Portal Interoperability

Setting Up Interoperability Between SAP and Third-Party Portals

New

A new set of procedures has been added to the portal documentation outlining the tasks you follow to configure SAP Portal content so that it can be integrated into content on non-SAP portals. The documentation covers creating the content, defining single sign-on, setting parameters to ensure smooth session management, and aligning the look-and-feel of the SAP Portal content with that of the target portal.

For more information, see Integrating SAP Portal Content onto Other Portal Servers .

Introduction of New 'FPN Connection' Concept

New

A new concept called FPN connections has been introduced in this release, and is aimed at lowering overall TCO of FPN in comparison to previous releases.

Before two portals can interact and share content with each other, a system administrator needs to make a logical connection between the portals in the federated portal network. In previous releases, this connection could only be initiated and created from the consumer portal, and the sharing of content was uni-directional (from producer to consumer). In addition, if two portals shared content with one another in both directions, two separate FPN registration instances were required (each initiated from the respective producer portal). The new FPN connection concept provides the following enhancements:

• A single FPN connection pairs one SAP NetWeaver Portal to another - each portal in the FPN connection can be a producer and a consumer, at the same time. In previous releases, such a setup required the creation of two separate FPN registration instances (initiated from each consumer).

• A producer portal can also initiate the creation of an FPN connection with a remote system.

  Note

  The new infrastructure supporting FPN connections is not implemented on SAP NetWeaver 7.0. Therefore, FPN connections that involve SAP NetWeaver 7.0 as a producer portal can only be created from the SAP NetWeaver 7.3 consumer portal. In such cases, a uni-directional FPN connection is created on the SAP NetWeaver 7.3 portal.

  This new concept and respective user interfaces only apply to remote role assignment (RRA) and remote delta link (RDL) usage. For WSRP application sharing, you continue to create a producer object on the consumer to facilitate the connection between your portal and a remote WSRP-compliant portal.

For more information, see Managing FPN Connections .

Addition of Consumer Capabilities

New

In SAP NetWeaver Composition Platform (CE) releases prior to this release, the SAP NetWeaver CE systems could only function as a producer portal. With SAP NetWeaver 7.3, if you install usage type EP Core - Application Portal (EPC), you can now configure the portal also as a consumer of remote content from any remote producer portal running SAP NetWeaver 7.0, SAP NetWeaver CE 7.1, SAP NetWeaver CE 7.2, or SAP NetWeaver 7.3. You can also consumer WSRP content from any third-party portal that is WSRP-compliant.

For more information, see:

• Managing FPN Connections

• Consuming Content from Remote Producer Portals

FPN Integration with System Landscape Directory (SLD)

New

If you have incorporated the systems in your landscape in the SLD, you can quickly create FPN connections between your system and remote systems with a single click. There is no need to manually enter connection settings - the default connection settings of your system are already defined in the FPN Control Panel, and the connection settings of the remote system are already defined in the SLD.

For more information, see:

• Viewing FPN Connections

• Creating FPN Connections

WSRP-Compliant Applications Available in GPAL Repository

New

A new WSRP Content repository has been added to the GPAL repositories folder in the Portal Catalog in the Portal Content Studio. The repository displays WSRP applications from SAP NetWeaver and non-SAP portals. A content administrator can create iViews from remote WSRP-compliant applications that are exposed via this repository.

For more information, see Creating Proxy-to-Portlet iViews .

New and Redesigned FPN Editors and Wizards

New and enhanced

To support the introduction of the new FPN connection concept, new and improved editors and wizards are now available in the FPN administration environment in the portal, which significantly improve productivity and reduce overall TCO for the remote role assignment and remote delta link usage modes:

• The Add an SAP NetWeaver Producer wizard from previous releases has been replaced by the new FPN Connection wizard.

  Note

  If the local portal and the remote portal are both running SAP NetWeaver 7.3 with usage type EPC, both portals can function as a producer and a consumer using the same FPN connection. In previous releases, such a setup required the creation of two separate FPN registration instances (initiated from each consumer).

• The new FPN Connection wizard now includes additional optional steps that allow you to fully configure an FPN connection without having to access several editors after the FPN connection has been created. The new steps in the wizard include options to configure trust between the systems, test the connectivity between the systems, and register the systems.

• A new FPN Trust tool allows you to set up one-way or two-way trust between the systems in an FPN connection.

• To facilitate the creation of FPN connections, you can now define your HTTP/HTTPS, RMI-P4, and external network connection settings once (in the FPN Control Panel), and then immediately reuse those settings in the FPN Connection wizard without having to enter them again.

• As a result of the new FPN administration tools, the introduction of the FPN connection concept, and the separation of functionality of remote delta link and remote role assignment usage from WSRP application sharing usage, the entries in the Detailed Navigation pane in the Federated Portal workset have changed.

For more information, see Managing FPN Connections .

Improved Producer Connection Tests for RRA and RDL Usage

Enhanced

The existing Producer Connection test for federated portal networks has been enhanced. A system administrator on the consumer portal can now test the readiness and integrity of RRA and RDL configurations between the consumer and a remote producer. The tests can be run before consuming content or later if problems occur at runtime or design-time.

The tests check various aspects of FPN configuration and functionality. If problems are detected, the test results provide relevant explanations and solutions, where possible.

For more information, see:

• Testing Remote Role Assignment Integrity

• Testing Remote Delta Link Integrity

Adding Remote Delta Objects Directly to Roles, Worksets, and Pages

Enhanced

In previous releases, before a content administrator on a consumer portal could add a remote object as a delta link to a local page, workset, or role, the administrator had to first create a copy of a remote object in the local Portal Catalog (using the  Copy  Paste as Local Content  context menu action) of the consumer portal. Only then could the copied unit object in the local Portal Catalog be added to a page, workset, or role.

Now, a content administrator on a consumer portal can add a remote object directly from a remote producer to a local page, workset, or role as a remote delta link, without having to first create a unit object in the local Portal Catalog.

The previous method of copying using  Copy  Paste as Local Content  is still available.

For more information, see Copying Remote Content .

Renamed FPN Folder in Portal Catalog

Changed

The Remote NetWeaver Producers folder has been renamed to Remote FPN Producers .

For more information, see Copying Remote Content .

Changed Location of Registration Password Configuration

Changed

You no longer define the registration password in the AutoGenProducer1_0 service in SAP NetWeaver Administrator on the producer system. The previous REGISTRATION_PASSWORD property has been deprecated. You now define the registration password in the FPN Control Panel in the producer portal.

For more information, see Setting a Registration Password .

Portal Services for FPN Moved to a New Application

Changed

The following portal services have been reassigned to a new application called com.sap.portal.fpn.rdl :

• OriginalContentSynConsumerService (originally in the com.sap.portal.fpn.contentmanagement application). This service allows an administrator from the consumer portal to set the automatic content synchronization interval of remote delta link objects and to set the cleanup interval of unresolved remote delta link objects in the consumer portal.

• FPNProducerService (originally in the com.sap.portal.fpn.designtime.services application). This service allows an administrator to set the content invalidation policy for remote delta link objects.

The existing properties in each application remain the same as before and there is no change in functionality.

For more information, see:

• Configuring the Federated Portal Cache on the Consumer Portal (for OriginalContentSynConsumerService )

• Setting the Content Invalidation Policy for Remote Delta Links (for FPNProducerService )

Changes to Cache Lifetime Settings on the Consumer Portal

Changed

The following changes have been introduced:

• The Cache Lifetime value now accepts values in units of minutes; previously it was in seconds.

• The Cache Lifetime setting now accepts the value 0 (zero) which can be used to disable the caching feature.

For more information, see Configuring the Federated Portal Cache on the Consumer Portal .

Transporting Remote Delta Link Content

Documentation Update

Unresolved delta links are generated on the target consumer portal if the source consumer contains remote delta link content that have dependencies in the com.sap.pct.* namespace on the source producer. This is standard behavior since the portal transport mechanism prevents the packaging of objects and dependencies of content in the com.sap.pct.* namespace so that SAP-reserved content is not overwritten on the target system. An automated feature has been added to this release that attempts to fix the unresolved delta links on a target consumer portal following the import of a transport package that contains remote delta link content.

The system administrator still needs to perform some additional manual steps following the import to the target consumer portal. These steps are now documented.

For more information, see Transporting Content within a Federated Portal Network .