SAP HR: Retrieving and Displaying Employee Pictures

Employee photos can be handy within the SAP HR environment. They help humanize HR processes, streamline identification, and improve user experience in self-service portals. However, understanding how to access and display these images within SAP can be tricky. This blog will guide you through the essential methods and considerations.

Where SAP HR Stores Employee Pictures

SAP HR doesn’t store employee pictures directly within its primary tables. Instead, photos are handled as documents that are linked to employee records:

• Transaction OAAD/OAC0: This is the central administration for storing documents linked to SAP Business Objects.
• Document Type ‘HRICOLFOTO’: This type is designated for employee photos.
• Business Object ‘PREL’: This represents the relationship to the Personnel Master Data

Methods for Retrieving Employee Pictures

Here are common ways to get employee pictures in SAP HR:

1. Function Modules

• ‘HR_IMAGE_EXISTS’: Check if an employee has an associated photo in the system.
• ‘ALINK_RFC_TABLE_GET’: Retrieve the image data in a format like RAW or XSTRING. You may need further conversion to a usable image format (e.g., JPG).
• ‘SCMS_BINARY_TO_XSTRING’: Useful for converting binary image data into XSTRING format.

2. BAPIs

BAPIs (Business Application Programming Interfaces) offer pre-built ways to interact with SAP data. Look for BAPIs related to document retrieval within the HR module.

3. Web Services / OData

If your SAP system has enabled web services, you can query employee image data using OData or similar service protocols. This often allows you to receive usable image formats directly.

Code Example (Illustrative)

Code snippet

METHOD get_photo.

  DATA: exists TYPE char1,

        document TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF tbl1024, 

        buffer TYPE xstring.

  IF me->employee IS INITIAL.

    RETURN.

  ENDIF.

  CALL FUNCTION ‘HR_IMAGE_EXISTS’

    EXPORTING

      p_pernr = me->employee 

      p_tclas = ‘A’

    IMPORTING

      p_exists = exists 

  IF sy-subrc NE 0.

    RETURN.

  ENDIF.

  ” … (Add code to retrieve image data using ALINK_RFC_TABLE_GET)

  ” … (Potentially convert the image data to JPG or another usable format)

ENDMETHOD.

Use code with caution.

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Things to Keep in Mind

• Authorizations: Ensure that the users or programs attempting to access employee photos have the necessary SAP authorizations for document access.
• Image Formats: Understand the image format you receive from SAP and how it needs to be prepared for display in your target application.
• Web Applications: If you display photos in a web portal and get the image through SAP function modules or BAPIs, you’ll likely need an intermediate service to convert the data to a web-ready format.