Brief note on Personas transport

Brief Introduction to SAP Screen Personas:

SAP Screen Personas is a personalization framework integrated into the SAP GUI family. It allows IT professionals and SAP experts to simplify SAP GUI screens without any custom programming / development.  SAP Screen Personas enables all the functionality of the standard SAP GUI with the personalized environment of the new web-based UI layer in which a user can drag and drop certain fields and functionality.

User productivity and satisfaction are also improved since only the essential screen elements are provided, allowing users to complete business transactions faster and more accurately with fewer data entry fields and reducing the scrolling effect. Repetitive tasks are automated and complex screens are simplified .

Personas flavors (and all other objects: resources, themes etc) are designed as very flexible objects. The original idea of a flavor is that it can be created and edited by business experts as well as by developers. Flavors can be created and edited in development systems as well as in productive environments. This flexibility of Personas objects is also reflected in the Personas database design. All Personas objects as flavors and resources are stored in application tables instead of customizing tables. This enables a flexible handling of the Personas objects.

Transport Management of Personas Object :

The following Personas objects can be transported using the Transport Management System:

• Flavors
• Themes
• User and Roles assignment of Flavors and Themes
• Resources
• Icons
• Roles

Personas Objects are transported as Workbench Objects.

SAP Screen Personas objects can be transported in two ways:

1. Use Transport Management System
2. Export/Import feature (to/from workstation)

1. 1) Using Transport Management System

1. a) Pre-requisite (Setting up the import client customizing table ):

1. i) Ensure that SAP Note 2268026 has been applied to your system before releasing any transport.
2. ii) The personas objects are stored in application table. So the transportation process may differ.

Depending on the system setting, we need to maintain import client customizing table (/PERSONAS/IMPC). (Recommended to skip this step and check whether transportation is possible without maintaining)

If the transportation is not possible, following steps to be followed:

• Go to SM30 transaction and maintain the table /PERSONAS/IMPC.
• Table has two column and must be maintained as below:
  • Ø Import System :   asterisk (“*”) to import flavors in all import systems
  • Ø Target Client: asterisk (“*”) to import flavors in all client.

Important: Save and transport the customizing setting to the intended target system before transporting Personas object.

1. b) Adding of Personas Objects to Transport Requests

The following steps need to be followed to add the developed personas object in a TR :

• Go to the admin transaction (/PERSONAS/ADMIN) then in menu bar; Goto -> Transport Utility. It will take to transport utility screen. It will show all the objects including dependent object that can be added to TR .

• Here we can select the object to transport or we can transport the entire object using Transport all button. So on clicking the button it will take to a detail screen will the entire object selected along with its dependent object shown in sub tree.

• Then click on Add to Transport Button highlighted above to create a workbench request.

1. c) Behavior of Transported Objects :

Once the Personas Objects are transported, it will behave as follows:

Usually Personas objects are editable in every system. As soon as an objects gets added to a transport request it will locked in all target systems.

• In case a flavor gets added to a transport request in system DEV and transported to system PRD it will be locked for editing in system PRD. There is no possibility to edit or delete the flavor in system PRD.
• Editing of the flavor is only possible in the original system (e.g. system DEV)
• In case you want to delete a transported flavor you must add it to a transport request first. Afterwards you are able to delete it from DEV and to transport the deletion to your PRD systems.

1. 2) Export and Import of Objects:

The transport Management System should be used in case it is planned to transport Personas Objects regularly from a development system to a productive (or other) system.

In many simple scenarios in which you just like copy objects from one system to another system we can use the Export- and Import functionality which is offered in the Personas Admin tools.

The main disadvantage of this process is that it doesn’t offer the export and import of User and Role assignment of Flavors and Themes.

Steps to Export and Import the Flavor:

1. 1) Go to transaction /PERSONAS/ADMIN. Then in menu bar go to the GOTO->Mass Maintenance-> Flavor Maintenance.

1. 2) Then execute the selection screen with required entry.

1. 3) Then select the required flavor to be exported then click on export button to download in presentation server into a zip file.

1. 4) Now in the target system again go to the flavor maintenance screen. In the main selection screen there is a import button click on it.

1. 5) This will open a file dialog in order to select the file that need to be imported. On successful import, all flavors will be shown in flavor list.