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Technical Articles

Satish Kumar Balasubramanian

July 10, 2015 | 4 minute read

Text Types used in Smartforms

 5  11  29,416

Hi All,

In this blog i would like to explain briefly on the different text types that are used in
smarforms. We all use text element node to display data via smartforms. Have you
ever seen the different options avaialable while creating the text elements in
smartforms? Do you know the purpose of each?

Well in this blog i would like explain the different text types and make you familiar on
this. Hope this gives a good idea to the beginners and others who seek knowledge on
the same.

Introduction:

To start with there are four types of text types available, they are:

1) Dynamic Text (D)

2) Text Element  (E)

3) Include Text    (I)

4) Text Module    (M)

You can see the same in the below screen shot which gives you a better idea(Marked
in Red below):
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Now let us look into the purpose of each text types:

1) Dynamic Text (D):

Usually we use to display each field explicitly using text element by mentioning the field
name. Using the dynamic text type we can display the complete table type which ever is
assigned to it. Hope You will get a better understanding once you go through the below
screen shot and example.

Now in the below screen shot you can find how the dynamic text is assigned in
smartforms.

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Now this field which is assigned as L_TEXT shoud be declared in global definitions of
smartforms whose type is of some Table type created in SE11.

Also all the fields in L_TEXT will be filled either in smartform or in driver program and
the values will get displayed accordingly based on the number of fields in the
structure of the table type.

2) Text Element (E):

This text type is used for displaying the values where we have to either explicitly mention
the variable name or the field name if it is a workarea. This is generally used in most
instances.

It will continue to display the value in the field whichever is mentioned explicitly,
using this text type we can only display one field value at a time. The below screen
shot will help you better on how it needs to be assigned.

Here GV_HEADER is a variable to display the required value, please note that this
variable is used locally and valid only within the smartform which concludes that this
text type is for variables confined within the smartforms.

3) Include Text (I)

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This text type is used to display the standard text that is created in the T-CODE SO10.
Usually we use to read the data created in standard text using READ_TEXT function
module, but in smart form we have the flexibility to directly use it. It can be best
understood by the below screen shot.

As we can see above the include text can be used in the smartform directly by giving the
header details of the standard text created in SO10. The header details can be taken from
SO10 t-code by using the below navigation. As soon as you reach the text maintained in
SO10 navigate to:

Goto –> Header.

You will be getting the below pop up. where you can find all the details needed to enter
during the include text creation.

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Now whatever text that we have maintained in SO10 will be displayed.

4) Text Module (M)

This text type is helpful for using the same text in multiple smartforms. Suppose say we
have a header text which will be same for most of the smartforms that we create then
first we have to create the text module and then assign them in the smartform.

Lets go step by step. As a first step we need to create a text module, the t-code for this is
SMARTFORMS. Click on the text module radio button and click create as shown below.

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In the next screen enter the required text and save it as shown below.

You also have the option to translate the text module text in mutiple languages as shown
below in the Management Tab. By clicking on the arrow against the ‘selected language’
radio button you will find all the available languages.

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Once you have created, the module text is ready to be used, now select the text type as
text module and assign the name as shown below.

Please note that this same text module can be used in multiple smartforms.

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Conclusion:

Hope this document gave you a good idea about the different text types that are used in
the smartforms. Am sure most of you will have more such things to share, eagerly waiting
for your posts.

I will be vary happy for your comments, corrections, ratings etc. Hope this bolg was useful
and helped you to increase your knowlege account.

Once again thanks to SCN for its wonderful efforts it has taken till now.

“Lets Learn Share and Collaborate”

Please note that to maintain confidentialy about the client information the screen shots
are screened at certain places.

Thanks and Regards,

Satish Kumar Balasubramanian

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Assigned Tags

ABAP Development

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scn101689

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5 Comments

You must be Logged on to comment or reply to a post.

Jānis B
July 10, 2015 at 6:44 am

I don't believe any table type can be specified for dynamic text table - at least not on SAP Basis 702. The table
typeshould be "type-compatible" to type TSFTEXT.

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Like 1 | Share

Satish Kumar Balasubramanian | Blog Post Author

July 10, 2015 at 8:21 am

Hi Janis,

You may be rite. Am not sure about the earlier releases, we are using 730 and its working perfectly
when we assign the table type.

Thanks for bringing this to notice.

Regards,

Satish

Like 0 | Share

Karthick R
February 15, 2019 at 9:50 am

Thanks you so much for sharing such an useful information, Satish.

Actually I am new to ABAP technology, I have few points to say,

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1. In Include text type, I have come across some smart form where - some text is fetching from Header text
which we maintain in the billing document by using its text object. Can you please explain this? How to
differentiate the source of Include text whether it came from SO10 or from header text?
2. In Dynamic text type, Can we use the table type which we declared and populated in the global definitions
instead of SE11? I mean locally.

Regards

Karthick

Like 1 | Share

priyadarshini c
April 23, 2020 at 4:13 am

Thanks for sharing!

Like 1 | Share

Satish Kumar Balasubramanian | Blog Post Author

April 23, 2020 at 4:44 am

Karthick Ravi
Regarding your Questions,
1) Both the texts will be part of the text table but one simple way to differentiate is, the custom texts we create
in SO10 will always hold a Static Name where as the texts that’s flow from Header are dynamic and dependent
on the billing document they are associated with. With the name of the two texts you can find the difference
between the same.
2) The answer is Yes, you could try the same if the version is updated one.
Regards!

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