Hello folks,
System Info:
ERP Backend: NW AS 7.03 ABAP Stack 731 Level 13, ECC 606 (EHP 6) with SAP_HR 604 Level 81 and EA_HR 607 (HR-Renewal 1) Level 32
SAP EP: NW AS 7.02 JAVA Stack 702 Level 17
Background:
We are using the Universal Worklist as frontend means in our Enterprise Portal to visualize and manage workitems from our workflows. None of the alternatives is feasible for us, i.e. SBWP is too powerful and too frumpy, POWL is the Antichrist and we can't use anything UI5-related (yet) because we live in the stone age. So, UWL it is.
Problem:
Our end users are crying for a means of substitution, however they refuse to create these substitution rules themselves because the usability of the scenario is horrible (I can't even argue with that). So far I only managed to increase user acceptance in a minimal way by isolating the substitution iview from the UWL iView (so people don't have to click on the "flyspeck", as it is called by us, anymore) and applied some portal patches that caused the error/warning/info messages from the substitution component to be slightly less cryptic (they still are cryptic nevertheless).
My colleagues in our special department urge me to just use the ERP substitution logic for that, i.e. Table HRUS_D2 which is also used in the SBWP-Substitution, but I know the Portal table KMC_WF_SUBSTITUTE serves as master table within the whole UWL Substitution stuff (which would then of course not be touched, i.e. not be in sync with the backend) and I would very much like to avoid the horror stories I've read so far on the forums.
We do not use NWDS/NWDI, so I can't modify the WDJ Sources.
The only way out I see, is, writing some kind of script/service/application, and couple it to a webservice to "somehow" manipulate both, the portal and the ERP table and paint a nice big and bubbly UI for it.
How does this sound to you? Does anybody have experience with such desperate measures? I'm all ears for any alternatives, too.
Any helpful comments will be showered with ponits and (even better) my eternal gratitude.
Cheers and have a nice weekend, Lukas
P.S. Please don't propose solving this editorially or with common sense; there's none to be found in the Public Sector.