Now that you know the benefits of the Support Platform (see weblog Support Platform: A Diagnostic Tool and So Much More), it's worth taking a look at some of the out-of-the-box plug-ins that come with the portal. Just to recap: The Support Platform is an engine that runs small Java programs. These programs produce results (basically, tables of information) that are displayed in the Support Platform user interface. And these plug-ins are generally designed to diagnose problems or retrieve configuration information from the Application Server. Though it was intended for use by SAP support to help customers, the Support Platform comes with plug-ins for portal administrators. 
The following reports are provided: 
After a few seconds -- or perhaps longer if you search the entire PCD -- the Support Platform displays (on the right side) a list of objects that were modified. 
Each plug-in can return results, which is a table of strings. The first two columns of data are displayed in the table (the first column is always the result description); the information in the remaining columns are shown below. Above, I searched for all pages modified in the last day. Two pages were found -- information about the selected row (pcd:portal_content/DanielContent/DanRole/LinkPage) is shown below. Most of the reports are pretty much PCD searches, which you could do yourself, but these plug-ins save you the trouble of doing the coding.
Content Reports
Among the many out-of-the-box plug-ins that come with the Support Platform, there are nine portal content reports, which give you information about PCD objects. The plug-ins are listed under Enterprise Portal --> Content Reports. The following reports are provided: - Broken Delta Links Detector: Checks for broken delta links, starting from a specified PCD location.
- Changes Tracking – Changes by User: Lists the objects that were changed by a specified user.
- Changes Tracking – Changed During: Lists the objects that were changed during a specified period of time.
- Creation Time – Created During: Lists the objects that were created during a specified period of time.
- Ownership of Objects – Created by Author: Lists the objects that were created by a specified user.
- Ownership of Objects – Namespaces: Lists the objects with a specified ID prefix (namespace).
- Permissions – Inconsistency Check: Lists the objects that do not inherit permissions from their parent folders.
- Unused Objects – Not Assigned to Roles: Lists the objects that are not assigned to roles.
- Unused Objects – Unassigned Roles: Lists all roles that are not assigned to any user.
Example: Change Tracking
Let's say you want to find out what objects in the PCD were changed in the last day (that is, by an administrator, who might have changed an attribute or created a new iView). Click on Changes Tracking – Changed During in the plug-in tree on the left, and then click Plug-In Properties Editor to specify a PCD folder, a time period and a type of portal object (like iView or page). Click Run. After a few seconds -- or perhaps longer if you search the entire PCD -- the Support Platform displays (on the right side) a list of objects that were modified. Each plug-in can return results, which is a table of strings. The first two columns of data are displayed in the table (the first column is always the result description); the information in the remaining columns are shown below. Above, I searched for all pages modified in the last day. Two pages were found -- information about the selected row (pcd:portal_content/DanielContent/DanRole/LinkPage) is shown below. Most of the reports are pretty much PCD searches, which you could do yourself, but these plug-ins save you the trouble of doing the coding. More Information
For more information about the Support Platform, see the document at SAP NetWeaver Support Platform on the Help Portal. The content reports are also listed there, along with the parameters that each can take. Also, simply run the Support Platform and browser through the tree of available plug-ins. The URL for the support platform is:http://:/sp Just sign in as any administrator.
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