The error "Could not open iView. The iView is not compatible with your browser, operating system, or device. Contact your system administrator for more information." will appear if you try to access the portal or open certain content using an unsupported browser or device. There are a number of scenarios where this error can be thrown and I will discuss each of them.

• Error appearing only at login

If if is then you need to check the following:

1) Check if note 1666862 - 'Allow other browsers to access the portal' is applicable for your version, if so please ensure that the fix is applied

2) Are you using a custom login component? If so you will need to update the useragent string in the portalapp.xml file as described in  kba 1646680 - 'Cannot access Enterprise Portal with Apple Safari browser'

3) Is the browser you are trying to access with actually supported for your version? You can check the browser support section of the Product Availability Matrix (PAM) at Product Availability Matrix | SAP Support Portal

4) Is this happening on a certain OS or device? Again you need to ensure that they are supported for your portal version and check PAM. Also note 1995454 - 'Central Portal Browser Support for Portal Mobile & Desktop' provides a list of OS and devices which support portal access

• Error appearing when accessing certain content only

1) If the error is not thrown at login and happens only when navigating to a certain iview

Open the problematic iView and check "Supported User Agents" property - it should be set like this:

(MSIE, >=5.5, *) (Netscape, *, *) (Mozilla,*,*) (Safari,>=3.1, *) (Chrome,*,*)

2) Also check the Core iView under Content Administration -> Content Provided by SAP -> Core objects -> Core iView and ensure the property "Supported User Agents" is set to

(MSIE, >=5.5, *) (Netscape, *, *) (Mozilla,*,*) (Safari,>=3.1, *) (Chrome,*,*)

• Error appearing when using IE 11 only

Check note 1972506 - 'Cannot access portal with IE11 or Framework page not loaded correctly'

• Error appearing when using Microsoft Edge browser only

Check note 2226409 - Can't access Portal logon screen on Microsoft Edge browser

Welcome to the Q4 edition of the SAP Portal news blog. The news blog contains information on classical Portal on-premise topics as well as on Cloud experience products as SAP Fiori Cloud Edition. Have fun!

We have news for you in the following topic areas:

• SAP Fiori Cloud Edition - controlled availability for customers
  
• SAP Fiori Overview Page - a new SAP Fiori experience
• New release of SAP HANA Cloud Portal
• News on SAP Enterprise Portal
• HANA Cloud Portal Developer Challenge - Contributions
• Blogs from the community
  

SAP Fiori Cloud Edition

SAP Fiori, cloud edition is available for customers as part of a controlled availability program for few weeks already. At SAP TechEd in Barcelona we have announced the availability of SAP Fiori, cloud edition to the market via a press-release. For more information see also the announcement blog. If you would like to experience how SAP is running SAP Fiori Cloud Edition, just navigate to: http://fiorilaunchpad.sap.com.

Watch also this movie showing how SAP IT is running SAP Fiori Cloud Edition:

SAP Fiori Overview Page (OVP) - a new interaction within SAP Fiori UX

The SAP Fiori Overview Page (OVP) enables business users perform their daily tasks quickly and effectively by having all the information they need on a single page. Information is visualized on cards for multiple types of content in an attractive and efficient way. SAP Fiori OVP first release, which is part of SAPUI5 1.32, is available for both to on-premise systems and on HANA Cloud Platform. For more information, visit SAP Fiori Overview Page.

Watch this demo movie on OVP:

New Release of SAP HANA Cloud Portal

At SAP TechEd in Las Vegas we announced the upcoming 1511 major release of SAP HANA Cloud Portal. The new release is a completely redesigned and improved version of SAP HANA Cloud Portal that brings major changes in the product architecture to embrace Fiori technology and concepts (SAP UI5, SAP WebIDE, oDATA etc.), tighter integration with SAP Web IDE for advanced developer flows and new out of the box templates and business solutions.

SAP Enterprise Portal News

New Support Package Stacks for Enterprise Portal on SAP NetWeaver 7.4

To get an overview on the Portal features of SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SPS11/SPS13 (Java stack SP12), have a look at this presentation.

For more (technical) details, check out the following material:

• SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SPS11:
  • read this blog explaining the features in detail, most of them referring to SAP Fiori integration into EP (for example remote content consumption, locked groups, dynamic tiles etc.
  • watch the end user experience and administration experience demo
• SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SPS13 (Java stack SP12):
  • read this blog outlining the features in detail (for example integration of analytical apps, search for factsheets, enhanced personalization etc.)

Watch this movie focusing on the end user features (based on SPS13):

Enterprise Portal on NetWeaver 7.5

SAP NetWeaver 7.5 is the compatible follow-up release of SAP NetWeaver 7.4 and the on-premise foundation for SAP Business Suite (as of Enhancement Package 8 for SAP ERP) and for the on-premise edition of SAP S/4 HANA. For more information, have a look at the SAP NetWeaver 7.5 landing page. Have also a look at this blog and learn about the (planned) highlights of Enterprise Portal running on NetWeaver 7.5.

For more detailed information, check out the release notes. The features of Support Package Stack 01 also contain a plugin for SAP Web IDE, which enables you to deploy any Web IDE app to the Portal and run it with the Ajax framework page and on Fiori launchpad. Watch this movie to get an insight into this new capability:

Developer Challenge: Contributions

The HANA Cloud Portal developer challenge 2015 ended on November 30, 2015. The challenge gave people the chance to demonstrate their developer excellence and leverage the capabilities of the trial developer environment of HANA Cloud Platform and HANA Cloud Portal.

We received the following great contributions and we want to thank all people and teams for their engagement and feedback:

• An alert cockpit for SAP Real Estate
• Tailored apps for SAP HCM
• Analytics for grocery industries in India
• App fetching accounts from C4C
• Fiori app for transport approval process
• Reporting application listing all open customer receivables, sorted by age
• A Customer Call Center Fact Sheet

All participants already received a participation award of developer excellence. All contributions will be reviewed by our Cloud Portal experts from our team. This expert committee will also define the finalists and the winner who will receive additional awards. The final results will be published beginning of January.

Blogs from the Community

Blogs, which are recommended to read:

• SAP Enterprise Portal Integration with Successfactors by Pavan Kumar
• Seamless Document Access with SAP Fiori Launchpad on Enterprise Portal by Sibylle Brehm
• Transitioning Portal Content from Quirks Mode Framework Pages to Standards Mode Framework Pages by Ronny Amran
• Omission of Session Termination Window by Della Brodsky

and watch the video blog How to run the PCD check tool.

Subscribe to our Newsletter!

To get regular information on SAP Portal and our Cloud solution offerings, you can also subscribe to our newsletter.

This blog is for portal end-users and content administrators who would like to learn about the new features developed in the latest Enterprise Portal SP for FLP@EP, their added value, and the required configuration.

These features include the following functionality from NW7.40 SP12 Java stack blog:

• Configurable SAP Fiori Borders for iViews/pages  (header and footer bars) with Back button, Related links, dynamic navigation and Save as Tile button
• Enhanced Fiori Framework Page (FFP) configuration for Home Page personalization
• Hide/show groups action in Option Menu
• Search configuration in Tile Catalog and Home page
• FFP extensions: enabling custom plugin to load on SAP Fiori Launchpad opening
• Embedding SAPUI5 apps

and new features such as:

• Configurable iView/Page width
• Various EP Tile dimensions: 1X1, 1X2, 2X1, 2X2
• FFP personalization enhancements:
  • Enabling Settings as tile action for editing of EP tile properties in the Home page
  • Enabling Filtering by Tags in Tile Catalog
  • Enabling Alphabetical sorting of tiles within a category
  • Enabling Remove of duplicate tiles
• FFP extension points
• Window feature property for iView/Page, relevant when the navigation target is in a new window.

Prerequisites:

1. SAP Web Dispatcheror any other reverse proxy,which is responsible to dispatch the requests between the ABAP FES and Java server (EP). 
2. Minimum required SPfor ABAP FES server is SAPP_UI750 SP01 component. For additional information please refer to SAP note 2031108.

1 Configurable iView/Page Width

The Open in Full Width property specifies whether an iView or page opens in the full width of the screen area or in a narrower width. Administrators can check-in the property:

And in run-time the layout will look as following:

If the property Open in Full Width is not checked, the page looks like this:

2 Tile Personalization

If FFP personalization is enabled by administrators and Enable 'Settings' as Tile Action option is checked-in, end-users can change the tiles properties, such as name, subtitle and info text in run-time (the tiles should be representing an iView or page):

In the Settings pop-up an end-user can change the tile title, subtitle and info properties value, and immediately get a preview of the changes:

3 Alphabetical Sorting of Tiles

This FFP configuration option determines whether tiles are sorted alphabetically by title within a category.

4 Remove Duplicate Tiles from Remote Content

This FFP configuration option determines whether only a single tile appears within a category when multiple tiles from remote content exist with identical title, subtitle, and intent.

5 EP Tile Dimensions

Usingthe Tile Size property for iViews and pages, administrators can specify the dimensions of the tile (1X1, 2X1, 1X2, 2X2) representing an iView or page in the home page and tile catalog. For example:

All possible variants look like this:

6 Filtering by Tags in Tile Catalog

Using FFP configuration option administrators control whether end-users can filter by related terms in the tile catalog:

The terms are maintained in the Tags property for iViews/pages:

7 Window feature property for iView/Page

Window feature property for iView/Page specifies the appearance of a new window. This property can contain the list of JavaScript parameters, for example” fullscreen=yes; toolbar=yes;…”. If the property is empty, a new window is opened according to default browser parameters.

This property was also downported to the lower Java stack releases, such as NW7.31 SP16,17 and NE7.40 SP12.

8 Fiori Framework Page Extension Points

FFP extension points allow performing actions on FLP events, for example an action on tiles in catalog or home page before rendering.

The customers can extend the standard FLP functionality, with, for example, an additional action in Option menu, a custom action in a footer, etc.

These extensions can be used inside a custom bootstrap plugin in FFP (details). 

9 Web IDE Integration

A plugin for SAP Web IDE enables a Web IDE app deployment to Enterprise Portal.

Prerequisites:

• A user has been subscribed to SAP Web IDE
• The required destination to the SAP Web IDE system is configured in SAP HANA Cloud Platform (details).

To learn more:

• SAP Documentation NW 7.5 Release notes
• SAP Web Dispatcher
• FLP@EP End-user Experience video

• Web IDE deployment video

Hello EP Consultants

Recently I have felt a trend in EP projects mostly limited to support and maintenance, that too the quality of work is not what you seek.

I just wanted to start this blog as more of a discussion on what would be the next step for a EP consultant to move out if he/she wants to other SAP technologies.

Apologies if I have offended any hardcore EPC

If you use Remote Role Assignment (RRA) in a federated portal network (FPN), and have encountered some performance or availability issues on the consumer portal whenever the producer portal is down, the following information is relevant for you.

When using Federated Portal Network in the SAP Enterprise Portal, one of the considerations that need to be addressed is the availability of the producer portal.

The following is a quote from SAP Note 880482 – “FPN: Federated Portal Network Central Note”:

Performance regression on FPN consumer portal when producer portal is not available:

An SAP NetWeaver [enterprise portal] consumer can become unresponsive when any of its registered producer portals are either unavailable or not responsive. When planning to shut down or restart a portal that functions as a producer for any other consumer portal, you must first block the connection to the producer portal from its respective consumer portals using the FPN administration UIs.

It is expected that the producer portal is up and running at all times, because unexpected downtime or lack of proper planning from the FPN perspective can damage the consumer portal functionality.

To overcome these issues, there are several options, described below.

Planned Producer Portal downtime

In case of a planned downtime of the producer portal, it is recommended to block access to the producer in advance. It can be done easily using the UI under System Administration -> Federated Portal.

For SAP Enterprise Portal 7.3 and above, under “Manage My FPN Connections”, you can prevent/allow access to connections (as consumer or as producer):

In addition, for newly-created FPN connections, you can control access to and from your system via the “Connection Options” tab under the Control Panel.

You can read more about it in the following documentation:

Enabling/Disabling Remote Access in FPN Connections - Implementing a Federated Portal Network - SAP Library

If you haven’t upgraded yet to 7.3 or above and still using the legacy SAP Enterprise Portal 7.0 versions, you can control the access to the Producer portals under “View My Producers”:

Take into consideration the following facts:

• When a producer blocks access from a consumer, the block is applied only after the dedicated cache on the consumer is cleaned.
• When a consumer blocks access to a producer, the block is applied to the current users only after a new browser session is opened by them on the consumer portal.

It is highly recommended to upgrade to a newer version, such as 7.4 / 7.5.
Refer to Everything you wanted to know about SAP NetWeaver Portal Upgrade

Unplanned Producer Portal downtime

For cases where the producer portal is not available unexpectedly, new configurations have been added in enterprise Portal 7.3 and above. These configurations were added in order to slightly improve the performance of the consumer portal when the producer portal is down.
If your consumer portal is one of those versions, then this option is relevant for you.

To check for the relevant SPs where it was added, refer to SAP Note 1718291 – “Consumer Portal availability when producer Portal is down”.

With this new configuration, you can control the timeout interval of SOAP calls to the producer portal. Once such a timeout occurs, the mechanism blocks that producer portal. You can also configure the length of time this producer will be blocked.

In addition, there are two approaches in case such a call gets a timeout after the defined interval – blocking for all users, and blocking only the users who encounter the issue.

Following is the information quoted from the note:

First, decrease the timeout value for the remote call (The default is 3 minutes):
Go to NWA on the consumer portal:
Configuration -> Infrastructure -> Application Modules.
Look for 'com.sap.portal.ivs.global.bridge' and in the 'web module details' select 'SenderBridge'.
Set the 'SOAPCallTimeout' parameter for a desired time. The recommended value is 30 seconds. The value for this parameter is in milliseconds so for 30 seconds you should put 30000.
Save the changes and restart the service/application in order to apply the changes.


Secondly, in the 'web module details' select 'SecuritySessionManager'.
This service has a parameter which determines the behavior of the consumer in this case.
There are 2 approaches for solutions from which you can choose:

Approach 1 - blocking for all users:
If you would like to prevent every user from suffering the long login time process, due to a producer down time, you should configure the 'blockAllUsersOnError' parameter to 'all'.
In this case, whenever the first user encounters a timeout event for the remote call, all other users who will log in in the future will not trigger a remote call and the login process will be normal.
The administrator can unblock the problematic producer portal by navigating to the Federated Portal Iview, -> System Administration -> select the connection with this producer portal -> connection -> allow access to remote content.
In addition, the parameter 'BlockingInterval' of the 'SecuritySessionManager' service, determines for how long this producer will be blocked.
*** This configuration is recommended when there is a problem with the producer portal and it is crashing and not running. [It should be set before the crash ]

Approach 2 - blocking only user who encounters the issue:
Set the 'blockAllUsersOnError' parameter to 'user' and save.
This configuration will prevent the current user's session from triggering a remote call to the producer that caused the timeout and it will remain blocked until the user logs out of the consumer portal and logs in again.

After you set the parameters, click on 'More Actions' -> View Corresponding to Application.
Stop and Start both services 'SecuritySessionManager' and 'SenderBridge' on all instances.

Overcoming consumer unavailability

In a case where the consumer portal is not available at all, it might be that all threads are taken by the SOAP calls. The available steps:

1. If possible, start the producer Portal, in order to prevent from such cases in the future.
2. Disconnect one instance from the Web Dispatcher / Load Balancer, so that end users will not be able to reach it. This operation will ensure that no new problematic threads are generated.
3. Restart the instance in order to release all threads, and make the portal of this instance available again.
4. Log in to that instance with an administrator that has no remote roles assigned, and configure the relevant properties from SAP note 1718291. In addition, if the producer is still not available, block the producer portal, as described under Planned Producer Portal downtime section.
5. Restart the instance and connect it back to the Web Dispatcher / Load Balancer.
6. Restart the rest of the instances to release all other threads.

Motivation

Setting up SAP Enterprise Portal (EP) as an access point to Fiori Launchpad (FLP) allows combining capabilities such as EP roles, content management and integration capabilities with the new FLP UX world, and significantly simplifies the integration efforts on the client side.In this blog we will describe, on high level, the corresponding integration architecture.

FLP on EP simple landscape

FLP on EP can run using only portal resources and providing FLP look and feel with full FLP functionality using Portal Fiori Framework Page (FFP).

FFP components include a bootstrap html document, functional Fiori and UI5 resources and content.

The landscape for this scenario looks like this:

FLP on EP with remote content consumption from ABAP FES

An Enterprise Portal integrated with SAP Fiori scenario will require a more sophisticated landscape, where the client will get the resources from EP, Fiori Front-end Server (FES) and Gateway, with a single web url.

For FES, Gateway and Portal systems the ‘System’ objects should be configured in Web Dispatcher profile.

Distributing requests via SAP Web Dispatcher

To enable this scenario a reverse proxy concept must be implemented in the landscape. It is done with SAP Web Dispatcher.

Additionally, FLP requires SSL configuration throughout the entire landscape.

The content requests are distributed on the Web Dispatcher using redirection rules per ‘System’ object. These rules together define the landscape.

The configuration looks like an “non-portal” FLP landscape with an exception of a Portal added as the last rule.

So, Portal/FES integration configuration will have as minimum:

• FES system
• Portal system.

If other systems are included in the landscape (e.g. HANA system), they should be represented in the configuration as well.

Required steps:

1. Configure FLP landscape, following the configuration guidelinesConfiguring SAP Web Dispatcher for FLP on ABAP.
2. In the profile file add a configuration line for the Portal:

wdisp/system_# = SID=<EP SID>, MSHOST=<EP MSHOST>, MSPORT=<EP MSPORT>, SRCSRV=*:<WDISP PORT>, SRCURL=/irj;/

(See also:Configuring SAP Web Dispatcher for FLP on Portal)

Please note:

• This line should be the last one in the configuration list
• It should contain the redirection ‘/’, meaning that all un-matching requests will be redirected to the Portal.

Things to consider

• SAP Fiori Launchpad  and Enterprise Portal integration supports various configurations, such as landscape components sharing (for example, for Dev & QA landscapes). For this you can configure different virtual hosts/ports on the same reverse proxy.

Please note:

• There should not be any hard-coded network attributes
• The request’s “host” header should not change along the flow in reverse proxy configuration.

• For a more complex redirection, e.g. when accessing more than one HANA system, please refer toConfiguring SAP Web Dispatcher to Dispatch Requests to Different Systems.
• When consuming UI5 applications from an intranet under another domain name, click-jacking protection might be required (see note2057847 - Removing/Relaxing Click-Jacking Protection for the SAP Fiori Launchpad).

More Info

SAP Help library links:

• SAP Fiori Launchpad on Portal
• Setup of SAP Fiori System Landscape with ABAP Environment
• Configuring SAP Web Dispatcher ( for FLP on Portal)
• Configuring SAP Web Dispatcher (for FLP on ABAP)
• SAP Web Dispatcher

SCN Blogs:

• SAP Fiori launchpad in SAP Enterprise Portal: Overview Information
• New SAP Fiori Launchpad on SAP NetWeaver Portal Features (NW7.31 SP16, NW 7.40 SP11)
• SAP Enterprise Portal on SAP NetWeaver 7.4: Features and Highlights

Related Notes:

• 2031108 - SAP Fiori Integration with SAP Enterprise Portal - Central note

You can create a new role by uploading it from a back-end ABAP system.

You use the New Role from Back End wizard to search for the role in the selected back-end system,

and then upload the role with its contents directly into the Portal Catalog, in the folder from which you initiated the upload.

Prerequisites for Role Upload

Hello

My name is Tuvia Kahana, and I am part of the Portal development support group.

In this blog we aim is to make your life easier, and to share with you important information about theming (EP-PIN-TOL component) new features and common fixes.

You are also, more than welcome to share your tips and concerns.

Hopefully you will find answers to your concerns here, and it will spare you the need of creating incidents.

Let’s start:

Some interesting notes that we released lately:

- When your custom theme does not appear in all your server nodes, or the theme sometimes applied and sometimes not, you can implement the below note:

2197656 -Custom themes does not exist in all server nodes

2195099 -  Portal theme is inconsistent after upgrade

- When a theme that you created does not apply on your application(in your content area) as expected, and instead you see the backend’s theme, you need to apply the below note:

1446099   Application (Web Dynpro or ITS) is not displayed in customer theme

In addition ,you can see below interesting short movies related to theming:

How to set a parameter that is not exposed in the Theme Editor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLkKzBdSHgQ&feature=youtu.be

It is also explained in the following note :1752515 - Updating Customer Theme Parameters Not Exposed in the Theme Editor.

How to create an RTL supported theme in the Portal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6axlHhGyolU&feature=youtu.be

Changing Portal theming from legacy structure to LESS structure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KXh0RaFCDA&feature=youtu.be

After applying this document Table Sorter - Java class used for table sorting (Web Dynpro Java) - Web Dynpro Java - SCN Wiki

to create web dynpro table sorter I tried to sort result node with custom comparator map, here is code for comparator map creation (fig.1):

fig.1 Comparator map creation

After this I created table sorter object (fig. 2)

fig.2 Table sorter object instantiation

And finally in onSort table event handler I invoked table sorter sort method (fig. 3)

fig.3Table sorter object sort method invocation

But my custom comparator compare method was not invoked, so after some investigation I found this bug in getComparator method of TableSorter reference implementaion:

So in getComparator method we some strange activity

We check internal global map comparatorForColumn in TableSorter class firstly by IWDTableColumn key (and check is passed because TableSorter

constructor fill map with this type of key) and after that we are trying to get value by column.getId() - wich is String.

So because IWDTableColumn doesnt implement hashcode methode in such way that it will return hascode of column.getId() String,  comparator reference on this line is null

so further code act like we didn't provide any custom comparators.

Any comments is welcome, don't know how to report about this bug to reference implementation author.

Background: You are utilizing the Universal Worklist and presently have configured a substitution rule which is no longer valid e.g. the assignee is no longer with the company. Despite you're best efforts you seem not to be able to delete or remove the substitution rule.

Errors: With such an occurrence exceptions can be quite generic and may sometimes grammatically appears as "Cannot Connect to Provider " or "Problems Reported (Repairable).

Creating Substitution Rules (Landscape Effect)

• When substitution is invoked on the Manage Substitution UI, it happens for all connectors. So if you have 7 systems set up in the Universal Worklist Administration there will be 7 calls to each respective system to try to invoke a substitution. If there is any issue whatsoever, with the id, password, * etc, substitution will not work and will not be set up.

Problems Reported (Repairable)

• If you see a link appearing as "Problems Reported (Repairable)" in the rule activation column. Then in this case there is no mapped user to the backend user.
• In many cases the reason the "delete" action for substitution is not working properly is because of "problems reported". This means that there is an issue with the connection.

Trying to Delete a Substitution Rule

• If you are maintaining substitution from the UWL, the rules should *only* be deleted from the UWL. It is not support to mix substitution maintenance between the UWL and the backend.

How to Approach the Removal of a Substitution.

• The general method to delete a substitution revolves around checking the entries in Database table KMC_WF_SUBSTITUTE in Portal DB and then subsequently deleting any entries against the user.
• So a method of manual deletion must be done for every system that the UWL (Universal Worklist) is connecting to.

Removal Steps

• Go to System Administration->System Configuration->Universal Worklist & Workflow->Universal Worklist - Administration and for all the R/3 systems that are registered there go and delete the records for substitutions in all the HRUS_D2 tables connected to the deleted users and the user * is experiencing the problem - as substituting and as substituted users.
• Delete all the records in the java engine's database table: KMC_WF_SUBSTITUTE, that are connected to the deleted users and the user * is experiencing the problem.
• Clear the cache for all system from the Universal Worklist - Administration.
• Restart the engine
• If the problem is no longer reproducible, recreate the substitution rules for the user is experiencing the problems using UWL's Manage Substitution Rules.
• Please ensure that the connection to the backend system is working ok, as this is one of the prerequisites to substitution.

Remember!

• Substitutions are kept in all systems
• Always try to disable rather than delete an inactive user who's maintained in a substitution setup as deletion can cause inconsistencies.

Good Reference Points:

• SAP KBA: 1577579 - Facts and limitations about substitution in the UWL

[2016-Blog1]

While administering your Enterprise Portal, it can be time consuming to locate content when only the PCD content Location is known. Additionally, in cases where content may share the same or similar title, it can be time consuming to locate the correct object.

Take for example the PCD Content location for the ESS Role made up of the Object IDs:

pcd:portal_content/com.sap.pct.erp.ess.bp_folder/com.sap.pct.erp.ess.roles/

com.sap.pct.erp.ess.employee_self_service

For us to Navigate to this particular Role via Content Administration, the location Titles are quite a bit different to the Object ID:

Portal Content -> Content provided by SAP -> Employee Self-Service -> Roles -> Employee Self-Service

While it is possible to hover over an object (or single click on NW 7.0x systems) to check the location, starting from Netweaver 7.3X releases, there is a feature which allows the user to customize the display of Content both inside the Portal Catalog and also within Roles. In this blog I will show you how to activate these features, step by step.

Activating the Object ID to display under the Portal Catalog (pictured above)

1. Invoke the NetWeaver Administrator tool: http://<host>:<port>/nwa
2. Navigate to the following location: Configuration -> Infrastructure -> Application Modules
3. Search for the following Module sap.com/tc~pp~adm~tls~browse in the Module List area
4. Choose the WebDynpro Properties tab
5. Select 'Components/com.sap.portal.adminstudio.browse.Browse/ViewMode' under the Web Dynpro Properties
6. Set the view_mode property to equal any one of the below options:
   1. title - Displays the name of the object
   2. id - Displays the object ID
   3. id_title - Displays the object in the following format: objectID (object name)
   4. title_id - Displays the object in the following format: object name (objectID)
7. Save your changes and log off/log back on to your Portal to observe the changes

You can reference the below screenshot to observe the exact location of this property:

Furthermore an enhancement was introduced in later SP levels which allow customization of the Object Title inside of a role, as illustrated below (SAP Note: 1760405):

To enable this enhancement follow the steps as above, however for Step 3 choose the Module sap.com/tc~pp~adm~wu~role_editor instead.

For further information you can reference the SAP Help documentation here:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/ac/dfe666d55944819bd7b1e40be64c87/content.htm?frameset=/en/48/f87a59a58d105ee10000000a42189d/frameset.htm

Perhaps one of the most elementary and fundamental aspects of the Enterprise Portal is that of the Themes in association to it. From a high level perspective such a topic seems basic, challenging and generally simply but it is often the case that a small sense of confusion arises when dealing with Portal Themes.

Such confusion could surround any action whether its creating a theme, deleting a theme, transporting a theme or copying a theme. With this next series of blog postings I intend to cover all bases from the plain and simple to the "nitty gritty" components of theming to ensure the creation and management of a theme can be an easy process.

Backdrop

With the Enterprise Portal as a System User you are capable of changing the theme setup i.e. the look & feel of the Enterprise Portal. Essentially in simplistic terms by Portal Theme we are talking about the visual and grammatical appearance of the Portal Desktop (EP GUI). As with most visual interfaces a theme depicts all core elements conjoined within a display and this particular case we are talking about font, color, contrast and interface components.

Themes - Where are they stored?

Upon logging into the Portal as a authorized user you should be able to view all the themes in the setup via the following navigation path

• Portal Content > Themes > Theming Folder > Folder Catalog

Important Point On Storing Themes

• When you are dealing with themes it is highly recommended and encouraged to ensure themes are stored, holstered and kept in their dedicated location i.e. the theming folder or a folder in association to this (sub-folder). If you plan on perform a theme transport, copy, or Product Migration and wish to utilize themes it's always better to know exactly where they are stored.

Portal Catalog - Theme Folder

As mentioned earlier themes need to be kept where they belong in the appropriate repository. Themes are unique in the sense that they have a continually dedicated repository within the Portal Catalog and this is not the same for other Portal Objects.This repository and the theme sub-folder cannot be moved

Theme Types

From a high level perspective as you might have guessed there are two common labels for themes.

1. A SAP Standard Portal Theme
2. A Company Custom Theme (based upon a Portal Theme or generated from scratch in terms of element makeup .e.g. CSS).

Standard Theme Types

• SAP_Tradeshow
• SAP_HighContrastBlack
• SAP_BlueCrystal
• SAP_GoldReflection
• SAP_Chrome
• SAP_Streamline

Custom Themes - Why?

The whole purpose behind the creation of a custom theme is simply down to preference. A business requirement may be based upon adding a personal look and feel to your Portal. If you are an organization specially in a certain Product it would almost certainly be of interest to base your theme on the fundamental services and products you provide to consumer bases.

Creation of Custom Themes

Depending on your Netweaver Product Version you can utilize two different mechanism tools for creation and editing of Portal themes which include:

• Theme Editor (older versions).
• UI Theme Designer (new version - requires activation via SAP NWA (Netweaver Administrator).

Creating Your Own Theme - Permissions

If you wish to go about creating your own Portal Theme or editing existing themes the first thing that you will need to check is that you have the relevant permissions and authorizations to do so. To edit a theme you require like the same permissions you would need to edit an object or any essential property and this is known as a Content Admin Role.

If you want to subsequently assign this theme to the landscape and desktops as a business requirement you would then require a System Administrator Role or alternatively a Super Administrator Role.

Permissions Continued

Let us remember that a theme is the graphical representation of the content contained on the Enterprise Portal which is displayed back to your end users. Evidently making a decision to change such a representation requires the appropriate level of consideration and thus permissions. With the Enterprise Portal you assign permissions for the themes themselves and then for the folders through which the themes are stored.

Accessing Permissions

Theme Permissions are stored in the following navigation path:

• System Administration > Permissions > Portal Catalog Folder (this is the theming repository mentioned earlier).
• To view and overview the permissions select and open the context menu of the theme in the "Theme" folder > open > permissions.

In my next blog posting "Theme Editor VS UI Theme Designer" I will cover the two core "tool labels" for the creation/editing of themes and highlight the important factors of each whilst drawing a comparison.

As we discussed in part one http://scn.sap.com/community/enterprise-portal/blog/2016/02/02/ep-theming-a-simple-overview-part-1 of my theme dedicated blog series we have covered the basic concepts surrounding Portal Themes, their management in terms of storage and also the permission setup in association to them.

In this second posting in the series we will cover the fundamentals between the tool core tools (past/present) which are used in theme generation and editing.

• Theme Editor
• UI Theme Designer

Theme Editor

Perhaps the more familiar of the two tools for users of older previous NW + Enterprise Portal Versions. The theme editor was the first tool creation mechanism introduced alongside the Enterprise Portal and provided users with the functional platform required to customize and edit themes to achieve a desired "look & feel".

The Theme Editor was first created in 2002 and was based upon the classical older UI.

With the Theme Editor each and every theme you create and label as a "customized" theme is based directly off a SAP Standard Theme. Such an approach allows you as a theme creator to change the core elements of a theme to meet your needs e.g. font, images and background and colors.

Working with the theme editor requires the relevant permissions and authorizations discussed in Part 1. To create or edit a theme you require a Content Admin role and to assign a theme to a desktop display you require an Admin role.

UI Theme Designer (Moving Forward)

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

Theme Editor VS UI Theme Designer

With the UI Theme Designer custom themes are saved within the newer format of WRR while the Theme Editor involved the storage of themes within the Portal Design Data.

You can overview this cross comparison yourself by simply viewing the changed URL between the two:

• com.sap.portal.theming.webdav.listener.portal.ptl-sld

Activation of UI Theme Designer

• To utilize the UI Theme Designer it must firstly be activated via Netweaver Administrator (NWA).
• NWA > START > STOP > GO > WAIT > JAVA > LAF > Portal Service Configuration ("determine theme") > LESS > SAVE > Restart.

Moving from the Theme Editor to the UI Theme Designer

• The change or switch if you like to the UI Theme Designer becomes apparent in NW 7.31 SP16 as the structure changed.
• In NW 7.30 SP10 and NW 7.31 SP9 you can avail of the new theme designer
• As of NW 7.31 SP16 the default theme tool is UI Theme Designer (although you can revert back to the theme editor if desired).
• SAP NW 7.50 will only support the UI Theme Designer

Part 3 coming soon!

Now so far in Part one we covered the basics behind the Portal Themes such as the permissions involved and the elements of interest while Part 2 gave us extra insight into the two primary mechanisms behind theme creation (1) Theme Editor (2) UI Theme Designer.

If you missed Part 1 & 2 you can review them at your convenience via the links below:

EP: Theming A Simple Overview Part 1

http://scn.sap.com/people/troy.cronin2/blog/2016/02/02/ep-theming-a-simple-overview-part-1

EP: Theming - Theme Editor VS UI Theme Designer Part 2

http://scn.sap.com/people/troy.cronin2/blog/2016/02/03/ep-theming--theme-editor-vs-ui-theme-designer-part-2

Now in this third part we are going to cover the fundamental process behind creating a custom theme and the steps involved throughout.

I figure I will break this blog posting into two separate parts with each offering an overview on the differences in creating a theme between (1) Theme Editor & (2) UI Theme Designer.

Important!

As with any Portal protocol that involves editing/creation, careful planning and diligence is required. After all we do not want to create themes which contribute negatively in terms of aesthetic appeal to the overall look and feel of the Enterprise Portal.

Theme Editor - Planning

So you have taken the decision to go and create a custom theme using the Theme Editor. Through utilization of the Theme Editor you are able to create multiple themes for all Portal Users. Each theme you create (custom theme) is based upon a SAP Standard Theme template with which you tailor the visual elements to meet your own organizational business requirements. For example you might want to change the color coding, background images or general balance of display. If your company logo incorporates traits of the rainbow you might want to have a specific colour coding across the Portal display which is indeed feasible. Now finally as here we are talking about planning you will need to ensure firstly that you have the correct authorizations to go ahead and create a theme (Content Admin) and assigning it to a desktop (Super Admin).

The Beginning

Now after some brainstorming and discussions with your colleagues regarding the theme you've generated (in your mind) the potential schema that the theme is going to follow (let us stick with the example of the rainbow).

In order to work towards achieving the desired setup the first thing you must do is select and start tailoring one of the SAP Standard Themes which is then saved as a custom theme (new name). The SAP Standard Themes themselves are non-editable (essentially they are hard-coded). The main point of interest to you (as theme creator) is the properties of the SAP Standard Themes as these properties and parameters are going to serve as the core baseline upon which your custom theme is created.

Planning Complete! - Open the Theme Editor

1. Login to the Enterprise Portal > Content Administration > Portal Display > Portal Themes > Theme Editor.
2. View the Themes > Select the Dropdown Menu > (Choose any Standard Theme You Want).
3. Open the Elements Dropdown
4. View the Element Properties and select the ones to which you want to make changes.

Elements - Overview

• All - As the name suggests if you select this in the drop-down you've made a decision to edit all elements in the theme.
• Ajax Framework Page (AFP) - Elements in association to the "Navigation" areas of the framework page itself
• Classic Framework Page (CFP) - Elements in association to the "Navigation" areas of the framework page itself
• Application: Elements pertaining to the display of application within the Portal's content Area.

Preview & Elements

You have the option to view SAP Standard Themes alongside the elements you have selected. This will essentially create a mock-up display of the process to come before you continue towards creating the rainbow based display .

Open

• Choose "Open" to open the Theme editor.
• If you view the left of the screen you can select one of the user-face theming elements.
• The parameters which essentially go into making up this UI will be shown here.
• If you go through the parameters you can Preview each.
• Now you can go about customizing as you please.
  

Save

• Select "Save As" to save the template .e.g RainbowCustomTheme
• Fill in the necessary i.e. Theme Name & Theme ID. Remember to save the theme in the theme folder or one of its subfolders!!!
• Once saved you should now be able to view and select the theme in the Theme Editor within the option "My Themes".
  

Part 4 Coming Soon - Theming - Creating A Theme (UI Theme Designer)

In this fourth blog posting on the topic of themes and their management and creation we are going to cover the creation of a theme via the UI Theme Designer. Previously in my third part we discussed the other mechanism and older approach through utilization of the Theme Editor which if you missed it can be reviewed in my central blog series below:

EP: Theming - Creating A Theme (Theme Editor) - Part 3

http://scn.sap.com/people/troy.cronin2/blog/2016/02/03/ep-theming--creating-a-theme-theme-editor--part-3

The UI Theme Desinger - New

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

Flexibility - Browser Based

The UI Theme Designer is the complete package in terms of being singular tool for theming and branding across many of SAP UI's

The UI Theme Desinger - Using It

As we highlighted previously to use this tool it firstly needs to be activated via the NWA.

Transport Theme

Before we go ahead and start creating some themes you should export current themes (via Theme Editor) save them locally and then subsequently turn on the UI Theme Designer.

Import Themes (From Older Theme Editor)

1. Login to the Portal
2. Navigate to > System Adminsitration > Transport > Transport Themes
3. Specify the path to your theme of interest (.e.g my theme) remmeber these should be in the theme core folder or one of the sub folders.
4. Copy the path and compressed file.
5. Import

Ready?

• You should now have the file ready to use within the UI Theme Designer

Select, Preview & Customize

When you customize supported portal themes using the UI Theme Designer, you can preview changes you make to framework pages.

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
   

The impressively beautiful themes we create and utilize on the Enterprise Portal are not merely empty shell's but rather complex containers involving coded elements, components and segments.

In some instances a change occurrence such as a Portal upgrade or System Migration can cause a theme setup and display to become problematic.

On many occasions a change in browser utilization can often result in rendering issues also.

Examples of such issues include the following:

• Partial rendering
• Disappearance of elements
• Non-delectable icons and navigation points
• Cut screens

In true essence the elements which go into making a theme can become problematic due to their conjunctive complexity when grouped together.

Standard Theme Types

• SAP_Tradeshow
• SAP_HighContrastBlack
• SAP_BlueCrystal
• SAP_GoldReflection
• SAP_Chrome
• SAP_Streamline

If you encounter theme based issues there are a few avenues of analysis to follow.

• One key point to check and review is whether the issue is confined to one particular web browser platform. If you are able to reproduce the issue across all browsers e.g. IE, Chrome, Mozilla etc then this would signify the "theme" itself needs troubleshooting as opposed to the environment in which it functions.

The second recommendation would be to ensure that the themes are being held and holstered correctly and not facing any deployment issues.

You check the deployment by navigating to :

• \usr\sap\<sid>\<instance-id>\j2ee\cluster\server0\apps\sap.com\irj\servlet_jsp\irj\root\WEB-INF\deployment,\pcd ,\tempand \pcdContent

If you find any files with .err extension there, kindly remove the .errextension.

Then restart the J2EE engine.

Should the issue still not be resolved and there does not exist any.err files,kindly locate following * files in the deployment directory and remove the * extension and restart the J2EE engine.

com.sap.portal.design.dataprovider.par.bak
com.sap.portal.design.portaldesigndata.par.bak
com.sap.portal.design.themepartregistration.par.bak
com.sap.portal.design.urdesigndata.par.bak

Note: Please make sure that you do not delete the entire file,you onlyneed to remove the .err or * extension.

In cases like these the main points of analysis and investigation are to delete the standard SAP themes and then perform a restart. During the restart they will be automatically regenerated.

For this please ensure to do the following:

Make sure you have your custom themes backed up.

1. Delete the SAP-supplied themes using the PCD Inspector.
2. Very important - only the central instance should be up and running during the deletion of the themes
3. Please also make sure only SAP themes and not your own custom ones are deleted as custom themes will not be regenerated.
4. Now stop the portal.
5. Go to the file system and delete the theme from the file system for each server node, if they have not already been deleted by the portal.

The paths where the themes can be found are:

• \usr\sap\<SID>\j2ee\cluster\server0\apps\sap.com\irj\servlet_jsp\irj\root\WEB INF\portal\portalapps\com.sap.portal.design.por t aldesigndata\themes\portal&
• \usr\sap\<SID>\j2ee\cluster\server0\apps\sap.com\irj\servlet_jsp\irj\root\WEB-INF\portal\portalapps\com.sap.portal.design.urde signdata\themes\portal

Restart the portal. Only the central instance should be started at this stage.

• Check to see if the SAP standard themes are now working as required?

If not another stage of troubleshooting is required (which I will cover in another blog posting).

Simply following high level investigation analysis steps such as those outlined above can help you determine many key points such as:

• Are you dealing with an actual theme issue or a browser issue?
• If you are dealing with a theme issue is it confined to a custom theme/standard theme or all themes?

If you analyze theme issues from an overview scope you can fine-tune your investigation from the offset and help eliminate countless possibilities thus making it easier to find and attain a quick, quality resolution.

So as we discussed in the first theme based troubleshooting blog posting http://scn.sap.com/people/troy.cronin2/blog/2016/02/06/ep-themes-issues--breaking-the-issue-down-high-level-analysis there are several ways to help simplify a theme based issue.

In this blog posting we'll move forward a little in analysis terms and outline some common issue scenarios and resolution approaches that can be applied.

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. Determine if the issue occurs in both SAP Standard Themes & Custom Themes.
3. 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.

Common Issues

• Custom Theme not applied
• Application iViews & Pages appear blank i.e. they do not inherit the designated Portal Theme
• Yellow boxes in Header Area
• Theme Transport & Import's not functioning accordingly
• Issues with Theme Export
• Unable to change Font colors and display
• Mix-up of themes and issues applying/assigning themes.

So as you can see there's several common issues in association to Portal Themes. What in truth seems like a simple topic offers its own distinctive avenue of complexity.

Patch Level Releases & SP's

If you encounter any issues similar to those posted above the first recommendation would be to review the SAP Service Marketplace to determine whether your issue is "known".

If the issue has been previously reported its quite likely a implementable fix is currently available via a Patch or Support Package.

• https://support.sap.com/swdc
• Important: make use of the dependency tool provided to ensure there are no system discrepancies if you implement a Patch/SP.

Browser Compatibility

If you source the theme issue to one particular web browser platform you need to make sure its utilization is supported via the PAM.

• On the PAM navigate to "Technical Release Information" & "Web Browser Platforms" (Is that browser supported?)
• https://support.sap.com/pam

Font Issues

Ok from a general perspective there are a few important points to highlight regarding any font changes with the Enterprise Portal. The font does not have to be installed to the portal, but to the users' desktops. Entering the value in the  tool e.g. Theme Editor will simply cause the font to be referenced in the portal stylesheets; the browser is the component which actually locates the font and  the page accordingly.

In the Theme Editor, you can go to Global Style Components > Text and choose to either 'Select a Value' or 'Enter a Value of your Choice'. Entering a valid font name in the second option updates the available entries in the dropdown, and adjusts the theme preview accordingly.

Note that there is no question here of installing a font to the portal; updating the theme editor merely updates the stylesheet references, so the font in question would need to be available on each client PC.

• Look & Feel, Framework Pages and Portal Navigation: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-23058
• Installing New Fonts: http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/66/94db4957cd4b8a8f5e09b6fdd92a8c/content.htm

The Infamous Yellow Box

Are you seeing a yellow box appearing in the Masthead or DTN area or somewhere else on the Portal UI?

• There is a known issue pertaining to JPG type images being ignored and thus they create empty yellow spaces (check the Patch fixes for this firstly).

Secondly there is the purely customization based root source of such an issue. I would suspect that you are using your branding image in the designbar instead of the masthead  or branding image containers.

You are then resizing the design bar much larger than in the standard themes supplied by SAP. The design bar is meant to be a narrow border on the extreme left hand side of the masthead.

However to resolve this issue is quite straight forward (and you can leave your settings as they are).

If you call:

• http://domainname:portnumber/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.portal.themes.integrity.update?themetype=portal

You will see two drop * For the 1st one Browser, leave this as 'default'. Then the second one, locate parPrtlMastHeadNotchBgColor

For your theme, then set the desired colour.

This will set the background colour for where the yellow bars are showing and the idea is to change the background colour to white.

After updating the value, be sure to, click first 'Set Value' and then 'Save and Generate' to actually generate the new css files.

You can follow the link below for a reference on to the colours to set. http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp

Assigning Themes, Theme Transports & Exports & Subsequent Imports - You have an issue

You have a custom theme created in one EP Version e.g. 7.4 SP02 and imported to SAP Portal 7.4 SP09. Now after the upgrade the theme was customized successfully e.g. using the UI Theme Designer and transported via the Transport package but the Export option in "Transport Themes" is

missing.

Custom themes should be saved automatically and visible within WRR and changes made within the WRR are persistent.

If your custom theme is based upon Corbu/GoldenReflection/BlueCrystal here you are dealing with a support issue (these are product version dependent).

The reason a visual display would revert back to a SAP Default/Standard theme is the omission of the parameter "Handover Portal Stylesheet".

The stylesheet iview parameter this is not used to specify what "sap-cssurl" to hand over to the backend, but rather to specify the type of stylesheet to use (e.g. 'ur').

Its not possible to disable handover of the portal stylesheet and at the same time specify a stylesheet URL in the portal.

You can force use of a specific stylesheet on the webdynpro side, using sap.useWebDynproStyleSheet=true and setting the sap.theme.default property to the desired theme.

With the Portal stylesheet the display type is obtained from the backend. In terms of the content area and navigation areas two seperate themes cannot be utilized at the same time.

Stylesheets

With portal integration the system first checks that the portal has transferred a specification for the style sheet. If the WDFORCEEXTERNALSTYLESHEET application parameter is * the specified portal style sheet is used. If, on the other hand, the WDFORCEEXTERNALSTYLESHEET application parameter is not * the versions of the style sheets are compared.

If the version of the portal style sheet is newer or the same as the style sheet in the SAP system, the portal style sheet is used. All four digits of the version number of each style sheet are compared.

For example, the version is 7.0.0.0 or 7.1.3.0. If the version of the portal style sheet does not match the style sheet in the SAP system, that is, the portal style sheet is older, then the style sheet specified in the WDTHEMEROOT application parameter is used. If no style sheet is specified here, the default style sheet is used.

- Setting Style Sheets: http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73ehp1/helpdata/en/03/1ed736f5ca44aa8dbbcbcf1406342c/content.htm

If you have an issue not covered in the bullet points above feel free to DM me directly or Post below and I will help out wherever possible.

Happy Theming

Backdrop:

You are utilizing a setup that involves the Universal Worklist and end-users working alongside various workitems.  In the Universal Worklist (UWL) a number of workitems are displayed within the Inbox but do not change immediately after an action is performed.

For example "New/In Progress" along with "Completed" workitems remain in the UWL Inbox despite a manual refresh or action change.

Status Types:

1. "New": The task is displayed in the task list of all potential owners. No potential owner has opened the task yet. When the actual owner of a task has put it back, the status of the task is also New and visible to all other potential owners.
2. "In Progress": The task is claimed by one of the potential owners who has opened the task execution UI. When a task is opened, it is automatically claimed by the user and he or she becomes an actual owner. Thus, the task disappears from the task lists of all other potential owners.
3. "Completed": The task is displayed in the Completed Tasks view. No other actions can be performed on the task. The Completed status focuses on the task life cycle completion, so that the task business goal is reached.

Why is the change not immediate?

When you open and run the UWL Service it takes a total of 5 minutes for all the tasks to be loaded up and represented back to the end user in graphical format as this is standard behavior.

UWL Functional Breakdown

The UWL works using two Pull operations. Firstly tasks are pulled from the backend into the UWL cache and they are then pulled a second time from the cache into the UWL User Interface. Due to this architecture there is an inherent delay in the automatic refreshes of the UWL. There is no way, in the current architecture that the UWL can refresh instantaneously. This is upon inital load as the cache must be built first upon logon so there will always be a delay. Real time refresh in the latest versions, is only when you complete a task. The Universal Worklist Task Filters follow the standard underlying functionality of the UWL refresh mechanism.

Improving the Refresh Interval & Filter Return Display

Let us remember that if you utilize the UWL within an environment that contains hundreds of work-items and end users there will be a lot of background activity each and every time the UWL is loaded. Reviewing the UWL core parameters and striking a balance among them is one of the best methods to create an optimal setup. The standard behaviour of the UWL remains that you will need to wait for 5 minutes for these changes to be updated regarding the workitems.

Introduction

By default, within the Enterprise Portal it is not possible to define a custom width for the left side Navigation Panel/DTN area of the Portal Framework Page. In this blog post, I will show you a workaround where you can set the Nav Panel to equal a specific custom width:

Important information before you begin: You must have activated LESS theming mode (SAP KBA: 1997947) and use the Ajax Framework Page.

Creating your new theme

1. Open the UI Theme Designer (Content Administration -> Portal Display -> UI Theme Designer) and open your theme of choice
2. From the Theme menu choose Save As and choose a new name for your custom theme
3. Click on the Expert Mode icon under the UI Theme Designer
4. Filter by the property leftnavPanelOpen
5. Adjust the value of this parameter based on your requirements (width should be specified in pixels/px)
6. Refresh your theme display in the UI Theme Designer to observe the changes

For further details please reference the below screenshot:

Testing your new theme

You can test your new theme quickly by logging out of your Portal, and calling the theme directly via the Portal URL:

http://<host>:<port>/irj/portal?theme=your_theme_id

You can locate your Theme ID either under the Portal Catalog or from within the UI Theme Designer itself:

After an upgrade you find rendering issues with your portal theme, it can happen either with custom or standard themes and the theme appears distorted after login. I will go through some of the more common scenarios and resolutions.

Problem with rendering of SAP standard themes:

If you find that this is happening with standard SAP themes only then a good place to start with is kba 1911990- 'Enterprise Portal looks distorted after logon'. The resolution section contains 3 steps which should be executed in the order they appear (so first step 1, next 2 and finally 3). Its very important that after you implement each step to test the scenario again to see if the issue is resolved and themes are displaying correctly.

Problem with rendering of custom themes:

1. If its happening with your custom theme only, then firstly check kba2028300 - 'Custom portal theme distorted'.
2. If re-importing your custom theme doesn't help, then check to see if the issue is happening on one or some nodes only. If it is then check kba 2195099 - 'Portal theme is inconsistent after upgrade' to manually synchronize all server nodes.
3. Note 2197656 - 'Custom themes does not exist in all server nodes' includes a fix for this synchronization issue for later releases.
4. Is note 1738135 - 'Theme inconsistency in portal after 7.3 upgrade' applicable for your version?

If none of the above helps then reproduce the issue and check the default (kba 1596214) or logwatch (kba 1593107) trace files. For theme problems you should increase the severity of the following logging locations to ALL prior to reproducing the issue:

com.sap.portal.design: ALL

com.sap.portal.themes: ALL

com.sapportals.portal.design: ALL

com.sapportals.portal.style: ALL

Other notes:

• If you find the below exception in the traces after reproducing the issue, then apply kba 1959644 - 'Theme distorted after upgrade Error:LAFService.deleteTheme -> after deleteTheme'

#EP-PIN-TOL#sap.com/com.sap.portal.themes.lafservice#C0000A7EC319004B000
0022F000002B3#637167351000006463#sap.com/com.sap.portal.themes.designser
vicenotificationservice#com.sapportals.portal.prt.service.laf.LAFService
#Guest#0##A7E9808742F011E3B00B000025FA66F7#a7e9808742f011e3b00b000025fa6
6f7#a7e9808742f011e3b00b000025fa66f7#0#Application [53]#Plain##
LAFService.deleteTheme -> after deleteTheme.#

• Or if the following exception is found in the traces, then apply kba2044168- Customized portal theme not displayed after the upgrade
  

Error in starting application [sap.com/com.sap.portal.themes.designservicenotificationservice].
[EXCEPTION]
com.sap.engine.services.servlets_jsp.server.exceptions.WebDeploymentException: Error in starting application [sap.com/com.sap.portal.themes.designservicenotificationservice].
...
Caused by: com.sap.engine.services.servlets_jsp.server.exceptions.WebDeploymentException: Error occurred when invoking start methods of web container extensions for
...
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: com.sapportals.portal.prt.service.laf.ILookAndFeelService.getApplicationName(Lcom/sapportals/portal/prt/service/laf/ThemeType;)Ljava/lang/String;