External Links in SAP Retail Execution 3.2 for iOS

[Former Member]

Did you know its possible to enhance the Global Access Menu of SAP Retail Execution 3.2 to include external links to other websites or apps?

In this article I will take you through a step by step process to configure a Global Access Menu to include a link to an internal app, an intranet URL with context passing and a link to a web map

Step 1 - Create the UI Configuration File

Create an XML file with the name UIAConfiguration_iOS.xml with the following content, the XML file will include labels for our external links and the configuration for our Global Access Menu. For each external link define a label id under the labels section that can be referred under our Global Access Menu.

• The first link shows an example fo an entry to a internal mobile app that is identified by an URL scheme documentsapp:
• The second link is an example to an intranet portal that will identify the user of the Retail Execution mobile app, the user's ID and technical GUID will be passed as parameters to the intranet portal. Additionally the link will open in an inline browser
• The third link will search for office locations on a Map
  

<xml>

    <SAPRetailExApplication>

    

        <!-- Define language dependent labels for our links -->

        <labels>

            <label id="linkIntranet">

                <text language="en" value="Employee Portal"/>

            </label>

    

            <label id="linkMap">

                <text language="en" value="Our Office Locations"/>

            </label>

        

            <label id="linkDocumentsApps">

                <text language="en" value="Documents App"/>

            </label>

        </labels>

    

        <!-- configure the global access menu to include the links -->

        <globalAccessMenu>

            <externalLinks>

                <!-- Launch an internal documents mobile application -->

                <url src="documentsapp:" labelId="linkDocumentsApps" launchbrowser="YES"/>

            

                <!-- When user clicks on the link partner_id and partner_guid are picked from the user empoyee details. i.e they are the business partner details of the user who is using the device.  -->

                <url src="http://somewebsite.com?param1=(partner_id)&amp;param2=(partner_GUID)" labelId="linkIntranet" launchbrowser="NO"/>

            

                <!-- Launch the map application -->

                <url src="http://maps.apple.com?q=My+Company" labelId="linkMap" launchbrowser="YES"/>

            </externalLinks>

        </globalAccessMenu>

    

    </SAPRetailExApplication>

</xml>

Step 2 - Upload the configuration

In the CRM system execute transaction SE80 and browse to the MIME Repository. Upload our configuration file to the path SAP/PUBLIC/REX/XMLs/IOS

Step 3 - Synchronize Customizing

For the changes to take effect on the device you will need to synchronize Customizing. Once the sync is complete kill the app in the background and re-start the app. You should now be able to see the links in the Global Access Menu. In the iPad, the links would appear in the Green area at the right of the menu, the area turns into a scrollable view when links are configured. In iPhone you will see the links as shown in the screenshot below.