Updated: November 30, 2023

Object Page – Content Area

Intro

The SAP Fiori elements object page template supports the features and settings for the object page content area detailed below.

For design information, see the Object Page Floorplan guidelines and the links below.

Warning
Always build the object page using the dynamic page header.

Set the shellbar page title to the name of the business object shown in the object page to indicate the user’s position in the system.

Do not use the current implementation of the “page view management” feature in SAP Fiori elements. This feature is technically available for object pages, but we are still working on the final design.

Feature Availability

 

Content Area

 

Availability

Draft Object Validation Default

Users can trigger the validation by pressing the Enter key while their cursor is in a field on the object or subobject page.

Navigation Bar: Anchor Bar Default, you can turn it off when you only have one section.
Navigation Bar: Tab Bar Available
Sections and Subsections Available
Reuse Components as Sections Available
 

Subsections

 

Availability

Link Available

With SAP Fiori elements for OData V4, you can display an icon or image with the link.

With SAP Fiori elements for OData V2, the default link shows the text and ID. You can remove the text or the ID.

Smart Link Contact Available, SAP Fiori elements for OData V2 only
Tables Available
Charts Available
Views for Tables and Charts Available
Address Available
Display of Related Properties Together Available with SAP Fiori elements for OData for V4

The properties can also display as links.

Forms Available
Text Control With SAP Fiori elements V4, in edit mode, the default length of the text entry area allows for four lines of text.

You can:

  • Change the maximum
  • Enable growing mode
  • Show users the number of characters allowed in the text area
File Upload With SAP Fiori elements for OData V4, users can upload a file to an object page property and delete it.
Dynamic Side Content Available with an extension
 

Subsection Behavior

 

Availability

Subsection Starts Loading After the Object Page Elements Are Loaded Default, you can change the behavior.
Adjustment of the Width for Content Display in a Subsection Available
 

Content Visibility

 

Availability

Visible Sections, Subsections, Quickviews, and Tables Default
Hiding Section, Subsection, Quickview and Table Content Available
User-Controlled Visibility with Show More/Show Less Available
Visible Smart Form Fields Default, you can hide them in certain conditions.

Content Area

Navigation Bar

By default, the anchor bar is generated when the object page has more than one section.

It lets users navigate to the individual content area sections.

You can:

  • Hide the anchor bar when you only have one section.
  • Replace it with a tab bar.

With extensions, you can replace the buttons with another type of control.

If there is no Anchor Bar, but there is editable information in the header, the first temporary section in the Object Page which controls the header content will have a section title called ‘Header’.

For more information, see:

Sections and Subsections

You can add sections and subsections to the content area.

Sections contain only subsections. You build the subsection content with tables, charts, and forms.

For more information, see: Sections and Subsections.

Reuse Components as Sections

You can embed a reuse component as a section in the object page.

Warning
A reuse component that is used in an SAP Fiori elements-based application cannot be used in a freestyle application.

Consult the development team on the requirements for the reuse component.

Subsections

With SAP Fiori elements for OData V2, you can include one or more smart link contacts in the subsections.

The smart link contact can include a contact list and a quickview of the contact details.

For more information, see:

Tables

You can include a table in a subsection.

For more information on SAP Fiori elements capabilities for tables, see the articles under SAP Fiori Elements: Table, starting with Table Types.

Charts

You can include a single chart facet in a subsection.

In the chart, you can:

  • Display measures, their aggregation calculations, and dimensions to categorize the measures.
  • Add custom actions to the toolbar for a chart and define whether they are enabled at all times or only after the user selects part of the chart for the action.
  • Allow users to personalize the chart settings

SAP Fiori Elements for OData V2

Charts are only supported for business objects or services that are not draft enabled or are read-only.

SAP Fiori Elements for OData V4

You can define a chart for a draft-enabled business object. The chart only displays active data, not data entered into an unsaved draft record.

For more information, see Chart (VizFrame).

For more information on chart options, see Chart.

Developer Hint
For more information, refer application developers to Configuring Charts.

Views for Tables and Charts

You can turn on views for:

  • All the tables and charts on the page
  • Individual tables and charts

For more information, see Views (Variant Management).

Address

You can add one or more address fields:

  • As a separate subsection
  • As part of a field group within a subsection
  • To a quick view with smart link navigation

For more information, see:

Display of Related Properties Together

You can display two related properties side-by-side and with a single label in display mode.

For example, the label Date Time can display with the properties date and time side-by-side, even when they are distinct properties in the back end.

You can separate the values with a delimiter such as a slash (/) or a hyphen (-).

In edit mode, the fields can be edited separately.

Side-by-side display of related properties
Side-by-side display of related properties

Related Properties as Links

The related properties can also display as links.

Developer Hint
Application developers call the related properties semantically connected fields. For more information on this feature, you can refer them to Grouping of Fields.
Related properties as links
Related properties as links

Forms

You can add action buttons to the toolbar for a form contained in a subsection.

With SAP Fiori elements for OData V4, you can also add an action next to the form header.

The action types can be:

  • Actions that occur in the system while the user stays on the object page.
  • Actions that navigate to a different application, for example, when the user can open a purchase requisition from a specific purchase order.

Conditional Enablement of Navigation Buttons

You can enable buttons that navigate the user to another page or application based on the value of a specific field with SAP Fiori elements for OData V4. To achieve this with SAP Fiori elements for OData V2 requires extensions.

For example, you can enable the Generate Purchase Order button only for sales orders with the completed status.

Guidelines
Implement this feature only when the way to enable the button is obvious to end users.

Columns in a Form

To optimize onscreen space, the default number of columns in a form depends on the screen size, as follows:

 

Column Number

Screen Size

1 Small
2 Medium
3 Large
6 Extra large
Guidelines
The default column number for each screen size complies with the SAP Fiori Design Guidelines for forms in Object Page floorplan. We recommended against changing it.

Groups in a Form

You can group fields in a form and assign a name to the group.

Note that the group name is displayed only when a group contains fields.

User-Controlled Load of Fields with Low Importance

To improve the performance on application startup, you can prevent form fields with low importance from loading until the user clicks Show Details with SAP Fiori element for OData V4.

After the user clicks the button, the fields are loaded and the Hide Details button is displayed.

Text Control

By default, with SAP Fiori elements for OData V4, in edit mode, the default length of the text control allows for the entry of four lines of text.

You can:

  • Set a maximum number of lines for the text control that’s greater than four.
  • Enable growing mode: The length of the text control on first load allows for four lines. After the user has entered that number of lines, the length grows by one line at a time until it reaches the maximum number. A scrollbar is displayed next to the text entry area.
  • Display below the text area the number of characters allowed in it. As the users enter text, the number decreases to show how many characters remain.

A notification is displayed if the users try to enter text beyond the limit.

In display mode, the text is truncated to 100 characters and a More link allows the user to display the full text. Alternatively, you can set the full text to display in a popover when the the user clicks More.

File Upload

With SAP Fiori elements for OData V4, users can upload a file to an object page property and delete the file.

For example, the sales order object can have a property for a contract and users can upload the contract file to the property.

The application developers can define the file size and types allowed for upload.

Dynamic Side Content

You can display additional content to the right of an object page subsection. Consult with the development team on doing this with a standard extension.

With this feature, the subsection toolbar contains a Show Details/Hide Details action for users to control the display of the dynamic side content. By default, the side content is hidden. You can show it instead. You can also rename the action to make it meaningful to the end user.

    Guidelines

    • Do not use tables in the side content panel.
    • Do not add content that may introduce a horizontal scroll bar to the dynamic side content.
    • For the best view of the dynamic side content, set it to display in 50% of the screen.

    For more information, see:

    Developer Hint

    Subsection Behavior

    Subsection Loading Behavior

    By default, the subsection starts loading after the main object page elements are loaded.

    You can change the loading behavior to load the subsection after the header data is loaded.

    Example

    When the subsection contains a table or chart and you want to allow the user to filter in the header before subsection data loads.

    Width for Content Display in a Subsection

    When you mix content — such as forms and tables — in one subsection, you can adjust the width allotted to each content type to display a table next to a form.

    Content Visibility

    Sections, Subsections, Quickviews, and Tables

    By default, the object page displays these components.

    You can set the entire components or selected content in the components to be displayed or hidden in the content area, according to the object’s state. For example, you can hide the Delivery section in a Sales Order until the order has a status where the delivery is planned.

    User-Controlled Visibility

    You can enable the Show More/Show Less button in the bottom right corner of a section to let users control the display of subsection content.

    • When the subsection is hidden, Show More is displayed.
    • When the subsection shows, the Show Less link is displayed.

    Visibility of Smart Form Fields

    By default, all smart form fields have the high importance setting and show on all screen sizes.

    You can lower the level of importance for the fields to hide them on smaller screens.

    According to the importance assigned to the field, it is displayed as follows:

    • High (default): On all (small, medium, and large) screen sizes.
    • Medium: On large and medium screens only.
    • Low: On large screens only

    For more information, see Responsiveness.

    Related Links