SAP TechEd 2011: Thursday

 

CD166 - ABAP in Eclipse in Action
Thursday 8:00 a.m.
Sweet.  Really nice demonstration on using Eclipse as an ABAP editor.  SAPgui runs inside the Eclipse IDE.  Developer can connect to multiple systems at once and is not limited by six sessions.  :)  Forward navigation is supported (Ctrl-click).  No native support for dictionary objects, but the embedded SAPgui is used instead.  Features: cool code completion, code locking, integration with Change Transport System, problems view, check/save/activate process.  This tool improves the efficiency of using a test-driven development methodology.

MOB117 - Consume SAP on Your Mobile Device in Under an Hour
Thursday 10:30 a.m.
This is the low-cost option for building mobile applications.  In this session we learned the basics of what was needed: no SAP NetWeaver Gateway, no Sybase Unwired Platform.  Just a simple SAP Web Application.  Tools used: jQuery and jQuery Mobile, DOM, JSON.  Web application uses JSON to call to SAP backend and build web page dynamically.  JSON is generated by SAP ICF handler class (find blog on SDN).  Consider looking for ABAP to JSON open source project.  HTML page uses includes from jQuery, JSON, and Phone Gap libraries.  HTML page makes a call to the ICF handler and uses JSONP to process the results into HTML.  jQuery Mobile takes the HTML results and formats it properly based on end device.  This method is fine for “getting it to work”.  This method is best suited for simple applications: display-only reports.  User management (as with the SUP) is not available.

I was #9 on the SAP TechEd Knowledge Quest Leader Board after lunch today.  Rock!

CD267 - Quality Tools Within ABAP Development
Thursday 2:15 p.m.
Learned about many tools available in ABAP development environment that help support quality testing. 
Static Code Checks – Code Inspector in SE80.  Create the Inspection to associate an object set (objects to check) with a check variant (checks to perform).  I also learned how to create a unit test class for ABAP classes.  Test Driven Development was identified as an important methodology to use.

EIM209 - SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Search in Non-SAP Systems
Thursday 4:30 p.m.
SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Search 7.2 connected to PLM, DMS and many other SAP products.  Also connected to many non-SAP systems.  Additionally, it appears that this team has implemented the PLM Web UI.  Security was implemented to restrict access to search results which would meet our FDA/ITAR restrictions.  I didn’t have opportunity to discuss the SAP-side (as this was a non-SAP lecture).  But I have contact information and think we should contact him for a discussion.

CD116 - Workflow Approvals Anywhere: It Saved You How Much?
Thursday 5:45 p.m.
Presenter described a solution in which a Workflow was used to catch new Purchase Order objects and send an email to the approver(s) with a key file.  When the approver clicks a link in the email, a new email is generated and sent (with the key) back to SAP.  Another SAP program catches the incoming email and approves the PO on behalf of the email recipient.  My thoughts: a similar process could potentially be used during a Change Order approval process.  Looks nice: they generated a rich HTML-based email; not just plain text.  Next they enhanced the process to include other SAP objects: hire requests, customer invoices, travel expense, etc.

SAP TechEd 2011: Tuesday

Here’s a short summary of each of the sessions I attended.

SCI266 - X.509 Certificates for SSO
Tuesday 10:00 a.m.
I attended a hands-on lab on the topic of the new X.509 SSO technology from SAP.  Really nice feature.  I’m not a basis guy, but after walking through the entire process myself, it feels pretty easy to configure.  In addition, I think it could help us reduce maintenance cost of our existing SSO solution – especially with respect to web application single sign-on.  I think I heard tell that it is only available for NetWeaver 7.3 (maybe 7.2 also).

MOB110 - Developing Synchronized Mobile Applications
Tuesday 11:30 a.m.
As expected, SAP has had a year to provide more detail documentation and presentations on the subject of mobile development.  It appears that they’ve also provided ways to simply the web development design.  The structure of the Synchronized mobile app is three-tiered.  1. back-end consumable RFC-enabled functions; 2. Sybase Unwired Platform middleware with data model that calls to backend, processes data and stored results server-side; 3. mobile application that calls to SUP and retrieves a subset of the stored results for display on the device.

CD360 – Best Practices for Web Dynpro ABAP
Tuesday 2:15 p.m.
A learning: it doesn’t help trying to guess where people will sit in a hands-on lab in order to manipulate yourself into your own computer.  I almost had it; when the lab started the gal next to me (actually part of group 09) had to practically stretch across me to reach the laptop that was tethered to the desk.  Really nice hands on lab though.  Learned some awesome tips on a new Layout provided called the FormLayout.  Love it.  I really could have used it this last summer with a specific issue I was struggling with.  I also got a better understanding of how to properly use a couple of the layout types I didn’t quite understand.  I learned the golden rule of Web Dynpro: If you want and item to stretch to the size of the window, then all parent containers must have height/width set to 100%.  Next we learned about multi-tab performance and how to use the Web Dynpro performance monitor (Ctrl-Alt-Shft-P).

ALM102 – SAP Netweaver 7.3: How to Get There
Tuesday 4:30 p.m.
Find the master guide.  Download the master guide.  Read the master guide.  Follow the steps in the master guide.

SAP PLM Web UI Discussion
Tuesday ~7:45 p.m.
Caught up with Tom and asked for direction on where to install the components of the PLM Web UI – specifically with respect to customer/supplier access.  As expected, this individuals most familiar with the topic weren’t at SAP TechEd this week.  But Tom was very informative, said that we need to install SAP PLM WUI on the R/3 server (along with the upgrade).  During implementation we will decide what portions of the web PLM solution will be utilized by third party.  We assign a secondary IP address to the server for use by 3rd party and expose the web components required to this secondary IP address in the ICF.  Makes great sense.  Last: there are a few topics that I wasn’t able to make it too.  It would great to have Tom in to show Chris, Chad and I some of the new functionality we’ll get from the upgrade.