Web Resource Repository

[Former Member]

Introduction

The WRR (Web Resource Repository) is new feature in SAP portal which provides a storage for your portal applications and branding resources like images, .css files, etc. at one place.

A content administrator can easily change the look and feel of applications, modify applications/resources without the need to re-deploy applications.  WRR is available in Portal under the Content Administration tab:

Fig 1. Showing the Web Resource Repository in SAP portal.

What to do in WRR

WRR allows you to download, upload, view and modify portal resources.

A.    A. Upload resources to WRR:

Uploaded web resources to WRR can be used by different portal components and applications. Uploaded resources are saved in PCD as objects and are copied to file system, of portal server.

        i.    Choose Content Administration -> Web Resource Repository.

        ii.   In the Portal Catalog, expand the Web Resources node and navigate to the folder into which you want to upload resources.

             From the context menu of the selected folder, choose ‘Upload Resources’. The first page of the ‘Upload Resources’ wizard appears.

        iv.  In the Resource File field, choose the “Browse” button and select the file to upload from the file system. Click ‘Open’.

        v.   Choose “Add” to Upload.

                Note: To remove a resource or folder from the list of files to be uploaded, select it in the upload table and choose Remove. If you select  a folder, all resources and folders located below that folder are removed from the list.

        vi.  Files with duplicate names in same folder are not added in the repository while upload process. If you want to add certain files with duplicate names and overwrite the existing ones, check the ‘Overwrite existing resources’ checkbox.

       vii.  Choose “Start Upload”. The upload process starts and all valid files are uploaded.

Once the upload process is finished, the next page opens up showing a list of all files which were uploaded successfully and also the ones which were not uploaded. It also shows the reason if a file has not been uploaded.

        viii.  To upload additional files, choose ‘Restart Wizard’, otherwise choose ‘Close’.

Guidelines for uploading files:

• Maximum allowed file name length is 100 characters.
• All file names to be uploaded must contain valid characters: {A-Z, 0-9, _, ~, -,), (, and %}.
• Maximum file path for resource file storage is 120 characters, so the file hierarchy should be kept less.

B.    B. Download resources to WRR:

You may want to download a resource in order to modify and upload it again. Below are the steps involved in downloading a resource from WRR.

i.        Choose Content Administration -> Web Resource Repository.

ii.        In the Portal Catalog, expand the Web Resources node and navigate to the resource or folder that you want to download.

iii.        From the context menu of the selected resource or folder, choose 'Download Resource' or 'Download Resources', respectively. A prompt is displayed in which you can choose to open or save the file:

Fig 2. Context Menu containing the option to “Download Resource”

Fig 3. Option to Open or Save the file/folder/resource after selecting ‘Download Resource”

iv.    Choose whether to save or open the file, and specify a location in which to save it, if required. The resource file or compressed file (if a folder was selected) is saved to the local machine.

C.    C. Viewing Resource from WRR:

You may also opt to view a resource from the Web Resource Repository. Steps are as below.

i.        Choose Content Administration -> Web Resource Repository.

ii.        In the Portal Catalog, expand the Web Resources node and navigate to the resource or folder that you want to view.

iii.        From the context menu of the selected resource or folder, choose 'View Resource'. The resource opens in a new window according to file type association on your local system:

Fig 4. View Resource option in Context Menu.

D.    D. Transport between systems:

You may also transfer your resources from WRR between systems by adding the entire folder or subfolder or file in a transport package in same way as you do it for PCD objects.

E.    E. CRUD operations:

Other than the above stated operations on WRR, you can also perform CRUD operations on folders and resources, where CRUD stands for “Copy, Read, Update and Delete”.

How to brand your mobile Portal

The portal mobile framework resources are also stored in WRR which allows you to modify the resources to brand your mobile devices. Steps involved are as below:

     i.          Open the WRR under content admin and expand the Web Resources -> Application Branding -> ~com.sap.portal.navigation.mfp.resources folder. Expand the Active Branding Version Folder (Note: The folder with the highest number is the active version😞

Alternatively, to know the active version, you may right click on the ~com.sap.portal.navigation.mfp.resources folder, select “Open” -> Properties.

Fig 5. Showing the hierarchy of folders in the application branding folder.

Fig 6. To open properties of a folder

Fig 7. Showing the Active Branding Version in folder properties in right hand side window.

ii.        Select the “default” folder and download it:

              

Fig 8. Downloading the “Default” folder.

iii.        Extract the files from the downloaded folder by saving it on your local system.

iv.        Change the root folder name to be same as in Portal theme Id in your mobile portal desktop. Make the required changes to the file and save it.

v.        Add the customized folder to a zip file so that it can be uploaded back.

vi.        Now in WRR, start the Upload Resource process, browse your zip file and upload it.

The changes would get reflected without the need to redeploy the application again.

Advantages of WRR

  Ø  It is a powerful feature in SP8 which allows modifications of applications without the need to re-deploy them.

  Ø  It provides a single storage location to place all portal application resources and branding resources which allows referencing from multiple applications in different ways (code, public APIs, from other resources, etc.)

  Ø  All WRR objects are saved in PCD and are copied to file system which allows consumption of resources at runtime.

  Ø  A WRR allows the content administrator to perform multiple operations on it like, copy, view, download, upload, delete, etc.