Ultimate Guide to WebClient UI : SAP CRM

Overview

• CRM WebClient UI is a web based application for the modules covered in SAP CRM.
• This framework has evolved over the period of time as successor of different user interfaces provided by SAP for the SAP CRM.

• It is a business role based application:
  • This means that through this interface the user will be able to access only those applications for which he/she is having authorizations.
  • If a user is assigned a single role, he will not have to select the role on logon.
  • But in case there are multiple roles assigned to a user, he/she will have to select one of the available roles in order to log in to the CRM Web UI

• Irrespective of the role selected the screens of the CRM Web UI are structured in L-Shape.
• But the applications and functionalities which user will be able to access in the CRM Web UI depends up on the role selected.

  L-Shape

• Once logged in, user can see the Web UI screens in L-Shape.

• It consists of following components:
  • Header Area
  • Navigation Area
  • Work Area
• Positions of all components of the L-Shape are fixed and cannot be changed.
• An administrator can change the skin and logo of the web client as per company specific requirements.
• Header area is provided to access application independent URLs and functionalities.
• Using navigation bar user can access different applications, to which he is having authorizations.
• Work Area gets updated based on actions a user takes on the Navigation bar.
  • It also gets updated for few actions on the header area.

    Header Area

• Header area is static and its position is fixed.
• It is possible to set its height in the CRM customizing but its position is fixed.
• Header area consists of following components
  • System Links
  • Saved Searches
  • Work Area Title
  • History

Navigation Bar

• Using navigation bar, user can accesses the application to which he/she is having authorizations.
• It also has few links for generic pages like:
  • Home
  • WorkList
  • E-Mail Inbox
  • Calendar
• Other links available in the navigation bar are application specific and vary from one business role to another business role. These links are divided into following:
  • Application link
  • Quick create links
  • Recent Items

• Application links can be configured at two levels.
• Using first level application links user can access the search, create and report links of a particular application.

• Second level application links directly takes user to particular search page.
• Quick create links are meant for direct access to the create page for a particular business process document.

• Recent items in navigation bar represent a kind of history and maintain last visited business documents or applications by the user.

  Work Area

• Work area is the place where user works!
• It gets updated with actions that user takes on the navigation bar.
• It can consist of
  • calendar,
  • e-mail Inbox,
  • work center groups,
  • search-result page,
  • overview pages,
  • sub overview page
• Following are few generic pages available:
  Home Page:
• Depending upon the business requirement, content of the Home page can be configured for standard (My Open Tasks) or custom functionality (CRM Links).
• Navigation from the Home page will depend upon its content.

Worklist page:

• It displays alerts, workflow tasks and business transactions which are currently pending with or assigned to the logged in user.
• It is possible to navigate to different application or business transaction from worklist page.

E-Mail Inbox and Calendar

• This page can be configured to be in sync with the user mailbox
• For this, CRM middleware settings are used so that user can access mailbox within Web UI
• Different views are possible within the calendar page – single day, week, month view

• Similarly user can see the E-Mail inbox in sync with the Lotus Notes server or Outlook.

  Work Area

• Applications assigned to the logged in user are accessed in the Work Area
• On clicking on an application in navigation bar, work area displays work center with work area groups consisting of relevant links to create, search and report.

• From work center user can navigate to Create page, search page or report page.
• As discussed above, in case of generic pages like Home page, WorkList page, etc. work area has different layout and content.
• But for the applications in the navigation bar, the structure and layout of work area is identical across the applications.
• To implement “work area”, knowledge of both Web UI programming and CRM customizing is needed.

  Search Page

• Search page is divided into search criteria, result table and saved search area.

• Within search criteria user can set the criteria to find an element.
• It is possible to add or remove search criteria using the buttons available next to search criteria fields.
• Search criteria fields can be implemented with F4 help or dropdown help.
• Multiple operators can be configured for each search criteria.
• Search result shows the result obtained from the search.
• Once search is performed, result table shows the number of records found, if any.
• It possible to have buttons on top of the result table header to provide some business process. For example, there are buttons to create different type accounts in the above figure.
• In general, buttons to create new record are presented on the search result table header.
• On the right-side end, search result table also contains buttons which enable user to export the records to excel sheet and the button for personalization of the search result table.
• The record found in the search result can also contain hyperlink in columns.
• With these hyperlinks, it is possible to navigate to the individual record which is displayed in the Overview page.

• Using the personalization button on the search result table header, user can personalize this view for the columns displayed and the order in which the columns are displayed.
• As highlighted above:
  • User can the value of row count after which scroll bar will be visible.
  • Also user can set the values for number of records in single page.

    Overview Pages

  • Overview page can be used to work on complete data related to a single record.
  • It is used to display, update and create new data such as business partner, sales order, etc.
  • The data from single application or business transaction is organized into assignment blocks.
  • First assignments block shows the header or main details and other data are grouped in to different assignment blocks as per the requirement.
  • Possible views in an assignment block:
    • Form view
    • Table view
    • Tree view
  • The header of the Overview page displays the title of the object which is open and its description.
  • The header also consists of the header buttons with which user can perform different task on the overview page.
  • Another component of the header is the History buttons with which user can navigate back and forward within the work area.

• Similar to search result table, overview page contains a personalization button with which user can select which assignment blocks user can see within the page.
• An assignment block can by default be loaded in expanded or lazy mode. This helps in the performance improvement of the application.
• All types of view in assignment block i.e. form view, table view and tree view can contain input fields with F4 input help or dropdown input help.

• Date fields in the views are displayed with date help.
• Within form view we can group the data using the Captions.
• Individual assignment block can also contain buttons on the header.

• Table view and tree view can contain header which can also have buttons.
• Also, it is possible to have buttons in the first column of a table view.
• It is possible to have hyperlinks within all these types of view.
• Using these hyperlinks it is possible to navigate from one application or business transaction to another. For example, to Sold-to party from a Sales Order.
• As per requirement, it is possible to have attachments assignment block in Overview page.

• In this block it is possible to attach documents or URLs.
• It is possible to attach document from content management or from the local hard disk:

• Once attached you can see the document properties, open it or delete it.

• There is also a region for the error messages in the header area:

Personalize

• There is an option for personalization of the CRM Web UI.
• Here it is possible to set settings which are applicable across the applications for logged in user.
• Here user can also change the skin of the application.
• In the “Personalize My Data” section user can set values for the settings like format of date.
• In layout section user can set Skin of the application.

• There is a separate block for settings related to the Groupware integration.
• In this block user can maintain required settings for the integration of CRM with user mailbox for E-Mail and Calendar pages.