Version Interoperability

This topic provides information about the support for federated portal network (FPN) functionality across different versions of producer and consumer portals running in the same landscape. Version interoperability between portals refers either to different support package stacks (SPS) within the same SAP NetWeaver release (such as an SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SPS13 consumer portal paired with an SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SPS14 producer portal) or to different SAP NetWeaver releases (such as a consumer portal running SAP NetWeaver 7.0 including enhancement package 1 with SPS6 that is paired to an SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment 7.2 producer portal).

Note Note

The federated portal network capabilities described here are not available in SAP NetWeaver 2004.

End of the note.

General Information

Remote role assignment: When implemented in a multiple version environment, remote role assignment is supported only for SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SPS9 and later.
Remote delta link: Supported only from SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SPS10 and higher.

Version Hierarchy

When you assess version interoperability support, you need first to determine if the producer or consumer is the newer release:

Producer portal is a newer version (consumer < producer).
- Example 1: SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SPS13 (consumer) and SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SPS21 (producer)
- Example 2: SAP NetWeaver 7.0 (consumer) and SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment 7.2 (producer)
Consumer portal is a newer version (consumer > producer).
Example: SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SPS21 (consumer) and SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SPS12 (producer)

Note Note

The versions used in the examples above are only intended to show if a consumer portal has a higher or lower version than the producer portal. The examples do not imply valid version interoperabilities.

End of the note.

SAP NetWeaver Functionality Levels

Once you have determined the versioning of the producer and consumer portals, you can assess how various levels of SAP NetWeaver functionality have an effect on version interoperability in a federated portal network.

The following table describes the level of support for each version-pairing of consumer and producer:

	Consumer < Producer	Consumer > Producer
FPN functionality Refers to the FPN content usage modes, namely remote role assignment, remote delta links, and WSRP application sharing.	Supported	Supported
Portal functionality Refers to any navigation-related functionality that is supported by the portal framework, such as object based navigation (OBN).	Supported	Supported
Application functionality Refers to business packages, content, and their applications.	Consumer-side functionality determines the support level. If content on the producer uses portal client-side functionality that is not available or supported by the consumer portal, then the content is not supported in an FPN implementation.	Supported

Consumer < Producer

Consumer > Producer

FPN functionality

Refers to the FPN content usage modes, namely remote role assignment, remote delta links, and WSRP application sharing.

Supported

Portal functionality

Refers to any navigation-related functionality that is supported by the portal framework, such as object based navigation (OBN).

Supported

Application functionality

Refers to business packages, content, and their applications.

Consumer-side functionality determines the support level. If content on the producer uses portal client-side functionality that is not available or supported by the consumer portal, then the content is not supported in an FPN implementation.

Supported

The aforementioned restrictions that apply when the producer portal is a newer version result from the following:

The portal framework is rendered on the consumer portal at runtime (remote role assignment and remote delta link). This means that the client-side functionality of the consumer, which is dictated by the portal framework, ultimately determines which runtime functionality is supported.
Applications are rendered on the producer and are displayed on the consumer using URL redirects. This means that server-side functionality is determined by the producer version. If the application requires server-side functionality that is not supported on the consumer, the application is able to run; however if the application requires client-side services, then these services must be available on, and be supported by, the consumer.

Example Example

An application using OBN utilizes a client-side Java script that was introduced in a newer SAP NetWeaver version running on the producer. Since the Java script is not available on the consumer, the application cannot run on the consumer portal.

End of the example.

In most cases, it is the applications that are mostly likely to be a source of risk to version interoperability.

More Information

For detailed information about release and support package considerations and application compatibility guidelines, refer to SAP Note 1295662.