SAP Basis HowtoBlog about SAP ERP especially on technical field such as SAP Basis/NetWeaver concepts, monitoring, administration, performance tuning, SAP Implementations, ABAP, Data Migration, OS, Database server, and FAQs

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

Netweaver Business Client (NWBC)NWBC is a new (first delivered since March 2007 as version 1.0) platform for GUI based

on business user approach to SAP applications. NWBC is one of deliverables of project

Muse. It does integrates classics SAP’s transactions as so far can be accessible via

classic SAP GUI and new web dynpro applications. It runs over HTTP(s) protocol (instead

of SAP DIAG protocol which is used by SAP GUI). Main aim is to cross a gap between

current SAP GUI (thick client) and web browser (thin client). In principle NWBC is still

reach client which is able to run all set of SAP applications: classics transactions and

dynpros, BSP pages, BI analytics dashboards, portals pages, iviews, web dynpros

and Visual Composer applications.

NWBS does reflect user’s experience (UX) paradigm and SAP design strategy with

combining technologies like: User Interface (UI) building blocks (web dynpro and

patterns), self services (ESS & MSS), analytics tool (BI), NetWeaver Portal and

Collaboration; Duet; SAP Interactive Form by Adobe; blogs, wikis, instant messaging and

in future maybe with voice capability (e.g. Text to Speach), UI adoption and

personalization, RSS, RFID.

Basically we can access SAP systems based on ABAP Stack of NetWeaver Application

Server or (NWBC with ABAP) and JAVA or Enterprise Portal based SAP systems (NWBC

with Portal). 

How it looks like? Here we go…

 

To setup access of NWBC to ABAP system (apart of server settings) do following: in menu

System -> Preferences; Add new SAP system to be connected via NWBC, specify: Name of the system

Type of system: PORTAL (SAP Enterprise Portal) or ERP (ABAP)

Protocol: HTTP/HTTPs; Check transaction SMICM -> Goto -> Services in system which is to be connected.

Host name. Check transaction SMICM ->Goto -> Services.

Port number. Check transaction SMICM -> Goto -> Services.

Path specification in the ICF services. Check transaction SICF for node /sap/bc/nwbc/

System client

System language

User name in system

Few more setting of NWBC can be setup in file "X:\Program Files\SAP\FrontEnd\SAPgui\NWBCClient.ini". SAP NetWeaver Business Client is currently only available for Windows platforms. For more details see note “900000 Netweaver Business Client – FAQ”, online documentationand SDN section.

EhP 5 ESS: The architect's viewPosted by Bernhard Escherich in bernhard.escherich on Jan 18, 2011 6:24:55 AM

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ERP EhP5 marks a turning point for the architecture of SAP Employee Self Services. With the shift of the architecture of the ESS scenarios from WebDynpro Java to WebDynpro SAP architects need to reevaluate the architecture of their organization in this area.The challengeUp to EhP5 the architecture of SAP ESS was quite clear. With most of the ESS services on WD Java a SAP Enterprise Portal was needed. This has changed now. With the new ESS you can implement them based on the Netweaver Business Client (NWBC) even without the SAP Portal.In a nutshell you get three options for the future use of ESS:1.      WD ABAP-based ESS with NWBC without SAP NetWeaver Portal2.      WD ABAP-based ESS with SAP NetWeaver Portal3.      WS Java-based ESS with SAP NetWeaver PortalA lot of information is already provided by some notes and by the documentation which also lists up all the improved features of the WD ABAP-based ESS:Note 1450179 ESS Based on Web Dynpro ABAP available as of EhP5Note 1509139 ESS EHP5 solution Based on Web Dynpro JAVA availableEhP 5 ESS documentationAs a lot of SAP customers plan to implement EhP5 shortly or are just starting their ESS projects and are therefore defining their future SAP HR architecture.The two decisive questions for your HR architecture:Which version of ESS should be used in the future (WD ABAP vs. WD Java)?Should we use SAP NetWeaver Portal for ESS or the NWBC? I have tried to facilitate your work by listing up some of the decisive points:1.      Evaluation of the as-is situation

Existing HR IT Architecture (if such architecture already exists it will contain a lot of the points listed below)

Existing SAP HR systems within your organization

Existing ESS implementations within your organization

Implementations based on releases prior to ERP 2004 (based on ITS technology)

Custom developed ESS scenarios

Overall portal strategy of your organization

2.     Determination of future requirements

List of standard ESS-scenarios which should be used in the future

List of requirements for additional ESS-scenarios:

      Scenarios which can be realized by using HCM processes and forms

      Scenarios which needs to be developed

3.      Designing your future ESS architecture(s)

Decision whether one unified ESS approach will be feasible throughout your landscape

The decision which ESS technology should be used within your organization will be made in this phase. The clear recommendation from an SAP’s HR architect point of view is to use the ESS WD ABAP whenever possible. The main reason which I could see against it is a very huge implementation of custom developed ESS scenarios based on WD Java. But even then it must be clear that future ESS functionalities will be based on WD ABAP.Whether you use the SAP NetWeaver Portal or not depend on your strategic portal decisions and also needs to consider which other SAP scenarios you want to use in your portal implementation.

4.      Designing your future HR architectureA lot of strategic HR initiatives mean a lot of interesting activities for SAP architects. In some cases these activities create a very strong need for a HR architecture. In the past a clear architecture document for a SAP HR system was not always high on the priority list and substituted by a list of interfaces and SLA for the connected systems. With more and more customers adopting SAP ESS, SAP eRecruiting and SAP Enterprise Learning a clear document with architecture guidelines could save your organization a lot of redundant efforts which would be created otherwise.

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