External Course Catalog Connection (SAP Library - Training Management in the SAP Learning Solution)

External Course Catalog Connection

Purpose

The purpose of connecting an external course catalog from a third-party system to the SAP Learning Solution is to enable you integrate external courses (such as external WBT). The external course content is not imported into SAP Learning Solution, it is made available in the system of the external training provider (external learning service provider). External content is called and played by the relevant external content player. The external content must be adapted to the SAP environment.

It makes no difference to the learner where the content of a course is stored. The learner searches for suitable content in the Learning Portal, books and launches the course. The following options are available to the learner:

· When the learner launches a course whose content is stored in the SAP system, the SAP Content Player starts the course and retrieves the content from the SAP Content Repository. When the learner closes the Content Player, the SAP system writes information about this to the back-end system, Training Management.

· When the learner starts a course whose content is stored externally, the SAP system sends a request via HTTP/HTTPS to the external training provider and receives a URL in return. SAP Learning Solution calls the URL and the external content player is started and plays the external content.

Communication between SAP Learning Solution and the external training provider is realized using SAP XI communication parameters (such as SOAP-Adapter). SAP Learning Solution does not manage the external content player, nor does it write any information to Training Management about it.

Prerequisites

The learner (user) must be known to both systems: SAP Learning Solution and the external training provider’s system. When the learner registers or books for the course, a user must be created automatically in the system of the external training provider.

Time schedule

The following steps are involved in connecting an external course catalog:

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1. Define external training provider

In Customizing for SAP Learning Solution, you must define the external training provider in connection with the company and the Web services offered. In Customizing, choose Training Management ® Course Preparation ® Training Provider ® External Training Provider ® Specify External Provider and enter the following values:

¡ External provider’s number

¡ External provider’s name (company name)

2. Define external service

If you want to use external services in SAP Learning Solution, the SAP system needs to know the required parameters fort he services provided by the external training provider. In Customizing, choose Course Preparation ® Training Provider ® External Training Provider ® Specify External Service and enter the following values:

¡ External provider’s number

¡ External provider’s name (company name)

¡ Service ID

The following services are available:

01 – Start external course

02 – Book external course

03 – Cancel external course

04 – Read learner data (read progress)

05 – Write learner data (write progress)

3. Specify company with data of external training provider

If you want to use a company as external training provider, you must enter the training provider ID provided for this purpose in the External Training Provider (5043) infotype. To do so, in Customizing for SAP Learning Solution, choose Training Management ® Course Preparation ® Training Provider ® Create Company.

Synchronize external progress automatically or manually. In Customizing for SAP Learning Solution, you specify whether participants’ external progress made outside of Training Management should be automatically updated to the SAP system. Note the details regarding automatic synchronization of external learning progress described in the documentation for the switch LSO_ELMS_TRACK. With this switch you specify whether external progress is updated automatically or manually to the Training Management system of SAP Learning Solution. The values of the switch can be as follows:

¡ The value X means that when an external course is launched, the learner’s progress made externally is automatically written to the Training Management system of SAP Learning Solution.

¡ If the switch is blank, external progress is not synchronized with the system automatically, but manually using the report Manual/Mass Progress Synchronization (RHWSTRACKING_LSO).

You can override the switch settings by maintaining the External Course Catalog Connection infotype (5042) for a course type.

In Customizing, choose Training Management ® Course Preparation ® Training Provider ® External Training provider ® Automatically Synchronize External Learning Progress.

4. Create course type or course for external delivery method for external course

When you create a course for external course content, you must enter the course ID in the Connection to External Course Catalog (5042) infotype. You can find the specific course ID in the course catalog of the external training provider.

Please note the following:

¡ When dealing with the delivery methods External WBT and External Online Test, you must assign the course type to an external course catalog.

¡ When dealing with the delivery methods External Classroom Training and External VC, you must assign the course itself to an external course catalog.

Example

If the external training provider’s system is a SAP Learning Solution system, enter the following values sequentially as course ID, for example:

Course ID of External Course

Plan Version (2-Digit)	Object Type (2-Character)	Object ID (Max. 28)
01	D	50004711

You assign the actual communication data (for the external training provider connection) to an object of object type U(company) in the IMG activity Create Company in the External Training Provider infotype (5043).

For the external course catalog connection, in Customizing for SAP Learning Solution choose Training Management ® Course Preparation ® Training Provider ® External Training Provider ® Specify External Training Provider.

Extended data model for the external training provider

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

5. Set up communication with external training provider via SAP NetWeaver XI (SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure)

You make the required settings for communication with external training providers and for WEB Service configuration using the Integration Builder. For detailed information about using this SAP tool, see the documentation for the Structure link Integration Builder (SXMB_IFR). The standard SAP system contains the following integration scenarios for SAP Learning Solution:

¡ CourseEnrollment (in the IMG activity Specify External Service corresponds to the services 02 = book external course, 01 – start external course, and 03 – cancel external course)

¡ LearningProgress (in the IMG activity Secify External Service corresponds to the services 04 – read learner data (read progress) and 05 – write learner data (write progress))

Special Features When Booking or Canceling Course Participation

Prerequisites

You have integrated an external course catalog in SAP Learning Solution.

The system landscape consists of:

Training Management as the back-end system
An external system

Process Flow When Booking and Canceling

The learner makes a booking for a course in the learning portal. The request is routed to the external system, where the booking is made. One of the following two processes can be triggered:

If the external booking operations succeeds, the learner is also booked for the course in Training Management and the booking is displayed in the learning portal.
If the external booking operation succeeds, but an error occurs in Training Management and the booking fails, a data inconsistency results. The booking cannot be displayed in the learning portal. A second attempt to make the booking will also fail.

As training administrator, you must make the booking manually in Training Management to ensure data consistency in the two systems.

The process flow is the same for cancellations.

Process flow for successful or failed booking and cancellation operations

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

Result

You have set up a connection to an external course catalog to provide learners with external training opportunities in the learning portal.