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Defining Products in a Single Development ConfigurationLocate this document in the navigation structure

Use

The product is a self- contained unit that can be distributed (and sold) independently.

The original location of the product is the System Landscape Directory (SLD). Here you define the product version and associate the product with the software component (SC) versions that belong to it. For technical reasons it is necessary to create a Product Description SC that describes the product content for the SAP NetWeaver Development Infrastructure (NWDI). This SC has a special association with the product in SLD called Association contains product definition, thus allowing the NWDI to handle the product meta information for the development infrastructure. The Product Description SC is also the container to connect the low-level development components with the architectural high-level data of product and SCs in the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio.

From the composite application's point of view, the product corresponds to a Composite Application. From a lifecycle management point of view, the product is a structuring entity that is useful in the following cases:

  • When the size and complexity of the development make it necessary to develop in more than one SC.

  • The product runs in a distributed environment and needs to be deployed on several servers. (SC is the smallest unit for installation and patch.)

  • Separation of different layers of code (UI from business logic, for example).

To meet the different customer requirements you can organize the available functionality (business logic, user interfaces and so on) in your development configuration into different products (that is, composite applications). To do that you need to assemble arbitrary combinations of the SCs that constitute your application and mark these combinations as different products that can be delivered out of the same track.

Recommendation

Here you will find information about developing composites that comprise of more than one SC. A composite application usually consists of a single SC. If you do not have a clear reason for separating the composite into multiple SCs, we recommend that you continue developing the composite in a single SC.

Prerequisites

  • In the SLD you must have updated your Component Repository (CR) content. For more information, see SAP Note 669669 Information published on SAP site.

  • You are using NWDI as development infrastructure.

  • You have a track in the Change Management Service (CMS) or you are using a development configuration created with CM Services. See Using CM Services.

Procedure

1. Create the SCs in SLD

You start with creating regular SCs in the SLD, corresponding to the number of Product Description SCs that you want to put in the development configuration.

For more information about creating new SCs in SLD, see Working with Products and Software Components .

2. Define the Associations of Product Description SCs

When you create this association, you mark that the SCs are to be used as Product Description SCs.

  1. In the SLD UI, choose CIMInstances .

    The Viewand maintain data on CIM level screen appears.

  2. Under Class , select Product Version .

    A table of all available product versions appears.

  3. Select the product version you require.

    The product version details are displayed.

  4. Choose the Associations tab where all related associations of the selected product version are listed.

  5. Choose New Association .

  6. On the new screen under Association Type , select Software Component Contains Product Description .

    A table of all available software component versions appears.

  7. From the table, select the Product Description SC you require and choose the Associate push button.

    Note

    To refine your search, you can use the filter.

The new Software Component Contains Product Description association appears in the list of associations.

3. Configure the Track

3. 1. Configure the System in CM Services

In CM Services, use Development Configuration Service UI and remove and add SCs.

  1. Open the Development Configuration Service UI, with SAP NetWeaver Administrator tool Start of the navigation path Configuration Next navigation step Infrastructure Next navigation step Development Infrastructure End of the navigation path.

  2. Select your development configuration. Choose tab Software Component Definition .

  3. Switch to edit mode and remove and then add back one SC that belongs to the product under Software Components (SCs) list. In this way the Product Description SCs are automatically added to the configuration.

  4. Save your changes.

3. 2. Configure the Track in Change Management Service

Note

Only valid if CMS was in use before.

In this step you add the modified Product Description SCs manually to the track of the development configuration. This is needed to update both the track and the development configuration file.

  1. Open the CMS Web UI.

    To do that, open the following URL in your browser: http://host:port/devinf and choose Change Management Service link.

  2. Choose Landscape Configurator link and open the track for editing.

    To open the track for editing, select it from the list on the left of tracks available in the CMS. Open the TrackData link and choose the Change button.

  3. Remove and then add back one SC that belongs to the product under Software Components (SCs) list. In this way the Product Description SCs are automatically added to the track configuration.

4. Create the Description Development Components in Developer Studio

In this step you create a dependency from the development components (DCs) inside the development configuration to the Product Description SC. This is required to denote each DC that should belong to a product inside the development configuration.

Perform this step using the wizard for creating new products of the Composite Designer perspective of the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio. For more information about using this wizard, see Creating Composite Applications .

As an alternative, if you prefer to work with the Development Infrastructure perspective of the Developer Studio, you can perform this manually. To do that:

  1. Import (or update) the development configuration of the edited track. This is needed to ensure that the Product Description SC appears in the development configuration.

    For more information about how to do that, see Working with Development Configurations .

  2. Create one new DC of type Software Component Description for each SC for development that exists in the track.

    For more information, see Creating Development Components .

  3. Create a new DC of type Product Description DC.

  4. Maintain the dependencies from the Product Description DC to each of the corresponding Software Component Description DCs .

Result

You can view the different products when importing the development configuration in the Composite Designer perspective. You can develop the product among different SCs for development - all of them coupled together in a single development configuration.

Example
Figure 1: Development Configuration Which Contain Two Products

You may choose to separate the user interface (UI) logic into one SC1, the business logic in another SC2, and some advanced business logic in another SC3. To be able to deliver two products out of the SC1, SC2 and SC3, you need to mark them as different products. Later on you can deliver them accordingly as different shipments out of a single track. You have to create two Product Description SCs (corresponding to the number of products that you want to mark inside the development configuration).