, ITS, SAP@Web, clipboard, restrictions

Solution

l Drag and Drop

Is generally supported with SAP Kernel 7.20 and higher. For release 7.00 and 7.01 it is required to active the new WebGUI rendering as described in SAP note 1637287.

l IOS Platform (iPad, iPhone)

Browser on the IOS behave different and lack essential features the like Java runtime, navigation concepts like right mouse click and double-click. A general release of the IOS platform is therefore not possible. There are SAP transactions that work, others that do not work.

l OLE Automation controller

The controlling of an OLE automation server is not possible.

l Standardsmode and Quirksmode

Please see SAP note 1924378 for details.

l SAP Shortcuts

You can save URLs in browser Favorite Menu or desktop shortcuts to start a specific transaction on system. The system will treat this as a new connection (use ~transaction service parameter). The standard way is to use the SAP Easy Access Menu in R/3 4. 6 or above

l Double Scroll Bars when using Windows XP Theme

Windows XP provides the "Windows XP" theme in which some elements unfortunately have a different metric than in the Windows Classic theme. The same is true for the Windows Vista specific theme. Please read SAP note 946958 for details. Even though a solution for this issue has been implemented it is important to note that display in SAP GUI for HTML can be incorrect if the width of the Scroll Bars is increased beyond 17 pixels. Therefore this setting is not supported.

l Scroll position

Screen and subscreens generally have a property "Hold scroll position". If this property is set in the screen painter, the scroll position of a screen/subscreen is preserved between dialog steps. WebGUI currently does not support the preservation of the scroll position. Only if the focus is set to an input field, the input field is automatically scrolled into the view. This is automatically done by the browser. For most cases this is sufficient, but in some cases the automatic scrolling doesn't provide an optimal user experience.

l Keyboard navigation

The support of keyboard navigation is limited as known from other web applications.

l Mouse Wheel

In general the mouse wheel is not supported. The mouse wheel might work if the scrolling is done locally in the browser. If the data has to be fetched from the SAP system on scrolling like in ALV grid, search-help, ABAP List or table control the mouse wheel does not work. This limitation no longer exists in SAP ITS 6.20 as of patch level 30.

    314568 - SAP GUI for HTML functionality / Limitations / Sp. Behaviour  

Version   111     Validity: 01.07.2014 -   Language   English (Master)

Released On 01.07.2014 13:13:22

Release Status Released for Customer

Component BC-FES-WGU SAP GUI for HTML

Priority Recommendations / Additional Info

Category Upgrade information

l Frontend Printing

Printing in SAP GUI for HTML bases on PDF documents, which are generated in the SAP system and send to the browser. There they can be displayed or printed by the user with a standard PDF reader. For details regarding printing, please check SAP note 351230 and 771683.

l Office integration

Because Office Integration is based on OLE Automation (a technology only available on Microsoft Windows and not available within browsers) it is limited within SAP GUI for HTML. Office Documents can only be viewed but not be changed.

l Search Help F4 Control

           The searchhelp dialog currently has several limitations:

¡ Custom events on the catagory field which trigger a application specific searchhelp dialog are not supported. Please use instead "R/3-Dialog" from "Help-Settings-F4-Help". This limitation doesn't exist anymore in ITS 6.20 Patch 20 and above, SAP NetWeaver 2004 SPS 16 and above. SAP NetWeaver 7.0 and above.

¡ Amodal (control) searchhelp doesn't support complex search options that can be set in SAP for Windows by clicking on the icon beside the search string input field. This limitation doesn't exist anymore in Release 7.00 and above with SAP note 1244566.

¡ Printing from the Search help window is only supported in NetWeaver 7.0 and higher.

¡ Searching the results list is not supported. If this is required, please use "R/3-Dialog" from "Help-Settings-F4-Help" instead. This limitation doesn't exist anymore in Release 7.00 and above.

¡ Up to release 6.40 the search help works different in Mozilla Firefox. Only the search help mode "Dialog (modal)" from "Help-Settings-F4-Help" is supported. With NetWeaver 7.0 both search help modes are supported in Mozilla Firefox.

¡ If the result table of a search that allows multiple selections returns more that 3500 items, the SAP GUI for HTML automatically disables the "Select all" button because selecting such huge lists would be very inperformant. Customers who really have to do such multi selections have to use the ABAP list based F4 help. This search help mode can be switch on by selecting "R/3-Dialog" from "Menu-Help-Settings-F4-Help".

¡ Some search help screens allow to limit the maximum number of results(by default 500). If such a search help is called, the user is not informed, if there are more entries available. If this information is required, search help mode has to be switched to the ABAP list based F4 help  by selecting "R/3-Dialog" from "Menu-Help-Settings-F4-Help". Resolved with ITS 6.20 Patch 29 and higher, SAP NetWeaver 2004 SP 22 and higher, SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SP 16 and higher.

¡ Multiple selection: The result list of a search help, which allows multiple selections is visualized with a leading checkbox in SAP GUI for Windows. In SAP GUI for HTML the checkbox is not required and not visualized. The user can select multiple lines by just clicking with the mouse on the lines.

l Business Graphics

Business graphics are now for the most part displayed via the Internet Graphics Server (IGS). Generally 'old' R/3 graphics cannot be displayed, but graphics are programmable as of release 4.6C through 'Graphical Frame Works' for displaying graphics in new applications. Generic display is not possible. Interactive graphics cannot be displayed in the browser (zoom, drag & drop etc.). Depending on the graphic, there might be minor issue caused by the size adaption of the browser. New applications (for example, BI&W, CRM 4.0, SEM) use IGS. See SAP note 1299016  for more information.

l SAPscript Editor

Restrictions can be found in note 441686.

l Font Settings ¡ Large fonts set in user's desktop display are currently not supported by SAP GUI for HTML. Please see note 458461 for details.

¡ WebGUI does not support changing the text size in the browser to other values than medium/normal.

l Tree Control ¡ Keystroke events are currently not supported. ¡ Column swapping via drag and drop is currently not supported ¡ It is not possible to optimize a column by double clicking on the column separator. ¡ For scrolling with the mouse wheel in trees with multiple columns, the mouse pointer must be located over the right scrollable area. If the pointer is over the left hierarchy column the mouse wheel doesn't work.

¡ Missing horizontal scroll bar: In case of new WebGUI rendering (see SAP note 1637287) and a tree with a single column there is no horizontal scroll bar visible at the lower end of the tree control: It is possible that content of this tree column might be partly unreadable if the content is wider than the tree container. If the tree container width is resizable by the user via a docker or splitter sash, the user is able to increase the width of the tree control sufficiently.

l Themes

SAP GUI for HTML only supports theme 99 for Mozilla Firefox in  ITS 6.20 and SAP NetWeaver 2004.

With SAP NetWeaver 7.0 the same themes are supported for Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

l ALV grid

¡ Excel-Export available via "XML-export" 6.40 and above, via "Local file" in 6.20 and below

¡ Other export options are not provided by the ALV framework in a Web environment

l Text Edit Control

¡ The toolbar function of Text Edit Control like clipboard and file operations are not possible in Mozilla Firefox. Therefore the toolbar is set invisible. For details, please check note 694260.

¡ In Internet Explorer 7 the textedit toolbar buttons for upload and download are not available. Internet Explorer 7 no longer supports the functionality to let textedit access the file system locally.

¡ TextEdit Control in SAP GUI for HTML has some limitations regarding wordwrap. For details, please check note 888810.

¡ The TextEdit Control in SAPGUI for HTML does not support protected text areas with the methods PROTECT_LINES and PROTECT_SELECTION. The TextEdit Control is either completely enabled or completely disable.

l Popups in Mozilla Firefox

In older releases like ITS 6. 20 und SAP NetWeaver 2004 popup windows are displayed fullscreen.

l Dialogbox Container Control

The Dialogbox Container Control is an amodal popup window, which is used i.e. by the F1 help. In SAPGUI for HTML it is not resizable as in SAPGUI for Windows. With SAP NetWeaver 7.0 this limitation no longer exists.

l Field History

In SAP GUI for HTML the field history is provided by the browser. It is not a functionality of SAP GUI for HTML. Depending on the browser this functionality may work or may not work. For IE browsers running on XP this functionality does not work. For details please read SAP note 1591465.

l Dropdown Listbox in TableControl and ALV Grid

The dropdown listbox in TableControl and ALV Grid don't support the navigation using the first letters of the listbox values if the listbox is in closed state. Users have at first to open the dropdown listbox using the Alt-ArrowDown key in order to use the keyboard navigation.

l Multiple Sessions and Inter Mode Communication (IMC)

SAP GUI for HTML doesn't support multiple sessions and IMC. Users can only work within a single session. When a user tries to create a second session, the system responds with the message " Maximum number of sessions reached". If users want to work in multiple sessions they have to do multiple logins.

l Clipboard access

           In SAP GUI for HTML it is not possible to:

¡ paste several lines from the clipboard to several inputs fields as it is known from other SAP GUIs

¡ paste several lines from the clipboard to several input fields of table control or ALV grid as it is know from other SAP GUIs. This limitation no longer exists in SAP products based on SAP Kernel 7.20 patchlevel 106 or higher, if the system runs with SAP basis 7.02, 7.30 or higher or if the new WebGUI rendering according to SAP note 1637287 is activated. Please read SAP note 1638480 about pasting from clipboard.

¡ read or write the clipboard using ABAP Objects class CL_GUI_FRONTEND_SERVICES. This limitation no longer exists with ITS 6.20 Patch 23, SAP NetWeaver 2004 SP 19 and SAP NetWeaver 2004s SP 10.

l Frontend services

The ABAP objects class CL_GUI_FRONDEND_SERVICES provides methods to access local resources of the client PC. If a method is not supported on a specific SAP GUI it raises an exception NOT_SUPPORTED_BY_GUI. This exception has to be caught by the application. Please be aware that this class provides methods, which return directory locations with are operating system specific. If these methods are called within a WebGUI session, they return the home directory of the user. On Microsoft Windows this is usually the users directory below the "\Documents and Settings" directory. On Linux it is the directory stored in $HOME.

l SAP GUI Progress Indicator

The function module SAPGUI_PROGRESS_INDICATOR lets an application write synchronously to the status bar of the SAP GUI. It is widely used to i.e. indicate compiling of ABAP sources. Writing to the status bar from the ABAP is not possible due to the HTTP protocol that don't allow push

actions from the server to the client.

l Asynchronous popups

Asynchronous popups via function module TH_POPUP do not work at the moment. This limitation will be removed in future releases using the new WebSocket technology that modern browsers provide.

l Window resize, maximize

The layout of the screens is generated by the SAP system. The SAP system generates the layout based on the browser window size it gets from SAPGUI for HTML. If the window is manually resized SAPGUI for HTML don't inform the SAP system automatically about the window resize. Therefore the screen is not regenerated automatically as it is known from SAPGUI for Windows/Java. Resizable screen elements like tables keep the same size as before the resize of the window. The resize event is not sent to the SAP system due to performance reasons to avoid additional unnecessary roundtrips to the SAP system. If the users want to get the screen layout updated, they have to actively trigger the resize by a user action like hitting the enter key. With SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SP 13 and above (SAP note 1033233) this limitation no longer exists.

l ABAP Lists with japanese language

The width of fonts with 9 pt size is to small for the available fonts for japanse language. This might lead to wrong display in ABAP lists. For details please read SAP note 946463.

l Unwanted navigation through browser history

Depending on the browser type, the browser has build-in hotkeys to navigate in the browser history. One of these keys i.e. is the "Backspace" key but there might be other key bindings like "Alt - Arrow Left", Alt - Backspace" or others configured by the browser vendor or user. It is technical not possible for WebGUI to catch such keystrokes and avoid that the browser navigates through the history.

l BIDI/RTL Right to Left

WebGUI supports BIDI and mirrors most of the screen elements in Release SAP NetWeaver 7.0 and above. The following elements are not mirrored:

¡ Toolbar Control

¡ some pictures

In ITS 6. 20 and SAP NetWeaver 2004 support for BIDI is limited.

l HTML Control

HTML Control with forms are input enabled even during server processing. It is therefore required that the application takes care of blocking further actions to avoid multiple requests at the same time to the server.

l ALV Gridview Control

Selection: ranges of rows, cells and columns can only be selected in conjunction with the CTRL and SHIFT key. Range selection with mouse only is not possible due to technical limitations. Columns: columns can not be moved with the mouse. Local Clipboard functionality: copy or cut to clipboard from menu or context menu is not available since browsers can't access the clipboard for security reasons.

l GOS Control

The GOS Control is rendered in the top right corner of the CUA area on top of the Dynpro in SAP GUI for HTML (e. g. on the right of the title bar). This placing is different to that of the SAP GUI for Windows due to different requirements in the SAP GUIs.

Other Attributes

Validity

This document is not restricted to a software component or software component version

References

This document refers to:

FILE

FULL

OLE

TREE

Transaction codes

SAP Notes

This document is referenced by:

SAP Notes (14)

1884539   Considerations when using SAP Screen Personas

1638524   Single Session GUI connections

1638480   Entering line values in ALV gridview and table control

1416000   Archive Link documents not opening on Linux/Mac Platform

1299016   Network and bar chart cannot be used in SAP GUI for HTML

984350   ITS TextEdit: file Up/Download buttons disabled for IE7

771683   Front-end printing for SAP GUI for HTML (as of Release 6.40)

694260   ITS TextEdit control: Restrictions for Gecko browser

557469   Graphical planning table and SAPGUI for HTML

510075   Interaction Center WinClient (CIC0) SAP GUI Compatibility

422895   TextEdit Control: Restrictions in the SAP GUI for HTML

351230   Front-end printing with HTML GUI/WebGUI (up to Rel. 6.20)

330007   ArchiveLink document display in html gui

311037   Printing using e-mail

300645   Up/download functions in ITS context

557469   Graphical planning table and SAPGUI for HTML

1416000   Archive Link documents not opening on Linux/Mac Platform

1884539   Considerations when using SAP Screen Personas

1299016   Network and bar chart cannot be used in SAP GUI for HTML

510075   Interaction Center WinClient (CIC0) SAP GUI Compatibility

1638480   Entering line values in ALV gridview and table control

1638524   Single Session GUI connections

984350   ITS TextEdit: file Up/Download buttons disabled for IE7

694260   ITS TextEdit control: Restrictions for Gecko browser

330007   ArchiveLink document display in html gui

300645   Up/download functions in ITS context

311037   Printing using e-mail

351230   Front-end printing with HTML GUI/WebGUI (up to Rel. 6.20)

422895   TextEdit Control: Restrictions in the SAP GUI for HTML