Best Practice – Transporting SAP NetWeaver Portal Content

Applies To:

SAP NetWeaver 04 / SAP NetWeaver (NW) Portal

Article Summary

This article describes a solution for transporting SAP NW Portal content in a controlled and efficient manner from a development portal to the production environment. The design of a transport process is based on file transfer procedures, which are enhanced by KM functionality. The implementation is related to a HowTo Guide” How To transport EP 6.0 content”, which can be found in SDN or SAP Service Market Place at alias /nw-howtoguides > Portal.

By: Julia Levedag

Title: SAP NetWeaver Foundation RIG, PP & KMC

Date: 14th June 2005

Table of Content

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Process Overview............................................................................................................................ 2 Prerequisites.................................................................................................................................... 3

Configurations.............................................................................................................................. 3 File system preparations (create mount-points and folders).................................................... 3 Change transport import/export folders according to mapped folders..................................... 3 Disable export of PAR files....................................................................................................... 4 Disable “Import from client” in the Import Transport iView....................................................... 4 Create file system repository.................................................................................................... 4

Roles ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Development System ............................................................................................................... 5 Quality Assurance System / Productive System...................................................................... 6

Transport ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Development System................................................................................................................... 7 Quality Assurance System........................................................................................................... 7 Productive System ....................................................................................................................... 8

Disclaimer & Liability Notice ............................................................................................................ 9 Introduction

This Guide is aimed for SAP NW Portal on SAP NW04 (at least Service Pack Stack 09) and describes the process of transporting Portal Content Directory (PCD) objects, created in the

development NW Portal system (DEP) to the productive NW Portal system (PEP) via a quality assurance system (QEP).

Main requirement for the implementation of this transport process were:

• Separation of Coding and Content: Transporting new development projects should solely be handled by SAP NetWeaver Development Infrastructure (NWDI). This applies for example to portal archives (PAR) (e.g. custom created Java iViews).

• The transport process must be completely browser based.

• The integrity of any transport file must be ensured.

• To guarantee the process flow of PCD objects within the system landscape, transporting a transport package from the development to the productive system always contains one export and two imports!

• A central document, the Enterprise Portal Transports word template, is maintained manually to keep track of transports and to notify testers or other administrators about new content and import tasks.

Process Overview

Generation of new content like roles, worksets, pages, iViews, layouts or other PCD objects is done in the development environment. Adding content to the development environment can be approached in different ways:

• Content is newly created on base of components (SAP standard or customer specific components).

• Content is imported like for example content of SAP Business Packages from iViewStudio/SDN.

To ensure functional correctness and compatibility of new software packages, tests need to be carried out and planned carefully. After testing in the development environment, the relevant content for export is bundled in transport packages to be exported to the file-system (1) and thus prepared for the import into QEP system.

Importing content into the QEP environment is done by a user with the Transport-Administration role. This user is responsible for importing the transport packages in the correct order from the file-system, to report import errors back to the creator of the transport package and to initiate the testing of the transported content on the QEP system.

Once the transport package is successfully imported in the QEP system (2) the Transport-Administrator moves the transport package from the file-system’s import folder to the in process folder. If necessary, post-transport actions must be performed before the Transport-Administrator advices the responsible person to start the testing (3).

When the tests are completed successfully the transport-package can be copied from the file- system’s in process folder to the archive folder and moved to the export folder which is mounted to the productive import folder (4).

In the final step (5) the transport package is imported to the productive Enterprise Portal system and copied to the file-system’s archive folder. When importing content into the production system, the integrity and readiness of content must have been certified. E.g., transport packages for the PEP system should include end-user relevant information only.

Note, that the current release of SAP NW Portal based on NW04 does not offer preview or rollback functions for incorrect content imports. Any defective PCD object can be fixed by overwriting it with a corrected object version during a new import. Deletion of object in the PRD environment needs to be done manually and thus carefully organized. Keep in mind that a

successful transport from the development to the productive system always contains of one export and two imports!

Prerequisites

Configurations

In order to ensure that users can only act according to the defined rules several configurations have to be maintained once.

File system preparations (create mount-points and folders)

The file-system’s export folder on the development Enterprise Portal system has to be mounted to the file-system’s import folder on the quality assurance Enterprise Portal system.

• /usr/sap/DEP/SYS/global/pcd/Export => /usr/sap/QEP/SYS/global/pcd/Import

The file-system’s export folder on the quality assurance Enterprise Portal system has to be mounted to the file-system’s import folder on the productive Enterprise Portal system.

• /usr/sap/QEP/SYS/global/pcd/Export => /usr/sap/PEP/SYS/global/pcd/Import

Create the following folders • /usr/sap/QEP/SYS/global/pcd/inProcess • /usr/sap/QEP/SYS/global/pcd/failed • /usr/sap/QEP/SYS/global/pcd/archive • /usr/sap/PEP/SYS/global/pcd/archive

Change transport import/export folders according to mapped folders

Adjust the PCD Startup properties of the import/export folders on the Enterprise Portal systems. • Pcd.TransportApplication.ExportRootDir = /usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/pcd/Export

• Pcd.TransportApplication.ImportRootDir = /usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/pcd/Import

The first time the portal is started, the PCD configuration service checks, if the file pcdStartUp.properties is stored in directory /usr/sap/DEP/SYS/global/pcd/pcdStartup.properties. If it does not exist, it is created by generating a copy of file pcdStartup.template.properties.

Disable export of PAR files

Transport packages created within the portal can only include PCD objects. Custom created PAR files have to be transported using the NWDI. In order to exclude PAR files from a PCD transport package the following parameter in the pcdStartUp.properties has to be set

• Pcd.TransportApplication.Export.ExcludeObjectTypesAfterRuleProcessing=com.sapportals.portal.application.applicationrepository.Archive

Disable “Import from client” in the Import Transport iView

SAP standard allows the import of transport packages from both client and server side. In order to prevent users to upload transport packages to the QEP or PEP system, the standard iView has to be adjusted. As described in more detail below, the Transport Admin role consists of a delta-linked Import Transport iView which’s property

• Enable File Upload From Client

has to be changed to “no”.

Create file system repository

In order to enable the Transport-Administrator to move files from the file-system’s import folder to the in process folder or to easily check the log files of a previous transport, file system repositories have to be created. This is done using the SAP NW Portal KM functionality.

Repositories have to be created for: • import, export and failed folder on QEP • import and export folder on PEP • transport log files on QEP • transport log files on PEP

For details on how to create file repositories see http://help.sap.com Knowledge Management -> Content Management Configuration -> Repositories and Repository Managers -> External Repositories -> File System Repository Manager (http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/e3/92322ab24e11d5993800508b6b8b11/frameset.htm )

Roles

After the prerequisites in “3.1 Configurations” are done, roles have to be created on each system to enable the users (developers on the development Enterprise Portal and transport-administrators on the quality assurance and productive system) to work with transports.

Development System

In the development system PCD objects are created by delegated content administrators. These delegated content administrators are required to test and create a transport package. The default workset template for delegated content administrators includes a workset which allows the delegated content administrator to create and export a transport package.

[Customized Delegated Content Admin-Role]

[Example: PCD directory structure for the delegated Content Administrator role.]

Quality Assurance System / Productive System

In the quality assurance and productive system a new role Transport-Administrator has to be created. This role contains iViews to

• import transport package from the server

• move transport packages from the import folder to the in rocess folder or failed folder

• copy transport packages from the in process folder to the archive folder and to move transport packages from the in process folder to the export folder or failed folder

• view transport logs of imported and exported transport packages

• For better guidance dummy-links for 1) Check pre-transport tasks and 4) Perform Post-Transport Actions are also available

[Customized Transport-Administrator Role in QEP and PEP]

[Example: Top- and Detailed Level Navigation of customized transport administrator role].

Transport

Development System

After creating and successfully testing the content on the development system, the delegated content administrator has to create a transport package in the projects transport folder. When the transport package is created and exported to the file system, the delegated content administrator has to notify the transport administrator, who is responsible of the quality assurance system. This is done by sending an email with a completed Enterprise Portal Transports word template attached. This document contains also necessary pre- and post transport requirements, that have to be performed by the transport administrator of the QEP system.

In summary the following steps have to be performed on the development system:

• Test content and create transport package

• Export transport package to file system

• Complete Enterprise Portal Transport word template

• Send email containing the Enterprise Portal Transports word template to the transport administrator of the QEP system.

Quality Assurance System

Once the transport administrator of the quality assurance system is notified by the delegated content administrator of the development system, the transport administrator can perform necessary post transport steps as described in the Enterprise Portal Transport word template attached to the email. It might for example be necessary, to adapt definitions of a system object to the new environment or to change an iView’s system alias property.

• After this is done, the transport package can be imported to the quality assurance system.

• If the import was not successful, the transport package has to be moved from the file-system’s import folder to the failed folder by using the corresponding iView in the transport Administrator role.

When the import was successful the transport package has to be moved from the file-system’s import folder to the in process folder by using the corresponding iView. Now post-transport actions can be performed [like assigning a role to a test user] and the delegated content administrator can be notified via email with an updated Enterprise Portal Transport word document to start the tests in the quality assurance system.

As soon as the positive test results are reported back to the transport administrator via email with an updated Enterprise Portal Transport word document, the transport package is copied to the file-system’s archive folder and moved from the in process folder to the export folder. Then the transport administrator of the productive system has to be notified via email with an updated Enterprise Portal Transport word document.

If the tests have failed on the QEP system the Enterprise Portal Transport word document has to be updated explaining in detail why the tests failed. Then the transport administrator has to move the transport package from the file systems in process folder to the failed folder and the delegated content admin has to be notified to fix and re-create the transport package.

After every transport the transport logs should be checked using the appropriate “view transport log” iView.

In summary, the following steps have to be performed on the quality assurance system:

• Perform pre-transport tasks as described in the email • Import transport package to QAS • If the import fails, report error back to delegated content admin and delete the transport

package from file system • If the import was successful move the transport package to in process folder • Perform post-transport tasks as described in the email • Update Enterprise Portal Transport word document and notify delegated content

administrator to start tests on the quality assurance system • If the test results are positive, the transport package has to be copied from the file-

system’s in process folder to the archive folder and moved from the in process folder to the export folder.

• If the test failed the transport package has to be moved from the file systems in process folder to the failed folder.

• After every transport the transport logs should be checked using the appropriate “view transport log” iView

Productive System As soon as the transport administrator of the productive system is notified via email, the necessary pre-transport requirements can be performed. Then the transport package can be imported and post-transport requirements can be performed. After that the transport package has to be moved from the file-system’s import folder to the archive folder.

The Enterprise Portal Transport word document has to be updated and a final email has to be sent to the delegated content administrator stating that the transport was successfully transported from the development system to the productive system.

In summary the following steps have to be performed on the productive system: • Perform pre-transport tasks as described in the email • Import package to PEP • Perform post-transport tasks as described in the email • Update Enterprise Portal Transport word document and notify delegated content

administrator that the transport was successfully transported to the productive system

Disclaimer & Liability Notice

This document may discuss sample coding, which does not include official interfaces and therefore is not supported. Changes made based on this information are not supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade.

SAP will not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing of the code and methods suggested here, and anyone using these methods, is doing it under his/her own responsibility.

SAP offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type with respect to the content of the technical article, including any liability resulting from incompatibility between the content of the technical article and the materials and services offered by SAP. You agree that you will not hold SAP responsible or liable with respect to the content of the Technical Article or seek to do so.

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