The following is the first in a series of weblogs on new features in SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0 SP9.
The latest version of SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0, SP Stack 09 (SP9), which came out in November, provides a wealth of new features. In this blog, and in a series of blogs in the coming week, I will describe some of the major changes contained in this release.
SP9 was released on November 8. On December 23, SAP released NetWeaver '04 SR1, which includes the same SP9 portal. What's so special about SR1 is that it allows for the quick installation of SP Stack 09 from a single set of DVDs. Previously, new customers had to install SP3 and then apply the individual stacks up to SP9.
SR1 is included in every shipment of NetWeaver '04, or can be downloaded by customers who have a valid license from SAP Service Marketplace (http://service.sap.com) --> SAP Support Portal --> Downloads --> SAP Installations and Upgrades --> Entry by Application Group --> SAP NetWeaver --> SAP NetWeaver --> SAP NetWeaver 04 --> Installation and Upgrade.
New Features
Below is a list of the new or enhanced features included in SP9/SR1. The following are some of the more significant features; these I will discribe in greater detail in separate weblogs in the coming weeks:
- Portal Activity Report: This new feature enables you to create reports on portal activity, such as reports on the number of users logged on at any given time or which iViews and pages are the most popular.
- Portal Permissions: Three major changes were made in how permissions are handled in the portal:
- The concept of security zones has been revamped. For example, one change enables you to add an additional layer of security on iViews by requiring the portal to check if a user also has end user permission for an iView's portal component in its designated security zone.
- Initial permissions are as minimal as possible, and it is up to the administrators to grant additional permissions as needed.
- Administrators can now assign role-assigner permission at the folder level and not just at the role level.
- Portal Content Studio: Two major changes were made to the generic Portal Content Studio:
- Delta Link Tracer: This tool now shows the dependents of an object, and not just the source objects for the current object.
- Property Editor: The property editor can now be hidden to free up space on the screen, and a context-sensitive menu has been added to the Property Editor.
- Content Administration: Two major changes were made to tools for maintaining and building content:
- Search & Replace Wizard: You can now search by a property’s ID (and not just the property value). Also, the tool only searches the objects within a selected folder and object – and does not modify the selected objects themselves.
- URL iViews: The URL iView now makes it easier to deal with special characters, and allows you to select an anchor within a Web page.
- Portal Developer Guide: This guide, intended for Java programmers who develop content for the portal, is now published on the Help Portal and in the help contents of the NetWeaver Developer Studio.
The following features have also been added or enhanced in SP9/SR1:
- TLN iView Caching
- Portal Framework Pages
- ActiveX-Free Client
- HTTP Authentication System Template
- SAP/JDBC System Properties
- Parameter Reporting
- Workload Distribution
- Help Link URL
- Page Editor
- XML iViews
- Log Files for the Transport
- Display of Uploaded Roles in the Detailed Navigation
- Portal Favorites iView
For more information on these features, see the release notes located on the Help Portal (help.sap.com) --> Documentation --> SAP Library --> SAP NetWeaver --> Release Notes from SAP NetWeaver ’04 --> Release Notes for Portal EP 6.0.
In the coming weeks, I will write several more-detailed blogs on specific new and enhanced features in SP9.
Other articles in this series:
