NWBC for HTML integration into SAP Portal 7.01

Recently I received a requirement to integrate NWBC for HTML in our SAP Portal 7.01. Initially I thought it’s going to be a very easy development, but I faced few challenges due to design conflicts and compatibility issue between NWBC and Portal.  These challenges created issues in SSO (Single Sign On) and a reasonable time and effort was invested to find a solution.

The primary reason of writing this blog is to share my experience while accomplishing this activity. It is a simple implementation if you take care of design constraints.

Requirement:  In our Portal landscape we have a Role which contains SAP GUI access of different ECC systems like – CRM, SRM, ECC, GRC etc. We have created a common role called “SAP Login”. Below is the screen shot showing the structure of the Portal content. I added a new URL iview for NWBC within the same Portal structure under SAP Login role.

Screen Shot of SAP Login Role on Portal before NWBC integration.

Integration Scenarios:

1) NWBC connected to a Portal

2) Webdynpro ABAP application is integrated into a portal PAGE

3) iView is assigned to this PAGE & page (OBN target) to the role

Technical Challenge:  I created a URL iview and added that to the “SAP Login” role. Due to design constraints URL iview started throwing Portal runtime error , SSO was failing between NWBC and Portal.  Analyzing further I came to know that this is a known issue when we integrate NWBC for HTML in Portal. As per the SAP note – 1378659 – NWBC known issues & what to check when opening a ticket

This issue occurs due to OBN conflicts. Special OBN error: “Error in Calling Up Application“

Solution:

The only solution to this issue is to “eliminate the PAGE and assign the iView (OBN target) directly to the role”. Finally I changed the design and directly assigned the URL iview to Role after eliminating all folder, pages and worksets.

This solution worked and I was able to access the NWBC for HTML using SSO.

Reference:

SCN – http://scn.sap.com

SAP Service Market Place – https://websmp106.sap-ag.de/