Introduction

As we enter the fifth part of this blog series we will cover an important consultation based scenario focusing solely on customization of the Launchpad User Interface for the the SAP Fiori Launchpad on Portal.  Perhaps one of the most important aspects of any Portal involvement within an organization is the tailoring of the UI in accordance to business requirements and user preferences. The SAP Fiori Launchpad on Portal is no different and offers a "fresher" means of customization and UI tailoring.

If we reference the Fiori Framework Page (FFP) we already know there are multiple aspects from the standpoint of display elements which can be edited, changed and tweaked.

Theme (UI Theme Designer)

Upon configuring the Fiori Framework Page to your own business requirements and preferences the default theme utilized in its presentation to end users if that of SAP Blue Crystal but this can be customized also if required through the UI Theme Designer.  In relation to FIORI-applicationsBlue Crystal is the recommended theme to be utilized and as we mentioned it is the default theme setting for Fiori

• For UI5 applicationsGold Reflection is really recommended.

In terms of theming the UI Theme Designer is the newly released and newly available platform for both editing and generation. In terms of functional enhancements with the UI Theme Designer they key terms here are:

• CSS
• LESS
• SAP UI5
• SAP NW AS ABAP
• SAP NW Portal
• Usability
• Flexibility

Screen Dimensions (Rendering Size)

Now as we touched on above when you are performing visual customization in association to the SAP Fiori Launchpad on Portal the starting point will be with UI Theme Designer. Within the UI Theme Designer when you make a change to a device type:

• Desktop UI
• Phone UI
• Tablet UI
  

The UI Theme Designer will automatically change the Window Size for "Previews". In terms of how the "Preview" is rendered and displayed is dependent on the underlying User Interface Framework i.e. Fiori launchpad, Fiori & UI5.

Tailoring The Theme - Getting Started

The UI Theme Designer is the complete package in terms of being singular tool for theming and branding across many of SAP UI's. When you customize supported portal themes using the UI Theme Designer, you can preview changes you make to framework pages which is touched on above.

Let us complete a sample customization of the theme setup from an individual end-users perspective through "Personalization".

1. Launch the UI Theme Designer > Content Administration > Portal Display > Portal Themes > UI Theme Designer
2. Locate the them of interest and select > Edit
3. Open the Preview Controls
4. Select one of the supported Frameworks.

In the Quick Edit Menu you are various options to get started with the editing which include:

• Background Color
• Background Gradient Color
• Base Color
• Brand Color
• Highlight Color
• Font Link Color
• Text Color
• Image Background Image 
• Company Logo
• Background Opacity
• Background Repeat

I've proceed to make some quick changes and tweaked the display to my favorite football team colors (who were once a great side) .

Desktop

Mobile

Implementing a Custom Launchpad UI

https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw74/helpdata/en/11/50eb43a3b34866bb184dd95d59d0eb/content.htm

Embedding SAPUI5 Applications into the SAP Fiori Launchpad Application Container

https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw74/helpdata/en/04/3ee7582b7e490ba79fe19174fc6d1d/content.htm?frameset=/en/89/6efc419d994463a7c148b69

Introduction

In terms of "theming" the UI Theme Designer is the newly released and newly available platform for both editing and generation. In terms of functional enhancements with the UI Theme Designer they key terms here are:

• CSS, LESS, SAP UI5, SAP NW AS ABAP, SAP NW Portal, Usability, Flexibility

Over the last few years the UI Theme Designer is becoming more widely adopted as a result of SP Updates and System Landscape Upgrades right across the Netweaver& Portal areas. Unfortunately on some occasions as a result of system changes we come across unexpected issues and certain behaviors which can have a impact on our everyday work activities and business requirements.

In my experiences I've worked on a few separate scenarios in which the UI Theme Designer posed certain issues upon attempting to utilize it for the first time.

UI Theme Designer - Blank Display

Let us take a sample scenario and use a working example of a recently performed Portal Upgrade. Upon completing the upgrade all operations and components deploying correctly but the subsequent attempt to activate the UI Theme Designer resulted in end-users encountering a blank /irj/portal page.

Obviously such behavior is a reason for concern therefore let us kick start our investigation from a high level analysis perspective and determine whether or not the issues root source can be traced to a definitive culprit.

Begin Troubleshooting & Analysis: 3 Principles To Follow - If you encounter an issue

1. Determine firstly if the issue happens in all web browser platforms (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla)?
2. Did you clear the Cache after the upgrade and is every user encountering the issue?
   
3. Determine if the issue occurs in both SAP Standard Themes& CustomThemes?
4. Determine if the issue can be reproduced in all Portal Framework & Theme Combinations?

If you've followed the three principles above you already have a better understanding of your issue and can delve quickly into further analysis to get a solution.

Next Phase -  Check Configuration Setup, Theme Designer Activation & Retest the Scenario:

1. Login to Netweaver Administrator (NWA) from the Desktop.
2. http://<host>:<port>/nwa.
3. Within the NWA, navigation to Operations> Systems> Start & Stop> Java Applications.
4. Filter the Application List by through the 'Name' field by typing 'laf'.
5. Press Enter. Scroll to the 'Portal Service Details' section before selecting the 'Portal Services' tab followed by 'Portal Service Configuration'.
   • "com.sap.portal.themes.lafservice" is selected automatically
6. Change the value of the "Determine what will be the theme runtime provider" property to LESS followed by the "Save" button. Restart the portal service "com.sap.portal.themes.lafservice".
   • Upon activating the UI Theme Designer, the Theme Editor will be deactivated,
7. Launch the UI Theme Designer> Content Administration> Portal Display> Portal Themes> UI Theme Designer

Is the blank page still encountered? The most likely cause if so is a UI Theme Designer discrepancy post upgrade.

How to resolve the issue

In simple terms the resolution would be to perform a FullPortalRestart (during a period of low usage statistics).

1. Login to Netweaver Administrator (NWA)) from Desktop.
2. http://<host>:<port>/nwa.
3. Navigate to "Operations Management" > "Systems" > "Start & Stop". Select the "Java EE Application" bar before selecting the relevant application in the list (Portal).
   • The "Start & Stop": Java EE Instances Window appears.
4. Choose"Start Service or Stop Service". If this fails to resolve the issue the recommendation is to redeploy the EP-BASIS component SCA. If this fails to resolve the issue the recommendation is to redeploy the EP-BASIS component SCA.
   • Please restart the whole portal in case the UI Theme Designer cannot be activated accordingly.
5. If this fails to resolve the issue the recommendation is to redeploy the EP-BASIS component SCA.

Introduction

In this blog posting we going to cover a topic which can affect an entire landscape and Netweaver environment which is that of "Performance Degradation" and follow on issues.

KM Folders & Documents

KM Folders are utilized as the base platform in which KM Documents are stored.Knowledge Management in itself can be considered as a means of functionality for end-users wanting to access such "Documents" which can relate to a whole range of processes. For example through KMEnd-Users can access, obtain, manage and review data information through documents sourced from the business  intranets, external WWW feeds, and file servers. The KM Documents themselves are presented in the standard formats of PPT, excel, word documents and html.

KM Folders & Functional Options

A User with KM designated KM Folder access can perform the following options:

• Copy: Generates a copy of the currently selected item to a target folder (maintaining the original).
• Move: Transports currently selected item to target folder source.
• Rename: Allows you to rename currently selected item
• Create Link: Generates between folder items
• Clipboard: Copy & Paste functionality for item movement handling.
• Delete: Delete currently selected item permanently or remove to the wastebasket service.

As we see above there are a broad range of functions that can be utilized by end-users.

Manual Copies & Issues

Let us create a working example in which an end-user with access to KM Folders& Content has manually (inadvertently) copied or moved entire KM Folder Contents i.e. documents to their Favorites. Obviously dependent on business requirements and operations the file content sizing (GB) will vary drastically but lets imagine in this case that the file sizes where hundreds of Gigabytes. If a users logs onto the Portal and Navigates to Content Management (System Administration> System Configuration> Knowledge Management> Content Management) and then proceeds to the KM iView and copies an entire folder (with high GB) the following occurs:

• Upon performing this action the end-user is essentially initiating action on the Database (DB). Documents will be copied into the Favorites setting folder but this change will also be replicated within the Database itself.
• Depending on the filing size such an action can cause strain on the system itself thus causing the performance of the setup to become negatively impaired and can even lead to a system downtime i.e. outage or error exceptions.

Cause for Concern

The after affect of the user copying such a large volume of data is that the DB has a two-fold increase in size as it includes an increase in the KM Version for each document.

Issue Avoidance & Preventive Measures

There is no clean-cut solution in this particular case but advisory guidance steps which can be followed to prevent such an issues recurrence. In true essence there is no means of restricting the limit of KM Document Versions in the DB. Based upon the initial issue of the "content" copy  it is not possible to transport KM Documents with current versions and this is standard functionality. Therefore as we discussed the DB two-fold increase cannot be undone.  Unfortunately no clean cut method to prevent a user manually copying contents of a large folder to their favorites.

If desired there is the option of configuring set filters on repositories to prevent uploads of files exceeding a certain size.

• However this would not affect attempts to copy-content it would ensure "such attempts" would fail but the user could still attempt the functionality. 

• Content Filters:https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/55/921d7bb0c611d5993800508b6b8b11/content.htm
• Repository Filters: https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/69/d96b80a84611d5993600508b6b8b11/content.htm

Introduction

As we all know overtime NetweaverUpgrades, Portal Landscape System changes along with Content Transports and Migration become a normal part of operational business requirements.

Knowledge Management is a core component of such a system change due to the information data it contains for an organizations end users bases. KM Folders are utilized as the base platform in which KM Documents are stored.  Knowledge Management in itself can be considered as a means of functionality for end-users wanting to access such "Documents" which can relate to a whole range of processes.

For example through KMEnd-Users can access, obtain, manage and review data information through documents sourced from the business  intranets, external WWW feeds, and file servers. The KM Documents themselves are presented in the standard formats of PPT, excel, word documents and html.

The process of KM Content Migration from one System Landscape to anotheris something which requires a diligent overview and adequate planning.

Let us say for example Multiple KM documents need to be moved from one system to another this is something which requires a comprehensive overview to ensure no issues occur during such a process change.

Overview - The Starting Point

Now here we are dealing with a KM Content Migration scenario and you seek further consultation regarding this process, what to consider and which method to utilize. Now regarding this the first point of reference here comes in the form of the comprehensive guidance documentation outlined below which can be followed to support the scenario.

• Transporting KM Content : http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/EN/46/7649426fd759dbe10000000a1553f6/content.htm

• KM Migration : http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-46975

• You can find all full help guides in the core KM WIKI https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/KMC/SAP+NetWeaver+KM+and+Collaboration

Methods Available

"A common requirement within KM is totransport contentfrom one portal system to another. Depending on the amount of content to be transported this can sometimes become quite a big operation. It’s important that you are aware of all the possible methods of transporting KM Content so that you can chose the method with best suits your needs. Within KM there are three main methods for transporting content,  KM Transport which is available since NW 7.0 SP13, Content Exchange (ICE) and WebDAV. There are pros and cons to each method which need to be taken into account before starting."

As you will see in the snippet extract outlined above the following three means are the standards for performing such an action:

• KM Transport
• Content Exchange (ICE)
• WebDAV

The choice of approach depends on a consumer business requirements which each offering their own avenue of suitability.

When using the KM Transport, if you import a mixture of versioned and non-versioned content, you may encounter an issue whereby versioning will be enabled on all folders after the import has completed. This patch fix in SAP Note:  2289868 - Versioning automatically activated after Importing KM Content correct this.

The system only transports the values of predefined properties. If you want to use the predefined properties of the source system in the target system, you have to transport the property definitions from the configuration before transporting KM content.

• Transporting Configuration Data: https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/49/99e18d21c82223e10000000a42189d/frameset.htm

Considerations

Here as we see with the different approaches each offers their own advantages for particular customer scenarios and business requirements. Essentially the method of Transports & Migration choice is based on business preference i.e. the methodology chosen is based on preference. Each method has it's own "drawbacks" which might make it unsuitable for a particular environment.

Important Highlights

• Regarding "ICE" specifically I can tell you there is a limit of 2GB for the online packages. For offline transports, the only limit is the MaxRequestContentLength property of the HTTP Provider Service. If you set the limit to a custom value e.g. 50GB, The only other issue you may encounter is the possibility of encountering browser timeouts or slow system performance (freeze) due to the load on the system. Even if a timeout is generated, it is likely that the content will still be transferred as long as the property MaxRequestContentLength is not exceeded.

• It is NOT possible to transport KM Documents with current versions and this is standard functionality. Such a query has been posted before and it is something Developers are considering for future implementation. For additional insight it is not possible to move versions between repositories as each CM Repository has it's own system namespace that includes the Version Histories. The Version History does not belong to only one version controlled resource (VCR) but to several, it cannot be moved (or transported) to another repository. Additional cross-referencing can be found via SAP Note: 1601054 - Cannot move document between CM repositories.

• If we look at the documentation posting outlined "Scope of Transmitted Data" we see the following " Versions: Only the current version is included in an ICE package in the source system and transmitted to the target system. If versioning is active in the target system, the document from the ICE package is placed into the target repository as the current version. The last available version in the target system is retained as an old version. The version numbers for syndicator and subscriber are only the same if every version is transmitted."

MetaData Between Systems

You can transfer CERTAIN types of Metadata between Systems and this is overviewed and highlighted in the documentation guides outlined above.

The exact types of METADATA which can be transported include:

• Collections,
• Resources,
• Links,
• Custom properties,
• Access Control Lists (ACLs)
• Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs).
• Other types of Metadata (not described in the documentation) cannot be transported with ICE.

Introduction

You are operating within a NW Enterprise Portal environment and are seeking consultation surrounding the "New Session" button option which had be used previously as a means of Launching "new" SAP GUI Windows triggered from the Portal itself. As with different System Versions and Landscapes there can be a host of changes in both functionality and visual display which can lead to a path of confusion. The purpose of this blog postings is to essentially shed some light on this "New Session" option in association to the Enterprise Portal& SAP GUI.

You've read various documentation and come across conflicting information

As with many queries in association to issues which are highlighted in Enterprise Portal environments on many occasions the answer along with the resolution is Product Specific. Let us say for instance you are operating on a NW7.30+ (Upwards) version and wish to go ahead and enable the button's functionality in accordance to business requirements and preference. The likelihood may be that you have come across various SCN Postings and SAP Documentation listing certain constraints, functional impairments and consequences which may come as a result of doing so i.e. activating the button.

Some Users see the Button & Others do not

The fact that some users see the 'Create New Session' button enabled is in fact a Product error and is described in the Note 1301239 'Portal: "Creates New Session" icon/button is active'.

• This occurred with SAPGUI 7.10 < patch 12 and prior to the kernel patch 700 63, from where it is corrected.

This behaviorwill not be changed in subsequent patches. For more info:

• https://wiki.wdf.sap.corp/wiki/display/PSupportNWEP/AI+-+Wingui+Behaviour+In+Portal

View The Configuration

• NWA - Operations -> open Start & Stop -> tab Java applications.
• Open "com.sap.portal.appintegrator.sap" application name and in Portal Service details section, click on "Portal Service Configuration"
• Check the property " Disable new session buttons in SAP GUI for windows"?

Can I Activate the Button? Central Documentation

• SAP Note: 1258154 - EP 7.0: Different behavior for SAP WinGUI in the portal.

The note documentation outlined above should serve as the central point of reference for any queries related to the GUI's operation in conjunction with the Portal.  As we see in the documentation there are some "constraints" indeed however the key point to highlight is that as indicated in the note "not supported" steps are in association to lower Product Versions but you need you check you're own System Versioning coinciding with this note. The configuration described in Note 1258154 is available from 7.02 SP10.

• The workaround for lower versions is not supported by SAP, as described in the note.
• The solution mentioned in the note 1258154 is just a workaround.

This portal-specific behavior (including the disabled new session button) is by design. Therefore the reported behavior in not an 'issue': it is the correct by-design behavior. This ties back into  what we mentioned earlier surrounding SAP Note: 1258154 and the highlighted marked as "NOT recommended and NOT supported" nevertheless available for your convenience.

• SAP Note: 1301239  has been superseded by SAP Note: 631198 - Behavior of SAP GUI for Windows in SAP Workplace/Portal  & SAP Note: 866219 - New DIAG support bits & SAP Note: 1258154 - EP 7.0: Different behavior for SAP WinGUI in the portal.

Just to reaffirm the fact that "Create New Session" and "Generate Shortcut on Desktop" are not available under EP, and this is a documented restriction which is based on the EP-Framework:

In case that these menus' are active, the user would be able to create a new session *outside* the EP.

This is definitely not wanted and is therefore restricted. We have to prevent situations, there the user can open a new session beyond the EP. Remember if you see the button activated it would be recommended to review and consult SAP Note: 631198.

In GUI 7.10 and earlier releases there was a noted bug in which the icon was active which has now been resolved in all upwards versions.

• The button should now be deactivated if you start the GUI from EP.

Introduction

Knowledge Management is a core component of such a system change due to the information data it contains for an organizations end users bases. KM Folders are utilized as the base platform in which KM Documents are stored. 

For example through KMEnd-Users can access, obtain, manage and review data information through documents sourced from the business  intranets, externalWWW feeds, and file servers. The KM Documents themselves are presented in the standard formats of PPT, excel, word documents and html.

KM Upload iView & End Users

Knowledge Management in itself can be considered as a means of functionality for end-users wanting to access such "Documents" which can relate to a whole range of processes. The KM Upload iView serves as the central upload conduit between a local data source and the Enterprise Portal. Essentially the KM Upload iView can be utilized by end-users to upload documents of all nature to designated target folders.

Managing User Uploads

With adequate permissions and authorizations end users and "authors" can upload documents to target folder and document repositories within the KM setup in association to the Enterprise Portal. In terms of controlling uploads there are certain limitations once users have given access although there are alternatives through which "administrative" filters can be setup.

KM Content Filters

For the case of a working example let us imagine we are working in a Portal environment and you would like to set KM Content Filters by file type (doc, xls, JPG, GIF etc). Business requirements and operational preference have highlighted that they would like to be able to create & maintain a filter to prevent users uploading files of a certain Type or Size.

From a high level perspective the documentation outlined below serves as the primary point of reference regarding Extensions& Size Filtering.

• File Extension and Size Filter: https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/07/6e8cc558e94ace87092ce34bfa5da7/frameset.htm

There is some tweaking and tailoring which can be performed alongside "File Upload" content filters. However a particular scenario and aiming to restrict certain file types e.g. JPG, GIF over/under a certain size this is not possible unfortunately. The "File Upload" filters parameters "List of disallowed file extensions (CSV format)" & "Maximum file size" function with respect to each other.

There is no means of configuration i.e. property setting within the KMC which can control or limit the size of the uploads allowed within KM.

• The only parameter which may control this (partially) is the MaxRequestContentLength property in the config tool.

In terms of "filtering the size" to a Maximum setting based on display (Namespace Filters) you can indeed try and configure it but I would proceed with diligence as complex filters are known to negatively impair performance:

• https://help.sap.com/javadocs/NW04/current/km/com/sapportals/wcm/repository/filter/package-summary.html

Any listing defined within the "List of disallowed file extensions (CSV format)" will be deemed "banned" irrespective of what is defined in the file size parameter.

There is the additional option of  "Namespace Filters" which add an extra dimension to filtering through "Mime Types" however these control only the visual display of the uploads not the upload itself.

Introduction

Modern business requirements and operational enhancements within organizations holster the need to perform regular upgrades and system changes in order to conform to optimal functional environments. Netweaver (NW) upgrades, SP deployments within the Portal Landscape and content Transports/Migration are all too familiar within everyday work processes.

WPC

The Web Page Composer or WPC for short provides Portal end-users with a means of combining dynamic Web based content with "in-house" business applications and functions. Essentially the WPC setup within an Enterprise Portal environment can be regarded as a platform through which users can work with both official (SAP) & third party content, elements, information and data.

Core Elements in association to WPC

• Web Content
• Articles
• Banners
• Sites
  
• Link listing

WPC Versions

• WPC 1.0
• WPC 2.0

Can I Copy Content from WPC 1.0 for utilization in WPC 2.0?

For a means of a working example let us imagine that we are moving and transporting a site from WPC 1.0 to WPC 2.0. The need for content handling within WPC 2.0 could have arise as a direct result of a recent upgrade or perhaps anFPN (Federated Portal Network) setup is in place with different Portal versions. By FPN here I am making reference to an example of different Portal versions being used within the same environment type.

• A key point to highlight and consider here is the changes between versioning.
• There are multiple changes in the configuration, framework and functionality of the Web Page Composer application between WPC 1.0 and WPC 2.0.

Can I Copy Content from WPC 1.0 for utilization in WPC 2.0 (ii) ?

So upon attempting to take content from WPC 1.0(EP 7.30-) and holster it within WPC 2.0(EP 7.30+) you notice a peculiar behavior e.g. Rendering issues, HTML embedding and syntax and Scripting errors.

Why am I encountering this behavior?

The migration/transport of WPC content from an EP 7.0 portal to another separate portal on EP 7.30 is NOT officially supported.

• Officially it is recommended to upgrade the existing 7.0 system to 7.3 to migrate the WPC content.

However as highlighted there may be situations where 7.3 is installed on a separate system and it is not desired to upgrade the existing 7.0 system. In such a case,the content has to be migrated in a different way.

• Remember with WPC 1.0 and WPC 2.0 there is a jump in versioning & functional display

Initial Troubleshooting

Therefore if you notice any change in behavior regarding WPC which came into affect on your system setup after an upgrade/change/migration etc I would strongly recommend reviewing the core troubleshooting blog posting below as this will provide you with guidance and additional insight:

Troubleshooting Migration Issues in Web Page Composer :

• https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/KMC/Troubleshooting+Migration+Issues+in+Web+Page+Composer

I still need to copy the content

There are four methods to achieve the "copy" smoothly (by this I mean display should be fitted to business requirements and appear correctly).

• Migrating WPC Content from 7.0 to 7.3+ http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-28350

Introduction

As with many Portal Landscape environments customization is a core process in many organizations and business operations. Ordinarily customization is based upon tailoring the Portal Landscape and applications it holsters to better suit an organizations requirements and meet end user preference. As with all Portal elements we already know that there are multiple changes which can be implemented across the landscape to tweak functionality, visual display and rendering perspectives. However we also know that there are certain limitations which also exists and adherence to "recommended best practices" when such limitations are encountered is always highly encouraged.

FPN - What it is?

• FPN - Producer Portal
• FPN - Consumer Portal(s)
  

In layman's terms FPN is simply a Federated Portal Network. If you organization is operating via an FPNSetup and network this enables end-users to manage data, information and content between standard SAP Systems and Third Party sources which may be internal or external to operations. The purposes behind an FPNSetup is to maintain the single source conduit channel a Portal Landscape provides i.e. it provides end-users with a straight forward means of accessing data, applications and information.

FPN - BW Favorites Producer & Consumer

You have an FPNSetup with a Producer and ConsumerPortal and wish to view all saved "Favorites" on the ConsumerPortal.

Now regarding incorporating such a proposed setup I would like to reference a note in this instance surrounding such a topic of interest. "In a SAP EP environment the BW Java Bookmarks are stored as content links in a Knowledge Management (KM) repository (e.g. /userhome). In a Federated Portal Network (FPN) scenario the links are ALWAYS stored in the Producer system".

- SAP Note: 1398821 - FPN support for KM BW bookmarks

- SAP Note: 1506213 - Known Issues with BW Bookmarks in Portal environment

From a high level perspective the PortalFavorites will return and show the content of the KM Repository within that particular Portal. In an FPNSetup it will not return BI/BWPortal Favorites as these Bookmarks are saved within the BI/BWPortal itself and not the FPN. In order to obtain and display "BI/BWPortalFavorites" in the FPN you would in theory need to align and point the PortalFavorite iView in the default framework page of the FPN to the KM Content of BI. Let us remember that theBI Setup is within the FPN environment itself.

Can you achieve BW favorites appear in a different tab (same one as Portal Favorites)?

In terms on an FPNSetup itself once a KMBW Bookmark is created the means of getting it to display and show within the ConsumerPortal is through a remote KMiView.

A good reference point here is that of SAP Note: 1149597 - Federated Portal Network and BI (Broadcasting/Bookmarking).

There is also a blog posting which can be utilized as a core source of reference:

• FPN - Consumer & Producer favorites on the same window: http://scn.sap.com/community/enterprise-portal/administration-and-development/blog/2012/04/01/fpn--consumer-producer-favorites-on-the-same-window

As it is stated at SAP Note 1398821, the portal navigation on latest releases in regards with portal favorites on FPN scenario are always executed on Consumer Side, in such a way even with the producer role being accessed via Remote Role Assignment on the Consumer, the Portal will look for the BEx Web iView inside the consumer local content.

• Remote role assignment does not work anymore with regards to favorites launching inside the ConsumerPortall.

Managing the Position of favorites

In terms of positioning you can use the guidance links outlined below which provides an overview:

• Managing Favorites: https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw74/helpdata/en/f6/3fe5abf5d14e4e891a3fb183153c5c/content.htm
• Portal Favorites : http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nwep73/helpdata/en/3a/d609e5803111d5992f00508b6b8b11/content.htm

Introduction

Bookmarks and Portal Favorites are similarly labelled but easily distinguished and for that reason I would like to address how they are handled, managed and subsequently removed (if required).  KM Folders are utilized as the base platform in which KM Documents are stored.  For example through KMEnd-Users can access, obtain, manage and review data information through documents sourced from the business  intranets, external WWW feeds, and file servers. The KM Documents themselves are presented in the standard formats of PPT, excel, word documents and html.

KM Content & Portal Favorites

If you are familiar with the Enterprise Portal environment you will have more than likely come across the Portal Favorites iView which is displayed and holstered within the Navigational Panel. Each end-user with adequate Portal access and authorization can add and save their own Favorites which collectively builds the display within the Navigation Panel. This obviously means each different end-user account will have a diverse set of Favorites that they are greeted with upon logging into the Portal.

High Level Management - Favorites

As we discussed end-users hold the power and authority of what Favorites are displayed in their Navigation Panel. With proper authorizations you can edit Favorites, the content they display and how they appear i.e. related links and sub-folder setups.

Further information on how to organize entries from a graphical standpoint and appearance perspective can be found in the following guidance documentation:

• https://help.sap.com/saphelp_dimp50/helpdata/en/3a/d609e5803111d5992f00508b6b8b11/content.htm

Sample Scenario: Bookmarks are no longer needed?

Let us envisage a scenario in which an end-user is trying to delete/remove/hidebookmarks which are no longer needed from the Portal Display. In your research and trial deletion attempts you have found it straightforward to delete and manage any bookmarks from the perspective of the backend system but cannot manage to remove it from Portal Level and the Navigation Menu.

Sample Scenario (ii): Firstly do you really need them removed?

Remember the whole purpose behind a bookmark or PortalFavorites is for end-user convenience and ease of access. The Portal FavoritesiView itself holds the sole purpose of giving users an easier and quicker means of accessing data, information and resources that they utilize frequently.

Sample Scenario (iii): I need to delete the Bookmarks/Favorites.

Is there any standard functionality that you can assign to the user to delete their own Bookmarks? The quick answer to this question is NO. Surrounding a prospective standard functionalityunfortunately there is a limitation which exists here.

• From a technical standpoint the reportRSWR_BOOKMARK_DELETE can be used for the mass deletion of the Bookmarks.

The user has the option to select the bookmarks to be deleted under four conditions:

• Delete all the Bookmarks of a particular type(either for the selected templates or all templates),
• Delete all the Bookmarks which have not been used since the key date(either for the selected templates or all templates),
• Delete the Bookmarks by entering the Bookmark IDs directly,
• Delete all the Bookmarks created by an user(s), with an option to also filter it further based on the last used date or template name.

These are the four core conditions which need to be considered and highlighted. Now going back to what we discussed previously and the limitation which exists from the front-ends perspective a keystone function for mass deletion is NOT in existence.

The users can delete their entries in the Favorites or KM Folders, which will remove the link in the Portal.

An ABAP administrator can reorganize bookmarks using the reportRSWR_BOOKMARK_DELETE, according to note 1419451.

Bookmarks are stored in several header tables and two cluster tables ,RSZWOBJ and RSIXWWW with the key "BM".

As we discussed previously there is NOT a program that will delete the bookmarks automatically.

However you can also directly delete the bookmark from table RSZWBOOKMARK if you enter the USERID under TSTPNM or using the timestamp.

If the Favorites are User Defined in theory you should be able to remove them. Next to the header "PortalFavorites" there is a square button(for context menu). Click on that button.. it will drop down three options - 'open in new window', 'refresh' and 'organize entries'. You must click the icon.

• In there you will see the list of reports/link.

Click on the context menu next to the report that needs to be deleted and choose 'delete'. Remember for the deletion of the Favorites, you will require a BW Portfolio Management role.

Considerations & Important Points

The following documentation provides an overview on the BW Side surrounding the Delete Option.

• SAP Note: 1419451 - RSWR_BOOKMARK_DELETE: Report to Delete the Bookmarks. The ABAP Administrator can reorganize bookmarks using report RSWR_BOOKMARK_DELETE, according to Note 1419451.

To elaborate further on the points above, on the User who can't delete the Bookmark from favorite. Just to remove the entry. There is a link on Portal Favorites which is called "Organize Entries". This link has a "Delete" option. To offer more clarity, when user creates a Portal Favorite in KM content then this Portal Favorite is just saved as a Bookmark of type 'B' along with the details like Owner, Time Stamp, Main Object Type, Main Object ID& XML Data.

There are other ways that users can createBookmarks of type 'B' within the application and there is no way that we can differentiate between the Bookmarks Created as Portal Favorites and Application Bookmarks created through context menu or other means.

• No Portal favorite titlewill be stored as part of the Bookmark Data in the Backend Table.

Also this Portal Favorite has References created in the table RSWR_DATA_XREF where no Portal Favorite title can be stored. Now when user clicks on a Portal Favorite then the request is triggered through the Portal Component and it only passes the underlying Bookmark ID along with the Portal Navigation Context to the Java Web.

From Java web this request is passed onto the Backend with just the Bookmark ID to be accessed. No references to the Portal Favoritetitle exists in the Backend so while deleting any Portal Favorite we can only delete the underlying bookmark ID but not the title from the Portal Favorite navigation window in Portal. So, this is the reason that when we perform mass deletion of bookmarks we delete them from the table RSWR_DATA and its references from the table RSWR_DATA_XREF.

Two Main Reasons:

1. The Backend does not differentiate between the reference of the bookmarks which were stored as Portal Favorites from the rest of the bookmarks of same type 'B'.
2. A particular user deleting bookmarks of type 'B' can be found but bookmarks of type 'B' with a condition that they are Portal Favorites cannot be found.

I hope you have understood the underlying complexity and limitation in providing a report, which can list all the Portal Favorite Bookmarks deleted by a particular user in the KM Content on Portal.

Removing the Bookmark Menu

If you wish to Remove or Re-addthe Portal Favorites iView this is indeed feasible through:

• Content Administration ->  Portal Content -> Content Provided by SAP -> End User -> Portal Users. You can see the default framework page here.
• Open the framework. Select the desktop inner page check box and click OPEN.
• Now you can see the Portal Favorites iView. Remove or re-add it to the page.

The Portal Favorites iView is part of the desktop inner page of your framework page.

Reference Documentation

• SAP Note: 1502952 - SAP BW Bookmarks Central Note: Common Issues & Relevant Fixes.
• SAP Note: 1419451 - RSWR_BOOKMARK_DELETE

Introduction

As we know the Enterprise Portal (EP) from a high level perspective can become quite a complex session environment for users over a time-period due to increased utilization of resources such as applications, data management provisions and documents. With each user session enacted on the Portal comes a set of different connection requests which are handled by the Portal'ssession management mechanisms.

How Sessions Are Handled

When session expires or logoff is invoked or browser is closed, no matter what, the connection is not terminated but returned to the pool and kept open as defined in the Connection Lifetime property. In short, the connection stays open for the predefined amount of time by design and this is not an unexpected behavior. It remains in the pool, it is no longer used by another service e.g. the UWL and it is available for other clients. When executing the ITS services that access a component system (R/3) in the portal, there is the question how to close the sessions in the component system when the user closes the browser (the HTTP protocol is considered to be stateless). When the user closes the browser window or navigates to another position, the browser sends a mass request to a dedicated portal component to end one or more open sessions (by default DSM.Terminator). This component distributes the corresponding termination commands to the component systems. The Termination command then closes the server session.

Session Inactivity & Automatic Timeouts

Lets imagine you are searching for a means of an "idle" session timing itself out for example:

• User A Logs in
• User A performs some navigation through ESS/MSS Applications and lands on one single iView
• No further action is performed for a period of e.g.3 minutes
  

Business preference would like such a session to be ended automatically after these "3 idle minutes". From a high level viewpoint the desire behind wanting this session to end automatically comes down to the most obvious reasons i.e. security and session authorization. Company best practice does not wish to have one user leaving a session open for another user to simply "walk into" and carry on as this would be a breach of practice and standards.

• Prevention is the best form of protection

Can We Configure Automatic Timeouts?

There is a suitable means of achieving such behavior but this arrives with some small limitations. Let us firstly remember how the "Timeout" happens generally for the Enterprise Portal.  Such a "Timeout" occurs in two ways:

1. Session Timeout
2. Ticket Timeout
   

The default value of Ticket Timeout is 8 hrs and it over-rides the value for session timeout, meaning, that even if the session has timed out e.g. after 30 minutes, the logon ticket is still valid and so there will be no need for a user to re-login.

On the other hand, if the ticket has timed out and even if the user session is still valid, then it will force a timeout.

Therefore the "Ticket Timeout" is the mechanism supporting the concept of an automatic means of session closure. It is often the case that Netweaver (AS Java) has a timeout option of 30 minutes but it can be changed to 10 minutes (for a timeout due to an inactive user having no interaction with the Portal)in some cases.

So what about "Idle" Timeouts?

In theory the concept of an idle Timeout is not supported.The Portal itself is used as a gateway to other applications (SSO). As a user set to be active in an application loaded in an isolated iframe (which the portal framework is not aware of), then having a logoff based on Portal idle time would result in an unsatisfactory behavior in the back-end application e.g. a sudden loss of SSO sessions despite the user being active in this application.

• This restriction still applies - there is no standard feature to offer a logoff based on idle time.

"Idle" Timeouts & Custom Approaches

In my experience I have come across several scenarios in which custom implementations provided the desired result for customers achieving this idle timeouts in the Portal Setup. For example a good working example would be for an inactive session to "timeout" and then subsequently "redirect" the closing session to the Portal Login Page. This would ensure all security standards are conformed to and maintain ease of access with the Portal.

"Idle" Timeouts & Custom Approaches (ii)

This idle timeout is achieved via custom Javascript covered in the following SCN Article outlined for cross-reference purposes.

• http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/EP/EP+Snippet+-+Portal+user+idle+timeout+for+logoff+-+custom+javascript

Remember the approach above is custom and does NOT come with formal support documentation or guidance procedures.  If this approach interests you I would recommend looking into some of the limitations existing in association to the (custom) portal idle session timeout. A complete overview (yahoo interface) can be found using the link outlined below.

• http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/309379b6-bb9b-2d10-feb1-91f2a7078574?overridelayout=true

With timeouts regarding idle user sessions a timeout can be managed through the following patch Global properties> Tools> Session Timeout or by the use of a custom masthead. The links provided are the best example overviews currently available as there is limitations as to what you one may customize. Once a user performs a logoff their session goes into a suspend state or is cached in case they decide to log in again shortly.

• This is why the session information is displayed in SM04 on hour afterwards.

Remember that logoff from the portal is based on the ticket session, configured using the login.ticket_lifetime. It is not related to the http session itself or the security session or the J2EE connectors.

The ticket always has a fixed lifetime and does not expire due to user idleness and a user session will not time out due to inactivity.

If you want to adjust the expiration time of the SAPlogon ticket, this can be achieved through the property of "Lifetime of SAP Logon Ticket (hh:mm)" in "Security settings" at - System Administration> System Configuration> UM Configuration.

• Note: The sessionwill eventually expire after this time setting, even if the user is not idle. The user needs to renew the ticket after expiry. This is the way Web Based Applications managessessions.

• There are no plans to change this as it would involve redesigning the Web Application Server.

It is currently formal means of supporting the SSO functionality. You can take a look at Note 620207 for more information.

In Summary

Basically, there is no FORMAL way to implement a timeout in the Portal based on idleness. In relation to the WIKI's stated previously they will provide you with an insight into setting a "given time" timeout. If you want the Security Session also to expire automatically at some shorter time than the default (about 27 hours), then you should also need the SessionExpirationPeriod (Visual Administrator -> server ->Services Security Provider -> Properties tab)

• http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw2004s/helpdata/en/d7/e08b17065b554ca57183a4c3a99340/frameset.htm

When the user temporarily stops using the Portal, the SSO ticket expires but he/she SHOULD be able to use EP within the allocated TICKET timeframe, because the J2EE Server finds its coinciding Security Session via http session id (JSESSIONID).

You can change the session timeout for the Portal by opening the file through the following navigation path:

• /usr/sap/<SID>/<inst>/j2ee/cluster/server0/apps/sap.com/irj/servlet_jsp/irj/root/WEB-INF/web.xml

The change is performed via the line:

• <session-timeout>45 </session-timeout> if there is no session-timeout tag presented, please add the following lines just before</web-app> tag: <session-config> <session-timeout>45 </session-timeout> </session-config>

Additional guidance can be found here:

• https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/thread?threadID=9561

If you face any session management issues such as "session retention" or backend sessions remaining open for end users I would recommend consulting the blog series I wrote on these topics which provide an informative overview on how to troubleshoot and resolve such an occurrence.

EP: Sessions Part 1 (RFC, GUI, HTTP Plugin) A Brief Overview

• https://scn.sap.com/people/troy.cronin2/blog/2016/02/01/ep-sessions-part-1-rfc-gui-http-plugin-a-brief-overview

EP: Sessions Part 2 (RFC, GUI, HTTP Plugin) Common Grounds & Issues

• http://scn.sap.com/community/enterprise-portal/blog/2015/08/03/ep-sessions-part-2-rfc-gui-http-plugin-common-ground-issues

EP: Sessions Part 3 Frequest Issues & Solutions

• http://scn.sap.com/community/enterprise-portal/blog/2015/08/17/ep-sessions-part-3-frequent-issues-solutions

Overview

In this blog post, I am going to discuss the various configurations including screenshots required for how to build your own FLP@EP Role, iviews (tiles) from the beginning. The idea of this blog post is to really cover the basis of what is provided within the sample data under this blog post: SAP Fiori Launchpad on Portal – Sample Content for Administrators. I will cover the following processes:

• Creating a new FLP@EP compatible role
• Creating new iviews (URL, transaction, wda etc.) and adding to the above role
• Configuring iviews as required to appear under the Fiori Framework Page on Portal (FLP@EP)
  • Adding iviews to particular device groups
  • Configuring if iview should display be default or not
  • Other useful configurations

In this blog post I will not be covering the consumption of application/groups via the ABAP FES.

1.) Starting off - Creating our FLP Role

The FLP role will be assigned to end users whom will be accessing the FLP on Portal. This role will contain the iviews we wish to represent as tiles under the FLP. These iviews may be existing ones already defined under your Portal, or else new ones you may wish to define. All iview object templates are supported here, including URL, WDA, WDJ, Transaction, UI5 etc.

1. Create a new folder under your Content Administration -> Portal content catalog. In my case I'm going to call it FLP
2. Inside this new folder create a new Freestyle Role, I'm calling mine FLP_ROLE
3. Open the newly created role, and create a new folder to act as our entry point, in this case I'm going to call it FLP
4. Activate the Entry Point option for both the Role and the Folder
5. We should now have a role configured, as below:
   
6. Add the newly created role to your user via User Administration -> http://<host>:<port>/useradmin

2.) Assigning the Fiori Desktop to a new URL Alias under the Master Rules Collection

Tip: It is recommended to create a new delta link copy of both Fiori Framework Page, Blue Crystal theme, and make a new Desktop. This way, if you decide to make changes to the framework page/theme configurations they will be retained after upgrade.

1. Open the URL Alias Manager via: System Administration -> System Configuration - Portal Display
2. You may find the alias portal/fiori is already defined. If you are happy to use this alias, you may skip the next step
3. In this case I want to use http://<portalhost:port>/irj/portal/myflp to access Fiori. Click the New button and for Alias Name enter portal/myflp. We can ignore the other URL Alias options and keep the defaults
4. Open the Master Rules Collection, System Administration -> System Configuration - Portal Display-> Desktops & Display Rules
5. Navigate and expand Portal Content -> Portal Administrators -> Super Administrators. Right click on Master Rules Collection -> Open -> Rule collection
6. Create a new expression via Add if expression button. Here we will set a URL Alias rule, where URL Alias = "portal/myflp", then launch the FLP@EP desktop
7. You should have a new rule defined something like the below. Apply the changes to the rule and save the MRC.
   
8. Optional but recommended step. Navigate to Content Administration -> Portal Display -> Framework Page Configuration. In the drop down menu here select the Desktop/Framework Page combination as chosen above. Disable the personalization option for now (untick Enable personalization).
   Why? Each time a change is made to device groups, setting app for homepage you will need to clear the UCD cache for your user. By disabling personalization while configuring your FLP@EP, you are saving yourself the time of having to do this each time changes are made.
   
   

3.) Creating Fiori tile content (iviews)

1. Under our FLP folder, right click and create a new iview. You can choose any type of iview. In this case, I'll create a URL iview which I wish to point to http://www.sap.com
2. The iview can be created either under the Role via the New button, or else added via the Portal content catalog. What is important here is the iview is maintained under the FLP folder within our role
3. We now have a role, containing a iview as below (notice the entry point configurations):
   
4. but we now try to call http://<host>:<port>/irj/portal/myflp and there are no tiles, WHY? In order for an iview to be displayed under the FLP, we must configure it to be a member of a Device Group, simply this means we can target iviews for particular groups of devices, Desktop, Tablets, and Mobile. By default an iview is not a member of any FLP@EP device group
5. Select the newly created iview and Open the iview Properties (All Properties). Filter the property list for property: Object ID of Device Group. Under this property, we will define the device group to display on all devices, including Desktops, Mobiles and tablets. Device group assignment can be adjusted according to business requirements. In this case, I am using the following properties for Device Group:
   com.sap.portal.dg.desktop;com.sap.portal.dg.smartphone;SmartphoneAndroid
6. I also want to make this tile appear to all users, by default under the FLP. To do this filter the iview property by Default App in Home Page. Check the checkbox for this property and then save the iview
7. Lets now call our FLP@EP URL again http://<host>:<port>/irj/portal/myflp). Success! We now have our first Fiori app/iview assigned and functioning:
   Fiori Tile
   
   Upon opening the Fiori tile, URL iview displays
   

4.) Customizing our new Fiori "app"/tile

At this point I now have a fully working tile/URL iview pointing to website as required. I would like the icon on my tile to display a custom image (in this case the SAP logo) instead of the calendar picture (pictogram).

Customizing the FLP@EP tile image

1. Locate a suitable image of choice and resize it as required
2. Navigate to Content Administration -> Web Resource Repository
3. To be tidy, I am going to create a new folder in here for my uploads called FLP
4. Right click on your new folder and choose Upload Resource. At this point browse to your picture location and upload. Steps can be seen highlighted below:
   
5. Right click on your newly uploaded image resource, choose properties and locate the location property, as below:
   
6. Our location to the SAP logo under the WRR is now pcd:resource_repository/FLP/sap.png. notice the inclusion of pcd:, not included in the above, but we must include to reference our PCD object.
7. Back to the FLP@EP role, open the iview and filter for property Icon URI For this property we enter the full location to the image including the PCD: prefix
8. We must now set the Image Type property to equal, image (full width), instead of icon.
9. correct configuration as expalined above can be found below:
   
10. Now, we call our FLP@EP launchpad again, and now we have our custom icon:
    

Although in the above example we use a URL iview, it is also possible to assign all iview object types, including UI5, WDA/J, Transactional etc. The recommended theme to use in such cases is sap_bluecrystal, and FLP@EP requires Standards rendering mode under MSIE web browser. For details you can refer to this excellent blog post: IE and Portal – Standards/Quirks Mode Evolution (or Love-Hate Relationships).

(Pictured: SAP Transaction iview calling SU01 transaction under FLP@EP)

5.) Assigning tiles to a category

It is possible to assign tiles under up to 20 different categories*.

* If more than 20 categories are required, please refer to SAP Note 2214932.

1. Open the Fiori Launchpad Categories iview stored under the following PCD location:
   Content Administration -> Portal Content -> Portal Users -> Standard Portal Users -> iviews -> Fiori Launchpad
2. Under this iview, up to 20 categories may be configured. The following properties will apply to each iview:
   Category XX ID
   Category XX Order
   Category XX Title
3. The ID will be used to reference the category an iview should belong to, the Order will define the order in which categories should display and the title is the Title that you will use for the category.
4. In the above example, I will add my URL iview to a Category called "Corporate", while I will have a new category called "Admin" to access my SU01 transaction ivew
5. I have configured my Fiori Launchpad Categories iview to include the below:
   
6. Now open your FLP@EP iviews and filter each by Category Assignment property. Under here, the Category ID you have defined should be added, such as the below example:
   
7. When you next call your FLP@EP launchpad, rather than the tiles belonging to the General (uncategorized) section, the tiles will now be grouped:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Introduction

As we know Netweaver & System Landscape Upgrades in true essence can often present big functional changes to our end-users bases especially when it comes to functionality and operational display. If you are utilizing the Universal Worklist (UWL) this means that from the end-users perspective you are interacting with the Enterprise Portal (EP), UWL (GUI) and subsequent workflow screens. Noticing a change in such a display whether its operative or rendering based can be quite alarming especially if you are involved in managing sales order request or travel expenses .

Changes between NW Versions - Footer

A common occurrence is the disappearing of the footer menu bar within the main UWL Navigation View. This usually arises post upgrade also and despite having the Footer value set to "Visible" from a configuration standpoint it fails to appear.

Why is the Footer not visible?

In relation to the footer itself over various NW Versions as we all know change is something of a normality. The Footer itself is part of and contained within the "Page Navigation" element which no longer exists for ALL NW 7.10+ Versions onward. In simplistic form the Footer has been removed from the UWL's UI.

Scrollbar VS Footer

As touched on above the Footer is now no longer running in association to the UWL. Instead a new functionality was introduced in the form of a scrollbar thus allow users to view and manage all workitems and task type within a singular page display.

Changes between NW Versions - Decision Buttons

Perhaps the most commonly encountered scenario from my perspective is the issue pertaining to the UWL Core Decision Buttons going missing. Ordinarily this may occur as a result of a recently performed upgrade and end-users may notice peculiar behavior such as "Shopping Cart" Approval Buttons not being displayed within the UWL Preview Area.

In addition to the "Shopping Cart" Approval Buttons you may see other omitted button options such as

• Reject
• Print Preview
• Forward
• Resubmit
• Assign to Me
  

Where have the Decision Buttons disappeared?

The answer to this question is quite simple and comes down to version display changes.  The UWL UI (User Interface) was changed within NW 7.10 and all following higher releases. This simple means that the "look and feel" of the Universal Worklist itself is different in all versions after 7.10. Some of the buttons have been removed from a functionality aspect and some of the buttons have been changed in terms of their operation i.e. how they are accessed.

No need to Panic you can still get the buttons appearing in the old display

In order to achieve adherence to the older UWL display surrounding the Decision Buttons such a task is based around the

XML files and a key property which is labelled "<Property name="showButtonInPreviewArea" value="yes"/>.

• In NW 7.10 - Versions the buttons will appear in the Preview Area
• In NW 7.10 + Versions the buttons will appear in the Context Menu (right-click on the work-item)
  

Now as we mentioned the property is showButtonInPreviewArea is key here and needs to be added to the XML in order to get one or all of the desired buttons to display.

• Any button you wish to get displayed within the Preview Area must be defined explicitly in the view itself?

Now regarding the UWL and XML I need to highlight some important points. With the UWL when you make changes to XML files there are two key principals which need to be followed:

1. XML files follow the notion of precedence therefore when changes are made to an XML file the file itself needs to be re-uploaded with a new priority of "High" or "Very High" to realize changes. After the desired file changes have been made the UWL cache should also be cleared.
2. Always ensure that original XML files are stored and backed up so changes can be easily reverted if required.

Low priority files in the UWL are the ones which come with standard UWL right after installation, and also the ones retrieved from the back-end systems which the UWL is integrated with. Meaning that if you want to modify any definition which is located in the uwl.webflow file, I would advise you to create a new XML file as a copy of the uwl.webflow, modify according to your needs and upload it to the UWL with a different name, and the desired priority.

• A new XML file uploaded in the UWL Admin UI will get considered by each and every UWL iView since the very first time when you upload it!

This means that you can upload your changed file and UWL should consider it as soon as you have uploaded it. As soon as you changed the XML so that to have the actions showing as buttons (by adding the showButtonInPreviewArea property to the

actions) and uploaded the file to the UWL, it should be taken into account since the very first access

If you seek further consultation regarding the buttons you can find a comprehensive overview in my dedicated blog posting which also covers a sample XML upload.

• https://scn.sap.com/people/troy.cronin2/blog/2016/02/01/ep-uwl-no-action-buttons-appearing

Customization of the UWL

Remember that if you need to tweak certain aspects of the Universal Worklist or Add/Remove functional options this is indeed feasible. As Product Changes continue to bring about evolved functionality the notion of customization will always remain in order to support optimal performance to specific organizational requirements and business operations.

A starting point of reference for UWL Customization is the following SDN article and if further consultation is every needed feel free to reach out to me for guidance.

Changing the Look & Feel of the UWL UI

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/4a/ee9c8d88946d62e10000000a42189c/content.htm

Reference Documentation

• Decision buttons lost in SAP NW 7.30.05:  http://scn.sap.com/thread/3158685
• Decision Views:  http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/4a/f9bc187b721115e10000000a42189c/content.htm?frameset=/en/4a/f09ebd4a5a6d62e100000 00a42189c/frameset.htm
• UserDecisionHandler:  http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70ehp1/helpdata/en/7a/df014b037141ca9afc6433ed42b519/content.htm
• Configuration of I-View Properties:  http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/4a/ee9c6588946d62e10000000a 42189c/frameset.htm
• SAP Note: 1730719 - Action buttons on UWL not visible after upgrade
• SAP Note: 1803438 - Showing UWL item action as a button - only in context menu
• Context Menu Behaviour has changed (buttons): http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/BPX/Context+Menu+Behaviour+has+changed+in+release+7.10+and+higher+of+the+Universal+Worklist

Steffi Warnecke

Introduction

With the UWL optimal inbox management is centered around a number of core parameters. In this blog posting we are going to discuss the various parameters at play in association to the Universal Worklist and how they can be distinguished from one another with each offering its own unique means of contribution.

Page Refresh Rate VS Real Time Refresh (RTR)

So what is the difference between the page Page Refresh Rate and the Real Time Refresh (RTR) ?

If you want the UWL Inbox to refresh upon logging in and navigating you can utilize the "Page Refresh Rate". Alternatively the page refresh rate can be configured directly in the xml file for all users. This parameter is displayed as "refresh" = 300 by default. The value is in seconds. The smallest that this value can be set is 1 minute.

Can the UWL Refresh automatically?

In terms of "Automatic Refreshing" with the UWL this functionality is provided via the functional "Real Time Refresh (RTR)" mechanism.  Now the use of Real-Time-Refresh. RTR (Real-Time-Refresh) feature is ONLY for when a task is "Completed" and the use the Real-Time-Refresh feature came in for Product Versions of 702 SP2 720/SP2 and higher.

So let us remember that the RealTimeRefresh (RTR) mechanism of UWL enables automatic update of the UWL task and alerts list. Thus, when items are set to status "Complete" they are removed from the New and In Progress view in the UWL You can configure UWL to refresh its tasks and alerts list at time period different that the minimum 20 second period.

Choosing RealTimeRefresh (RTR) - Outcome

• The user does not need to use the refresh function to update the inbox.

My Inbox is not updating automatically?

In previous cases where I have come across the Real-Time-Refresh feature not working accordingly for completed workitems our main points of interest included:

1. Backend user is mapped to multiple portal users:
   • Go to User List -> Identity Management 2) Make sure your R3 backend user has been mapped to only to one portal
2. Completed items monitoring function module cannot be executed:
   • Check if RFC destination exists as described in SAP Note 1133821 2) Apply SAP Note 1133821 if necessary. 3) Check if SUWL_NOTIF_START_WORKITEMS_MON function module is available configured R/3 backend.
3. Item registration function module cannot be executed:
   • Check if RFC destination exists as described in SAP Note 1133821. Check if SUWL_NOTIF_SET_NOTIF_CONFIG function module is available in configured R/3 backend. Apply SAP Note 1133821 if necessary.
4. Item un-registration function module cannot be executed:
   • Check if RFC destination exists as described in SAP Note 1133821. Apply SAP Note 1133821 if necessary. Check if SUWL_NOTIF_DEL_NOTIF_CONFIG function module is available in configured R3 backend.

Prerequisites for Refreshing

In order for the real time refresh to be enabled you have to meet the following prerequisites:

• You have configured an RFC destination with load balancing for connection with the back-end system.
• The back-end system has the SAP_ABA and SAP_BASIS components.
• The user in the back-end system, configured in the RFC destination, must have the S_RFC_ADM ACTVT=1 permission.

Introduction

If you are familiar with the Enterprise Portal from a environmental landscape perspective you would already be well aware the "Fiori" in itself is the current hot topic or buzz word shall we say.  The Fiori Launchpad can be utilized alongside the Enterprise Portal and this is regarded as the "Fiori Launchpad on Portal".

The "Fiori Launchpad on Portal" can be interacted with in two primary ways

1. Via Desktop
2. Via Mobile Devices

The primary driver behind the utilization of the Fiori Launchpad on Portal is to provide end-users with the practical experience that Fiori itself offers. The utilization of the Fiori Launchpad on Portal shares the same approach delivered within the normal Enterprise Portal environment although the way such an experience is display is different!

Portal Search Facet (Through Fiori Launchpad on Portal )

If you have used the FLP@EP you will know that upon entering the FLP itself end-users are presented with a search engine displayed in the top (center) of the Page. Here within the search field end-users are eligible to perform a search for data and content and can subsequently tailor the result listing via filtering.

Dependent on the search term the associated listing will be displayed in a single row of results. End-users can choose to "show more results" and then are presented with follow-on tiles.

Can I Customize the number of rows returned in the List?

The short answer here is no and this is a noted limitation. Fiori Search is designed for searching "Business Objects" as well as "Apps". Clicking "filter" icon should list a facet tree for "Business Objects". If there is no "Business Objects" configured and maintained within the system a blank facet pane will be returned,.

For the result list under "ALL" tab, it is designed and should display a mixed result list of "Business Objects" and "Apps".

It is not possible, by default to have more than one row to display unfortunately as this is hard-coded functionality.

I have objects assigned but encounter a blank page?

Firstly a very important point to highlight regarding the FLP (Launchpad) on Portal and the Fiori Framework Page itself.

Many subsequent and previous issues have been highlighted and covered within SAP Note: 2008931 - Known issues for Fiori Framework Page (FLP on Portal) which lists the latest Patches.

I would highly advise ensuring that the latest Patch Level Releases have been implemented before retesting the scenario.

When patching scenarios it's also important to ensure the dependencies are met so no follow on issues are encountered as per SAP Note: 1974464 - SMP: Information on SCA Dependency Analysis for Java download objects.

Adding Search Types

Additional search mechanisms (Search configuration in Tile Catalog and Home page) can be enabled through the Framework Page Configuration, by firstly selecting the Fiori Framework Page and then the item of choice from within the dropdown list.

Search for Object Pages 

With adequate authorization end users can be given search access to retrieve Object Pages (applications) through the homepage itself and the tile catalogs.

This is achieved through maintaining the current value setting for the "Enabling Search for Object Pages" setup

• Navigate to in Portal and go to Start of the navigation path: Content Administration -> Portal Display -> Framework Page Configuration , and choose Fiori Framework Page.
• Is the checkbox enabled for the "Enable Search for Object Pages"

Introduction

In a business environment which utilizes the Enterprise Portal (EP) as a central platform as we know the number of users can vary from a few hundred to a few thousand depending on the business setup. In true essence the SAP NetWeaver Portal is a key cornerstone in the SAP NetWeaver architecture. Through web browser interfaces the EP is the conduit channel through which users begin going about their daily tasks and the portal itself provides such users with a central point of access for all work related procedures and processes.

Usage Statistics EP Environment:

With the EP offering users a single point of access to information, documents, enterprise applications, processes and services both inside and outside of an organization its understandably easy for a simple environment to become complex quite quickly in terms of a high level perspective. In short the Portal provides access to business processes and information, social collaboration and content management across various consumption channels. Also with the ever-growing number of mobile phone business users the Portal needs to be maintained in an optimal an efficient manner.

Portal Activity Report & Activity Data Collector - Are They Similar?

You can make use of the Activity Data Collector (ADC) or the Portal Activity Report depending on your core business requirements and operational preference. The Activity Data Collector (ADC) collects more detailed information about portal requests and saves this information into files with one line dedicated to each logged request. With the Activity Data Collector (ADC) you are given access to raw data which can be gathered and deciphered as required. Here it is a non-automated process and you (yourself) are responsible for analyzing the raw data and created subsequent reports upon it or graphical representation breakdowns.

The Portal Activity Report on the other hand is a dedicated statistical based tool for the Enterprise Portal (EP). The underlying functionality of the Portal Activity Report is focused upon gathering information pertaining to Portal visitors and the pages/iViews viewed during the user sessions of such visitors. This information is contained with a dedicated iView through which fundamental reports can be generated based upon the Portal's activity. Such data (contained within the report iView) is aggregated generated within predefined report types.

Activating the Portal Activity Report

1. Login to portal NWA.
2. Select operation tab -> Start & stop Java application tab.
3. Search application name: com.sap.portal.activityreport.core.
4. Under the table below of the portal press the "Portal service configuration" (link above the table), this will open a collection of properties.
5. Change the value of the first line "activate portal activity report" to "true" or "false" depending on your requirements.
6. Select the details change the status of the ActivityReport service set the value of the report to 'true' or 'false').
7. Press the save button ( located in the middle of the form ).
8. Press the button More action-> view corresponding to application.
9. Press the "Restart" button it will restart the application and with the desired status change (activated/deactivated).

Monitoring Pages of Interest

If you wish to monitor a certain core application iView or simply a page of interest this is indeed a feasible notion and can be achieved quite simply once the correct parameter settings are maintained. In order for such results to be firstly captured and then aggregated within the Portal Activity Report you need to ensure the following:

• The page is assigned to a role as opposed to being classified as a unit or sub-unit within the report.
• You can view this by opening the role and viewing the iviews/pages currently assigned to it
• Right click on the role to add it to the Report Listing
• Then subsequently assigned the role to the Activity Report itself.

In summary iViews which need to be monitored need to be assigned to a role and then subsequently to the report itself.

Monitoring Page Hits

If you are using a configured Activity Report in the Enterprise Portal (EP) to gather and report findings on all of the pages that have been visited you may want to include page hits as a metric in the report listing.

1. Navigate to the Service Configuration Editor.
2. From the top-level navigation, choose System Administration -> System Configuration.
3. In the detailed navigation, choose Service Configuration. The Service Configuration Editor is displayed.
4. Open the configuration page for the data collection service.
5. In the Portal Catalog, navigate to Applications > com.sap.portal/activityreport.core -> Services -> ActivityReport.
6. Go to “Customer Activity Reports” -> “Daily Activity Report by Page”.

Monitoring Certain Users

To monitor hits for a certain user types you need to ensure the property “Monitor Hits” is set to true. For additional guidance on this topic the following Wiki is a great source of reference.

• Creating a Portal Activity Report Iview for monitoring Page and Iview activities
• http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/EP/Creating+a+Portal+Activity+Report+Iview+for+monitoring+Page+and+Iview+activities

Creating Portal Activity Report iViews

• Creating Portal Activity Report iViews: https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/47/87346dc84a199ce10000000a42189d/content.htm

FAQ’s - Portal Activity Report Functionality

• http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=219022360

Issues - Portal Activity Report

Activity Report issues are often solved by applying the latest SDA release file.

• SAP Note: 1084379 - Portal Activity Report - Latest Version (SDA file)
• SAP KBA: 1693822 - how to check if you are on the latest SAP Activity Reports support package level or if the package (SDA) has been applied successfully.

Key Reference & Troubleshooting Documentation

• SAP Note: 1690023 - Portal Activity Report - Component-specific Note
• SAP Note: 998653 - Central Note for the Portal Activity Report (includes several fixes regarding the Portal Activity Report)
• SAP Note: 1251041 - Activity Data Collector stops generating files
• Monitoring Technology and Logging: http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70ehp1/helpdata/en/5a/84b83b3683094be10000000a11402f/content.htm
• Performance recommendations for the Portal Activity Report: http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/EP/Portal+performance+recommendations+for+the+Portal+Activity+Report

Introduction

As we all know customization is a key process in many organizational environment landscapes across various aspects of the Portal. Such customization can range from something very high level such as the theme and branding to a more concise detailed aspect such as button display or element syntax. In this blog posting we are going to touch base on error messages and exception reference highlights which can unfortunately be encountered on more occasions than desired for a wide range of reasons. In some scenarios tweaking the error message display can in fact be beneficial to end-users as it provides more informative insight into why the issue first arose and the steps which are subsequently required to resolve it.

Some error messages may arise due to syntax vulnerabilities through web security scans or through applications themselves. End Users may not be familiar with troubleshooting such occurrences and for this reason transforming an error occurrence such as:

• java.lang.NullPointerException: while trying to invoke the method com.sapportals.wcm.repository.IResource.isA(java.lang.Class) of a null object loaded from local variable 'resource'

Into some a little more informative and insightful might be a better option to pursue.

Is Such Customization Possible?

Ok from the perspective of the Enterprise Portal (EP) customizing error messages from broad level overview is indeed possible and feasible. The first point of reference I would like to make here relates to the following link. This offers a comprehensive overview of what customizations can be made.

• Customizing Error Messages In The Enterprise Portal: http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/EP/Customizing+Error+Messages+in+Portal

Now in terms of a broader scope and more concise detailed guidance on how to customize a particular error message in the Enterprise Portal such as a "500 Internal Server Message" kindly review the documentation outlined below:

• How to customize the SAP Portal Error Pages: http://scn.sap.com/people/aviad.rivlin/blog/2010/05/06/how-to-customize-the-sap-portal-error-pages
• Custom Error Messages in the Portal: http://scn.sap.com/people/hussain.sehorewala/blog/2010/03/26/custom-error-messages-in-the-portal

Very Important

From a high level perspective there are some important points to highlight regarding a proposed change regarding error exceptions.  If you configure dynamic error pages, this will override the standard error pages. In that case the value of this parameter (/HTTP/show_detailed_errors) as per the guidance WIKIs above is is irrelevant. For security reasons the details should not passed to the client. SAP recommends that you do not change the value of the default setting (is/HTTP/show_detailed_errors = FALSE), unless you want to use the detailed information for error analysis and it is not critical for security.

Making Error Messages More Friendly

There is the more simple option of making specific error references more legible to end users bases through the Web Browser Platform. You can simply through the Browser follow the path:

• Tools > Internet Options > Advanced and check "show friendly http error messages".

Introduction

In my time working alongside the Enterprise Portal I have come across multiple different types of error messages and exception warning popups. Such occurrences are often informative in their presentation and can lead the affected users down the path of achieving a straight forward resolution quite quickly. On some occasions different exception references appear which might at first glance appear confusing and may leave us perplexed as whether they are related to the Portal itself or the environment in which it functions. By environment here I am making reference to the landscape, the data accessed, applications utilized and external/internal dimensions of our business requirements.

"No Switch to HTTPS occurred"

In certain situations an error exception referencing "no switch to HTTPS occurred" will arise and we are going to address this now and explain why such a warning message would appear in the first place. Ordinarily encountering this particular messages goes hand in hand with initial Portal logon:

1. Logon to the Enterprise Portal from desktop
2. http://<host>:<portal>/portal
3. A popup message will appear (in full it reads)
   • "Protocol cannot be switched to HTTPS, HTTPS is not configured active"
   • "No switch to HTTPS occurred, so it is not secure to send a password"

Why would such a message appear?

There are several possible reasons as to why this particular warning message appears and it ordinarily comes down to SSO/SSL configuration discrepancies and a clean-cut resolution is specific to each customers system and setup.  Obviously such a warning message can prove to be distracting to user bases and needs to be removed in order to maintain best practices and secure operations.

Solving the Issue & Removing the Message

If you want to go about removing the message and ensuring safe transmission of passwords is supported in your environment by the correct parameter settings the first core point of reference should be the following Knowledge Based Article:

• SAP KBA: 1857366 - No Switch to HTTPS Occurred
  

In true essence as the note highlights this popup exception warning deals with and is associated to no switch to HTTPS occurring (HTTPS recommended) so the password set to be transmitted encrypted and hence not in a secure manner.

• From a high level perspective naturally for external facing systems and any form of production systems HTTPS should always be used.

Introduction

In my experience across the Enterprise Portal area many of the scenarios that I deal with on a daily basis revolve around browser bases issues or scenarios that in some way, shape or form associate to the Web Browser Platform itself.  From a high level perspective we think as a Web Browser Platform as a simple conduit through which we can gain access to and interact with Web Based Resources and this is indeed true. However we need to remember that with each Web Browser Platform comes a set of different parameter and property settings which need to be maintained in order to support optimal performance. In reference to "performance" here I do not mean the speed of the browser but rather the means in which it functions i.e. the rendering of the browser & subsequent display presented to end users.

Quirks, Standards, Edge..

I would like to stress the importance at looking over browser configurations and the various modes from the most simple standpoint possible. With browser related scenarios a simple issue can quickly become a complex scenario especially taking all the various parameters into account within a troubleshooting scenario.

In the interest of simplicity we can look at things as below (in a modern browser environment):

• Quirks: displays webpages as if users view them with older versions of the browsers.
• Standards: HTML 5 engine, new features are only supported in this mode.

Is there a way to "Force" all Pages to be displayed within Edge Mode?

If you want to achieve from a functional aspect "forcing" all Pages to run in browser document mode EDGE essentially here we are referring to standards.

To achieve this you would need to use the Standards Ajax Framework Page which is available from NW7.31 SP14 and 7.4 SP9. This is basically an Ajax framework page that runs in Standards Mode.

However this does not cover applications for example if you are using older HTMLB style applications these require Quirks Mode.

Attempting to run old applications that require Quirks mode, will need to be run in a new headerless window or new window in order to see the content.

Ajax Standards Mode Framework Page

• https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw74/helpdata/en/1d/41e8454091466eb40cb468b768281e/content.htm
  

Reviewing Different Modes

Remember we need to look at Internet Explorer as a Web Browser Platform with core fundamental underlying parameters which determine the way it functions and how it operates in association to an Enterprise Portal environment.

From a purely navigation approach here we are dealing with two key modes which are that of Browser & Document Mode.

What is the Browser Mode all about?

In short the browser mode is a user agent string sent to the server (which affects the User Agent only).

• When compatibility mode is selected the the User Agent is set to the oldest supported setting for the current browser.
• Tools > Compatibility View > F12 > Navigation > Navigation.UserAgent
• IE10, IE10 Compatibility View, IE9, IE8, IE7.

The User Agent is essentially a string (textual) which identifies the Browser & OS to for the Web Server. To provide insight with a working example if we take IE5 Quirks which is the oldest document mode as the baseline. This means Internet Explorer is telling the server its browser mode. According to the browsers mode the server then decides which resources CSS/JS should be sent back to the Browser.

So What is the Document Mode all about?

Document Mode: Determines how the browser (IE) renders the page.

• Essentially tells browsers how it wants it to be rendered.
• Browser decides which rendering engine should be used.

Remember

From a high level perspective let us remember that Document Modedetermines how Internet Explorer is rendered.Quirks Mode displays the webpages as if they are within older IE versions while Standards Mode follows the HTML5 Engine with new features supported. The Quirks Mode syntax is different from the Standards Mode syntax.

Introduction

Bookmarks and Portal Favorites are similarly labelled but easily distinguished in terms of a Portal Landscape. In my experiences I have come across and worked on many scenarios surrounding their intended management, organization and removal. In this blog posting we will cover how bookmarks can be created, manged and subsequently removed (if required).

KM Folders & Bookmarks

KM folders are utilized as the base platform in which KM Documents are stored and repositories accessed. For example in a KM Setup (within Portal) end-users can access, obtain, manage and review data information through documents sourced from business intranets, external WWW feeds and file servers.

Portal Changes & Mass Management of Favorites?

When managing Portal Favorites diligence is required to ensure no redundancies come into play. For example if Portal Roles have been changed to suit business requirements (PCD_ID changes/role assignment) subsequent issues may be encountered. Such a change would make current Portal Favorites links to become "broken".

Firstly if the Portal favorites are no longer operational and return invalid I would firstly recommend ensuring that the navigation path is maintained correctly especially if a system change has recently taken place.

In true essence the favorites themselves are just a link source to documents, iViews and pages. If there has been a change to a Path, to a document or the URL used to call an iView then obviously the old link setup will no longer function.

• There is no automatic tool means of updating mass PCD_ID's of Favorites.

The only feasible resolution is for the end-user to re-add the favorite again (using the updated Path).

The end-user in the can also delete the older link (ones which are no longer functional) from the favorites iView

Remember if there has been a change to a Path (PCD), to a document or the URL used to call an iView (as in this particular case) the old link as we will not work.

Mass Deletion of Bookmarks

The report RSWR_BOOKMARK_DELETE can be used for the mass deletion of the Bookmarks.

The user has the option to select the bookmarks to be deleted under four conditions:

  1. Delete all the Bookmarks of a particular type(either for the selected templates or all templates),
  2. Delete all the Bookmarks which have not been used since the key date(either for the selected templates or all templates),
  3. Delete the Bookmarks by entering the Bookmark IDs directly,
  4. Delete all the Bookmarks created by an user(s), with option to also filter it further based on the last used date or template name.

However from the frontends perspective a keystone function for mass deletion does NOT exist. The users can delete their entries in the Favorites or KM Folders, which will remove the link in the Portal. A ABAP administrator can reorganize bookmarks using report RSWR_BOOKMARK_DELETE, according to note 1419451.

Introduction

When using the SAP Enterprise Portal (EP) within an NW Environment in a large organizational landscape business requirements may require different linguistic and language settings for multiple user bases. The Universal Worklist is fundamental for task and workitem assignment and processing and can be utilized by different locale groups throughout an organization all of whom may work with different locale settings.

UWL Display Elements & Language

If you are familiar with the UWL you will be aware that the Interface display through which end-users interact with the worklist incorporate a wide arrange of different display elements and icons. These include UWL Decision Buttons also known as Action Buttons, Drop-down Navigation Menu, Footer Menu (dependent on version) and textual format graphics.

Portal Languages & How They Are Maintained

Now regarding this scenario and the languages used in the Enterprise Portal there are a few important points to highlight. The language that the portal is displayed in depends on the following hierarchy, with the languages at the top of the list taking precedence over those at the bottom.

1. Component (iview) language (defined in the portalapp.xml)
2. Portal Mandatory language (defined in the prtDefault.properties)
3. User language (defined in the user#s profile).
4. Request language (defined by the browser).
5. Portal Default language (defined in the prtDefault.properties)
6. System Default language (default locale defined by the OS).

So for example, if you have your portal user language (as in point 3) set to German, but the language of the iView that is the logon page (as in point 1) set to English, that logon page will be displayed in English.

UWL Specific Element Display

Let us say for the case of a working example you're organization utilizes the UWL in a diverse region environment i.e. the Portal is being used in multiple countries now using several languages for End Users.

To carry on from this example let us imagine that there are four languages in place here English, French, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese and you have set the translations (as per the 6 points above) but you notice a discrepancy in the display.

In your setup you notice that the Decision Buttons are not display in the correct language setting. If you login to the Portal & Navigate to the UWL (in Traditional Chinese) you soon notice that the the texts are instead displayed in Simplified Chinese.

UWL Language Inconsistency - High Level Analysis

• Firstly start out simple and see what the browser language is defined as (at present)?

If there is a discrepancy this may be causing the defined change not to become apparent. In these type of scenarios as you can see (based on the 6 points above) there are various locales to maintain the languages therefore a setup discrepancy can be encountered on some occasions.

Issues similar to this have been noted, highlighted and resolved in documentation such as that outlined below:

• SAP Note: 1661391 - Portal 7.3 is not displayed in the configured language
• SAP KBA: 1696439 - Changing the Default or Mandatory Locale for a 730 Enterprise Portal

UWL Known Issues

Now I would like to reference the UWL in particular here also as I am aware some minor aspects of the interface itself are indeed  hard-coded (in terms of language/grammatical display) however the following documentation can be used as a reference point to resolve various UWL language display issues and problematic scenarios.

• SAP Note: 2055108 - Forced Language Request not working in the UWL iView from Browser Favourites
• SAP Note: 2012105 - How to find the language used to retrieve the work items
• SAP Note: 1806134 - Changing language does not affect UWL decision buttons text
• SAP Note: 1801857 - Wrong language- country variation for UWL Webflow workitems

From a high level perspective in the past there have been issues regarding the UWL and the translations. In particular several issues have been encountered with the "decision buttons" and "menu roles" translations both of which have been resolved via documentation outlined above.

After reviewing the notes subsequently I recommend clearing the UWL cache and the browser cache before attempting to reproduce the issue.

• Steps to clear the UWL cache: please go to "System Administration" "System Configuration" -> Universal Work list & Workflow -> Universal Workflow Administration -> Click on cache administration page -> Click "Clear Cache" button.

Now the UWL itself is a Web Dynpro application and normal behaviour for Web Dynpro applications means that to refresh the language a portal logoff and re-logon is required.

• Alternatively the change of user's locale will take effect either after an automatic cache refresh is triggered, or when the user triggers the refresh manually by pressing the "Refresh" button.

Remember

Certain tabs are "hardcoded" i.e. it is not possible to modify the language outside of the standard delivered SAP translations.

UWL Date Language Format

We do not control this in the Universal Worklist. The format of the date field is controlled by WebDynPro. From UWL side we only create an input field of type date.

When deciding which format to be shown to the end user, then only the setting in UME language/location/region is considered, but also the language setting of the browser may also be used. One key point to check here is personalization for end-users. If checking the personalization doesn't help, then the format is controlled by one of the other sources (discussed below) and it should be changed at the source.

The formats are dependent upon a couple factors, webdynpro, PC settings, browser settings, and backend settings.

• Now in terms of the UWL and how it deals with workitems and there associated details i..e Date Format Display we have to remember some key points here. The UWL gets the "sent" attribute for the item from the backend and converts it to a java.util.Date object.

Then the UWL uses java.text.DateFormat in order to convert the Date object to a String. This is done with the DateFormat's standard method "format(Date data)". When the DateFormat object is created, the timezone and locale of the logged on user is used. So the UWL uses standard java functionality for this conversion and the fact that the "sent" is shown in different time format for different locale/timezone is the normal behavior of java.