Designer UI Extension

Using a Designer UI Extension, additional fields can be integrated into the process designer. To extend the process designer the interface /PCH/IF_BPF_CUST_EXTENSION has to be implemented. For separation of concerns, a separate customizing extension class with the suffix _CEX is recommended.

The extension can take place on various object, which are propagated by the corresponding customizing extension definition interface (see Meta data) . As soon as at least one extension is active for an object (e.g. activity), a new tab "Extensions" in the designer is created automatically. Within the tab, a group for each extension is created including all the defined fields.

Method	Description

Method	Description
INIT	Is called, when the extension is initialized on an object. This is the only moment the type and the id of the customizing object is provided. Therefore, in most of the cases the information needs to be stored in some instance attributes.
GET_TITLE	Provide the title of the extension, which will be used in the UI.
GET_TYPES	Provide the object types (e.g. activity) which will be extended in general.
GET_FIELDS	Provide a list of all fields for the current object (see Method INIT). The field list contains the SAP structure DFIES and some additional user interface information.
F4_HELP	Is used to handle the F4 help by the extension. Make sure to set EV_HANDLED to true, if the F4 help has been handled by the extension.
VALIDATE	Is called whenever data is validated. Errors and warnings should be provided in the message table. Make sure you fill the field INDENTIFIER for every message with the name of the field.
BEFORE_SAVE	Is called before the data is stored and allows modifying the values.
FREE	Is called before the extension is technically release again. Use the method to release any data, especially owned business objects.
CLONE	Is called when an object is cloned. This method is only needed if the values contain references to other objects, which should now be replaced by other objects because the hierarchy has changed or referenced objects have also been cloned.

In some cases, the default user interface does not fulfill all the requirements. Using the interface /PCH/IF_BPF_CUST_FRM_EXTENSION in addition to above-mentioned interface the user interface can be built completely by the extension. -

Method	Description

Method	Description
GET_META	It is possible to force the content of the user interface to be displayed in a separate tab instead of the default tab "Extensions". In this case, the name of the tab must be provided.
GET_FORM	Provide the complete form using a ProFramework form object.
UPDATE_FORM	Is called when the form has been updated. Within this method, the values should be read from the form and provided in the value table. If the ids of the form elements are the same as in the list of fields data transportation works automatically.
HANDLE_ACTION	Can be used to handle custom actions (e.g. from a button click).