From Swing to Eclipse: My two months experience on NWDS 7.31
Update 31 Mar 2015: Bug causing incorrect condition generated during iFlow deployment is resolved by SAP Note 2093914
Update 9 Feb 2015: There is actually a setting in Preference to trigger iFlow deployment upon activation 🙂
In my recent role, I have the opportunity to work on PO 7.4 SP08, nearly the latest and greatest version of PO to date. My previous experience on NWDS was on version 7.11 CE which was mainly used for development of Java mapping and custom adapter module. As there have been strides of improvements on the NWDS end over the last few years like Eclipse Tool for ESR in NW PI and Introducing iFlow in PI 7.31 Configuration, I decided to try it out to see if I am able to fully perform all the development/configuration tasks in NWDS or do I still need to use the traditional Swing clients.
Here is my experience after two months of working on NWDS 7.31.
Installation
To begin with, head over to the link below to download the correct version of NWDS. Note that the download location requires an S-user authentication.
NWDS Download Links – Java Development – SCN Wiki
Once the NWDS Zip file has been downloaded, installation is rather straightforward as it just involves unzipping the file to any destination on the local machine. However, getting NWDS to work nicely (read: least buggy!) in subsequent usage can be a little bit tricky, and some of the issues can be traced back to installation-related issues.
Here are some general tips on getting it right:
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Once the installation issues have been sorted out, the experience is so much better and I can actually begin to work on it for my daily tasks.
Likes ➕
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Dislikes ➖
The downside to my NWDS experience is mostly due to features from the Swing client that are missing.AFAIK, these are some of it although it is possible that the features are there, but just not that obvious to me!
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The features (or lack of it!) around Message Mapping deserves a section of its own!
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Bugs 😯
Although the experience has been relatively stable, there are occasional bugs. One of it is that when trying to make a change, NWDS does not prompt a new Change List, so I can’t save my changes. The workaround is to quit and restart NWDS.
Update: As mentioned by Alex in the comments section below, the following bug has been resolved by SAP Note 2093914 – Integration Flow deployment generates wrong condition expression
Another bug that I’ve come across is when using the Condition Editor for iFlow. If there are any unintentional white spaces in the Xpath condition, the generated condition on the iFlow is incorrect (has an additional Xpath prefix in front) and does not work. It took me a while to nail down why the condition does not work, only to find out that it’s because of a little white space! 🙁
Good Condition | |
Bad Condition |
Conclusion
iFlow seems like a complete experience, although the same cannot be said about the ESR perspective, especially with regards to Message Mapping. All in all, I do enjoy developing on NWDS. I do know that some of the missing features are scheduled in the roadmap and I’m looking forward to those and more enhancements in the future (maybe someone from SAP Labs might come across this and help to push things 🙂 .) I’ve certainly embraced it as my primary IDE for developing in PI and BPM, but I’m still far from dropping off the Swing client completely.
Thanks Eng Swee, for consolidating your experiences with NWDS and comparision with swing tools
At least with current NWDS missing mapping features, may be this is not the right time to swing from ESR swing to NWDS from a mapping point of view. And this is just my opinion
Best Regards,
Praveen Gujjeti
Eng Swee,
I appreciate your effort in consolidating, your experience with NWDS in this blog.
I feel NWDS has a long way to go, in improving developer's productivity.
Thanks Eng Swee for sharing your experience !!!
Thanks for the feedback guys!
Praveen, Raghu,
Yes, I do agree with both of you that the ESR side of NWDS needs a lot more polishing before we can really develop in it efficiently.
Here's roughly my current development practice (a little of the best of both worlds
):
Hi Eng Swee,
That exactly outlines the practice that I have been using since we migrated most of our EDI scenarios to PO 7.4 this past year. Haven't done much for simpler ESR work in NWDS thus far but we will be migrating all of our other non-EDI scenarios from our current PI 7.11 platform over to PO 7.4 this year.
Regards,
Ryan Crosby
Good to hear that I'm not the only one
Btw, I came across your thread below and it was really useful!
I always wondered where those entries came from - now I know!
Adapter module selection in NWDS
One thing I noticed was that one of the default parameters for MessageTransformBean was incorrect - it loads TransformClass instead of Transform.Class (with a period.)
Rgds
Eng Swee
Thanks Eng Swee,
Glad some other folks have been able to find it helpful. I spent a couple of days back tracking until I was able to find it. The MessageTransformBean issue must be some typo or bug in the standard Eclipse coding however since it is available out of the box. If I get bored maybe I shall search for the specific code again but it was not easy to find.
Regards,
Ryan Crosby
Very Nice Thanks Eng Swee..
Hi Eng Swee,
Thanks for sharing your experience.
As of now we have to remain happy
with ESR.
Regards,
Dipen.
Thanks Eng Swee..The blog is nice..It opens out the pain areas every PI developer/consultant goes thru while working on ESR in NWDS
Thanks everyone for all the feedback. Feel free to add on if anyone has any other points of likes/dislikes/bugs that they have encountered while working on NWDS 7.31.
To be fair, NWDS has come a long way and has made many improvements. Having worked with the Swing client for the past 10 years, NWDS is really a refreshing change. The concept of having a single unified environment for PI/BPM/BRM development is awesome - it's just that the complete experience hasn't fully arrived yet.
As the saying goes "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Let's hope that SAP continues to push out more enhancements to close the gaps... and sooner rather than later!
Eng Swee,
Thanks for the detailed post. I have been working with PI 7.4 Single Stack since Oct 2013 and always used NWDS from the start.
I use the Swing client for those Repository tasks which cannot be done in NWDS. For example I could not find any support for Data Type enhancements in NWDS. The mapping functionality is very limited in NWDS and I found the option "Execute Default Matcher" to be very hit and miss. The traditional Swing option "Map Selected Fields and Substructures if Names Are Identical" works much better.
Since working with NWDS I can't ever remember using the Swing client for maintaining Integration Builder objects, I have found NWDS very complete in this area. I may have used it to find the Web Service / WSDL URL end points, but as you say the Blog by Pavan now shows how to do this from within NWDS.
Iflows is by far the biggest advantage and makes life so much easier. Biggest draw back for me is lack of support for transport of Repository Objects from NWDS. Especially as the support for transport of Iflows is so nice!
The concept of using Folders to group iFlows is great.
All in all I am very happy with NWDS and would really miss it if I had to work on a Swing only installation.
Che
Hi Che
I totally agree with all your points - thanks for sharing your experience here too!
The "Execute Default Matcher" didn't work well for me too, somehow it misses some fields when I use it. Plus the functionality isn't that obvious to begin with - having to drag the source to target with a right click.
I've had further discoveries since I last wrote the blog.
- NWDS does not flag warnings when the mapping is opened but there were some underlying mapped fields were changed. In Swing, the warnings are displayed and there is the functionality to "Correct Structural Inconsistencies", so you don't have to redo your whole mapping logic again. In NWDS, the mapping logic just resets
- There is no option to set "Maintain Order At runtime" in the iFlow
- I also can't do a Where-used check on the channels in NWDS
Yes, all in all, I am happy with NWDS too, but still looking forward to the day when I am able to drop Swing completely.
Rgds
Eng Swee
Hi Eng Swee,
maintain order at runtime is supported for Integration Flows, can be set in the properties of the interface split activity
where used check is somehow supported via PI search (Window --> Show View --> Search PI Objects)
Alex
Hi Alex
Thanks for your reply.
I found the "Maintain Order At Runtime" checkbox in the Interface Split activity as you mentioned. However, it isn't that obvious that the Interface Split activity is required for my scenario. For my case, it is a single receiver interface with multiple occurrences so I did not need a condition for an interface split. I just wanted the order to set the EOIO sequence for the child messages generated from the multi-mapping.
As for the Search functionality, I found the "Tips and Tricks" help that taught me how to do a where-used. The "flow + <object>" seems to work for service interfaces (not for dummy ones), and systems, but not for communication channels. Btw, I am on NWDS 7.31 SP13 Patch 0000.
Thanks again for taking time to share the pointers.
Rgds
Eng Swee
Hi Eng Swee,
these are great informations. I like your relevant advise to use "A little of the best of both worlds
".
Kind regards
Rodrigue
Hi Eng Swee,
Thanks for sharing your experience. Its very precise and informational.
Regards,
Sukhsimran
Hi Eng Swee Yeoh
Getting error while activating a IFLOW in PI 7.4 Single stack in NWDS for a simple scenario.
Scenario - File to File
Source = ECC - NFS mount (FILE adapter)
Target = Shared folder (using new SFTP Adapter by SAP PI)
Its just a pass-through so have created ID part ( no ESR) and executed, its works fine in Swing tool.
In NWDS while creating the same scenario using IFLOWs get anerror.
"ERROR of type INVALID_PARAMETER_VALUE for IF_FILE_to_File
Details: Insufficient authorization to maintain operating system commands. See SAP Note 1669957 for more details"
We have not added a OS commands and have all the required roles for user as per NOTE 1669957 .
Please advise if you have got into similar situations .
Thanks
Anil
Hi Anil
Unfortunately I have not encountered this scenario. Try the following:
Create a new sender File NFS channel.
Create a new sender File FTP or SFTP channel.
If it still does not work, I'd suggest that you open a new thread in the forum and see if anyone else might be able to assist you further.
Rgds
Eng Swee
Hi Anil,
this also happened to me, it was a bug which was a side effect of note 2026577, the patch to fix it is also attached to the note
Alex
Thanks Eng Swee for your comprehensive feedback,
With releases 7.31 SP16/7.40 SP11, some of the gaps you have pointed in ESR NWDS under dislikes have been filled like File transport and display queue in mapping, additionally we also have introduced the feature to search for ESR objects in NWDS. Also
re-ordering of data type is available from 7.31 SP14.
Option to import XSD as data type is already available and
import as external definition is planned for 7.5.
Also features like copy, where used ,export of XSD from data
type editor, version and conflict management are in the roadmap .
Hope this helps.
Thanks & Regards,
Gayathri
Hi Gayathri
Thank you so much for your reply, and for sharing what we can expect in the roadmap ahead.
I'll definitely look forward to display queue and file transport - these two features alone have caused me to completely switch back to Swing for ESR tasks since I wrote this blog. It was just less effective and productive trying to perform those in NWDS.
By any chance, are DTE features as mentioned by Emil Jessen in the blog below also in the near-future roadmap?
Is it bye bye to SAP standard enterprise services? With no way to enhance in NWDS
Also, any chance of NWDS moving away from the current Eclipse 3.5.2 platform to the newer ones like Juno/Kepler/Luna? Would be great to be able to have ADT on the same installation and thus have a real Integrated Development Environment for both ABAP and PO.
Rgds
Eng Swee
Hi Eng Swee,
DTE is on the roadmap as well
Furthermore, with release 7.5 we plan to support Eclipse 4.4 Luna
see http://service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700000273752014E.pdf
Alex
Hi Alex
Thanks for your responses. I have updated the blog regarding the condition expression bug. I must admit I didn't check in the Support Portal for that one (which I should have!) because I figured out I could live with making sure I have no whitespaces in the condition editor.
I had a look at the roadmap document and the planned features look really good, and support for Luna & Java 8 is definitely a welcome.
Emil Jessen would also be glad to hear the news about DTE support too!
Thanks a lot again! Keep up the good work at SAP Labs
Rgds
Eng Swee
HI Eng Swee Yeoh
Is "Display Queue" option available in 7.5 release. did you get a chance to update 7.5?
Hi Ramesh
It's available from 7.31 SP16 / 7.4 SP11 - refer following blog
What’s new in SAP Process Orchestration 7.31 SP16 / 7.4 SP11
Regards
Eng Swee
Hi Eng Swee,
i had some problems with "Display Queue" and i hope you can help me.
I Use eclipse Mars Release (4.5.0) with SAP NWDS ESR Browser 7.2.0 and tryed this config - Using Display Queue
(Using Display Queue - Managing Services in the Enterprise Services Repository - SAP Library)
But i dont get the context menu "Display Queue" - btw my mapping is running.
Best Regards,
Alex
Hi Alex
First of all, what is the version and SP level of your PI system?
Secondly, I'm not sure about this Eclipse Mars version. Are you using the latest NWDS 7.5 version? Please share which SMP download did you use.
Regards
Eng Swee
Hi Eng Swee,
here the Download Link for NWDS 7.5
https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/Java/NWDS+Download+Links
750
There is no more update site solution. The new 750 release can be downloaded from
https://support.sap.com/software/patches/a-z-index.html --> 'N' --> SAP NETWEAVER --> SAP NETWEAVER 7.5 –> Developer Studio
PI-System:
Regards,
Alex
Hi Alex
Two things:-
i) Your system is 7.31 SP11, you cannot use NWDS 7.5 for it, you need to use NWDS 7.31 SP11.
ii) Display queue is available only from SP16 on a 7.31 system.
Regards
Eng Swee
Thanks for info
Hi Eng Swee,
the bug mentioned in your blog has been resolved
2093914 - Integration Flow deployment generates wrong condition expression
Alex
Hey
Anyone who know why I can't set my "Import Parameters" from Eclipse ?
When I want to fill in the value for RFCChannel nothing happens 🙁 and there for I am not able to test my mapping any more in Eclipse. It works perfectly in swing client.
This still doesn't work with NWDS 7.5 SP19.
If i want to test mappings with lookups i still have to use the Swing client.
Best regards
Peter
Hi Eng,
Really a very good summary,
We are about to upgrate to SAP PI/PO 7.5 version and we are loking forward to use NWDS and migrate all previous ICOs to iFlows.
Do you have and updated version of this blog for PO version 7.5?
Is there any other considetations we need to take care about with the 7.5 version?
Thank you,
Jose Villanueva
Hi Jose
This blog is 4 years old, so there are many changes and improvements to NWDS since then. My suggestion for you is to just go ahead and use NWDS and see how that works out for you.
Regards
Eng Swee
Thank you Eng, So far I do not see a tangible advantage of migrating to iFlows, beyond that in 2025 the Java Swing will no longer be supported. Best regards, Jose Villanueva
I disagree. IFlows are a much better approach of configuring scenarios than ICOs. If you have never tried it, I suggest that you at least give it a try.
At the end of the day, it's still your choice. As for me, I'd use IFlow any day over ICOs.
Thanks for sharing your experience Eng Swee, all this while I was thinking I am the only one who finds NWDS complex. I am learning it on my own and if you have any training guide, kindly share.
Hello Eng Swee,
Once after we upgrade to 7.5, can we still use swing tool ? or is it mandated to use NWDS eclipse tool?
Thanks