It sometimes seems difficult to find your ways in the SAP neverending web of information. Anyone who works with SAP knows that a big part of their job is to constantly search and digest the best piece of information (ideally) they can find. These mostly originate from various sources and most of the times, in what refers to blogs, at least half of them are low quality.

Being that said, I’ve decided to write this post and reveal which are my top SAP fellow blogs, whom I follow and recommend that you visit.

1. SAP Community Network Blogs

SAP blogs are by far the most complete and extensive source of information. It also has the advantage of being supported by SAP and its contents managed and updated by SAP employees, SAP mentors and other credible SAP professionals. The downside to it is that you’ll need an SAP user in order to view it fully or be able to post comments.

Link: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs

2. SearchSAP

Owned by TechTarget, SearchSAP is a very complete website and blog with more than tutorials or how-to’s on SAP. It contains news, expert advice, technical tips and career guidance, latest applications as well as future ERP system plans with breaking news coverage from independent editors. I recommend this website and its rich content.

Link: http://searchsap.techtarget.com/

3. JonERP.com

Jon Reed’s blog is widely known and is a complete source that I recommend for any SAP professional. Jon actively blogs about several SAP emerging areas, SAP market trends, with a special focus on SAP career – Jon Reed’s blog has a special SAP Career Center page, designed for people wanting to know more about careers on SAP and how to enhance it. Jon also is consistently posting new podcasts and webcasts.

Link: http://www.jonerp.com

4. Pixelbase

Michael Koch is the driver of Pixelbase, which I recommend that you  follow and visit on a regular basis. Michael is an experienced independent consultant and he’s also a well known SAP Mentor. Pixelbase is the commercial face of Michael’s activity, however, you’ll find that there is much to learn from the blog, covering topics such as SAP Web Development (ITS, BSP, WebDynpro for ABAP), custom SAP Development (ABAP and ABAP OO), RIA (Adobe Flex), Interfaces (ALE, IDOCS, XML), SAP CRM development and Data Migration, as well as conference coverage, among others.

Link: http://www.pixelbase.co.uk/

5. Feeding the SAP EcoSystem

Peter Russo is the main blogger and webmaster of Feeding the SAP EcoSystem blog. Unlike others, this blog focuses more on SAP products and Peter includes his personal experiences in each post he writes. Benefiting from the fact that he appears to attend lots of SAP events, he also transmits these experiences to the blog, which are obviously enriching for any of us. It is ideal if you want to understand what’s going on in the SAP world and also where SAP is going in the future.

Link: http://www.feedingthesapecosystem.com

6. Blag’s Bag of Rants

Blag is Alvaro Tejada Galindo’s nickname on twitter (@blag),. Alvaro is a senior ABAP Consultant, SAP Mentor, Programming Geek, Blagbert/Programming books author. Alvaro is Peruvian and lives in Montreal, Canada. If you want technical, Blag’s blog is the place to go.

Link: http://blagrants.blogspot.com/

7. Friday Morning Report

The Friday Morning Report is owned and managed by Craig Cmehil, a well known SAP community evangelist that works for SAP AG as a Director for Social Media Relations. Hence, Craig is very active in his blogging, tweeting and moderating discussions over at the SCN website and blogs.

Link: http://fridaymorningreport.tv/

8. SAP WEB 2.0

This is an interesting blog that I also follow. It focuses in cloud computing solutions and 3 main areas:  Web 2.0 by SAP, Web 2.0 in SAP and Web 2.0 with SAP. It is worth taking a look!

Link: http://www.sapweb20.com/blog/

9. SAP Bloggers Corner

SAP Bloggers corner is intended to promote conversation about what SAP is doing in the market. The main attraction of this blog is the livestream feature, podcasts and broadcasts, published on a regular basis.

Link: http://sapbloggerscorner.com/

10. ERP Genie

I think this was the first SAP blog I visited, ever since I started in the SAP world. It is very rich in content covering SAP podcasts (from Jon Reed), Job  Board, Foruns, FAQs, whitepapers  and tutorials, etc.  You can also browse the blog based on your user/consultant profile, i.e., Functional or Technical. The blog also contains a very complete section on SAP General. It’s a really good starting point for anybody and definitely a blog that you want to come back.

Link: http://www.erpgenie.com/

Hope you liked this blog list; these are just a few of the ones I follow on a regular basis. What are your favourite blogs?

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.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that today I’m releasing version 2.0 of the SAPLAB.org blog. Since the beginning of this project, roughly and more seriously about 2 years ago, I tried as much as possible to update the blog with useful and practical information around several SAP subjects. While doing this, I always tried to add my own personal flavor and experience to it, without, obviously, compromising any client sensible information.

The result and feedback has been good and now I’ve decided to raise this project to a new level. Besides the new look and feel, which is now more web 2.0 friendly, new functionalities will come and also more posts in the following weeks. Please be aware and keep visiting the blog! Please click here to subscribe the newsletter, which will bring updates to your e-mail.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all returning visitors, as well as new visitors landing in SAPLAB. Please take your time to browse through the blog and don’t forget to leave your comments. It’s what gives life to this project!

Sincerely, kind regards.

Antonio Caldas

SAP NetWeaver Product Management has prepared a page of guidance and best practices for people downloading and installing SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment Preview Software.  Please click on this link to access the Composition Environment’s hints and step by step instructions on post-installation.

SAP Netweaver Composition Environment Downloads

Develop, model, and design Java EE and composite applications with the powerful, Eclipse 3.3-based SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio and the composition tools of SAP NetWeaver CE. (SAP NetWeaver CE 7.1 SR5, 1.50 GB, SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio, 0.72 GB).

This optional Eclipse plug-in lets you integrate the online documentation of the Enterprise Services Repository for SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment 7.1 SP3 into SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio. (appr. 1.6 MB).

Develop, model, and design mobile applications with the mobile development tools of SAP NetWeaver Mobile 7.1. Install the tools on top of SAP NetWeaver CE SR3; deploy and run applications on Windows Mobile™ devices.

Bruce Silver’s latest white paper on SAP NetWeaver BPM explains “SAP’s place in the BPM landscape and describes its new offering in that arena”.  This paper highlights the challenge on how to provide end-to-end business processes that go beyond organizational and geographical boundaries.

SAP is perhaps 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 now 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.

Originally code-named “Galaxy,” SAP NetWeaver BPM includes the following main components:

• Process Composer, a BPMN-based modeling and executable design tool, part of the NetWeaver Composition Environment
• Process Server, the JEE-based runtime execution engine. Unlike the orchestration engines of some of SAP’s competitors, SAP’s process server is BPMN-native, so that flow semantics are not lost in translation between modeling and execution. Avoiding the notorious “roundtripping problem” is critical to business-IT alignment.
• Process Desk, the process runtime user environment within the NetWeaver Portal supporting dynamic role-based views.

White paper’s main topics include:

• What is BPM? (linking strategy & execution)
• Standardize, Integrate, Innovate
• Role of the Business Process Expert (BPX)
• Core and Edge Processes
• Understanding the Core Processes
• Extending and Integrating
• Composing Edge Processes
• BPM in the NetWeaver Platform
• A Closer Look at NetWeaver BPM
• Modeling

Click here to download the full white paper

Additional links and resources

• Bruce Silver’s BPMN Article Series

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. It also covers required configuration when the Universal Worklist is on a SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.0, and Guided Procedures actions are in SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment.

1. Configuring UWL on SAP NetWeaver CE for local Guided Procedures Actions

• Begin by adding the Guided Procedures connector to Universal Worklist.
• Navigate to System Administration -> System Configuration.
• Select Universal Worklist -> Administration.

• Select to add a new system
• Enter a System Alias and select the “GuidedProceduresConnector”. In the following example, SAP used GPSystem as our System Alias.
• Select save and you are done.

This is all the setup required for local Guided Procedures actions to appear in the local UWL running on the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment.

2.1. Viewing the created XML

After you add your new system, you can see the XML that was created by selecting ““Click to Administrate Item Types and View Definitions”

You can now see the created xml for file uwl.gp.config

If you have problems executing Guided Procedures actions from UWL after doing the configuration, refer to SAP Note 1131403.

The following is the correct XML.

2.2 XML for GP connector

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><!DOCTYPE UWLConfiguration PUBLIC '-//SAP//UWL1.0//EN''uwl_configuration.dtd'><UWLConfiguration version="2.0"><ItemTypes><ItemType name="uwl.task.gp" connector="GuidedProceduresConnector"defaultView="uwlTaskGPView" defaultAction="launchGP" executionMode="default"><Actions><Action name="launchGP" groupAction="no" handler="IViewLauncher"referenceBundle="launch_sap" returnToDetailViewAllowed="yes"launchInNewWindow="no" launchNewWindowName="GPWindow"launchNewWindowFeatures="resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=no,menubar=no,location=no,directories=no"><Properties><Property name="DynamicParameter" value="app.processId=${item.processID}&amp;app.taskId=${item.activityID}&amp;"/><Property name="page" value="pcd:portal_content/com.sap.pct/platform_add_ons/com.sap.caf.eu.gp.folders.gp/com.sap.caf.eu.gp.roles.runtime/com.sap.caf.eu.gp.worksets.runtime/com.sap.caf.eu.gp.pages.procinstance2"/><Property name="System" value="SAP_LocalSystem"/></Properties></Action></Actions></ItemType></ItemTypes><Views><View name="uwlTaskGPView" selectionMode="SINGLESELECT" width="98%"supportedItemTypes="uwl.task.gp" columnOrder="subject, process,creatorId, createdDate, dueDate, status" sortby="dueDate:ascend,createdDate:descend" tableDesign="STANDARD" visibleRowCount="10"headerVisible="no" queryRange="undefined" tableNavigationFooterVisible="yes" tableNavigationType="CUSTOMNAV" actionRef="" refresh="300"dueDateSevere="86400000" dueDateWarning="259200000" emphasizedItems="new" displayOnlyDefinedAttributes="yes" dynamicCreationAllowed="yes"actionPosition="bottom"><Descriptions default="Guided Procedures"><ShortDescriptions><Description Language="de" Description="Guided Procedures"/><Description Language="en" Description="Guided Procedures"/></ShortDescriptions></Descriptions><DisplayAttributes><DisplayAttribute name="phase" type="string" width="" sortable="yes"format="default" hAlign="LEFT" vAlign="BASELINE" maxTextWidth="0"headerVisible="yes"><Descriptions default="Phase"><ShortDescriptions><Description Language="de" Description="Phase"/><Description Language="en" Description="Phase"/>Your Description - Configuring UWL for Guided Procedures on CompositionEnvironment</ShortDescriptions></Descriptions></DisplayAttribute><DisplayAttribute name="process" type="string" width="" sortable="yes"format="default" hAlign="LEFT" vAlign="BASELINE" maxTextWidth="0"headerVisible="yes"><Descriptions default="Process"><ShortDescriptions><Description Language="de" Description="Process"/><Description Language="en" Description="Process"/></ShortDescriptions></Descriptions></DisplayAttribute></DisplayAttributes><Actions><Action name="launchGP" groupAction="no" handler="IViewLauncher"referenceBundle="launch_sap" returnToDetailViewAllowed="yes"launchInNewWindow="no" launchNewWindowName="GPWindow"launchNewWindowFeatures="resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=no,menubar=no,location=no,directories=no"><Properties><Property name="DynamicParameter" value="app.processId=${item.processID}&amp;app.taskId=${item.activityID}&amp;"/><Property name="page" value="pcd:portal_content/com.sap.pct/platform_add_ons/com.sap.caf.eu.gp.folders.gp/com.sap.caf.eu.gp.roles.runtime/com.sap.caf.eu.gp.worksets.runtime/com.sap.caf.eu.gp.pages.procinstance2"/><Property name="System" value="SAP_LocalSystem"/></Properties></Action></Actions></View></Views></UWLConfiguration>

One item important to note is <Property name=”System” value=”SAP_LocalSystem”/> which indicates that the system is the local SAP system. Also important to note is the location in the Portal Content Directory for the iViews. value = “pcd:portal_content/com.sap.pct/platform_add_ons/com.sap.caf.eu.gp.folders.gp/com.sap.caf.eu.gp.folders.pages/com.sap.caf.eu.gp.pages.procinstance2”. You can see this by navigating to Content Administration -> Portal Content. Then select Portal Content -> Content Provided by SAP -> platform_add_ons -> Guided Procedures -> Pages -> Process Instance. If you look at the path you will see the full path in the pcd. This path should match your xml path.

3 . When the Universal Worklist executes in SAP NetWeaver 7.0

The following steps outline configuration required for GP actions in a CE system need to appear in SAP NetWeaver 7.0 UWL. The steps to complete this task are also covered in online help at: http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/EN/43/ef06a7860c7061e10000000a1553f6/content.htm. Note: The user ID on the CE system must be exactly the same as the user ID on the 7.0 system. In your SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.0 landscape directly, add the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment system as a web service system. Enter the WSDL URL for the CE system. The WSDL you need is:

• http://<hostname>:<port>/GPWorkItemProvider/Default?wsdl
• Setup the user management as UIDPW.
• Create a system alias.

The following graphic shows the CE system setup in a 7.0 system landscape.

The user ID on the 7.0 system must be the same as the user ID on the CE system. It is not required that you do any user mapping, however the user name must be the same on both systems. Add the system entered in the system landscape to the UWL administration, using the Guided Procedures connector. This is done the same way as if it was a local GP connector. The system alias must match the system alias given in the portal system landscape.

After registering the system, you need to upload XML to configure the UWL behaviour. The name=”uwl.task.gp._SystemAlias_for_remote_system” will be GPRemote from our example, or the name system name you used. Of course, the value for the url must be your host and port.

<ItemType name="uwl.task.gp._SystemAlias_for_remote_system_"connector="GuidedProceduresConnector"defaultView="uwlTaskGPView" defaultAction="editItem" executionMode="default"><Actions><Action name="editItem" groupAction="" handler="UrlLauncher"returnToDetailViewAllowed="yes"launchInNewWindow="yes"><Properties><Property name="app.taskId" value="${item.activityID}"/><Property name="url" value="http://_host_:_port_/webdynpro/dispatcher/sap.com/caf~eu~gp~ui~rt/Runtime"/><Property name="app.processId" value="${item.processID}"/></Properties><Descriptions default="Open Task"/></Action></Actions></ItemType>

Update the Visual Administrator settings on the 7.0 system:

• In the Visual Administrator tool, navigate to Cluster -> <system ID> -> Server <instance number> -> Services -> Web Services Security.
• Under Web Services, select Security Configuration -> Web Service Clients -> sap.com caf~eu~gp~model~uwlproxy -> com.sap.caf.eu.gp.model.uwl.proxy.facade*DefaultPort_Document.
• Set the authentication type to BASIC and provide a username and password. These credentials must match the administrator’s username and password on the provider system (on the 7.0 system)
• Make sure that you have assigned the portal role GP Administrator to the user that accesses the Web service.
• Save the changes.

Optionally, you might want to test the WSDL URL (http://<CEhost:port>/GPWorkItemProvider/Default?wsdl) from the 7.0 operating system to ensure the ports are set correctly to reach the WSDL.

Refresh the cache in the UWL and ensure there are Guided Procedures actions in the runtime of the CE system. Navigate to the UWL of the 7.0 system. The work items will appear. If you want to see the system the work items are from, then use the personalization to add the system ID as a column. The following screen shot shows a UWL running on SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.0, with actions from Guided Procedures executing in SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment, Enhancement Package 1.

3.1 Checklist if things do not work after you have completed the configuration

If you complete the configuration steps as outlined, and you still do not see the guided procedures actions in the 7.0 UWL, check the following:

• On the SAP NetWeaver 7.0 system, open a browser and enter the WSDL to ensure the ports are set correctly: http://<CEhost:port>/GPWorkItemProvider/Default?wsdl.
• On the SAP NetWeaver 7.0 system, use the web services navigator to test the WSDL and ensure you receive a result.
• Add the system to the “white list” from the Visual Administrator. Details on how to do this are listed in this link: http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/7c/f257422d095542e10000000a1550b0/frameset.htm.
• Ensure the proxy settings in the Visual Administrator are setup correctly. In our example, our 7.0 was on 10.22.42.158, port 50000. In the following screen shot we used an asterisk (*) in the white list, in our exclude list we included 10*.

Ensure the proxy settings are setup correctly in the 7.0 portal. If you must make changes, be sure to restart the service.

Restart the service

Once you have checked and updated these items, the guided procedures actions from SAP NetWeaver CE will appear in the UWL running on SAP NetWeaver 7.0.

Click on the following link to access the official SAP tutorial on:

• Configuring UWL for Guided Procedures on Composition Environment.

No related posts found

SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment is a platform for building and running applications based on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles. It offers a set of capabilities for integrating new and existing services (from SAP as well as proprietary services), into business-specific solutions. You can develop portable, standard-compliant applications based on the latest Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 5 technologies and integrate them in existing SAP and third-party solutions using a central enterprise service registry. SAP NetWeaver CE increases development productivity by providing model-driven composition tools for creating services and user interfaces and orchestrating them into collaborative user-centric workflows.

Please click on the following link to access the oficial Masterguide:

No related posts found