Reusing Existing Components

Use

In addition to creating new content from scratch, you can reuse existing components from the design-time and runtime repositories. The following categories of components are available for reuse:

  • Visual Composer models from the design-time repositories

  • Portal content, Web Dynpro applications, portlet applications and business object operations from the portal runtime repositories, such as PCD and GPAL

Even though you can search in all available repositories for all categories of components, your actual reuse options depend on the type of the containing model. The following table provides information about which components can be reused in which model types.

Reusable Component Type >>

iView

Page

Work-set

Role

Business Suite Work Center

Business Suite View

Business Suite Home Page

Visual Composer Models

Web Dynpro and Portlet Applications

Business Object Operations

Containing Model Type

iView

Y

Page

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Workset

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Role

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Business Suite container

Y

Business Suite work center

Y

Business Suite view

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Business Suite home page

Y

Y

Y

Y

Dynamic navigation containers

Y

Y

Procedure

You can either search in or browse available repositories for reusable components, and for which your user account has read permissions.

After selecting a component, you drag and drop it on an appropriate area. The hints in each area indicate which specific component categories or types can be dropped where. An attempt to drop a component on a wrong area fails, which is indicated by the "no-drop" icon.

More information: Reusing Components in the Modeler's Guide for Visual Composer for SAP Composition Environment.

Search

  1. Click Search in the task-panel toolbar. The Search task panel opens.

  2. In the Search in dropdown list, choose the component category, such as Portal Content or Visual Composer Models.

  3. In the Search for field, enter the name of the component that you want to reuse. The search is not case-sensitive. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard to search for a partial match.

  4. In the Type dropdown list, choose an appropriate type, such as iView or Model , or choose All for all types.

  5. Click Search . All results matching your search criteria are displayed.

  6. From the Results list, select the required component and drag it to the appropriate area on the Portal Layout board.

Browse

You can browse only portal runtime repositories: Business Objects, Portlet Applications, Portal Content and Web Dynpro Applications .

  1. Click Browse in the task-panel toolbar. The Browse task panel opens.

  2. Expand the node of the relevant component repository and the nested nodes until you locate the required component.

  3. Select and drag the required component to the appropriate area on the Portal Layout board.