The following blog is written by Bert Salyga – Senior Education Consultant in the North America SAP Education Delivery Organization. Bert specializes in the areas of Portal, J2EE and ABAP administration as well has Portal, Java and ABAP development. He has more than 13 years of SAP experience and is certified in Portal Administration, Portal Development and ABAP Development. You can contact Bert via email at Bert.Salyga@sap.com.
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NetWeaver Portal Content Administration is the creation and distribution of content in the NetWeaver Portal. It is recommended that all administrators as well as developers be familiar with the basic tasks of content administration.
NetWeaver Portal Content Administration is the creation and maintenance of the following objects:
- iViews: Displays data retrieved from content sources
- Pages: Consists of a layout and assigned content (iViews).
- Worksets: A collection of tasks, services, and information (iViews and Pages)
- Roles: A collection of tasks, services, and information (iViews and Pages); the role determines which service can be accessed and provides content visualization and the navigation structure.
These objects are stored in the PCD (Portal Content Directory). You must have the Content Administration role to create and maintain these objects. Each object has a specific ACL (access control list) to further limit creation and changes to these objects. The ACL also specifies End User access to limit which users can view the content of the iViews and Pages.
The PCD as seen by the content administrator:
All content is ultimately delivered in an iView. This content is first created by an application developer and can often be accessed independently of the NetWeaver Portal. These applications can be located in a variety of systems. They can be portal components which are deployed and run in the Portal runtime environment. They can be deployed on the SAP’s J2EE as servlets or SAP’s Java Web Dynpros. The J2EE can either be the local J2EE of the NetWeaver Portal or it can be a separate J2EE system. The applications can run on any of SAP’s ABAP engines as transactions or ABAP Web Dynpros. They can also run on any remote system that is accessed through a URL. The main idea here is that the NetWeaver Portal is used to access applications from a variety of backend systems. This combined with the SSO (Single Sign On) allows the end user to easily access all the information they need from one location: The NetWeaver Portal.
Once the application is created the NetWeaver Portal Content Administrator creates an iView to access the application. Under the Content Administration menu are the listed the objects of the PCD. Here the administrator can create a folder structure to create and maintain the iView, Page, Workset and Role objects. A simple right-mouse click allows for the maintenance of any of these objects. When New iView is selected a series of wizards is chosen. The first menu allows the following choices:
- iView Templates: A large variety of template is available from SAP to access applications. These include everything from accessing an application through a URL to calling a SAP transaction code.
- Portal Components: There are applications that run in the portal runtime environment. These applications can only be access through the portal.
- Web Dynpro Java Applications: These applications are deployed on the same J2EE system as the portal. If the application is deployed on a remote J2EE system then a template under the iView templates selection is selected instead.
- Web Dynpro ABAP Applications: These applications exist on an ABAP system.
Applications that are not locally running in the Portal Runtime Environment (Portal Components), on the same J2EE as the portal or through a URL will require a System Definition and a System Alias to be created by the System Administrator. The System Administrator will also enable SSO to each backend system so that users will not be prompted for login information while access content from these systems.
Pages:
Pages allow for more than one iView to be displayed at a time. There are a variety of layouts that are available to allow for multiple columns and various columns widths to be chosen. End users can also be allowed to change the layout on each page. If a page is not used than only one iView can be displayed to the user at a time.
Worksets:
Worksets are a collection of tasks, services, and information. These are iViews and Pages organized with a folder structure. This structure will be visible to the user through their navigation menus. The Workset is designed to be a smaller set of tasks that is common to many groups and users. The Workset can then be embedded into many Roles. It is the Role that is ultimately granted to the user and the Role will be visible in the user’s navigation structure.
Roles:
Roles are a collection of tasks, services and information. These are iViews and pages organized with a folder structure. Worksets and Roles can also be embedded into Roles. Roles are assigned to users and groups by the User Administrator. This assignment of Roles will define the navigation structure visible to the user.
Examples of Role definitions as well as the Role assignment to users and groups:
You should now understand the basic functions of the NetWeaver Portal Content Administrator.
NetWeaver Portal Content Administration is covered in SAPEP - NetWeaver Portal Fundamentals. This course is recommended for all administrators. NetWeaver Portal System Administration and User Administration is covered in EP200 - NetWeaver Portal Administration. Check out the full NetWeaver Portal Curicula for other NetWeaver Portal training.
Are you interested in Portal certification? Check out Portal Administration certification at C_TEP10_702 – SAP Certified Technology Associate-SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.02 or Portal Development certification at C_EP120_701 – SAP Certified Development Associate-SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.01.
More information on NetWeaver Portal Content, User and System Administration is also available through SAP’s Online Help.
