Enterprise Portal Cookbook Vol 1

8/7/2019 Enterprise Portal Cookbook Vol 1

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Author: Jude Lobo Page 1 02/09/02

VOLUMEVOLUMEVOLUMEVOLUME

1SAP Technical Delivery

Jude Lobo

mySAP.com

Ent erpr ise Por t a l Cook book

(Overv iew & Arch i tec t u re )


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Table Of Contents

Topics Page No.

1. Business Problem1.1. Business Background1.2. Business Scenario

2. Business Solution2.1. Enterprise Portal2.2. SAP Solution (mySAP.com Enterprise Portal2.3. mySAP.com Enterprise Portal Component Functions

2.3.1.Portal Platform2.3.2.Knowledge Management Platform2.3.3.Business Information Warehouse Platform

3. MySAP.com Enterprise Portal3.1. Architecture

3.1.1.Navigation Platform3.1.2.Portal Platform

3.1.2.1. Middle Layer3.1.2.1.1. Web server (IIS 5.0)3.1.2.1.2. Page Builder3.1.2.1.3. iViewServer

3.1.2.2. Persistent Layer3.1.2.2.1. User Management

3.1.2.2.1.1.Corporate LDAP3.1.2.2.1.2.Portal LDAP

3.1.2.2.2. Repository Database3.1.2.2.2.1.SQL Database

3.1.2.2.2.2.Portal Content Directory3.2. Information Flow in the mySAP.com Enterprise Portal4. References

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Business Problem

1.1. Business BackgroundAs businesses becomes more complex and diversified, the challenges of accessing relevant information

becomes more pronounced for the user while provision for the information becomes more difficult for the

organization. The business problems faced are as stated below

More Business Information Sources Document Repositories

Enterprise Applications

Web Services

More Systems ERP

CRM

BW

SCM

KM

EAI

More People Employees

Partners

Customers

Stakeholders

More Geographic Areas Multi Locations

Multi Lingual Users

1.2. Business ScenarioB2E BP : Business to Employee, supporting the Business Processes that they perform

B2E SS : Business to Employee, providing Self Service facilities to employees, both within thecorporate LAN for those who have access to PCs, and externally through the firewall

for employees at home.

B2C SS/EC : Business to Customer supporting Self Service for such information as orders, invoices

etc, as well as providing E-Commerce capabilities to make business easier

B2S SS/MP : Business to Supplier, providing Self Service to encourage loyalty and collaboration, as

well as MarketPlace features to encourage competition between suppliers and raise the

standard for inventory supply and reduce prices

B2C : Business to consumer, usually a web site with personalisation, without the need for any

back-end connectivity


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Business Solution

2.1. Enterprise PortalThe Enterprise Portal is an environment that allows everyone (Employees, Suppliers, Partners, etc) to get a

perspective of required information in one place. The Enterprise Portal is cantered on the user. It creates an

environment that provides all type of information to the user, from all sources, allowing the user to stay in the

portal for 80% - 90% of the time.The Enterprise Portal provides users with a centralized, easy-to-use access to all the information, applications

and services they need to participate in collaborative business processes.

A Enterprise Portal Solution must provide all users (Employees and External Communities) personalized

convenient access (Point & Click, Drag & Relate, Single Sign-On) to everything needed (Information /

Applications / Services) anytime, anywhere (Web Browser / Mobile Devices) in a secure way (Robust Security

Features) to get their task or job done.

The Table below shows the 4 Information Pillars and how mySAP.com Enterprise Portal deals with them

Information Pillars MySAP.com Enterprise Portal Solution

Transaction System / Legacy Database IViews & Unification

Internet Yahoo

Content & Documentation Knowledge Management

Data Warehousing & Analytical Processing Business Warehouse

2.2. SAP Solution (mySAP.com Enterprise Portal)The mySAP.com Enterprise Portal allows a user access to internal and external information, applications, and

services that are relevant to the users role in the organization.

By unifying Enterprise Applications, Data Sources, Document Management Facilities, and Web Sites in one

virtual system through a Role-Based, Personalized Browser Interface, the mySAP.com Enterprise Portal (EP) is

the single point of entry for enterprise users to all the resources they need on a daily basis.

The mySAP.com Enterprise Portal is available in 3 versions

! mySAP.comEntreprise Information Portal

Portal providing user Information through Yahoo!! mySAP.comEntreprise Collaboration Portal

Portal providing user Information / Application / Services in a role-based environment.

! mySAP.com Enterprise Unification PortalPortal providing user Information / Application / Services in a Role-Based environment and allowing the

user to Drag&Relate information from disparate sources to solve business problems.

2.3. mySAP.com Enterprise Portal Component Functions


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Portal PlatformThe Portal Platform provides an environment for developing and administering portal content (Roles and

iViews) and for performing user administration. It also provides a set of services for running iViews and

assembling them into portal pages that are displayed in the Portal.

The main function of the MySAP.com Enterprise Portal Platform is to provide those components necessary to

build a portal.

! iView technology, for creating and administering iViews. Customers can either use iViews delivered bySAP Portals or create their own. iViews can be programmed in any language, such as Java, JSP, ASP,XML, COM, etc.

! Unification technology, which enables a unified access to enterprise applications to enable Drag andRelate operations. The Enterprise Collaboration Portal includes the R/3 Unifier for creating Drag and

Relate operations between SAP transactions. The Enterprise Unification Portal includes additional Unifiers

for creating Drag and Relate operations between other systems as well. These Unifiers include the Database

and Legacy Unifiers, the Baan Unifier and the Oracle Application Unifiers. Additional Unifiers for

PeopleSoft and Siebel are being planned by SAP.

! Page Building technology, for rendering the HTML pages that the user sees and interacts with.! User Management technology, for administering users and for mapping user IDs in LDAP directories to

enable single sign-on (since users may have different Ids in different enterprise applications.

! User Role Management technology, for creating the user roles that provide pre-configured targeted portalpages for the user.

Knowledge Management PlatformThe Knowledge Management platform provides access to an organization's unstructured documents. Its major

functional areas consist of

! Content Management, which supports the entire lifecycle of documents, including the authoring, storage,management, and display of documents.

! Retrieval and Classification, for processing free-text search queries, providing automatic classificationand general text analysis, and combining unstructured document content with content from a database (for

example, for an expert search.)

! Collaboration, for closing the communication gap between users or teams by providing synchronous (chat,online conferencing, etc.) and asynchronous (feedback, rating, discussion forums, shared folders, etc.)

collaboration support.

Business Information Warehouse PlatformThe Business Information Warehouse provides data warehousing, reporting, and analysis of information in an

organization's databases and data sources. When incorporated into the MySAP.com Enterprise Portal Solution

as the Business Intelligence platform, the results of these reports and analyses can be provided to the

appropriate portal users. The major functional areas of the Business Intelligence platform include:

! Data Warehousing, which delivers a common view of enterprise data and provides tools and technologiesfor designing and managing a data warehouse.

! Reporting and Analysis, for providing decision-support tools such as query, reporting, multi-dimensional

or online analytical processing (OLAP), as well as data exploration and data visualization tools.! Planning and Simulation to support scenario planning, dynamic simulation, and integration of strategic

and operational planning.

! Portal Integration and Information Deployment for seamless integration into an mySAP.com EnterprisePortal.

! Business Performance Management, which provides analytical and data modelling tools to visuallyrepresent objectives, monitor progress, and model scenarios.

! Business Content, which includes the information models where the entire data flow in business content, ispreconfigured.

! Analytical Applications based on a variety of business areas, which integrate business processes andprovide predefined business scenarios and metrics that measure the effectiveness of business operations and

enable users to take immediate corrective action.


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MySAP.com Enterprise Portal

3.1. Architecture

Note: For Hardware and Software requirements for each component on the mySAP.com Enterprise Portal the

resource available is as follows

http://help.sap.com/portals/download/HardwareRequirementsLandscape.zip

Information Sources Platforms

Document

RepositoriesWeb Services3

rd Party

Applications

SAP ApplicationsYahoo! Services

Navigation Platform (Browser)

Knowledge Management Platform

Content Management Component

TREX Server

Business Warehouse Platform

Business Explorer

BW Server

Administrators Workbench

Portal Platform

iView Server

iViews

Apps

APIs

Page Builder

Unification Server

Unifier A Unifier B

Web Server (IIS 5)

SecurityFilter

PortalConnectorFilter

J2EEConnectorFilter

User Management Components

Corporate LDAP Directory

Portal LDAP Directory

Database Repository

Portal Content Directory

SQL Database

PAGE

IView

Channel
http://help.sap.com/portals/download/HardwareRequirementsLandscape.ziphttp://help.sap.com/portals/download/HardwareRequirementsLandscape.zip


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Navigation PlatformOn the client side the mySAP.com Enterprise Portal is displayed in a standard browser. The browser

communicates with the Portal Server via HTTP or HTTPS requests.

Portal PlatformIn the Portal Platform, the iViewServer provides a runtime environment for both Java-based and .NET iViews.

At runtime it fetches the content of iViews based on client requests. Content metadata and user data is stored inthe Persistence Layer. For iViews that allow HyperRelational Navigation with the iPanel, the information on

how to relate one set of data to another is retrieved from the Unification Server and Unifiers.

The Page Builder assembles the portal pages that are then displayed in the mySAP.com Enterprise Portal. The

Web Server is in charge of surfacing all HTML data to the client (Web browser). The browser displays the

pages, getting the output for each iView from the iViewServer.

Middle Layer : Runtime Environment for the MySAP.com Enterprise Portal

Web server (IIS 5.0)The Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS 5.0) serves as the Web Server for the MySAP.com Enterprise

Portal. The portal is hosted within a virtual directory SAPPortal on the IIS server within the folder

\Inetpub\wwwroot

The Web Server includes the Internet Server Application Program Interface (ISAPI) filters, provided andinstalled by the MySAP.com Enterprise Portal setup wizard.

! SecurityFilterThe SecurityFilter.dll checks to see if the user has already been authenticated to the Portal. If not it invokes

Basic Authentication within the IIS and sends the UserID and Password to the Corporate Directory Server

(CDS) or any other Authentication Authority

! PortalConnectorFilterThe PortalConnector.dll checks to see if a request is Portal-Specific. If it is the request is redirected to the

appropriate Portal Component, eg. The iViewServer or the Page Builder.

! J2EEConnectorFilterThe J2EEConnectorFilter checks to see if a request needs to be processed by the J2EE Engine. If it is, the

request is redirected to the J2EE Port (Default is 8100)

Page BuilderThe Page Builder is a service written in COM that functions as an extension to the Web Server (IIS 5.0). It is

incharge of building the portal page. This entails collecting the iViews that need to be displayed,

encapsulating them in a Portal Page and surfacing that Page.

Step 1: Load the Initial Portal Page (without any iViews)

The Framesets, Frames and iFrames are positioned. For every single iView an iFrame is placed

on the Initial Portal Page.

Step 2: Load the iViews.

With the iViewServer (=iFrame filled with script)The iViewServer adds a Script to the iFrame of the Initial Portal Page. The iView contents are

rendered at the server side. When the Script is performed at the client side, the contents arepushed from the iViewServer to the iFrame.

Bypassing the iViewServer (=iFrame with URL)The iViewServer adds a URL to the iFrame of the Initial Portal Page. No rendering is done by

the iViewServer. The URL can be made to point to an ITS service.

iViewServerThe iViewServer is a service written in COM that functions as an extension to the Web Server (IIS 5.0). The

iViewServer main functions is fetching and caching iView data and supplying this data to the Page Builder.

There are two types of iViews in the MySAP.com Enterprise Portal

! . NET iViews, typically written in ASP with busdoc XML output.The iViewServer is responsible for rendering .NET iViews

! Java iViews, typically written in Java/JSP.The iViewServer has a J2EE Application Server Engine (called In-Q-My) that renders Java iViews.

The main functions of the iView Server is to Process iViews based on client Request, Cache iViews for faster

retrieval, Handle iView User Personalization.


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Persistent Layer : Places to store data, which can be retrieved after any internal memory is cleared

User ManagementThe user management component uses two data repositories to store user-related data. Both directories are

based on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

Corporate LDAP DirectoryA LDAP Directory Service is deployed for retrieving User information, it contains

Basic User data Basic Group data

User/Group Assignment

Group HierarchyAny user that has an account in the Corporate LDAP Directory can log on to the portal.

There are 2 methods of structuring the Directory Information Tree

1. Deep Hierarchy

2.

Flat Hierarchy

Portal LDAP DirectoryA LDAP Directory Service is deployed that stores user data required by the portal only, it contains

Portal-Related User Properties Portal-Related Group Properties

User/Group Role AssignmentThis data can either be stored in separate branches on the corporate LDAP directory server, or on a

dedicated LDAP directory server.

RootU1

U2

U3

U4

Users

(ou)

Sales

(ou)

Sales DE

(ou)

Sales US

(ou)

Printers

(ou)Devl

(ou)

RootU1

U2

U3

U4

Users

(ou)

Sales

(goN)

Devl

(goN)

Grou s

(ou)

ou = Organizational Unit

goN = Group Name


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Repository Database

SQL DatabaseThe SQL Database functions as the persistence layer for .Net Elements of the portal.

The following objects are stored in the SQL Database

Roles

Worksets

Page Structures iPanel Definitions

iView Data

User Personalization Information

Portal Content Directory (PCD)The PDC functions as the persistence layer for Java Elements of the portal. The PCD uses a file system that

functions as the persistence layer within (..\Enterprise Portal\DataFile\PCD\)

The following objects are stored in the PCD

Roles

Worksets

Metadata of External Services (transactions, BEx Web applications) and Java iViews Personalization data of External Services and Java iViews

Master iViews (PAR File)

The PCD functions as a Data Repository for the Role Editor. Its main functions are

Role Maintenance

Role Migration (From External System like R/3)

Import / Export of Roles and Objects

Distribution of Portal Roles from PCD to R/3 and Authorisation Maintenance in R/3

External Service Migration


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3.2. Information Flow in the mySAP.com Enterprise Portal

1. The Web Browser (mySAP.com Enterprise Portal Client) sends a Request to the Web Server2. The Web Server (With the help of the ISAPI filters) blocks this Request for Authentication and Redirection

SecurityFilter.dll invokes Basic Authentication. The UserID and Password is received from the userand sent to the Corporate Directory Server for authentication.

PortalConnector.dll checks to see if a request is Portal-Specific. If it is, the request is redirected to the

appropriate Portal Component, eg. The iViewServer or the Page Builder.

J2EEConnectorFilter checks to see if a request needs to be processed by the J2EE Engine. If it is, therequest is redirected to the J2EE Port (Default is 8100).

3. The Page Builder which is an extension to the Web Server, assembles the Initial Portal Page (ie. theFramesets, Frames and iFrames are positioned). For every single iView an iFrame is placed on the Initial

Portal Page.

4. The iViewServer on receiving the Request form the Page Builder or Web Server processes it as follows

The iView Server, calls the iView Application through a URL

The iView Application reads the data from the Data Source (Persistence Layer) and processes it.

The iView Application sends the result to the iView Server in HTML/XML format.

The iView Server, maintains a cache of the iView Content Data (\MySAP.com EnterprisePortal\Datafiles\Cache)

(Note: For iViews that allow HyperRelational Navigation, the information on how to relate one set of

data to another is retrieved from the Unification Server and Application Unifiers)

The iView Server either adds a script or a URL, to the iFrame of the Initial Portal Page.5. The Web Server presents the user with a FrameSet (Different parts of the FrameSet are Header, Top Level

Navigation, Content Area and iPanel) delivered by the Page Builder and a Logon Ticket. The Web Browser

displays the pages, getting the output for each iView from the iViewServer.

iView ServerUser Management

C_LDAP P_LDAP

Repository Database

PCD SQL DB

Browser

Page Builder

Runtime

iView Fetcher

Rendering

Java

iViews

ASP

iViews

Java iView Runtime

Cache

Browser

Source System


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References

http://help.sap.comhttp://www.sapdesignguild.org
http://help.sap.com/http://www.sapdesignguild.org/http://www.sapdesignguild.org/http://help.sap.com/

Documents

Enterprise Portal Cookbook Vol 1