Extended Configuration Management (XCM)

You use Extended Configuration Management (XCM) to configure Web applications, once you have installed the Web components. You use it to make configuration settings needed at runtime.

The CRM Web applications are used in the following scenarios:

CRM Web Channel
ERP E-Commerce
Web Auctions: Selling via eBay in CRM and ERP
Web Auctions: Auctioning via Web Shop
Partner Channel Management
Interaction Center WebClient
Interaction Center Workforce Management
Internet Customer Self-Service
Software Agent Framework

You only have to set up XCM configuration settings for those Web applications that are relevant to the scenarios and processes you are using.

The XCM user interface is used for Java-side configuration of the Web application. You have to maintain two setting types in XCM:

General settings
Once set, these settings are valid for the entire Web application. You make these settings in the XCM tool under Start General Application Settings Customer .
Additional Web application configuration settings
Web applications can have multiple configurations with different settings. Depending on the configuration used, the application behaves differently at runtime. You can define a default configuration or select the configuration to be used at runtime.

Caution

Not all applications support multiple application configurations. Some only support general settings.

End of the caution.
Some Web applications can run different configurations in different client sessions simultaneously.
Each Web application provides one or more configurations predefined by SAP, which you can find under Start Application Configurations SAP .
You can create a new customer configuration based on these predefined configurations and adjust it to your requirements. You then find your customer configuration under Start Application Configurations Customer . Each customer configuration contains:
- A name for the configuration
- Base configurations (from SAP on which you base your configuration)
- A number of configuration parameters with associated values, which you adjust

The combination of these two setting types makes up the final Web application configuration.

Procedure

The following steps explain how to configure a Web application in XCM, assuming you have installed the application.

Starting XCM

You access the XCM tool at: http://<host>:<port>/<web app name>/admin/xcm/init.do.

Note

You can also start XCM in accessibility mode (according to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act) at the following URL: http://<host>:<port>/<web app name>/admin/xcm/init.do?sap-accessibility=x.

End of the note.
Enter a user and password. If you are logging on for the first time, use the administrator user and password that you defined during the installation of SAP NetWeaver.

Recommendation

For the administration of Web applications, we recommend that you create new users with an authorization level lower than the administrator. For more information, see the E-Commerce section of the SAP CRM Security Guide.

End of the recommendation.
When the application opens, a closed UI element tree is displayed on the left of the screen. A screen containing help information is displayed on the right side.
In XCM, you can use edit mode (change settings) or display mode (view settings). You use the button in the top right corner of the screen to switch between modes. When you switch to edit mode, a database lock is set, meaning that only that user can edit the settings at that time. The lock is released when the user switches back to display mode or after session timeout (default timeout is 30 minutes).

Printable Help

There is a printable help function for the configuration of the application and components. You access it by selecting Help in the header area of the main XCM Administration window. Within the documentation, hyperlinks provide links to more detailed information. The documentation discusses the general settings separately.

General Settings

When you set the general settings, they are valid for the entire Web application. Proceed as follows:

Switch to edit mode and choose Start General Application Settings Customer .
The system displays the available nodes categorizing the general settings. Depending on the application, you will have one or more nodes. For more information about the possible settings, see the printable help.
Expand a configuration node and select the configuration node on the right to see possible configuration parameters in the window on the right.
Select a parameter and enter the values that meet your requirements. Each parameter contains a help description with information about what you need to enter.
Some parameters have default values set. When you change the values of these default parameters, the system displays them in orange. You can revert back to the original default entries by selecting R (revert).
Choose Save Configuration.

If your Web application does not support multiple configurations, you are now finished with the general settings section. To activate your changes, you can return to display mode and restart the Web application.

If your application supports multiple configurations, see section “Multiple Application Configurations”, below.

Multiple Application Configurations

Once you have set the general settings, you can configure the various configurations that you need.

Standard SAP Configuration

You need to find out which SAP application configurations are standard. In more complex applications, such as CRM Web Channel, there are several pre-configured applications. In simpler applications, such as the user management application, there are normally fewer application configurations; possibly only one. You display the list of pre-configured scenarios under Start Application Configurations SAP in the UI element tree. Look through the configurations and choose the one that most suits your requirements.

Create a Customer Application Configuration

Once you have selected the configuration that suits your needs, go to Edit mode.

Enter a configuration Name and choose Create.
Configure the application configuration by associating configuration data with the configuration parameters. There is a description for the scenario of each configuration parameter in the last column of the parameter table.

Note

During installation, only those parameters that are needed to get the application running must (necessarily) be displayed. Optional parameters can be viewed and edited by choosing Display Advanced Settings .

End of the note.

Configure a Customer Application Configuration

Once you have created the application configuration, you need to configure it by changing the parameter values.

Select Configuration Documentation to see a list of the parameters to be configured.
Select a parameter and use the dropdown list box to assign a value. You can display a description of possible values by selecting the ? help button next to the dropdown list box. If there are other detailed descriptions for a parameter, an additional ? button is displayed.
There are two value types:
- Static values
  Values that can be selected from a dropdown list box.
  
  These values do not have a button in the Component Configuration column.
- Values based on component configuration
  You must first configure a component, such as a connection to your SAP CRM system, before you can assign the configured value to the parameter. These parameters have a button in the Component Configuration column. For example, there is a jco button for configuring connection parameters to the SAP system.
  
  If no value is assigned to these parameters, you have to create a new component configuration. For more information, see section “Creating a New Component Configuration”.
  
  If a value is assigned, it is likely that you will not have to make any changes during the installation.

Creating a New Component Configuration

A component is an independently configurable part of the application (for example, the jco component which enables connections between the SAP system and the Web application). A component can have several configurations, for example for different systems and clients. You assign one of the component configurations to the parameter in the application configuration. We recommend that you create the component configuration at the same time as you set up the application configuration.

Select an empty entry in the dropdown list box for the parameter or choose ** Select to create component configuration **. The system switches to the component creation screen. The correct component, for example jco, is selected automatically and the system displays a description of the use of the component.
Enter a name for the component configuration (for example, Q5C_505 for the Q5C system in client 505) and choose Create. The application switches to the component configuration details screen.
Select a base configuration from the Base Configuration dropdown list box. You can see a description by choosing the ? button.
Enter values for the component configuration parameters and choose Save Configuration. Test your values in the Configuration Test area.

Testing a Component Configuration

Once you have created the component configuration, save it and test it as follows:

Select the test for the configuration from the Select Test dropdown list box. You can see a description by choosing the ? button.
Choose Run Test.
The system displays the test results in a new window. A red traffic light indicates the test failed and you must redo the configuration. A green traffic light indicates the test was successful.
Return to the application configuration by selecting Back to Application Configuration, select the newly created configuration from the dropdown list box, and assign it to the scenario parameter.

Define a Default Application Configuration

You normally do this step after you have assigned values to all configuration parameters. If you have only one application configuration, the system will use it automatically when you start the application. If you have more than one application configuration, you must select the Default Configuration checkbox for one of the configurations, so that the system will run this one as the default when you start the application.

Note Note

A green icon in the UI element tree indicates the default configuration.

End of the note.

Save the Application Configuration

Once you have assigned values to all your application configuration parameters, you must save the configuration.

Choose Save Configuration.
Set the Active Configuration indicator. If you do not check this field, the configuration will be disabled and will not run when you start the application. If you uncheck this box, you deactivate the configuration.

Note

A red icon indicates that the configuration is disabled.

End of the note.
The system saves the new application configuration to the SAP Web AS Java 7.0 and it can then be displayed in the customers part of the UI element tree in XCM.

Activating the Application Configuration

Before a new application configuration can become active, you have to either stop and restart the Web application or restart the SAP Web AS Java 7.0 server.

Start the J2EE Visual Administrator.
Connect to the SAP Web AS Java 7.0 server.
Choose Server node open services node Select deploy service application and stop and then restart the Web application.

For more information, see the SAP Web AS Java 7.0 configuration documentation in SAP Solution Manager.

Running the Web Application

When you run the Web application, if there is more than one application configuration, you must specify which one should be used. You can set this up in the following ways:

Use the default configuration. Simply start the application and the configuration you set as the default will be used. If you have just one configuration, it will automatically be the default. For example, if you want to call up the default configuration for the B2B Web shop, the corresponding URL is: http://<host>:<port>/b2b/b2b/init.do.
Specify the application configuration name as a request parameter. In this case, you run the application using a different application configuration than the default. You pass the name of the application configuration using the request parameter configuration.xcm when you call the application. The scenario name is case sensitive. For example, if you want to call up the application configuration B2BCRM, the corresponding URL is: http://<host>:<port>/b2b/b2b/init.do?configuration.xm=B2BCRM.
Display a home page that contains links to all active configurations and starts the specific application configuration by using the appropriate link.

Caution

The home page is disabled after installation. You enable it using the following XCM parameters: Start General Settings < Web application name> show.start.jsp .

End of the caution.

Uploading and Downloading XCM Settings

You can upload and download application configurations. In XCM, choose Start XCM Settings and you can view the upload and download sections. Each section refers to two objects:

Component configuration data
Application configuration data

These two objects make up the application configuration of a Web application.

Downloading XCM Configurations

This enables you to download an XCM configuration from the SAP Web AS Java 7.0 database to XML files. Proceed as follows:

Select the download button for the component configuration data file. The system generates a file named config-data.xml, containing all component configuration data saved for the Web application.
Select the download button for the application configuration data file. The system generates a file named scenario-config.xml, containing all application configuration data saved for the Web application.

Uploading XCM Configurations

This function enables you to upload XCM configuration data from XML files to the SAP Web AS Java 7.0 server. Proceed as follows:

Choose Edit.
The system displays two file input fields in the Upload section.
Specify the config-data.xml (component configuration) and scenario-config.xml (application configuration) files, with complete file system paths for both files, and choose Upload.

Note

For the B2B and B2C Web applications in e-commerce with SAP, the XCM administration tool provides a switch to a separate maintenance view for the IPC-specific part of the application (see “IPC Switch for XCM Configuration of SAP E-Commerce”, below). When switching to IPC, you can upload and download the IPC application configuration and component configuration. The IPC application configuration file is ipcscenario-config.xml; the component configuration file is ipcconfig-data.xml.

End of the note.

Caution
If you intend to transport XCM when doing a system copy within SAP CRM 5.0, see section Data Storage Security in the CRM Security Guide for E-Commerce. In addition to the XCM data, you must also transport encryption keys used in secure storage of the SAP Web AS Java 7.0 engine.

End of the caution.

Caution
Web applications based on SAP CRM 4.0 do not save XCM settings in a database and they do not support the upload and download functions described in this section. In SAP CRM 4.0, the XCM settings are saved as XML files (config-data.xml for component configuration and scenario-config.xml for application configurations) in a dedicated directory of the J2EE server's file system. You can find the location of the files in XCM administration under Start Options . You can upload these configuration files from SAP CRM 4.0 to SAP CRM 5.0 during an upgrade.

After migrating XCM settings from an older to a newer Web application version, you must check whether any of the customer-side XCM settings are obsolete (see Indication of Obsolete XCM Settings below). The new version may require you to change XCM settings or give you the option of maintaining additional XCM settings. You add these settings manually, as described in section “Configure a Customer Application Configuration”, above.

End of the caution.

Indication of Obsolete XCM Settings

After migrating XCM settings from an older version to a newer Web application version, some settings may no longer be supported in the new version. If these settings were made by the customer, meaning they have been changed from their SAP delivered default values, the system will mark them as obsolete by highlighting them in yellow. The following parameters can be specified as obsolete:

Application configurations (marked with an exclamation mark on yellow background)
Application configuration parameters (highlighted in yellow)
Components (marked with an exclamation mark on a yellow background)
Component configurations (marked with an exclamation mark on a yellow background)
Component parameters (highlighted in yellow)

IPC Switch for XCM Configuration of SAP E-Commerce

The SAP E-Commerce B2B and B2C Web applications each support two application configurations that must be maintained separately:

The E-Commerce application configuration, which allows the configuration of the overall application
The IPC application configuration, which allows additional configuration of the IPC-specific part of the application

When you start the XCM administration tool for B2B or B2C, a dropdown list box is displayed in the upper left corner of the screen. This dropdown list box enables you to switch between the maintenance views for the E-Commerce and IPC application configurations. All features of the XCM administration tool, that is, the maintenance, upload, and download of application configurations, can be used separately for both the E-Commerce and IPC application configurations.