iViews 

Purpose

An iView (integrated view) is a logical portal content building block representing a visual application or part thereof.

iViews let you extend the reach of your portal to any available information resource, regardless of where it may be stored. The underlying architecture of iViews enables them to return up-to-the-minute information each time they are launched, from data sources as varied as:

●      relational databases

●      ERP systems

●      CRM systems

●      enterprise applications

●      collaboration tools

●      intranets

●      World Wide Web

●      e-mail exchange systems

Think of the portal as your "personalized newspaper." iViews are the "articles" that make up that newspaper. And just like real articles, they cover news and events from many different sources—ERP systems, productivity tools, homegrown applications, the Internet, intranets, and many more. However, unlike a newspaper, iViews are not merely static links that retrieve words and numbers. iViews allow you to "dig deeper" into the story, by asking ensuing questions to continue searching for related information in real time.

For example, rather than just showing you open sales orders from your ERP system, iViews allow you to pursue the matter until you know why an order is late and what you can do to ship it faster. And since iViews seamlessly "integrate" with other systems, you can immediately pull up contact information of those customers in your CRM system without leaving the Enterprise Portal environment, to inform them of the late delivery.

Certain iViews do not necessarily exist as fixed content objects in a portal desktop. They may be used to facilitate other means of information retrieval and navigation. See Navigation iViews.

 

Integration

iViews are generally based on portal components, which are the pieces of code that provide the iView its functionality and ability to retrieve and display content.

Each iView comprises a set of properties, which are used at runtime to parameterize the portal component on which the iView is based. Different iViews can implement the same application, or different applications. For iView based on the same portal component, it is the properties that provide each iView its unique personalized behavior.

Alternatively, an iView can be based on another iView, using it as a template, thereby inheriting certain properties and overwriting others, recursively. According to the portal content object model (Content Object Model), a delta link chain of dependant iViews always resolves to a portal component, the code running the application.

At design time, iViews are selectively distributed to end users through portal roles in the following manner:

●      An iView is assigned to a portal page. The page is then assigned to any number of user roles or worksets. A user then has access to all iViews contained in the pages to which his or her roles have been granted access.

●      An iView is assigned directly to a user role or workset, not through a portal page. iViews assigned directly to roles, are sometimes referred to as full-page application iViews.

To be able to fully run iViews in a portal runtime environment, end users must have the appropriate access permissions on the level of the iView, in addition to the system and application on which the iView may be based. For more information, see Portal Permissions.

 

Features

A wide variety of iView templates, tools, and wizards are shipped with the portal, enabling you to create a wide variety of iViews without any programming knowledge. For more information, see Standard Portal Content and Default iViews.

The Portal Content Portfolio on the SAP Developer Network also provides a large selection of business packages that cover a wide scope of business scenarios.

You can also develop your own iViews in Java or JSP using the API of the Java iView Runtime. For more information, see Running an Enterprise Portal (in the SAP NetWeaver Developer's Guide).

The Client Framework is a mechanism that enables iViews to communicate with one another locally, reducing the load on the portal server, and establishing a connection between iViews. You use this connection to create a more complex application out of individual iViews. For details see Enterprise Portal Client Framework (EPCF).