EP: FPN – Producer & Consumer Favorites (BW) in the Same Place?

Introduction

As with many Portal Landscape environments customization is a core process in many organizations and business operations. Ordinarily customization is based upon tailoring the Portal Landscape and applications it holsters to better suit an organizations requirements and meet end user preference. As with all Portal elements we already know that there are multiple changes which can be implemented across the landscape to tweak functionality, visual display and rendering perspectives. However we also know that there are certain limitations which also exists and adherence to “recommended best practices” when such limitations are encountered is always highly encouraged.

FPN – What it is?

• FPN – Producer Portal
• FPN – Consumer Portal(s)
  

In layman’s terms FPN is simply a Federated Portal Network. If you organization is operating via an FPN Setup and network this enables end-users to manage data, information and content between standard SAP Systems and Third Party sources which may be internal or external to operations. The purposes behind an FPN Setup is to maintain the single source conduit channel a Portal Landscape provides i.e. it provides end-users with a straight forward means of accessing data, applications and information.

FPN – BW Favorites Producer & Consumer

You have an FPN Setup with a Producer and Consumer Portal and wish to view all saved “Favorites” on the Consumer Portal.

Now regarding incorporating such a proposed setup I would like to reference a note in this instance surrounding such a topic of interest. “In a SAP EP environment the BW Java Bookmarks are stored as content links in a Knowledge Management (KM) repository (e.g. /userhome). In a Federated Portal Network (FPN) scenario the links are ALWAYS stored in the Producer system“.

– SAP Note: 1398821 – FPN support for KM BW bookmarks

– SAP Note: 1506213 – Known Issues with BW Bookmarks in Portal environment

From a high level perspective the Portal Favorites will return and show the content of the KM Repository within that particular Portal. In an FPN Setup it will not return BI/BW Portal Favorites as these Bookmarks are saved within the BI/BW Portal itself and not the FPN. In order to obtain and display “BI/BW Portal Favorites” in the FPN you would in theory need to align and point the Portal Favorite iView in the default framework page of the FPN to the KM Content of BI. Let us remember that the BI Setup is within the FPN environment itself.

Can you achieve BW favorites appear in a different tab (same one as Portal Favorites)?

In terms on an FPN Setup itself once a KM BW Bookmark is created the means of getting it to display and show within the Consumer Portal is through a remote KM iView .

A good reference point here is that of SAP Note: 1149597 – Federated Portal Network and BI (Broadcasting/Bookmarking).

There is also a blog posting which can be utilized as a core source of reference:

• FPN – Consumer & Producer favorites on the same window: http://scn.sap.com/community/enterprise-portal/administration-and-development/blog/2012/04/01/fpn–consumer-producer-favorites-on-the-same-window

As it is stated at SAP Note 1398821, the portal navigation on latest releases in regards with portal favorites on FPN scenario are always executed on Consumer Side, in such a way even with the producer role being accessed via Remote Role Assignment on the Consumer, the Portal will look for the BEx Web iView inside the consumer local content.

• Remote role assignment does not work anymore with regards to favorites launching inside the Consumer Portall.

Managing the Position of favorites

In terms of positioning you can use the guidance links outlined below which provides an overview:

• Managing Favorites: https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw74/helpdata/en/f6/3fe5abf5d14e4e891a3fb183153c5c/content.htm
• Portal Favorites : http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nwep73/helpdata/en/3a/d609e5803111d5992f00508b6b8b11/content.htm