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You can find some of the key basics of the Web Dynpro Netweaver framework in my earlier post here. Today, lets have a look at the Phased Model framework functionality within the Web Dynpro framework. The phased model is a predetermined sequence of steps that need to be executed everytime there is a client request or response cycle. One important point to note here is that the phased model does not take care of component instantiation. It is only after all the components of the application have been instantiated that the phased model handles client requests or round trips during the lifecycle of the application.

Thus, there exists a one to one relationship between the phased model and the visible window. Each time a modal pop up window is displayed, it is processed using a new instance of the phased model. Some of the steps within the web dynpro programming phased model are discussed below:

1) First step is the receipt of an incoming request.

2) As a next step, the data from the incoming request is transferred to a client neutral location called the data container.

3) The 'doapplicationstatechange' step also known as the floating stage beacuse the creation of this step may vary depending upon the type of the incoming request.

4) The data in the request is validated against simple dictionary rules, however, if there are non validating actions, then the data request is sent as it is, without any validating steps in between.

5) Finally, as part of response rendering, an incoming request coming from an html client and after the post processing phase does not require any error messages, the user interface tree is passed on to the client. For non html requests, the UI data is rendered on to the screen without taking into account the fact that this might not be visible.

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You can find the basics of SAP Netweaver XI Exchange Infrastructure here. As mentioned earlier, SAP NW XI is helpful in connecting different vendor systems SAP or Non SAP systems which have been implemented on different platforms such as ABAP, JAVA, .NET etc. The SAP Netweaver Xchange Infrastructure (XI) has many components. Lets have a brief look at the components of the SAP XI and how these are used in the XI Integration process:

1. At the outset, the user needs to define the SAP systems in the systems landscape in 'SLD'. Once this is completed, one needs to define the interfaces in the XI Integration Repository at the design stage. It is important to note that the data in these different systems may not be in the same format. This description of the data will need to be defined in the data mapping.

2. The components, interfaces and mappings are defined in the 'Integration Repository' during the configuration phase of SAP XI, which determines the integration processes in the system landscape called logical routing. This is stored in the XI Integration Directory.

3. The next step in the XI Integration process is to transfer application specific content. This can be achieved using XML Schema for transferring messages between sender and receiver. IDOCs, files etc are used to determine the data structure.

4. So how does the entire process of SAP NW XI Integration work once it is setup? When an inbound message is received at run time, the integration engine of the integration server checks the configuration of the integration directory. The configuration data defined earlier is used to determine the receiver of the message. In that sense, the integration server acts as the central point of communication and distribution of XML messages.

5. Lastly, SAP XI 3.0 works in conjunction with the SAP Web AS Server 6.40. SAP now uses JAVA as a standard and Java administration tools need to be used to manage the Integration Directory and Repository.

I will discuss another important topic of connecting different systems to SAP Netweaver XI tomorrow.

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A Business configuration set is a set of customizing settings. The configuration settings in a BC set need to be grouped by logical business processes. The settings in the BC set are accessible across the system landscape and are independent of the original Customizing and table views. In simple sense, BC sets are snapshots of customizing settings. One important concept to keep in mind for BC sets is that of attributes. The customizing values in the BC sets can be given attributes. BC Set attributes can be of two types:

- Restrict Customizing (Fixed Attributes)
- Flexible Customizing (Variable Attributes)

Examples of restrict customizing include that subsidiary units cannot change certain settings. Repair to SAP system is possible, however, they cannot change the customizing settings. The fixed attribute is only valid in the system in which the business configuration BC set is activated. Flexible customizing on the other hand allows organizational units to customize the settings, i.e. settings may differ between local systems and global systems.

The variable attributes allows values at the activation to make the entire process of customizing flexible. Some of the key advantages of BC sets are given below:

- Consistency checks throughout with a cross system viewer
- Flexible adjustment of pre defined customising
- Bug fixes can be uploaded and downloaded as needed
- Independence from actual customizing
- Additional customizing information through the use of attributes.

One can organize BC business configuration sets in the following two ways in SAP ECC 6.0:

- One BC set per process - In this type of BC set, all the IMG activities which are required for a process are put in one BC set. This BC set can be used for that process only at any time. This type of BC set is recommended for a single special use or to have complete business coverage.

- One BC set per IMG activity - These type of BC sets are not tied to any processes so can be used without restrictions. SAP allows to construct a hierarchical BC set which models a business process. The advantage of doing this is that the hierarchical BC business configuration set can be used in the same way as one BC set per process.

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Migration the New GL in SAP is a strategic decision. Though migrating to New SAP GL has its benefits, the implementation can turn out to be a complicated project. Most companies make the mistake of treating migration to New GL as a simple technical issue in SAP like change managment. Best practice suggests that migration to New SAP GL should be taken up as a project. One of the key reasons for taking up migration to GL New SAP as a project is that implementation of New GL is not only a technical transfer of data, many conceptual changes may also apply during the process of implementation.

SAP suggests a 'Phased Model' for implementation of SAP New GL. The phased model suggests 3 phases for migration to new gl and data transfer.

Phase 0 - Single documents are not migrated from Phase 0. In Phase 0, accounts which are managed as 'Open Items' are such as vendor and customer open items are migrated individually. For accounts not managed as open items, the balance carry forward for these accounts is migrated ie. transferred to the migration year.

Phase 1 - In Phase 1, migration programs are used to transfer documents. Such migration programs post the documents subsequently during the implementation process. The decision to implement SAP New GL with document split or without document split will have an effect in this phase. In any case, the posting of documents will be completed here.

Phase 2 - This is looked upon as the last phase, where the New General Ledger Accounting is active and configurations made during the earlier phases are used.

One important point to note here is that New SAP GL cannot be activated for individual company codes alone. This is beacuse New General Ledger can only be activated across all SAP clients after data migration. So all 'productive' company codes need to be included in the New GL migration.

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Function groups are nothing but special ABAP programs. Function modules form part of function groups in ABAP programming. Function modules are special procedures which have a global view and can be called from other ABAP programs. Function modules can only be implemented in special ABAP programs, such special ABAP programs are called function groups. To make it clear, function groups are not programs that can be executed using transaction codes or by entering the name of a program. Function groups should be looked upon as framework programs for function modules.

Function groups normally consist of the following:
- Data declarations i.e. global data objects
- Subroutines
- Screens

As pointed out earlier, function groups consists of a framework program and a number of 'include' programs. The framework program and include programs are automatically created once a function group is created. The include programs can be easily created using the forward navigation in the ABAP workbench. A function group can be created using the transaction code SE80. The steps for creating a function group in SAP ABAP programming are given below:

Step 1 - In transaction code SE80, the user should select object list for function group.

Step 2 - Enter the name of the new function group example ZEF130_TEST

Step 3 - Next click on 'Create Object' which comes as a popup window

Step 4 - Confirm 'Yes' Insert Function Group

Step 5 - Once a function group is created, function modules can be created in the submenus.

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Web Dynpro forms part of the SAP Web applicaton server which is based on open standards. Before explaining the concept and main features of WebDynpro, it is worth to take a look at SAP Web application server. The SAP Web AS provides an enterprise scaled, platform independent application server with J2EE and ABAP languages built in. The Web AS provides a seamless integration of SAP components with a database independent persistence framework. Within the WEB AS, the Web Dynpro acts as the basis for professional User Interface development.

The Web Dynpro can be accessed using the Web Dynpro Explorer which displays the default view of the logical structure of the entire Web Dynpro application. The nodes and subnodes created by the Web Dynpro generator act as the starting point for the creation of new application elements. The Web Dynpro explorer consists of many tools and submenus which can be user for different user interface development purposes. Some of the key SAP WebDynpro tools are discussed below:

1. Data Modeler - The data modeler is a graphical tool used for central development tasks such as creating a view, controller definition, declaring a model to a component. creating a data link etc.

2. Navigation modeler - The navigation modeler is a graphical Web Dynpro tool within the SAP Netweaver Development Studio. The navigation modeler is very helpful in designing and implementing user interface elements, application entities, views and navigation.

3. View Designer - The View Designer provides GUI support during the implementation of a user interface layout of a Web Dynpro application. One important point to note is that the logical element of the interface layout is the View.

4. Controller / Context Editor - As the name suggests, the controller / context editor are used to create controller context trees and defintion of the data flow between two or more Web Dynpro entities. The controller context editor can be used to create context structures for different controller types.

5. Message Editor - The message editor within WebDynpro helps in creating and editing messages that need to be displayed on screen. Similarly, texts that need to be displayed at runtime can be created using the message editor in the SAP Netweaver Developer Studio.

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SAP Netweaver BI is all about business being able to make the right decisions at the right time using data which is reliable. Lets take a look at some of the basics of Netweaver BI. SAP BI popularly known as SAP Business Intelligence is a component of the SAP Netweaver subarea 'Information Integration'. SAP Netweaver Information Integration contains the following components:

1. BI Information Integration
2. Knowledge Management
3. Master Data Management

The key benefit of SAP BI Netweaver is that both structured and unstructered information is available to enterprise users in real time. MySAP Netweaver BI within SAP Business Warehouse makes this possible by firstly, ensuring the integrity of the data, and secondly integrating and analysing relevant information in real time. The Netweaver BW framework supports the BI with tools such as interactive reports. The Netweaver BI relies on the BW framework in collecting data from various resources both SAP and Non SAP sources. This data is loaded in SAP BW using extraction processes. The data may undergo technical as well as business modifications as required. After processing, the data is saved in Infoproviders.

Thus, the Business Intelligence Information Integration in Netweaver follows a step by step process. The steps can be outlined as under:

1. Source system data extraction
2. Transformation of extracted data. Technical and business transformation is required for data to make sense and be readable.
3. Storage of the transformed data into Infoproviders. Infoproviders are the objects which make the data available for reporting.
4. Reporting is the last step in the Netweaver BI process, where infoproviders are used for generating interactive reports.

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