Monday Knowledge Snippet (MKS) – 34 Setup and Troubleshooting of Geo-Map in SAP TM and EM

Today’s MKS deals with the steps required to get the geo-map component SAP Visual Business (SAP VB) running in SAP Transportation Management 9.0 and SAP Event Management 9.0. As both applications are closely connected in the business scenarios supported, of course both use the same geo-map component and similiar setup. The relevant SAP Visual Business release is 2.0.

Setup

1. Client Runtime installation

As SAP Visual Business is a frontend component, it requires an installation on each client machine on which users shall work with the Geo-Map function. Unfortunately SAP VB can currently not be included in the standard SAP frontend installation and must be done seperately (as for example the SAP NetWeaver Business Client). The relevant installation package can be downloaded from the SAP Service Market Place. There you find also the installation and configuration guide.

Installation & Upgrade Guides -> SAP Business Suite Applications -> Cross-Application Tools->SAP Visual Business->Release 2.0

Check this guide also for OS and browser limitations.

In case the frontend componentn is not installed, the screen looks like this (example SAP TM Transportation Network Cockpit):

2. ACF White-List certificate installation

To be compliant with SAP security guidelines, each activeX frontent component must be registered and certified as secure for each client machine.

Run transaction WDR_ACF_WLIST, select certificate ‘VB200’ and press ‘Install Certificate’.

In case the ACF white-list certificate is not installed, the application using the geo-map component looks like this:

In case the ACF white-list certificate is not available in your system, the system admin can create it manually:

Save.

Unfortunately there is currently no automated process to distribute this ACF certificate to each client machine involved.

ACF Whitelist Certificate Generation (for admins)

Currently the ACF whitelist certificate has to be generated manually in each system once by the adminsitrator (transport connection is in progress). So in case the above described ACF white-list installation transaction does not show an Visual Business certificate, execute the following action:

Run transaction WDR_ACF_GEN_CERT, select “Generate New Certificate” and press “Execute” (F8). A transport request may be needed for the certificate generation, depending on your system setup.

After step 1. and 2. the geo-map area should be loaded correctly and display at least the navigation controll and business objects. It is possible that in case the content configuration is not setup yet, that the background where the map content should be shown stays white.

3. Configure SAP Visual Business content

To configure the content used with SAP Visual Business 2.0, check this blog post:

http://scn.sap.com/community/scm/transportation-management/blog/2013/02/18/monday-knowledge-snippet-mks–29-configuration-of-geo-map-content

Troubleshooting

As each frontend component in general interacts with quite a lot of soft- and hardware components (operating system, browser, graphics driver, …), it is error prone. In case the above shown errors and solutions (uninstalled frontend, ACF certificate missing) do not solve your problems, you can do the following:

Capture as many information (system logs, screenshots, error descriptions) and open a ticket:

ACF error: In case the ACF certificate installation does not work or gets outdated quickly, open a ticket on component BC-WD-ACF-RUN-ABA

Runtime: In case the frontend brings up errors (for example business client crashes, control navigation freezes, map navigation impossible, content incorrectly displayed), open the ticket on component CA-GTF-VBZ.

Business process: In case everything runs fine and the map content is displayed correctly, but the business content does behave strange, it is most likely an application error (wrong objects, wrong colors, missing functions). SAP TM: TM-BF-MAP / SAP EM: SCM-EM-MGR

As the geo-map seems to be used by more and more customers, I hope this helps to jump over the first hurdles.

Feedback very welcome.