Your opinion on: BSP or Java Webdynpro or ABAP Webdynpro?

Question

Could you please give me your opinion on the business scenario we have here:
We are implementing SRM 4.0 with backend R/3 4.6C, WAS 6.4 and Portal 6.0. SRM has its typical shopping cart applications mainly for procurement and the workflow trail displaying the approval. The client wants us to build a few custom forms on the web frontend of SRM (or may be in Portal). The idea is to store these forms and display when needed with the status info just like a shopping cart.
<b>Now the requirements for these forms are as follows:</b>
1. These forms will have multiple fields which need to have the F4 kind of help. (the F4 options will reside in SRM or R/3)
2. The form should have some kind of a ALV grid  (autoexpanding feature) which will allow the user to put in multiple line items so that they could submit more items on one form.
3. Users need to be able to attach a spreadsheet to the form which should not be editable once the form is submitted. The attached spreadsheet should be stored. (We are planning on using Archivelink Filenet for this)
4. Upon submission, a workflow will be kicked off as per the defined Org structure for approval of the form.
5. After submission, the user should be able to go and view the approval status of the form and also print the summary of the values that he entered in the form. (may be a smartform could be provided for this)
We looked at different options to accomplish this task:
<b>BSP:</b>
Creating BSP pages and giving access as links to the user on the webfrontend of SRM. Now, if we go the BSP route, we need to develop in SRM as the R/3 4.6 c does not have BSP development capabilities. If we take this approach, I am not sure if all the above requirements (specially like attaching spreadhseets) will be met with BSP pages.
SAP Webdynpro Java: 
It seems that the Webdynpro is easier to use because of the graphical tools available. But the only problem if we go this route is that we will have to find a java guy.
SAP Webdynpro ABAP:
We currently have WAS 6.4. As per the documentation, the ABAP Webdynpro development tool is available from NW04s onwards. So, we are still not sure if we could use it. But, we want to push towards upgrading if necessary. Being an old time ABAPer, developing ABAP Webdynpro seems do-able. (i know it may not be that easy).
Last but not the least, DIALOG Program:
Creating a dialog program in R/3 or SRM seems fairly simple. Then, an iview could be created on the portal for this transaction, though at this point I am not sure how a spreadsheet could be attached and stored within a dialog program.
The creation of the workflow may not be that bad after the original form is designed. The graphical display of the approval trail might be difficult, but we might get away with a report for that. For printing the details of the form, I guess I could develop a smartform and put out a button on the screen to print it out in the display view.
Could you please give me your opinion /  best approach for accomplishing this task, keeping in mind the complexities of these new dimension products?
Thanks
Sri

Answer 1

I would say that all four solutions to solving your tasks are technically feasible.  Here are some thoughts that I had however:
First ABAP Webdynpro: it is true that ABAP webdynpro is only available with Netweaver04s.  04S is still in ramp-up which means that only a subset of the customer base is allow to implement it.  It will not become generally available until later this year (check the service marketplace for current release estimates).  That being said, it probably elimintes WDA as a possiblity for your project unless you are will to wait and to upgrade.
However having worked with WDA for a while it is probably the best tool to custom develop what you describe.  It has excellent built-in F4 value help.  It also has a damn fine ALV grid implementation.  The spreadsheet could be just as simple as file upload in binary or your could try your hand at office integration.  Finally for the form you could use Adobe Interactive Forms which also has very nice integration into WDA. 
Now to Dialog Programming: You could of course use dialog programming.  It seems a little bit of a waste to custom build something so large if WDA is in your near future.  There are obvious disadvantages (little OO structure, no MVC, etc).  You would have ALV grid, office integration and of course F4 help.  You could still use Adobe forms if you implement this on the 640 system.  However there are integration points with dialog and Adobe Interactive Forms.  You could still use printed forms however. If you did the dialog program on the 640 system, you could use the integrated ITS to expose it to the web.  The integrated ITS in my experience has quite nice performance although the look and feel remains just like the SAPGui.
The Java Webdynpro route:  Well you hit the nail on the head - if you don't have a Java programmer already and you don't have the bandwidth to invest in learning Java, this can be a problem.  The Java Webdynpro environment is quite nice.  There are some things I like better than ABAP and some things that ABAP is defintely still better at.  However when it comes to heavy integration with an ABAP backend - ABAP Webdynpro is still the way to go.  Java Webdynpro does have a help feature (OVS), but it isn't "for free" or nearly as nice as the ABAP Webdynpro (perhaps it will get there some day).  That is one of the major advantages of WDA - its closeness to the business data brings several framework advantages like F4 and field help.  WebDynpro Java in 640 also doesn't have an ALV grid implementation.  I am sure that this is something both environments will eventually have, but right now ABAP has the advantage.  On the other hand, Webdynpro Java has equal support when it comes to office integration, file upload, and Adobe Forms support.  You would have a more difficult time integration SmartForms however.
Finally we come to BSP.  Honestly if I were in your position I would probably choose BSP (unless you could wait for the ABAP Webdynpro upgrade).  You could build a nice MVC OO application using BSP (stateful or stateless).  The BSP product is mature and quite well documented thanks to SDN.  You have the BSP Extensions which when used in Design2003 use the Unified Renderer.  That means that your output will look nearly identical to the same UI elements in Webdynpro.  Also BSP supports portal integration (session management, eventing, and themes). 
The downside to BSP is that it isn't a full framework (also one of its advantages).  You can insert all your own html and javascript (unlike webdynpro). But this also means that SAP doesn't delivery as many framework services.  For instance there is no ALV or Value Help.  There is no Office Integration or Adobe Forms integration.  There is some farily good Smart Forms integration.  Now the upside- many people have already hit these limitations and overcame them.  In the weblogs on SDN and in a certain SAP Press book (cough, cough) you will find out of the box solutions for many of these problems.  You can find ready to use solutions for Adobe Integration, Office Integration (using Microsoft Office Web Controls), and F4 help.  It will mean investing a little more time up front to get this "home grown framework" up and running - but it is perfectly feasible. 
There is a learning curve to all these new technologies however.  This sounds like an abmious project.  I wouldn't want to try and tackle this project in any of these technologies if I was new to them.  With Webdynpro or BSP - consider giving yourself time to learn the environment and cut your teeth on some demo apps before jumping into such a huge development.