Uploading Roles from Back-End Systems and its Results

After the delivery of EHP6 for SAP ERP, SAP changed its delivery strategy for Portal Roles, better known as Business Packages. SAP is standardizing its SAP ERP offering on Web Dynpro ABAP UI technology. To simplify the delivery channels and the integration with the main SAP UI clients (i.e. SAP NetWeaver Portal and SAP NetWeaver Business Client), SAP has enhanced the interoperability between the portal and the ABAP role repository (PFCG). 

Going forward, SAP is focusing on delivering SAP content via a single delivery channel - PFCG roles, consumed by both the SAP NetWeaver Portal and the SAP NetWeaver Business Client. In the past SAP delivered roles for both SAP NWBC and SAP Netweaver Portal. 

In the future this delivery process will be simplified:

• For SAP Netweaver Portal: NWBC Roles have to be uploaded from corresponding SAP Backend. Business Packages/Portal Content will be shipped only in exceptional cases.

• For NWBC, the delivery process remains unchanged, NWBC Roles will be shipped.

Prerequisites:

1) SSO configured between  Portal and the backend system (ECC/ERP).
2) System Object created for Backend system.
3) You have super admin access.


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.

Procedure:

1) In the Portal Catalog, in the context menu of the folder that will contain the uploaded role, choose  New > Role > Role from Back End.

The New Role from Back End wizard appears.

2) Search for the role or roles that you require, using the Search In dropdown list to select the alias of the back-end system, and the Search For field to define the ID of the role that you want to upload.

When you choose Go , all IDs that answer the search criteria are listed in the Available Roles column of the displayed table. The name of each role is displayed as a tooltip on each entry.

3) Select one or more roles for upload. You can use the Ctrl key to select multiple roles, and the Select All / Deselect All options in the table selection menu as needed.

4) Add the roles to the Selected Roles list using the  Addand  Add All
buttons, as appropriate.

Note: You can rename a selected role by changing its name in the Role Name column.

5) To add roles from other back-end systems, perform steps 2 to 4 again. The roles that you choose are added to those already in the Selected Roles list.

6) In the Define Settings step, you can define specific (non-default) settings to apply when uploading the roles, such as retaining the defined user mapping, converting back end roles to worksets, or setting the master language. At upload, default settings are applied unless otherwise specified.

7) Choose Start Upload . The upload process begins, and a progress bar tracks the process. For each object uploaded, a message is shown in the Status column of the displayed table. If errors and/or warnings occur, links to the required information are added in the Information column. Clicking the link displays a new browser window with the full list of error and warning messages.

When you complete the wizard, the uploaded roles are displayed in the selected Portal Catalog folder.

Note: If OBN has been defined in the role, the OBN information is added as well.

Results of Uploading Roles from Back-End Systems

This section describes the presentation and behavior of roles and role content that result from uploading a role from an SAP back-end system to the SAP portal. The administrator of the ERP application in the back-end system defines the parameters that determine the behavior of the role in the portal.

Prerequisites

A role from a back-end SAP ERP system is uploaded to the portal using the New Role from Back End wizard.

Result

• The top level navigation (TLN) in the portal appears in single row.
• The top level navigation (TLN) also appears in single row in the Ajax Framework Page, if the STLN parameter value in the back end is false (F).
• Note: If the STLN parameter value in the back end is true (T), it causes the Ajax Framework Page to have two folders to maintain.
• The back-end administrator determines if uploaded content in the portal appears in a new tab or a new window.
• Default page content is determined in the back end.
  If more than one page is defined as the default, the first page that was defined has priority.

• This content does not appear in the navigation hierarchy of the portal.
• All objects appear as related services with all hierarchies flattened.
• The uploaded role objects appear at the same hierarchical level as the Link Collection folder.
• If uploaded back-end objects have OBN parameters, these parameters are uploaded with the objects and the object-based navigation functions correctly, provided that the OBN target objects are also uploaded.
• Note: If an uploaded back-end object has a business object parameter, the name of the name of the business object parameter value becomes the name of the portal system that is created when the role is uploaded.