Importing Technical Components
For each business function, we have defined which individual parts of the enhancement packages you have to implement in your system landscape to be able to use the content of the business function.
Features
Enhancement Packages
The new features in the enhancement packages build on the underlying SAP product instances. The enhancement packages are delivered by means of new versions of individual components of your SAP product instances.
Therefore, you need to import only a specific part of the delivery scope of an enhancement package into your system landscape. The specific individual technical components and contents that you need in order to use a business function are fixed. These are described in the documentation.
The individual enhancement packages build on one another, and therefore all enhancement packages are numbered according to the sequence in which they appeared. In each enhancement package, you can also use the business functions of earlier enhancement packages.
Special installation tools are available for installing the enhancement packages, and these simplify the import considerably.
When you import a new enhancement package or upgrade to a higher full release, the business functions that you have already activated and the related settings in your ABAP-based system remain in place. After the installation, the business functions that you previously activated are activated automatically.
Technical Usage
For installation purposes, the technical components and contents are summarized in the technical usage. Each business function is assigned to a technical usage, and this means that you select the components and contents required for a business function by selecting the technical usage for the installation.
Based on the technical usage you select and the current system status, SAP Solution Manager Maintenance Optimizer provides you the with the technical components you need for the installation. These include any Support Packages that are required, and the necessary SAP NetWeaver enhancement package.
Note
It may be the case that, for some business functions, you need further technical components in addition to the content of the technical usage, for example, special SAP NetWeaver components or third-party products. This information is provided in the description of the business function.
Technical Components
The following technical components and contents contain new developments and enhancements that are available for a business function.
Software component versions of the ABAP-based system
Software component versions for Java-based applications
Portal content
A business function can cover new or enhanced portal roles. Therefore, new versions of the business packages are available for the enhancement packages:
The version of an enhanced business package covers the following portal roles:
Portal roles in the version that was available for the previous full release (for example, SAP ERP 6.0)
Changed portal roles that are used in a business function. In addition to new iViews, the new version of a portal role can also cover iViews that were already part of the portal role of the full release.
Business content (BI content)
In your BI system, new or changed objects in the enhancement packages are stored in their own separate InfoAreas. In addition, the documentation of the individual objects contains information about the enhancement package starting in which the objects are available and for which business function they are available.
Process Integration Content (XI Content)/Enterprise Services Repository Content (ESR Content)
Along with the enhancement packages, you receive additional enterprise services. The implementations of these enterprise services are in the software component versions of your ABAP-based system. In the XI system, these enterprise services are grouped in their own software components and namespaces for the enhancement packages. For information about these enterprise services, see the documentation of the business function and the related release note.
Overview
The following figure shows an overview of the relationships between business functions, technical usages, and technical components.
More Information
For information about the technical components required for a business function, see the documentation. For more information, see the Business Function Documentation and the Master Guide for the enhancement package.