Logging

In a few cases it makes sense to have an application run anonymously, for example, if several employees need to access an application and the application itself does not contain any critical information. To use anonymous users, you configure a user name and a password for your spezial application using the HTTP service tree in Transaction SICF (enter anonymous logon data for the service data for your application's node). The SAP Web AS uses this information and asks for additional user authentication.

The following problem may now occur: although the page is loaded, a popup appears asking for the user name and password. The application itself may run with the anonymous user, but it refers to other components that are not identified as anonymous. The authentication data were merely specified in the HTTP service tree for the nodes belonging to the relevant application (and were therefore automatically specified for all elements beneath this node). If a different URL is now referenced, then the server requests authentication information. You now only need to find out the URL (HTTP request) that triggers the authentication request.

SAP Web AS HTTP logging can support you in this as part of the infrastructure in the Internet Communication Manager (ICM).

HTTP logging is configured using parameter icm/HTTP/logging_<xx> . It provides a complete list of the URLs that the server accesses. Furthermore, it displays additional useful information, such as the duration of the request in milliseconds.

For each application server the HTTP log files are stored in the same directory as the other dev_* files. For fast access, the ICM also provides a transaction that can display the current log file. In Transaction SMICM, choose Goto → HTTP Log → Server → Display Entries.

You can solve the problem mentioned above by using active HTTP logging. To do this, view the relevant parts of the log file in detail.

An HTTP request that is answered with Unauthorized (rc = 401) triggers the popup in the browser, asking for the user name and password. The relevant HTTP request can contain access to a screen from a different application, for example. As this screen is loaded by a different branch in the HTTP service tree than the node for the actual application, no default logon information is stored for this screen.

You can now store logon information for nodes from the other application in Transaction SICF, or you can copy the screen that you want to use from the external application to your own application and then change your code accordingly.

This type of problem occurs frequently if you use relative URLs such as: ../test/image.gif. Furthermore, these problems are possible in the case of absolute URLs that refer to a different area of the HTTP service tree.