We recently migrated to Netweaver Portal 7.3. Portal 7.3 is a big leap forward in terms of number of functionalities offered out of the box. Migration to Portal 7.3 is a project in itself and requires taking care of the minute details to ensure a smooth transition.
In this blog I will try to pen down my experiences, the problems I faced and their solutions. A lot of information is available on SDN but this blog post will try to consolidate the information from a first hand migration experience point.
This is part 1 of the Blog Series "Lesson's learned in Upgrading to Portal 7.3".
Part 2 can be found at:
Learning 1.1: Problem in connecting NWDS 7.3 to AS Java for direct deployment.
When you try to add the host name and Instance Number of Java Application Server it does not get added and throws the error as shown.
This is due to a blocked Network port. Try to do a telnet to the host name and the deployment port to check if that is successful.
Contact your network team to open the Deployment port of your server to solve this issue. Generally the P4 port is used for deployment.
Learning 1.2: Migration of Portal Applications (PAR files) to Portal 7.3 and moving the code of portal projects to NWDI 7.3.
From Portal 7.3 onwards PAR file deployment is not supported. PAR files need to be converted into EAR files and deployed on the portal server. NWDS 7.3 should be installed. There are two ways of deploying Portal Applications as EAR file on the Portal
a) Direct Deployment:
Convert the PAR files into EAR files using PAR Migration tool available in Portal 7.3 at System Administration --> Support --> PAR Migration Tool.
Using this tool you can convert the PAR files which you have downloaded from the earlier Portal Versions (say Portal 7.0). After the conversion, EAR files are generated which can be downloaded to your local system.
Open NWDS 7.3 and open Deployment Perspective. Using the Deployment perspective one can directly deploy an EAR file to the portal server configured in NWDS. This perspective can also be used to Undeploy items from the portal server.
b) Deployment through NWDI:
The usual scenario is to maintain the Portal application Project in NWDI and deploy to the runtime server using NWDI. NWDI allows creation of "Portal Application Standalone" type DC. During the creation of DC ensure that Deployment Type is EAR SDA.
Below steps need to be performed in order to make the projects consistent with the environment.
- Correct the DC dependency for the Portal project: In NWDS 7.3 the dependency to the JAR files has to be done in terms of dependency to the corresponding wrapper DC of the JAR file.
For instance if your portal project was using reference to the JAR file "com.sapportals.navigation.navserviceapi" you need to declare a
dependency to the DC "tc/ep/navigation/api" in the SC "EP-RUNTIME".
It can be a tedious task to find the relevant DC for your desired jar file. In order to make your life easier refer to the Java Docs or to the
SAP Note -- Note 1503649 - SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.30 DCs and References
This note contains an XLS attachment called "NW_EP_Public_APIs" which clearly provides the information on which DC to use for dependency for a particular JAR file and in which SC it can be found.
- NWDS 7.3 SP 07 has two bugs for instance componentRequest parameter is not recognized in the JSP file.
Also the below taglib line in the JSP file will show an error in runtime
<%@ taglib uri="tagLib" prefix="hbj" %>
The correct syntax for using the tag library is :
<%@ taglib uri="prt:taglib:tlhtmlb" prefix="hbj" %>
Do note that even after doing this the JSP file will show error in design time for the componentRequest parameter and the taglib line. Go ahead with the build and deployment, the project will run perfectly fine at runtime. Hope SAP resolves these two bugs in NWDS 7.3 soon
- Changing the portalapp.xml file as per Version 7.3 standards.
The values for "SharingReference" or "PrivateSharingReference" in the <application-config> tag need to refer to the DC you have added in the Dependency tab for the Portal DC. For Example if you have the DC "[sap.com] tc/ep/navigation/api" in Dependency tab the referrence should be "com.sap.tc~ep~navigation~api". For referring to a J2EE libraray add the prefix "SAPJ2EE::library:", e.g. for refering to HTMLB library add the value "SAPJ2EE::library:com.sapportals.htmlb".
For referring to the taglib library add this line
" <property name="tlhtmlb" value="/SERVICE/com.sap.portal.htmlb/taglib/htmlb.tld"/>" in the <component-profile> section of portalapp.xml file.
- NPE when using DC tc/ep/navigation/api as reference in portal application:
When using the DC tc/ep/navigation/api which is the recommended DC for reference if we want to use Navigation Service Jar you get the below error which is related to Navigation service class at runtime rleated to java.lang.Nullpointerexception: while trying to invoke the method java.lang.string.equals() of an object loaded from local variable 'desktopfiltermode'
Solution: This is a known bug in EP 7.3 versions SP8 and below.
Refer to SAP Note 1697699 - NullPointerException while invoking getInitialNodes for solution to the problem.
Learning 1.3: When you do a deployment of an activity the Deployment status is not completed and shows as "unknown" forever.
In my scenario we had NWDI 7.3 installed. In order to check the Deployment Status of an Activity launch the TCS DeployServlet tool which can be accessed using the following URL:
http://<;server host name>:50000/TCS/Deployer
Provide the Build Space and the Request ID on the web page to check the Deployment log and status of NWDI Activity.
Learning 1.4: ESS Travel Management Components are not available in Web Dynpro Java from Release 633 of software component SAP_ESS.
If you want to upgrade to Portal 7.3, please make a note of the fact that the ESS Travel Management applications will not be available in WD Java and there is no other option but to use WD ABAP based Travel Management services.
For Portal 7.3 the Software Component versions needed are as shown in the screenshot-
With Release 633 of SAP_ESS the Travel DC's (ess~tra, ess~tra~tre, etc.) do not have the travel web dynpro java components, and if you create these projects in your NWDS 7.3 you will find an Outdated Web Dynpro Java Component.
The last Travel Management Web Dynpro JAVA applications supported by SAP belong to the software component SAP ESS 603 and not SAP ESS 633.
Please refer to the following links for more information on this.
http://help.sap.com/ERP2005_EHP_02/helpdata/EN/46/51ebd494b85e40e10000000a11466f/frameset.htm
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