The history of form development
SAPscript, SmartForms and Adobe Forms – three great technologies that have been used by many developers around the world for years! You can watch the review of form development here in our video!
SAPscript, SmartForms and Adobe Forms – three great technologies that have been used by many developers around the world for years! You can watch the review of form development here in our video!
SAPscript is the oldest technology in forms development. SAPscript has been available since the introduction of R/3 in 1992. This provided form templates for many standard processes in SAP.
Invoices, delivery bills and orders are classic examples of the use of SAPscript forms. The technology has been widely used since its introduction, right up to the present day.
A first paradigm shift was achieved with SmartForms at the beginning of the 2000s. Smart Forms was introduced in April 2001 with the basic version 4.6C and is SAP’s second forms technology after SAPscript.
Adobe Forms has been SAP’s third forms technology since 2005. It was developed in collaboration with Adobe and is currently SAP’s current forms technology.
This technology is now so mature that it far surpasses the older SAPscript and SmartForms technologies in terms of performance and design. Forms based on Adobe Forms are not only attractive, but also easier to develop, use and maintain.
This technology is currently used in many SAP customer projects. It is the standard form technology for SAP® for creating forms. With each enhancement package, SAP provides more converted print forms from SAPscript or SAP SmartForms.
The current SAP forms technology, SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe, has a professional design tool in the form of Adobe LiveCycle Designer. This enables the form to be designed directly.
The separation of data procurement and data output is solved even more stringently. Data (fields, structures, tables) that are available for document production are specified in the context. Context means here: All data required for designing the form.
The data can also be provided with conditions and restrictions or programmed in Javascript or Formcalc within the LiveCycle Designer.
Clear advantages that have arisen since the introduction are the simplified options for using barcodes, e.g. QR codes, but also the output of the document as a PDF and interactive use.
A more precise and convenient layout design with regard to CI requirements is also provided.
However, the additional script languages used, which can now bring detailed logic to the form, are also disadvantageous when using the current SAP form technology.
Again, there are several ways of introducing logic into the form, but these avoid a certain consistency. In the script editor, for example, the syntax check is inadequate. Errors are difficult to trace.
Another serious limitation within daily work processes is the performance of the technology. Long loading times and a lack of stability due to the Adobe LiveCycle Designer and XML-based output prevent the tool from being used quickly.
In addition, the translation and voice control options are not ideal, making it almost impossible to operate the system intuitively.
In order to minimize the effort involved in supporting forms and data retrieval routines, solutions are sought for the problems mentioned. However, these are often very lengthy and do not follow a consistent method.
Softway has already successfully tackled this problem and created individual solutions for companies.
The essence of 30 years of IT experience can be found in Softway‘s own Solution Package Forms (SSP Forms), which can be easily integrated into the existing system.
As a result, time savings of up to 75 percent can be achieved. The transition to S/4HANA would also be paved.
Softway has been bringing transparency to form development since 2012 with its SSP Forms product. With SSP Forms, Softway has found a way to clearly answer the most important questions in forms:
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