Creating Help Views

Procedure
1. Enter an explanatory short text in the field Short text.
You can for example find the view at a later time using this short text.
2. Enter the primary table of the view under Tables in the Tables/Join conditions tab page.
Only tables that are linked with the primary table (indirectly) with a foreign key can be included in
the view.
3. Save your entries.
You are asked to assign the help view a development class. You can change this development
class later with Extras Object directory entry.

4. If required, include more tables in the view. In a help view you can only include tables that are
linked to one another with foreign keys.
Position the cursor on the primary table and choose Relationships. All existing foreign key
relationships of the primary table are displayed. Select the foreign keys and choose Copy. The
secondary table involved in such a foreign key is included in the view. The join conditions derived
from the foreign keys (see Foreign Key Relationship and Join Condition) are displayed.
You can also include tables that are linked with a foreign key to one of the secondary tables
already included. To do this, place the cursor on the secondary table and choose Relationships.
Then proceed as described above.
For maintenance and help views, there are certain restrictions on the foreign keys with which the
tables can be included in the view (see Restrictions for Maintenance and Help Views). The
foreign keys violating these conditions are displayed at the end of the list under the header
Relationships with unsuitable cardinality.

5. On the View fields tab page, select the fields that you want to copy to the view. The key fields of
the primary table were automatically copied to the view as proposals.
Choose Table fields. All the tables contained in the view are listed in a dialog box. Select a table.
The fields of the table are now displayed in a dialog box. Select the required fields in the first
column and choose Copy.

6. On the Selection conditions tab page, you can (optionally) formulate restrictions for the data
records to be displayed with the view (see Maintaining Selection Conditions for Views).
The selection conditions define the data records that can be selected with the view.

7. Choose

Result
The view is now activated. At activation, a log is written; it can be displayed with Utilities Activation log.
If errors or warnings occurring when the view was activated, they are displayed directly in the activation
log.

Other Options

Create documentation: You can create information about using the view with Goto
Documentation. This documentation is output for example when you print the view.

Change data element of a view field: Select column Mod (modification) for the view field. The
Data element field is now ready for input. Enter the new data element there. You can enter a data
element that refers to the same domain as the data element of the assigned table field here.
Cancel the Mod flag if you want to use the data element of the assigned table field again.

Check functions: With Extras Runtime object Check you can determine whether the
definition of the view in the ABAP Dictionary maintenance screen is identical to the definitions in
the runtime object of the view. With Extras Runtime object Display you can display the
runtime object of the view.

See also:
Help Views

Help Views
You have to create a help view if a view with outer join is needed as selection method of a search help.
The selection method of a search help is either a table or a view. If you have to select data from several
tables for the search help, you should generally use a database view as selection method. However, a
database view always implements an inner join. If you need a view with outer join for the data selection,
you have to use a help view as selection method.

All the tables included in a help view must be linked with foreign keys. Only foreign keys that have certain
attributes can be used here (see Restrictions for Maintenance and Help Views). The first table to be inserted
in the help view is called the primary table of the help view. The tables added to this primary table with
foreign keys are called secondary tables.

The functionality of a help view has changed significantly between Release 3.0 and
Release 4.0. In Release 3.0, a help view was automatically displayed for the input help
(F4 help) for all the fields that were checked against the primary table of the help view.
This is no longer the case in Release 4.0.
As of Release 4.0, you must explicitly create a search help that must be linked with the
fields for which it is offered (see Linking Search Helps with Screen Fields).
Existing help views are automatically migrated to search helps when you upgrade to a
release higher than 4.0.

A help view implements an outer join, i.e. all the contents of the primary table of the help
view are always displayed. You therefore should not formulate a selection condition for
fields in one of the secondary tables of the help view. If records of these secondary tables
cannot be read as a result of this selection condition, the contents of the corresponding
fields of the secondary table are displayed with initial value.

See also:
Creating Help Views