ABAP_to_the_Future

2
New Language Features in ABAP 7.4
The good news is that if your SAP system is 7.4 SP 3 or above and your GUI is 730
patch level 5 or above, then you will find that such predicative search helps are
now possible in SAP. Half of the functionality is in the backend, and half is in the
GUI, which is why you need both to be on the correct level. (In fact, you really
need to be on 7.4 SP 6 for this to work automatically; otherwise you have to fluff
around manually with the CL_DSH_DYNPRO_PROPERTIES class, as described in SAP
Note 1861491.)
Assuming you are on the right version, open Transaction SE11 and go into the
Search Help option about halfway down the screen. You will see the Data Collection
area (Figure 2.2).
Figure 2.2 Search Help Definition
In release 7.4, directly above the Search Help Exit box is a new box called
Enhanced Options, in which you have two checkb oxes and an input field. The
latter two are to do with fuzzy text se arches on an SAP HANA database and are
grayed out, but the first one says Proposal Search for Input Fields.
If you select that checkbox, then your search help will magically start behaving
differently—not quite like Google, but a pop-up list of candidates will appear as
the user types, which is a step up from before.
2.8.2 Search Help in SE80
You may have noticed, and been bother ed, that when you are in SE80 and you
cannot remember the name of your program, you cannot just press (F4) and see
the result list. You have to press the dr opdown arrow to the right of the input
field, which presumably is why that drop down arrow is there in the first place.
(After all, if (F4) worked, then you would not need a separate dropdown arrow.)
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