Description
For versions higher than and including 5.1.1.0, it is possible to implement an input value help for certain fields in various ECTR UIs. With subsequent ECTR releases more and more UIs and fields are being supported.
Document - New Document
The first UI this service was added to, was the document creation dialog. Here, the description is supported.
Object Browser - Edit
Editing the description in the Object Browser is supported:
Document - Copy Document
The description in the dialog Copy Document is supported:
Document - Create Material
The description in the dialog for the creation of materials for selected documents is now also supported:
From Version 5.1.15.0, product hierarchy is also supported in this user interface.
Background
The first step is to implement the OSGi Service ObjectExtensionService - this acts as a "dispatcher" for all other field services. In its method getObjectFieldExtensionService it is decided which ObjectFieldExtensionService is responsible for the field transferred.
The main work is done in the method entryRequested of the ObjectFieldExtensionService. Here, the transferred data has to be changed. The method accesses input via UI, the SAP backend or some custom hard-coded logic.
It is even possible to change data of other fields: the linked example changes both document description and laboratory, but this may be not supported in every UI. It is also possible to create descriptions for more then one language. This varies from UI to UI because not all UIs are able to change all kinds of data.
The code example linked below demonstrates an "input value help" for the description of the document and the material. The sample implementation will only make a minor change and change the description to "OSGi" or "Description from OSGi".
An actual extension could implement a naming catalog, some kind of value dependencies, an access to the SAP backend or other resources - maybe even Google Translator to translate a description to another languages, and so on.
By writing an extension for the field Document Number (DocumentDataKeys.NUMBER) it is possible to implement custom logic for the document number generation.
Related OSGi Services
ObjectExtensionService
ObjectFieldExtensionService
Sequence
Example
Coming soon...