Multilingualism in SAP forms

After completing my training in 2004, my first customer project took me to Switzerland. Here I was able to put my ABAP knowledge to productive use for the first time in a large corporation. I was extremely proud. The company already had several international locations and was regularly expanding into other countries at the time.

Translation of SAP invoice forms into other languages

For this reason, one of my first tasks was to make the invoice form available in Spanish. The invoice was implemented with SAPScript. I was already familiar with the rather inconvenient option of translation from my training.
However, what made everything more complex was the requirement that the existing form for the Spanish location should actually be copied in order to be prepared for the future and to be able to implement logics required exclusively for this location in this form.

Country-specific adaptations in SAP forms

The explanation was that adjustments could therefore be implemented in any case without undesirable effects on the other countries and locations. This meant that there was no need to test the form output of the other locations. However, this logic was not always followed consistently for all locations and countries. As a result, a colorful mixture was created.
After some time, I noticed that location and country logics were sometimes hidden in translations of SO10 texts. For example, different variables were queried and content output in Polish than in other languages. This gradually led to a mixture of pure translation and language-dependent logic. However, this was not apparent within the form and the print program. Only with debugging and deeper analysis did this come to light.

Special logic and non-transparent coding in SAP forms

I have come across such hidden special logic, non-transparent coding and unnecessary duplication of forms very often in my further professional life as a programmer. It makes troubleshooting and change management unnecessarily complex and therefore usually time-consuming, especially if this “company-internal insider knowledge” is missing.
Nevertheless, due to vacation or sick leave, it can quickly happen that you as a developer find yourself in a situation where you have to adapt something on a “foreign” form at short notice.