ABAP Help Views- The help views are created on two or more tables, specifically for the "Search-helps" object in DDIC. It means they are used to provide the input helps(F4) option for different fields in ABAP.
- When going to search help, views with outer join act as the selection methods and these methods can be either a table or a view, which specifies that data can be selected from a view or table. For such purpose, we need to create the help views in ABAP.
- It combines the data by using an outer join concept.
- Since it is specially designed for the search help option, we cannot directly execute the data.
- It allows us to only read the data; we cannot maintain the data in this view.
Note: A table can only be used as a selection method using the help view if we use the outer join to retrieve the data from the database.The ABAP help view can be understood using the below diagram. Creating the Help view in ABAPTo create the help view, follow the below steps: - Step-1: Open the data dictionary initial screen by navigating the menu path or entering the transaction code SE11 in the command field.
- Step-2: Click the radio button in front of the View Give a name to the view, and click on the Create button, given on the screen.
- Step-3: A pop-up window will appear with all the views, from where select the "HELP view," and click on the Copy
The Dictionary: Maintain View Screen Appears. - Step-4: Provide the short text for an explanation of view in the "Short Description" field. E.g., Help view for a test or Creating a Help view.
- Step: 5: Provide the name of the primary table. We are giving the table name as zstudent_data in the primary table for view under the Table column in the Table/Join Condition.
- Step: 6: Place the cursor on the primary table name and press the Relationship A screen will appear, select the checkbox in front of the primary table's name, and click on the copy button. In our case, the secondary table is zstudent_sub, so it is inserted here.
If needed, we can add more tables in the help view, but the other tables must be linked to each other with the foreign key relationship. - Step: 6 Now, we will select the required fields by choosing the View field tab.
- Step: 8 Select the Table Fields button, and a list of tables contained in this view is displayed, as shown in the above diagram. From here, we can select any table, and then need to click on the Choose. All the selected fields will be displayed here. Consider the below image:
- Step: 9 Select the Maint. Status tab and set the read-only radio button under the Access group
- Click on the Save(CTRL+S) and Activate it by clicking on . Once it is activated, we can use the help view as the selection method for Search Help.
Deleting the view in ABAPWe can delete the help view if we don't need it further. To delete the view, perform the below steps: - Open the ABAP dictionary initial screen, and choose the view radio button.
- Enter the name of the view that needs to be deleted.
- Choose the where-used list (), and check for those tables, where the view is currently being used.
- Select the Delete icon to the view. A box will prompt out to confirm the deletion.
- Click to yes, to confirm the deletion of the view.
- Once you confirm it, the view will be deleted from the system.
How to choose the Views for the table?- To read only the data of several tables with inner joins condition, choose the database view.
- To read data and maintain the data for a single table, choose the projection
- To read only data of several tables with outer join conditions, choose the help It can also be used for the Input help option.
- If a view is required with outer join, and which allows you to read and maintain the data, choose the maintenance review.
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