A user menu includes the menus of the single roles and composite roles that are assigned to the user. If a composite role does not have a separate menu, the menus of the single roles that are contained in the composite role are used.
Usually, the structure of the user menu corresponds to the structure of the role menus that are displayed in accordance with the sequence of the role assignment to the user (database table AGR_USERS). However, certain role properties and Customizing settings may result in a deviation from this principle. The following sections provide further explanations for these cases.
1. Exclusion criteria
Roles that have at least one of the following properties is partially or fully ignored for the setup of the user menu.
- Invalid user assignment
If the menu is set up at a point in time that is outside the assignment period of the role to the user, the assignment is invalid and, therefore, irrelevant for the authorization assignment and the user menu. This exclusion criterion is self-evident, but must be mentioned for the sake of completeness.
- Customizing roles
Menus of Customizing roles include IMG projects or their views that are often very comprehensive. Therefore, they are not displayed in the user menu to ensure clarity and to prevent runtime problems from occurring when the menu is set up.
Instead, only transaction SPRO is displayed to allow the user to navigate to the Implementation Guide (IMG).
The following criteria is relevant only if the detail maintenance for the NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC) is active (see Notes 955258 and 1321829) so that the required role attributes can be maintained.
- Filter "Filter in SAP Easy Access Menu"
This new attribute enables you to exclude a complete role menu from the setup of the user menu. To set this attribute, navigate to transaction PFCG, go to the "Menu" tab page and choose "Menu Options". In the dialog box that is subsequently displayed, the relevant checkbox is available in the "Runtime Filter" section.
The "Menu Options" function may not be available. This occurs either because the maintenance of the NWBC details is not active (see section above) or because you have not yet implemented the corrections.
In particular, the effects of the filter on the composite roles should be mentioned:
Composite roles with a separate menu are ignored when the user menu is set up (in the same way as single roles).
You can also set the filter for composite roles that do not have a separate menu. In this case, the menus of all single roles that are included in the composite role are excluded from the user menu. This applies regardless of whether the filter is set in the single roles or not.
If the filter is inactive for the composite roles, the settings of the single roles apply so that the same result as for a direct assignment of the single roles is achieved.
Indicator "Invisible" for individual menu nodes
You can set this indicator in the "Details for Netweaver Business Client" dialog box (as of Release 7.02, this is available in the "Other Node Details" section on the "Menu" tab page). It was originally implemented for NWBC, but is taken into account by SAP Easy Access after you implement these corrections. Note the following:
This attribute is not defined for folders. Therefore, you cannot hide complete folders with the lower-level nodes from the user menu.
In the case of composite roles that do not have a separate menu, the settings of the single roles that are contained in the composite roles are relevant.
All other input fields and checkboxes are irrelevant to the user menu.
2. Derived roles
A derived role does not have a separate menu, but uses the menu of the original role that is assigned to it. Therefore, the assignment of a derived role results in the assignment of the menu of the original role. Therefore, users who choose "Extras -> Settings -> Show first level" to display a separate folder for each role in the screen menu do not see the technical names or short texts of the derived roles that are assigned to them, but the relevant original roles. This behavior is technically correct, but supports the assumption that the original roles themselves were assigned to the user (this is incorrect).
Therefore, we have decided to implement the following change: After you implement these corrections, the system displays the names or short texts of the derived roles. If several derived roles of the same original role have been assigned to a user, the system selects the role whose technical name comes first after a sorting according to the valid character set. This prevents the system from displaying identical menus several times.
However, if the original role is also assigned to the user, the system ignores their derived roles. In this case, the system always displays the name or short text of the original role.
For users who do not use the option to show the first level, the previous state in relation this point remains unchanged.
3. Customizing settings
You can use the settings of four switches in the Customizing table SSM_CUST to influence the setup and display of the user menu. All switches have existed for a long time and are documented in older notes. Therefore, the following sections provide only short summaries except if these corrections result in a deviation from the previous behavior.
Coupled switches
Avoiding redundancy: Switch CONDENSE_MENU
This switch enables you to group identical subareas of the user menu that occur several times. Note 357693 provides an example to explain the mode of functioning.
In the default settings, the switch to avoid redundancies is deactivated. If you want to activate it, set the switch to YES. Independent of the switch settings, redundancies are not avoided if you select the option to show the first level (see section above) in your personal settings.
Text-based sorting: Switch SORT_USER_MENU
If you want the sorting to be performed according to the short texts of the menu nodes, set this switch to YES. However, this switch depends on the switch to avoid redundancies. Therefore, it takes effect only if CONDENSE_MENU is set to YES.
Note the following: If you use text-based sorting, the sequence of the menu entries may change each time when you choose a different logon language.
Deletion of identical transactions: Switch DELETE_DOUBLE_TCODES
You can use this switch to reduce the number of identical transactions. The effect is as follows:
When the role menu is transferred to the user menu, all transactions that were previously not contained in the user menu are displayed at the position when they are used the first time. If the same transaction is later used again in the same role menu or in role menus that are subsequently transferred, these entries are ignored unless the target systems differ (see section below).
In addition to the transaction name, the target system is the second filter criterion. Therefore, if the target systems differ, the system displays identical transactions from different role menus in the user menu.
By default, this function is deactivated. To activate it, set DELETE_DOUBLE_TCODES to YES.
Previously, this function took effect only if the switch to avoid redundancy was activated (see Note 357693). These corrections remove this dependency. You can now filter out identical transactions, even if the switch to avoid redundancies is deactivated.
This function is independent of the option to show the first level.
In the special case of completely identical menu paths that contain only transactions, the filter function has the same result as the switch to avoid redundancies. When you filter out the transactions that already exist in the user menu, empty folders are created that are then immediately deleted. Therefore, the system displays the menu path only once.
Display of the target system: Switch DISP_REMOTE_SYSTEM
These corrections change the default settings of this switch, which controls the display of the target system in the menu entries. Previously, the system displayed the target system only if the switch was set to YES.
However, the target system specification is important for two reasons:
If a menu entry is displayed without the specification of the target system, the entry seems to be valid for the local system (this is incorrect).
This may result in the incorrect assumption that the transaction filter function or the switch to avoid redundancies work incorrectly.
Therefore, after you implement these corrections, the target system is displayed by default. We recommend that you retain these settings. If you still want to deactivate the target system specification, you must set DISP_REMOTE_SYSTEM to NO.
In this case, the target system is displayed in brackets after the text of the menu entry. These corrections ensure that the target system is completely displayed. Since only 80 characters are available for the text and the target system for technical reasons, text may be truncated in individual cases.
For the folders, the target system is irrelevant and is not displayed as a result.
Important notes.
1. Sorting
In user menus that include SAP menu parts or area menus, entries may have a sorting that differs from the sorting in the same folder of the SAP menu or area menu. This effect occurs if the entries of different roles are included because the role menu does not include structure information regarding the original sort sequence in the SAP menu or area menu from which a menu was transferred.
Since the deviating sorting in the user menu results only in a minor reduction of the usability, we do not provide a function to adjust the sorting to the sorting in the SAP menu and the area menus. Such a function would require a major development effort and would increase the runtime for setting up the user menu.
2. Node texts
The procedure for displaying node texts is identical to the methods in the role menu maintenance (transaction PFCG). If a node text does not exist in the current logon language, the system displays the English translation. If the text is not available in English either, the system searches for a second substitute language. If there are several possible languages, the system selects the language that is the first language according to the valid code page. Only if there is no text at all, the node is displayed without a description.
If the node texts are missing in your logon language, the texts are not displayed in the menus of the roles assigned by you. Usually, this occurs because additional languages were subsequently installed without revising the texts of the role menus. To add texts of languages that were subsequently installed to the role menus.
This error may also occur because translations for customer-specific node texts are missing. You must choose the "Translate Node" function on the "Menu" tab page in transaction PFCG to manually add these texts.