Hello everyone
In this blog I’m going to cover all the steps needed to properly configure the UWL to pull workflow tasks from an ABAP system.
Following are the list of steps to be conducted:
- Create the ABAP system definition in the portal
- Assign one system alias to the created system
- Prerequisites for UWL connectors to ABAP systems
- Create the UWL connector
- Register the UWL connector
Each of the above steps is outlined below.
1 – Create the ABAP system definition in the portal
As the UWL is a portal application, the first step is to create the definition of the ABAP system at the portal System Landscape.
The portal offers different system object templates. The ones which are relevant to be used for UWL integration are:
- SAP system using connection string
- SAP system using dedicated application server
- SAP system with load balancing
Following documentation outlines about each of these templates:
SAP Enterprise Portal - SAP System Properties
After you create the system object, the system object connection test has to successfully be executed before the system can be integrated with the UWL.
Following KBA goes through the procedure to execute the connection tests and collect relevant traces, in case any failure happens:
#1820417: How to trace system connection test errors in the portal
The connection test relevant for creating the UWL connector is the following one:
- Connection Test for Connectors
I am also adding here some very nice blogs, which help on creating the System Object in the portal:
2 – Assign one system alias to the created system
To be able to reference the created system object in the UWL, you need to define a system alias to the created system. Following documentation speaks about aliases:
Managing System Aliases
3 – Prerequisites for UWL connectors to ABAP systems
As mentioned on below documentation, before creating and activating a UWL connector of type WebFlowConnector, GenericAbapConnector or AlertConnector there are certain prerequisites:
Connecting to Provider Systems
In summary, such prerequisites consist upon the following:
- Create a user at the ABAP system, and assign SAP_BC_UWL_SERVICE
- As an option, you can use user UWL_SERVICE which is automatically created by UWL at the ABAP system.
- Create an RFC Destination at the portal system having the following name convention:
- <system_alias>$WebFlowConnector
- Ensure to fill in with the user and password for the user created on step 1 above (the user having SAP_BC_UWL_SERVICE role)
- To test the created RFC destination, click on button Ping Destination
The Ping Destination must be successful before the UWL connector can be properly created
4 – Create the UWL connector
To create the connector, you need to go to the following screen at the portal:
System Administration -> System Configuration -> Universal Worklist & Workflow -> Universal Worklist - Administration
Once in this screen, click on button
New and fill in at least the mandatory parameters:
- System Alias - The system alias which you’ve assigned to the system object created above
- Connector Type - For the purpose of this blog, the connector type is the WebFlowConnector.
After you successfully save the connector, it becomes active but still not registered.
5 – Register the UWL connector
As mentioned in the following documentation, for connectors of type WebFlowConnector item types have to be registered with the UWL service:
Register Work Item Types
IMPORTANT: It might be the case that the connector can also be created successfully without creating the RFC destination.
The problem is that if you do not create the RFC destination, some UWL features (like Delta Pull or Refresh of Completed items) might not work once you decide to enable them.
It can also be the case that after some upgrade, more strict RFC authority settings are introduced at the ABAP system level. As a consequence, it might be the case that end users won’t have enough authorization to perform some UWL operations. Thus, it is recommended to configure the UWL destination at the first place, so that the UWL operations are executed by a service user (UWL_SERVICE or the one which you use in the destination setup) rather than by the end user.
Basically speaking, it is always recommended to properly set up the RFC destination before creating and registering the UWL connector.
Regards,
Armando Zaro
