SAP Smart Forms is used to create and maintain forms for mass

printing in SAP Systems.As output medium SAP Smart Forms support

a printer, a fax, e-mail, or the Internet (by using the generated XML
output).

SAP introduced SmartForms in 1998 to overcome the limitations in

SAP Scripts. SmartForms are easier to develop, maintain and
transport than SAP Script.

In this tutorial you will learn:

 Smart Forms and SapScripts Comparison

 Advanatges of Smart Forms
 Architecture of SAP Smart Form
 Smartforms Guide
 Windows in Smart Forms
 Smart Forms Programming Flow

Smart Forms and  SapScripts Comparison

 Multiple page formats are possible in SmartForms which is not
the case in SAPScripts
 It is possible to have a SmartForm without a main window.
 Routines can be written in SmartForms tool.
 SmartForms generates a function module when activated.
 Labels cannot be created in SmartForms.

Advanatges of Smart Forms

 They  help adapting forms without any programming
knowledge due to entirely graphical user interface
 When activating the smart form the system automatically
generates the function module and at the runtime .
 To make any changes we have to use the Drag & Drop, Cut &
Paste. These actions do not include writing of coding lines or
using a script language.
 We can insert static and dynamic tables. These include the line
feeds in the individual table cells, triggering events for table
headings and subtotals and sorting data before output.
  The smart forms allow the user to include graphics, which can
be displayed as a part of the form or as background graphics.
During printout the user can suppress the background graphic
as and when necessary.
 Web Publishing is possible using the generated XML output

Architecture of SAP Smart Form

Smartforms Guide
Lets go through it in SAP system-

1. Enter transaction SMARTFORMS in the transaction code box.

2. In the next screen , enter a Form name and click create
The next screen is divided into three sections-

Navigation window consist of nodes and sub nodes. They contain

all the elements (text, window etc) that belong to sap forms

 Maintenance window shows attributes of the elements

 Form printer window shows the layout of the page

Whenever we create smart forms, SAP creates/generates a function

module.Unlike SAPscripts , SAP FORMS allow you to change
language.

In the navigation window  you will find

Global Data Declarations : The Data defined here can be used

throughout the smartform for coding purposes.

Form Interface : Here all the data which will be passed to the
smartform from the Print program is defined.

Right-Clicking on the Pages will allow creation of New Page, Window,

Graphic or Address.
Printing will take place on the basis of 'next page' field.

But processing will happen as per the sequence in navigation

window!
For background picture and graphics you can pick up either black
and white or color bitmap images and are stored in the form of
standard texts. You may take a detour from the smartform screen
and open Form Graphics screen. Transaction code: Se78
 

Setting in the Graphics in  Smart Form Window-

Windows in Smart Forms
There are two types of Windows

1. Main
2. Secondary

Important Points to Note

 You cannot have more than 1 main window in a page. You can
have multiple secondary windows
 Whatever you print in secondary window...it has to be static. (If
u have 20 lines in a PO and there is page constraint the lines
get carried forward to next page in the main window. i.e. In a
predecessor and successor type of content, they will be printed
in sequence in main window. This is not allowed in Secondary
windows.

Inside the main window we can add text as introduction to

customize the form output.
The Output options on each window determine the Line size, Width,
Colors and background to be put.
Smartforms gives the option of giving the address number which is
maintained in the central address management. The address will be
directly taken from ADRC table and will be populated in the form.

The two different editors are available in Smartforms viz. Normal

Editor
and the Graphics Editor.

This setting can be changed using the Configure editor in Utilities.

In Table painter, you can draw the format as per client requirement
(e.g. Heading, Sub Heading, Item, Sub Total, Grand Total etc.)

You can use the table layout to determine:

 The number of lines and cells

 The height of each line
 The width of each cell
 The alignment of the table in the window

The Table shows the different line types which will be used in the
table. The Line types define the size of each cell and the number of
cells in each line.
Smart Forms Programming Flow
When an SAP Smart Form template is created, a user creates the
form layout, defines the required fields, conditions, and special
programming instructions in the Smart Form template using the
Smart Form Builder.

After the form design is complete, the form needs to be activated

before it can be tested or accessed by the print programs.Activating
the form initiates the generation of a function module that handles
all of the form's processing.

This function module interacts with the application program/print

program to create the output in the user-defined output media for
the specified device.

In case of smart forms, we use 2 function modules for the

processing of the smart form. To the first function module , we pass
the name of the smart form as the import parameter. This then
returns the name of the dynamically generated function module
which will actually call the smartform.
The smartform name can be passed on to the function Module -
'SSF_FUNCTION_MODULE_NAME'

This will return the Function module name of the smartform which is
referenced.
The Print program will be calling the
FM 'SSF_FUNCTION_MODULE_NAME' to get the Function module
name at Runtime. Therafter it will call the Function module thus
obtained to execute the smartform.
Templates
Template can be  used when you know the exact size of the output
or the output is in a fixed format.

E.g. Tax form/ cheques /airline form/railway ticket: all these use
templates.

The big  between table and template is that in a Table the height
changes dynamically.We call a row a 'line' in template.

SMART Styles

A Smart Style contains:

 Header data containing the default values of a Smart Style

 Paragraph formats including indents and spacing, font
attributes, tabs, and outline and numbering
 Character formats including effects (superscript, subscript),
barcode and font attributes
 Colors and underlines for a paragraph or character format
You can use the transaction 'smartforms' / 'smartstyles' to create a
smart style.

That's all to this tutorial