F4 help not working in custom backend service for PD form

Question

Dear All,
Iam working with the Create position HCM PD form and i have a requirement to add two fields, one for the company code and the other is for the cost center and then create the relationship betwee the position and the cost center when the form is submitted.
I have defined a generic service and created an enhancement implementation and linked this generic service to the imppementaion. I have written the logic for the F4 help for the fields in the method GET_HELP_VALUES, i have written the scripting for the drop down field in the form to trigger the F4 help in the form.
When the cost center is being passed to the screen, i would then read the value of the cost center in the form workflow and create the relationship between S and K in the workflow as i am unable to achiev this in the design time of the PD form.
But my current problem in that he values are not getting passed from the method to the field on the screen. I have worked on quite a few scenarios for F4 help and doing validations in the implementation in the PA form and i have seen this functionality working fine.
My problem here is that i am unable to understand why the F4 value help is not working in my form. The standard PD service SAP_PD is also being used in the form to have the dropdown values for the account assignment feature.
Could you please suggest me with some clues to fix my issue? i can share more details for further analysis.
Thanks.
Best regards,
Sridharan

Answer 1

Hi Chris,
Thanks for your inputs. please see my reply to your questions
First....are you sure you have "marked" that field as possible for F4 help?
Reply: Yes
Second...are you populating the help values strictly from that method...ie. not also using do_operations method to do it. If you refer to the documenation, it points out that trying to use both can cause issues.
Reply: i am using only the GET_HELP_VALUES method and nothing written in do_operations.
Third...when you debug your method, do you "see" the help values actually populating and as you say "not coming back to the screen"? I would check this first to make sure that there are actually values being found (ie. the logic within your service is correct).
Reply: i have put the external break-point in this method and when the form in opened for processing by the HR admininstrator,the form openes up and the control is not being sent to the debugger.  I have written the scripting in the exit event of the events and scripts as suggested in the SAP help document. SO when i click on the dropdown field in the form, the debugger starts and executes the method and the code executes, then no values are populated on the screen.
Fourth...are you using any generic services for populating help values as well. HCM P&F has a nasty habit of "if one GS fails, they all fail" so often, your service might work fine but an error in another makes yours appear to fail as well....hard to debug and find those kind.
Reply: Yes i am using the generic service mainly for the purpose of F4 help. I do not see any issue with other gneric services as i have implemented a few generic services for PA forms and they are working fine.
Fifth...oops...forgot the obvious one...make sure it isn't a security issue...ie. make sure you have access to read the cost centers you want.
Reply: I dont get any auth error in SU53 while i test the process in R3
Lastly, you said:
"When the cost center is being passed to the screen, i would then read the value of the cost center in the form workflow and create the relationship between S and K in the workflow as i am unable to achiev this in the design time of the PD form."
You actually should be able to do this using an Advanced/Enhanced Generic Service (if this is in fact the step at which you want a true update to occur). Just a thought.
Reply: Could you please give some more information about this, how can i achieve it in advanced generic service.
Appreciate more thougts from you Chris!
Thanks,
Sridharan