Following my first post “How to do a Support Package Stack Upgrade – Part 1“, on which I explained the basic concepts such as Support Packages and the OSS Notes, in this post I’ll explain the step by step process on how to achieve this somewhat complex and easy to fail operation.

As I said in part 1, preparation and organization play a critical part in this process. You should also have a complete check-list of whatever cut-over activities you’ll need to perform after the SP upgrade. A Z developments inventory is also a very good idea, if you want to avoid losing any previous developments.

The Check List

An organized check list will help you with the whole Support Package upgrade. Here’s an example you can follow:

Preparation

• Confirm new Patches are available for upgrade (estimated 30 minutes);
• Download all the files in the support stack XX (estimated 30 minutes);
• Ensure system has already been validated for additional packs  (check with your teams for time estimate );
• Acquire passwords for: (estimated 15 minutes)
  • JSPM
  • SDM
  • Admin for client 000
  • J2EE admin
  • <sid>adm credentials
  • Config tool admin
  • File server and O.S. admin (might be necessary)
• Send system messages and lock all users beforehand (estimated 20 minutes);
• Ensure that J2EE administrator user is unlocked (estimated 5 minutes);
• Ensure that you have at least 10GB of available space in hard disk (estimated 2 minutes);
• Perform a backup of the EPS adn IN Kernel folder:
  • Usr\sap\trans\eps\in (estimated 5 minutes);
  • Usr\sap\<sid>\sys\exe\nuc (estimated 5 minutes);
  • Usr\sap\<sid>\sys\exe\run (estimated 5 minutes);
  • Usr\sap\<sid>\scs01\exe (estimated 5 minutes);
  • Usr\sap\<sid>\DVEBMGS00\exe (estimated 5 minutes);
• IF cluster fail CI over to DB (estimated 15 minutes);

Execution – ABAP

• Extract and move all the ABAP patch files into the right location (e.g. [drive]:\use\sap\trans\eps\in) (estimated 2 minutes);
• Perform SAINT/SPAM Update to patch XX (estimated 15 minutes);
• Import SAP_Basis patch XX using SPAM (estimated 45 minutes);
• Import SAP_ABA patch XX using SPAM (estimated 15 minutes);
• Import PI_Basis patch XX using SPAM (estimated 15 minutes);
• Import SAP_BW patch XX using SPAM (estimated 15 minutes);
• Import BI_CONT to patch XX using SPAM (estimated 30 minutes);
• Import ST_PI patch XX using SPAM (estimated 15 minutes);

Execution – JAVA

• Extract and move all the Java patch files into the right location (e.g. [drive]:\use\sap\trans\eps\in) (estimated 2 minutes);
• Logon as <sid>adm when deploying patches through JSPM;
• Perform JSPM update to patch XX (select single packs for this one) (estimated 15 minutes);
• Using JSPM, update all the components to patch XX (Select Support Package stack) (estimated 120 minutes);

Execution – Additional Patching

• Unpack Kernel archive and update it to latest patch (e.g. SP11 has patch 95) (estimated 15 minutes);
• Unpack IGS archive and update it to latest patch (e.g. SP11 has patch 7) (estimated 15 minutes);
• Confirm additional patches that need to be installed (estimated 15 minutes);
• Extract and move all the additional patch files into the right location (e.g. [drive]:\use\sap\trans\eps\in);
• Upgrade patch levels (estimated 250 minutes);
• Run SGEN (depends on server type) (estimated 300 – 400 minutes);

Post Processing

• Create SPAU Resolutions (estimated 2 minutes);
• SPAU Analysis (estimated 120 minutes);
• OSS Reapplication (estimated 80 minutes);
• Unlock Users (estimated 15 minutes);

Please note that the estimated times that I put here are assmunign that no unexpected errors occur. You know as well as I do that should something go wrong, these times can increase substantially. In my opinion, this is why it is so important to have a well organized Check List. Not only it will help you get an overview of all the tasks in hands and their sequence, but it will also help narrow down a potential error.

Please come back soon; on the next posts I will go into detail on how to perform a SAP system Support Package Stack Upgrade.

Related posts:

1. How To Do a Support Package Stack Upgrade – Part 1
2. SAP Support Package Stack 17 Fact Sheet
3. What you must know about Enhancement Packages

This document provides architectural recommendations for structuring and implementing composite applications. It does not focus on specific technologies like Business Process Management (BPM), Web Dynpro, or the Composite Application Framework (CAF), for example. Instead, it is intended to answer questions about how to structure a composite overall and what to consider when designing composite applications.

Authors: Andrey Hoursanov, Bernhard Drabant, Bogdan Vatkov, Emil Simeonov, Erik Dick, Jens Ittel, Kesavaprakash Vasudevan, Matthias Steiner, Nikolay Kabadzhov, Penka Tatarova, Ulf Fildebrandt, Ulrich Keil, Volker Stiehl, Prasanna Kumar Reddy, Harald Schubert, from SAP AG.

Related posts:

1. SOA Reference Architecture
2. Full guide to Composite Applications
3. SAPLAB Version 2.0 is on-line!

SAT is the new ABAP Runtime Analysis Tool of the SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EhP2 (successor of the SE30 transaction). This demo explores the SAT tools and shows how to use SAT for typical scenarios of ABAP runtime analysis, such as searching for performance bottlenecks, program flow analysis or memory consumption problems.

Watch the Demo (20 min)

Related posts:

1. Best SAP SDN Blog Posts from 2010
2. Caffeine – ABAP to Go
3. SAPLAB Version 2.0 is on-line!

Well I can say that this is a long awaited SAP launch and that will provide help to many users worldwide. If you’re like me, at a certain point in your SAP career, you felt the need to have your own SAP sandbox. Being for professional purposes or for your own personal skillset build, an SAP sandbox system is always handy and you can’t well perform this kind of experiments on your client development system.

Up until now, there weren’t many (viable) available solutions. There are some companies that provide you a paid service for you to have your own SAP system/client but usually expensive for most of us.

This month Learning on Demand by SAP launched a new service called SAP Sandbox onDemand, which consists of an SAP ECC 6.0 system with sufficient basic data, such as customer and vendor master data, to enable substantial experimentation.

Using this system, users can access the core ERP functionality of modules such as FI and CO, SD, HR and MM and can write and test ABAP code and modify SAP Netweaver settings and configurations. This offering will provide interested individuals with the ability to reinforce their existing SAP ERP knowledge and skills through experimentation in a live but safe environment. It will also enable you to clarify areas of ambiguity in your knowledge or to test new functionality that they may be considering for an existing or new client.

Given that the SAP Sandbox onDemand is accessed via an SAP WebGUI, there is no need to install any client-side software on your PC, so you can start using the system immediately after receiving your access details.

Comparing with other and existing offers, SAP Sandbox onDemand has a fair price in my perspective: US$80 for 30 days access.

Click here for more info and start playing now!

Related posts:

1. Best of SAP Sites Directory
2. SAPLAB Version 2.0 is on-line!
3. 22 SAP How To’s you can’t miss!

Gingle is an SDN community user which posted a series of very useful weblog posts. As soon as you start reading the posts, you can see that some of the challenges described by Gingle are familiar. Whoever has tried the endeavor of installing a Mini-SAP, installing a Netweaver Developer Workplace or simply installing a SAP MaxDB Instance, you’ll know that sometimes things can get ugly. In my opinion, the easier the How-to, the better chance we have in a successful installation.

In this post I include some links to external sources like SDN, as well as some links to some of my own posts, hoping to help anyone who’s trying to accomplish an SAP product installation end to end.

1. Netweaver Sneak Preview (NSP) installation – Part 1

Gingle starts his series of posts by explaining which components are necessary, how and where to download them and how to unzip them, etc. The post includes a series of comprehensive screenshots and step-by-step approach to guide you into success.

2. Logical System & Virtual Machine – Part 2

Continuing his previous post as described in point 1., Gingle explains how to setup the Logical System and Virtual Machine. Again, Gingle was thorough in his explanation, including step by step details and lots of screenshots to help us progress.

3. License & Profiles – Part 3

In this post, the whole License and Profiles procedure is well explained and documented. Well done Gingle!

4. Transport System – Part 4

Probably as a SAP Consultant, you never had to deal with this kind of configuration. Just in case you need it.

5. HTTPS & Sapcrypto – Part 5

What is HTTPS & Sapcrypto? Learn about and also why and how you should configure it.

6. SPAM & Kernel – Part 6

Gingle intended on importing some transports and performing some upgrades, SAP always recommends the Support Package Manager – SPAM, to be the latest. Learn how.

7. Upgrade to SP6 – Part 7

This post explains which component versions to consider, how to download them and how to install them. Again, step by step approach and lots of screenshots.

8. BI Content – Part 8

According to the author (Gingle), after a successful upgrade to SP6, it seemed only natural to attempt to install BI Content.

9. The CE2 Installation- Part 9

In this post, Gingle explains how to install the Netweaver Composite Environment 7.2 Trial Version.

10. Install a Local SAP Netweaver Developer Workplace

A detailed explanation on how to successfully install your own local SAP Netweaver Developer Workplace. Please be sure to go through the necessary prerequisites.

11. How To Do a Support Package Stack Upgrade – Part 1

Learn how to apply a Support Package upgrade on your system.

12. How to Tune the Performance of KM

This SAP How-to guide provides recommendations for improving the performance of Knowledge Management (KM) in SAP NetWeaver 2004.

13. TREX Installation on EP7

This how-to tutorial explains the TREX Basis Installation as well as the some post configuration activities, needed for the TREX to work.

14. How to Use Portal Session Notification with Your Own Custom Applications

The SAP Enterprise Portal offers a mechanism called Session Release Notification. This feature is used by SAP applications running inside the portal to close their sessions in case the user closes the browser window, navigates away from the application or logs-off from the SAP Portal.

15. How to Install a SAP (Max)DB Instance

Learn how to easily install a SAP MaxDB Instance.

16. Configure Single Sign-On (SSO) on the Portal and the ERP

Learn how to easily configure Single Sign-On (SSO) on the Portal and the ERP.

17. How Many Lines of ABAP Code In Your System?

This is just a fun and easy way to benchmark how many lines of ABAP code exist in your system.

18. How to do a System Trace?

When you work with SAP Enterprise Portal, sometimes it’s useful to use the System Trace tool, enabled by the ERP system.

19. Single Sign-On with your SAP OSS User

If you have a company issued SAP OSS user and use it all the time (like myself), this post is for you.

20. Configuring SAP Connect (SCOT)

From SAP WAS 6.10, SAP directly supports SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). This means that the emails can be exchanged directly between SAP system and any SMTP compliant mail server. Learn how to configure it.

21. Configuring UWL for Guided Procedures on C.E.

This tutorial covers the configuration of the Universal Worklist (UWL) for Guided Procedures actions. It shows how to configure the UWL in the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment when the Guided Procedures are executed locally.

22. Configuring UWL for Guided Procedures on C.E.

This tutorial covers the configuration of the Universal Worklist (UWL) for Guided Procedures actions. It shows how to configure the UWL in the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment when the Guided Procedures are executed locally.

Please comment if you found this post useful! Many thanks in advance.

Related posts:

1. SAPLAB Version 2.0 is on-line!
2. Best of SAP Sites Directory
3. TREX Installation on EP7

Following a very successful post I wrote on October 2009, I’ve decided to insist on a FAQ post format, since it seems to interest readers for being direct and straight to the point information. I’ve also collected some of the questions I received through SAPLAB, directly sent by people having questions or doubts on Portal related matters.

If you work with SAP Netweaver Portal implementations, the listed frequently asked questions might help you shortening your implementation times. I’ve collected some of the most common problems I’ve had while working with Portal, and hopefully provided some straight answers. Also, I’ve included some concepts which are best for you to learn sooner than later.

Please note that these topics are part of my personal experiences and are aimed to people starting off with Portal implementations. I’m also planning a series of other posts intended for more expert users . If you feel that you have complementary information or if you have a different perspective regarding something in this post, please comment on this post, ask away, share you knowledge and experience – it will be highly appreciated!

1. What’s the difference between SAP Enterprise Portal and SAP Netweaver Portal?

2. How can I check the installed version of ESS/MSS?

3. What checklist items should I follow to check an ESS Portal installation?

4. What are the main components of the SAP Netweaver Portal?

5. What’s the relation between the Netweaver Portal and the Universal Worklist (UWL)?

6. What’s the difference between a Portal role and an ERP role?

7. How does the Portal connect to the ERP?

8. What is Single Sign-On (SSO)?

9. How can I change a standard ESS application to meet my client’s own needs?

10. What is the Homepage Framework? Is it mandatory to use it?

11. Common issues and hints for ESS

12. I want to install my own local Portal. Where do I start?

13. I want to develop a custom Portal application. Should I use Web Dynpro or Visual Composer?

14. Can you provide a list of the most commonly used Portal acronyms?

15. Web Dynpro Java or ABAP?

1. What’s the difference between SAP Enterprise Portal and SAP Netweaver Portal?

Before SAP’s strategy turn towards the SAP Netweaver Architecture, what we commonly refer to as “SAP Portal” was called just that or SAP Enterprise Portal. It was just a way to identify this SAP standalone product that was capable (and still is) to connect with all kinds of external systems. These systems could be SAP modules or external systems built on different technologies, such as proprietary client systems or legacy systems. By shifting it’s strategy around Netweaver, SAP put the Portal inside the Netweaver platform, arranging its components in order to improve and simplify it’s communication with other systems, as well as harmonizing some of its core capabilities and re-utilize those of the Netweaver platform. In a daily basis, we just refer to it as SAP Portal and specify the version (e.g. Portal 6.0, Portal 7.0 or NW Portal).

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2. How can I check the installed version of ESS/MSS?

Take note of the following steps in order to find out if indeed you have the ESS and MSS components and in which versions do you have them. Please note that there are alternative ways to check this like, e.g., using the Visual Administrator tool. This is just a way that works for me because most of the times clients won’t allow access to the V.A. tool by external consultants.

• Logon the SAP Netweaver Application (Java) mainpage. The URL is similar to your Portal URL but you should remove the “/irj/portal“. The URL should look something like http://[host]:[port]. You will be asked for a username and password and provided that your user has the necessary permissions, you will be redirected to a page similar to the one below:



• Click on the System Information link as shown above
• The resulting main screen will already tell you something about the installed core versions



• Clink on the “all components” link to access the detailed components list
• For the ESS Business Packges and Components, the marked entries in the image below should be installed. You can also view the installed version in the respective column – e.g. BP_ERP5ESS is in version 1.41 SP4

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3. What checklist items should I follow to check an ESS Portal installation?

This must be one of the most asked topics in SDN and there are lots of references in the web. My first recommendation is that you start by reading my post “Employee Self-Services Initial Steps Wiki“. This “ESS Initial Steps” wiki intends to provide a hands-on initial contact with the ESS implementation.

You might also want to look into the SAP HCM Employee Self Service Wiki space.

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4. What are the main components of the SAP Netweaver Portal?

According to SAP:

SAP NetWeaver Portal unifies key information and applications to give users a single view that spans IT silos and organizational boundaries. It allows you to take full advantage of all your information resources – and maximize the return on your IT investments. And, its predefined business content accelerates implementation and reduces the cost of integrating your existing systems.

Main and general components include:

• Portal-infrastructure management
• Collaboration
• Knowledge Management

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5. What’s the relation between the Netweaver Portal and the Universal Worklist (UWL)?

The Universal Worklist is for the Netweaver Portal what the SAP Business Workplace is for the ERP system. So if you want to enable any Workflow activities using the Portal, ESS and MSS, you will need to use the Universal Worklist so that users receive their tasks and act upon them. The UWL is tied to the backend using a Portal System connector which has to be configured before being able to use it. Many users complain about data refresh issues using the UWL. Even though SAP is aware of this and try to advise some workarounds, like the optimization of the delta pull mechanism, the UWL is still the main funcionality to deliver workitems and tasks to users in the Portal, coming from SAP Business Workflow or Guided Procedures tasks. The UWL is delivered with a standard configuration but usually SAP consultants customize it to meet the client’s and project requirements. See how to configure the UWL for Guided Procedures on Composition Environment.

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6. What’s the difference between a Portal role and an ERP role?

This question arises some doubts, mainly in beginners starting to work with Portal. The role assignment function in the portal allows role assignment to users and groups. These roles will reflect the user’s or group’s function within the company (example: ESS, MSS, HR Administrator, etc.). For a Portal user to run properly, the person resposible for User Management will have to assign both portal roles as well as ERP roles. There are, however, situations for which only an ERP role is assigned.

Portal roles define how portal content is grouped together and how it is displayed in the portal navigation area. By assigning a portal role to a user or group, you’ll define which content is available for a certain user or group.

ERP roles define a set of authorization objects. By assigning an ERP role to a user or group, you grant the set of authorizations that the role defines to the user or group. In the portal, SAP recommends that you work with portal roles.

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7. How does the Portal connect to the ERP?

The main Portal object which is needed for the Portal to connect to the ERP is what is commonly referred to as a System. Systems are PCD objects, such as folders, pages or iViews. What this means is that Systems must have a unique ID, a prefix (typically com.companyname) and a name. Systems have specific parameters that need to be configured, in order to enable the connection between the portal and the backend (ERP).  Ideally, you will have created a customer folder in the PCD and you should create any needed systems in a specific client folder, in a folder name such as “Systems”.

Systems can only be maintained using the System Landscape Editor, which is an option which is only available for the under System Administrator role.

Although systems can be transported through the portal transport mechanism, they don’t need to be and, in my opinion, they shouldn’t. This is because the systems that are accessed from a development portal are normally different to the systems accessed by QA and production portals – they connect to different backends!

If you’re creating you own portal applications, as soon as you deploy them into the server, you will then need to create an iView to contain the application. One of the iView parameters will be the System Alias, which is defined when creating the System itself. If you’re working with ESS and MSS applications, this means that your Portal Administrator should have already configured the necessary systems, which have a system alias defined, and which is referred to by each of the standard ESS and MSS iViews.

I recommend that you read this SAP wiki about connectivity and different variations on connecting different systems.

You can also read this SAP weblog with a step by step to connect the Portal to the ERP backend.

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8. What is Single Sign-On (SSO)?

SAP defines Single Sign-On (SSO) as the following:

Single Sign-On (SSO) is a key feature of the Enterprise Portal that eases user interaction with the many component systems available to the user in a portal environment. Once the user is authenticated to the enterprise portal, he or she can use the portal to access external applications. With SSO in the Enterprise Portal, the user can access different systems and applications without having to repeatedly enter his or her user information for authentication.

The Enterprise Portal SSO mechanism is available in two variants depending on security requirements and the supported external applications:

• SSO with SAP logon tickets
• SSO with user ID and password

Both variants eliminate the need for repeated logons to individual applications after the initial authentication at the enterprise portal. Whereas SSO with SAP logon tickets is based on a secure ticketing mechanism, SSO with user ID and password forwards the user’s logon data (user ID and password) to the systems that a user wants to call.

In case you need to know and understand the necessary steps to configure SSO, please read my post Configure Single Sign-On (SSO) on the Portal and the ERP.

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9. How can I change a standard ESS application to meet my client’s own needs?

Well, this is a hot topic on SDN. I must say that I’ve had lots of challenges regarding this matter, due to clients requirements and short time to develop. In terms of WebDynpro Java, there is more than one way to change ESS and MSS standard applications, as well as some workarounds. In my experience, the most controlled and effective way to do this is using the Netweaver Developer Infrastructure (NWDI) as a kind of middle-ware and access the ESS and MSS applications source code directly. This versioning system allows developers to import ESS and MSS software components into their own desktops as local projects. Once here, they can work on them, doing the necessary changes. When they want to see the changes, they will generally check-in their development activities (NWDI transport requests) and view them directly in the Developement Portal. There are several key points to have in mind when performing changes to standard ESS and MSS applications, using NWDI:

• Start by understanding very well how each application is built; not all of them are clear, they can include comments in german or indian and they sometimes use external Development Components and use the Floorplan Manager (FPM), which isn’t clear to everybody;
• The NWDI doesn’t know how to manage a new Support Package implementation along with your own changes. Please be aware that whenever a new Support Package is installed, all your custom coding, bindings, context elements, model changes, etc. will be overwritten. A good and thorough documentation will help you manage these challenges;
• Make sure to trace the boundaries between your job and technical tasks that will need to be performed in NWDI. Usually the client wraps everything in a global “Portal” subject, and you’ll be responsible for everything. A good basis team which is able to solve issues with NWDI is also a plus.

Besides this technique, there are also other ways to change ESS and MSS standard applications. In terms of Webdynpro Java, here’s some that I’ve came across:

• Using the FPM personalization feature to hide or enable/disable fields (limited). The Floorplan manager (FPM) is a central part of the ESS and MSS applications. Any WebDynpro application that implements FPM is known as a FPM Application.
• Enhancing the ESS applications’ User Interface (UI) without modifying the source code, by using table/view V_T588UICONVCLAS (conversion classes);

I recommend that you read further:

• NWDI/JDI Cookbook
• iView Personalization
• ESS Personal Information UI enhancement without modification
  

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10. What is the Self-Services Homepage? Is it mandatory to use it?

First of all let me clarify that the Self-Services Homepage isn’t mandatory at all. You can build your company’s portal the way you want it. However, the Self-Services Homepage is a smart and good looking way to group several ESS applications. The Self-Services Homepage enables you to create overview pages, which allow your employees to access the self-service applications (services) with greater ease and improved usability. These overview pages group and describe the individual services and contain hyperlinks with which your employees can start the services – usually WebDynpro applications.

The Self-Services Homepage offers the following functions for adjusting the overview pages to suit your self-service applications or for creating your own overview pages:

• Replace pictogram (graphics) on area group pages and area pages;
• Enter long area descriptions
• Creating Customer-Specific Areas with Services
• Hide areas included in the standard system
• Add services to an area included in the standard system
• Hide services included in the standard system

I recommend that you read further:

• Self-Services official SAP Help (ehp4)
• Rapid Portal Content Creation using the Homepage Framework
• How to Map the Relationship Between SAP Enterprise Portal and Homepage Framework for Employee Self Service (ESS)
• How to Add Custom Area Page to Overview Page in ESS
• How to Create Custom Overview Page in ESS

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11. Common issues and hints for ESS

There is a great SAP weblog, created by Márcio Leoni, which covers known issues and very good hints on ESS. Please click here to learn about common issues and hints for ESS.

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12. I want to install my own local Portal. Where do I start?

Please read my post Install a Local SAP Netweaver Developer Workplace.

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13. I want to develop a custom Portal application. Should I use Web Dynpro or Visual Composer?

It depends on how far you want to go. Consider using Visual Composer if you:

• need a simple application to display information about your employees or outstanding orders;
• have little time to implement and want a rapid solution available in your SAP Portal;
• have little technical knowledge and feel more comfortable working with a visual tool;
• don’t predict a very large number of users accessing the application.

Consider using WebDynpro if you:

• plan to develop a more complex and robust application, with transactional purpose;
• have a technical team and skill-set comprising of WebDynpro Java, WebDynpro ABAP, Java, Netweaver Portal and knowledge of the MVC (Model View Control) paradigm;
• predict a large number of users working with the portal;
• have already planned you SAP Portal Project carefully;

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14. Can you provide a list of the most commonly used Portal acronyms?

This is yet another challenge. I will update this ASAP!

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15. Web Dynpro Java or ABAP?

In the past years, SAP Portal and Web Dynpro for Java set as a strategic user interface technology for SAP NetWeaver 04.

With Web Dynpro, you build professional, highly interactive, Web-based, and accessible user interfaces for business applications. Using the Portal, you provide role-based, secure access to any kind of information (structured or unstructured), services and applications via a Web browser. In SAP NetWeaver, these two technologies converge, enabling you to run Web Dynpro-designed content in iViews from within the portal.

In order to create portal content, different tools are available for different professional roles and objectives. The wizards and templates included with the Portal Content Studio are specially suited for content administrators, while the Portal Development Kit (PDK) for Java is geared to J2EE developers. Recently, WebDynpro ABAP has become more and more the most used paradigm for developing portal applications. Web Dynpro is best suited for business application developers. In what relates to WebDynpro Java, working from the Eclipse-based SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio, business application developers need Java and ABAP skills to leverage this programming model. From a WebDynpro ABAP perspective, developers must have an advanced knowledge in ABAP as well as the Model View Controller (MVC) paradigm, in order to be able to use it with full capacity.

Bottom line is, in my opini0n, if you’re aiming to learn WebDynpro, I would bet in WebDynpro ABAP.Most of the recent SAP Business aligned with EHP4 are being developed in WebDynpro ABAP. A major plus is that you will work from within SE80 and will use the well known transport system, instead of the NWDI.

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Hope this post is useful for you. Please comment!

Related posts:

1. Best Practices for SAP Netweaver Portal 7.0
2. Business Packages for Netweaver Portal
3. Get Your Portal License Key

The Best of SAP Sites Directory is a great resource if you’re looking for information on SAP, ABAP, Netweaver, FICO, SD, MM, PP, downloads and other SAP tutorials and user guides.  The Best of SAP Sites Directory blog is owned by eddai, who is also blogger and owner of SAP DOCS.

The Best of SAP Sites Directory is a SAP topics aggregator since it displays headlines from the most popular SAP sites on the internet.

Eddai leaves his welcome message:

This site is the dashboard for the latest web-buzz, a single page that encapsulates up-to-the-minute headlines from the most popular SAP sites on the internet with a purpose of getting a quick glance on updates over various categories. The lists will be enhanced in each categories by day. Hope you find this site useful.

Click here to enter Best of SAP Sites Directory

Related posts:

1. Tools for SAP Portal
2. Best Practices for SAP Netweaver Portal 7.0
3. 15 SAP Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

SAP is probably the world’s leading supplier of process automation technology. Over half of the world’s business transactions, involving 12 Million users in 120 countries, touch one of 140,000 SAP systems – but is only recently making a full entry into the BPM arena. The applications in SAP’s Business Suite, such as ERP and CRM, already automate the majority of its customers’ core process logic, and in doing so deliver both efficiency and standardization.

But BPM is just as much about business-IT alignment, linking strategy to execution and governance to business integration, as it is about process automation. SAP recognizes this, and its approach to BPM must harmonize these new dimensions with its customers’ substantial existing investment in process automation via the SAP Business Suite. In that sense, the company’s BPM strategy differs from that of a pureplay BPM technology vendor or a SOA middleware supplier. SAP offers a set of mutually reinforcing BPM building blocks that leverage existing customer investment while providing a unification roadmap for the future.

(Source: text extracted from the official SAP Netweaver BPM Whitepaper)

Below are a list of 10 BPM Frequently Asked Questions. Please comment on them, it will be highly appreciated! Thanks!

1. How to assign users to a task instance

• Log on to the SAP NetWeaver Administrator as a system administrator (http://host:port/nwa).
• Navigate to the affected task instance.
• Switch to the ‘Owners’ tab in the details.
• Add one user by clicking ‘Nominate’.

2. How to check if a Web service is reachable

• First of all make sure that the providing system is up and running.

then

• Check by WSDL
  • Log on to the WS Navigator as a system administrator (http://host:port/wsnavigator).
  • Search for Service Interfaces by WSDL.
  • Copy the WSDL URL into the input box & click ‘Next’.
  • Select the correct operation & click ‘Next’.
  • Specify the input parameters & click ‘Next’.
  • Optional: Specify correct credentials if prompted for.
  • Check if the result is returned correctly or if some error messages were supplied by the back end.

or

• Check by Logical Destination:
  • Log on to the WS Navigator as a system administrator (http://host:port/wsnavigator).
  • Search for Service Interfaces by Logical Destination (the one used in the Automated Activity).
  • Select the correct one & hit ‘Next’.
  • Select the correct operation & hit ‘Next’.
  • Specify the input parameters & hit ‘Next’.
  • Optional: Specify correct credentials if prompted for.
  • Check if the result is returned correctly or if some error messages were supplied by the back end.

3. How to check if SAP NetWeaver BPM is up and running

• Log on to the SAP NetWeaver Administrator as a system administrator (http://host:port/nwa).
• Go to the ‘Process Troubleshooting’ (SAP NetWeaver Administrator » Problem Management » Processes & Tasks » Process Troubleshooting).
• Check if components are marked as missing.
  • To check the services in details:
    • Go to ‘Start & Stop Services’ (navigation via ‘Related Links’ available).
    • Filter for ‘Galaxy’ and check if all (4) services are started properly. If not try (re-)starting them.
    • If the services cannot be started check the trace for reasons.
  • To check if the applications are started:
    • Switch to ‘Java EE Applications’.
    • Filter for ‘glx’ and check if all applications (except *.dbschema) are up running. If not try (re-)starting them.
    • If the applications cannot be started check the trace for reasons.

4. How to check the default trace

• Log on to the SAP NetWeaver Administrator as a system administrator (http://host:port/nwa).
• Go to the ‘Log Viewer’ (SAP NetWeaver Administrator » Problem Management » Logs & Traces » Log Viewer).
• Open the ‘Default Trace’.
• Filter for the timeframe when the issue had happened.
• Look / Search for entries related to ‘com.sap.glx’ or ‘com.sap.bpem’.
• In case the reported entry did not provide enough information to solve the problem and / or the trace entry looks like a defect in the application consider opening a message

Hint: If nothing was found try increasing the log level and try to redo the action. Finally check again.

5. How to check the service group configuration

There are currently two comprehensive documents dealing with SOA configuration, the official documentation and an introduction document explaining the concepts and the relations between the different entities. Make use of the resource in order to configure your service correctly:

• Configuring Web Services and Web Service Clients in the SAP NetWeaver Administrator (CE 7.11 documentation)
• The New SOA Configuration Approach (by Alexander Zubev)

6. How to check the UWL connector configuration

• Log on to the Portal as a system administrator (http://host:port/irj)
• Go to the ‘Universal Worklist – Administration’ (Portal » System Administration » System Configuration » Universal Worklist & Workflow » Universal Worklist – Administration)
• Check if the table contains an entry of type ‘BPEMUWLConnector’ and if the corresponding system (which is configured for the entry) is up and running.

See also in the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment Library, Configuring the UWL for BPM Tasks.

Hint: If the connector is not part of this list then it was not automatically added during installation of SAP NetWeaver BPM.

7. How to configure roles

• Log on to the User Management as a system administrator (http://host:port/useradmin).
• Search for the user(s) to be configured.
• Once found, select one entry and choose ‘Modify’.
• In the details, go to the ‘Roles’ tab.
• On the left side, search for the role, select it and add it to the set of assigned roles.
• Save the changes.

Typical roles used in BPEM are:

• Every User Role (accessing UWL)
• BPEM End User Role (BPEM UIs)
• SAP BPM Navigation (SAP NetWeaver Administrator)
• SAP BPM SuperDisplay (SAP NetWeaver Administrator)
• SAP BPM SuperAdmin (SAP NetWeaver Administrator)

See also in the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment Library, Authorizations and Roles.

8.How to find tasks recently created

• Log on to the SAP NetWeaver Administrator as a system administrator (http://host:port/nwa).
• Go to the ‘Process Repository’ (SAP NetWeaver Administrator » Configuration Management » Processes & Tasks » Process Repository).
• Select the component in which the task is located.
• Select the version of the process recently started which should have created the task instance.
• Click on the name of the task definition. Due to contextual navigation this will bring you to ‘Manage Tasks’ filtered by the task definition.

or

• Log on to the SAP NetWeaver Administrator as a system administrator (http://host:port/nwa).
• Navigate to the process started recently.
• Select the process instance and click on ‘Show Tasks’ in the toolbar.

or

• Log on to the SAP NetWeaver Administrator as a system administrator (http://host:port/nwa).
• Go to the ‘Manage Tasks’ (SAP NetWeaver Administrator » Operation Management » Processes & Tasks » Manage Tasks).
• Use one of the predefined filters and check if your task is part of the list.
• Expand the search box for tasks (2nd icon in the toolbar).
• Click on ‘Advanced’.
• Filter for tasks with:
  • ‘created from/to’ = today
  • ‘lifecycle’ = all
  • ‘status’ = all
  • ‘priority’ = all

9. How to increase the trace level

• Log on to the SAP NetWeaver Administrator as a system administrator (http://host:port/nwa).
• Go to the ‘Log Configuration’ (SAP NetWeaver Administrator » Problem Management » Logs & Traces » Log Configuration).
• Switch to ‘Trace Locations’.
• Select the node ‘com.sap.glx’ and/or ‘com.sap.bpem’.
• Set the trace level to ‘Debug’ or ‘Info’.
• Select ‘Apply to sub-nodes’.

10. How to start a process out of Web Dynpro?

Once a process is deployed it exposes itself as a web service (so called ‘web service provisioning’). Thus you could import this web service model into the Web Dynpro project and execute it like any other web service. As a result a new process instance will be started off with each successful web service request.

More information on https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nwce711/helpdata/en/62/a6d7ac03994e0796c6b949c8952547/frameset.htm

No related posts.

This SAP How-to guide provides recommendations for improving the performance of Knowledge Management (KM) in SAP NetWeaver 2004. You will be able to find information on performance-optimized KM configuration, implementation tips, cross points with other Netweaver components, such as TREX, and it also includes a Q&A section.

Get it in PDF, just click on the download link below.

Related posts:

1. TREX Installation on EP7

This how-to tutorial explains the TREX Basis Installation as well as the some post configuration activities, needed for the TREX to work. SAP NetWeaver Search and Classification (TREX) finds information in both structured and unstructured data. TREX provides SAP applications with services for searching and classifying large collections of documents and for searching and aggregating business objects. For those who want to know TREX in more detail, I recommend that you start by the SAP Help page available here.

Please note that this tutorial covers the installation of TREX on a 32 Bit Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition with SP1 and IIS installed and running.

Additional prerequisites that were in place before installing TREX:

• The server where TREX was installed had a 4GB RAM Memory.
• The installed TREX version was 7.0.25 based on Netweaver 7.0 SR2.

Some points to take into consideration before starting:

• In order to create a search and classification engine for SAP ERP, BW and the Enterprise Portal, TREX 7.0 was installed on a separate stand alone server.
• Both the ABAP stack as well as the Java stack were required for the installation process.
• The TREX server is part of the Netweaver 2004s SR2 framework. At the time of this installation, the windows 64-bit X86 version was only available to ramp up customers. So the 32 bit version was considered.
• This installation was performed using the SAP NetWeaver 2004s Standalone Engine Search and Classification (TREX) Single Host.

TREX Installation Steps

1. Login with the xyzADM account where xyz represents the SID (e.g. N20ADM).

2. Install the 32 BIT JDK, using all default installation values. The version used for this installation was Java 2 SDK Standard Edition version 1.4.2_14.

3. Set the JAVA_HOME system variable with the location of the JDK installation (e.g. c:\java_142_14\bin).

4. Copy the TREX installation files and NW2004s master disk into a new windows 32 bit server named: rrispdt01 (in separate directories). You should do this using a USB file copy and locate all files in: D:\TREX_Install_Files. Consider the following files/directories: SAP Netweaver 2004s SR2 (TREX 7.0) DVD and Netweaver Master Install Zip file.

5. Run file R3Dllins.exe. Click OK when you’re prompted if you want to modify system files.

6. Run SAPinst.exe to start the installation process.

7. If you’re performing a first installation, select TREX global file system with the first TREX instance. Follow the steps below to install TREX:

8. Choose a New installation (if it is in fact a new installation):

9. Select the “Typical” installation and click next.

10. Enter the SID (it must be the same SID as done in the Netweaver Developer Workplace/Portal installation) and select the installation drive (Typically E:))

11. Enter your Password - the same password as your xyzADM password:

12. Enter the password for the xyzADM account and enter a password for the SAP System Service user account.  To avoid confusion, I suggest using the same password for both:

13.Check the chosen settings in the summary screen and click Start:

14. If everything goes well we you will receive a success message. All phases should clear with a green icon.

Post Installation Tasks and Procedures

After the above desired successful TREX installation, all you’ll have is a “floating” TREX. I say floating because TREX still won’t be connected to the Portal. So the first step will be to connect TREX to the existing  Portal instance.

Test the TREX Servers

1. Log on with the user xyzADM and open a command line.

2. Browse to the following directory: <disk_drive>:\usr\sap\trex_<instance_number>\python_support.

3. Type trexsettings.bat in the command line and hit enter to execute the batch file.

4. Execute python script: runInstallationTest.py. This script will carry out the following tests:

• Delete test indexes that were generated for a previous script run;
• Create a test index;
• Index documents;
• Test search functions:  exact, error-tolerant (fuzzy), and linguistic searches; and search using boolean operators such as AND and OR.

5. The results will be displayed at the end of the script run. You’ll see the test calls and the respective statuses (OK or Failed).

6. When you run the script for the first time, the call “Delete Index” will display the status Failed. This is caused by the fact that no existing text index to be deleted existed. If this is the only line with the status Failed, the test was successful.

Point the Application Servers to the TREX instances

1. Access the Portal server file system and start the offline Config Tool.

2. Once in the Config Tool, navigate to Global Instance > Services > trex.serviceNameserver.address enter the following tcpip://<FQDN>:30001.

3. The next entry should be nameserver.backupserverlist. Type the following entry: tcpip://<FQDN>:30001.

4. Go back to the TREX server and open the TREX admin tool (you should now be able to access it). Confirm that you can see the Servers as online.

Related posts:

1. Install a Local SAP Netweaver Developer Workplace
2. Get Your Portal License Key

Recently I’ve found a Wiki in SDN which I think has a great potential. First of all, you need to have a clear notion of the Wiki Concept. According to Wikipedia:

A wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor, within the browser. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, to power community websites, for personal note taking, in corporate intranets, and in knowledge management systems.

Most wikis serve a specific purpose, and off topic material is promptly removed by the user community. Such is the case of the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia. In contrast, open purpose wikis accept all sorts of content without rigid rules as to how the content should be organized.

Being that said, there are numerous wikis sitting in SDN. And since ESS is a very hot topic, it is a good idea to highlight this one.

The “ESS Initial Steps” wiki was originally created by Stuart Campbell. The beauty of the wikis is that any interested user can edit the information on it, obviously with the objective of enriching it or completing it further. Note that for SAP SDN wikis you’ll need to have a valid SAP issued user to be able to edit and save the information in the wikis.

The “ESS Initial Steps” wiki intends to provide a hands-on initial contact with the ESS implementation. It starts of listing the core components information, links/urls to the SAP Help pages, the ESS architecture, the ESS Homepage Framework concept, and so on.

If you’re involved in Employee Self-Services and Portal projects, go along and visit this wiki. You can think about contributing and improving it.

Here’s the link:
http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/ERPHCM/Initial+Steps+in+ESS

Note: you should also read SAP Note 1007341 – SAP ERP 2004/2005 – supported ESS/MSS system landscapes.

Related posts:

1. Display Employee Photo in ESS
2. Simple Sample Applications for Enterprise Services
3. Install a Local SAP Netweaver Developer Workplace

The SAP Enterprise Portal offers a mechanism called Session Release Notification. This feature is used by SAP applications running inside the portal to close their sessions in case the user closes the browser window, navigates away from the application or logs-off from the SAP Portal. This SAP standard how-to guide explains what you must do to accomplish this mechanism for your own custom developed applications integrated into the portal.

This how-to coveres the following Netweaver releases:

• SAP Netweaver 7.0
• SAP Netweaver Composition Environment 7.1 and 7.2

SAP describes this how-to guide’s Business Scenario as following:

One reason to use the SAP Enterprise Portal is the easy integration of state full (existing) Web Applications into the Portal.
When integrating state-full applications you always face the problem, that the application is not notified if the user navigates away or even closes the browser window. All Web Applications face this problem, since they are based on the stateless HTTP protocol. Nearly all state full applications keep session data on the server side and release those resources after a predefined timeout. The servlet container for example releases session data by default after 30 minutes inactivity. As a consequence there is a delay between the user action (e.g. the user has closed the browser) and the release of the corresponding session data on the server side.

This delay can cause the following problems:

• “Dead State” remains on the server and blocks resources (memory) until timeout.
• Server scalability and performance get worse due to the load which is caused by this “Death State”
• Application locks may lead to deadlocks, when the same or different users accessing the same shared resources.

If you use SAP technology to build your Web Applications and run them in the portal, they automatically include a feature called Session Release Notification, which informs the external content server if the user

• navigates away
• closes the browser window
• logs-off the portal

The following SAP technologies use this Session Release Notification out of the box without the need to do/implement anything.

• ITS based applications
• BSP (Business Server Pages)
• Web Dynpro (ABAP and Java)

However if you have build your applications using non SAP technologies, your content server will not get notified automatically.

This How-to guide shows how you integrate external applications into the portal which will be notified when the user navigates away closes the browser or logs-off the portal.

Get it in PDF, just click on the download link below.

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1. Tools for SAP Portal
2. Get Your Portal License Key
3. Business Packages for Netweaver Portal