SAP NetWeaver Portal Development Kits for.net and Java

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SAP NetWeaver Portal Development Kits for .NET and Java

Applies To:

SAP NetWeaver Portal, Portal Development Kit for .NET, Portal Development Kit for Java

Summary

This article provides a comparative overview of the two SAP NetWeaver portal development kits to assist customers in making an informed choice which of the tools to select for their portal content development. By: Anne Tarnoruder, Daniel Wroblewski

Company: SAP Date: December, 2006

Author Bios

Anne Tarnoruder is a part of the SAP NetWeaver Product Management team in SAP Labs, Israel, responsible for knowledge transfer in the areas of PDK for .NET and Visual Composer SDK. Prior to joining SAP in 2004, she held a number of positions in software development, team management, system architecture and technical communications in various high-tech companies. Anne holds an M.S. degree in Applied Mathematics.

Daniel Wroblewski is a part of the SAP NetWeaver Product Management team in SAP Labs, Israel, responsible for knowledge transfer for portal developer topics. Daniel is a regular contributor to SDN, and a moderator on the Portal Content Development forum. Daniel holds a B.A. degree in chemistry and an M.S. degree in Computer Science.

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Introduction

SAP NetWeaver provides a variety of tools for developing custom portal content, targeted at users with different purposes and skills, such as Portal Content Studio, Web Dynpro, Visual Composer and portal development kits (PDK) for Java and .NET.

This document focuses on two portal development kits: PDK for .NET and PDK for Java, which are both targeted at application developers. Its goal is to assist customers in making an informed choice about which tools to select for their portal content development.

The following table summarizes the parameters for the two PDKs:

Parameters PDK for .NET PDK for Java

Purpose Enable developing, running and administering portal applications for SAP NetWeaver Portal on the Microsoft .NET platform

Enable creating Web Dynpro applications that access portal services, integrating the Web Dynpro applications into the portal, and creating custom portal services.

Contains An add-in for Microsoft Visual Studio and runtime services

A set of Java APIs

Target audience .NET developers Java developers

Platform Windows XP or 2003 Windows XP or 2003

Design-time environment Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or 2003

SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio, with the JDK for the current NetWeaver version.

Runtime environment Portal: SAP NetWeaver, installed with usage type EP; .NET server: Windows XP or 2003 + .NET Framework 2.0

SAP NetWeaver, installed with usage type EP

UI design tools Built-in NetWeaver Developer Studio,

including EP and Web Dynpro perspectives

Available portal services User Management Engine (UME), Systems Landscape, Object-based navigation (OBN)

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PDK for .NET

Purpose of the Tool

SAP Portal Development Kit for Microsoft .NET (PDK for .NET) is a self-contained set of tools that enables developing, running and administering portal applications for SAP NetWeaver Portal on the Microsoft .NET platform.

Using PDK for .NET allows organizations to leverage their existing investments in Microsoft .NET technology and developers skills, as well as to take advantage of SAP NetWeaver technology.

Architecture / Landscape

The SAP PDK for .NET package is comprised of the following components: • Portal Add-in for Visual Studio (Portal Add-in)

An extension of Microsoft Visual Studio that allows .NET developers to develop, deploy and debug portal applications for SAP NetWeaver Portal

• Portal Runtime for Microsoft .NET (.NET Runtime)

A service used to process .NET portal components at runtime • Java - .NET Interoperability Framework

A mechanism that enables API calls between the Java stack and the .NET stack. It allows invoking Java-based portal services from .NET code and permits SAP NetWeaver Portal to pass requests to the Portal Runtime for .NET service. It includes components that are installed on the portal server.

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The following figure illustrates the high-level architecture of PDK for .NET.

Microsoft Visual Studio

Design-Tme Environment

Runtime Environment

SAP NetWeaver Portal (J2EE)

.NET Server

For local debugging

Deploy

Portal Add-in for VS

SAP .NET Connector

Portal Runtime

for .NET Portal Runtime_{for .NET}

PRT (Portal Runtime) Java-.Net Interoperability BAPI/RFC Enterprise Services SAP .NET Connector Runtime

SAP Back-End Systems

What’s In It

Portal Add-in for Visual Studio provides all the tools necessary to develop portal applications, including: • Custom Visual Studio project and component templates for portal applications

• SAP NetWeaver .NET controls that inherit the portal look and feel (supported by SAP Unified Rendering)

• A rich set of APIs, including a number of portal services • Available directly from Visual Studio

− Management of portal connections − Hot deployment to the portal

− Previewing portal components in the portal

− Designing, configuring and previewing portal pages − Creating content (iViews, pages, folders) in the portal

− Debugging portal components on a local development machine

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Target Audience

PDK for .NET is targeted at .NET developers who need to design, implement and support portal applications for SAP NetWeaver Portal.

Required Skills

To develop with PDK for .NET, you need the following skills:

• Experience building Web-based applications with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET • Working knowledge of either C# or VB.NET development languages

• Experience in the SAP NetWeaver Portal administration

• Familiarity with the main concepts and architecture of SAP NetWeaver What You Can Do With It

With PDK for .NET, you can:

• Visually design the UI of your applications

• Write code to implement application logic and flow

• Access various data sources, such as databases, SAP back-end systems, or Web services • Create portal components, portal system templates, iViews (portlets), pages, and folders • Implement client-side and server-side events between iViews on the same page

• Apply portal look and feel to non-SAP UI controls Development Features

Platform

Windows 2003 or XP

Development Environment

Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 or 2005 Professional Edition, or higher

Runtime Environment

SAP NetWeaver, installed with usage type EP; Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 for the .NET runtime server

Accessing Data Sources

With PDK for .NET, you have the following options to access data sources: • Standard databases – through Visual Studio ADO.NET

• SAP back-end systems

− through BAPI/RFC – with SAP .NET Connector − through Web Service interface

Accessing Portal Features and Services

SAP PDK for .NET exposes the following portal services: • User Management

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• System Landscape

• Object-Based Navigation (OBN) Runtime Features

To ensure high availability, PDK for .NET supports clustering, load balancing and failover by providing an administration tool for configuration of the runtime servers.

Application Lifecycle Management

Installation and Administration

PDK for .NET is equipped with the following installation and administration tools: • InstallShield-based installers

• A dedicated MMC Snap-in for configuring and management of the .NET runtime servers and services

• A portal-side configuration page in the portal • SAP monitoring infrastructure (GRMG)

• J2EE Web AS administration tools (SDM, Visual Admin)

Change Management

PDK for .NET is not integrated with NetWeaver Development Infrastructure (NWDI). For version and change control, you can use third-party tools such as Visual SourceSafe or Perforce.

Deployment

To deploy the content created with PDK for .NET, it is possible to either use the hot deployment and publishing options directly from Visual Studio, or create portal archive files and pass them to the portal administrator for deployment in the portal. The latter option is used mostly to transfer the content from development to production.

Upgrading

Each new version of PDK for .NET is backward compatible so that the content created with its previous versions is supported automatically by the next. It is also forward compatible on the SP stacks of the same SAP NetWeaver code line. The installation wizard automatically updates your previous version to the new one.

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Usage Characteristics

Performance

PDK for .NET has almost no impact on portal performance. For some metrics, see Appendix A in the

Installation, Upgrade and Configuration Guide - PDK for .NET.

Tool Maturity

PDK for .NET has been in development since 2004. Since then, it has been released a number of times. Release history

• 1.x - 2004 • 2.0 - 2005

• 2.5 – 2006 (for Visual Studio 2005) Additional Resources

The .NET Interoperability Development Center is a single point of access to all resources related to PDK for .NET, such as downloads, documentation, FAQ, SAP Notes, articles and tutorials.

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PDK for Java

Purpose of the Tool

SAP Portal Development Kit for Java (PDK for Java) is a set of Java APIs and Web Dynpro components that enables developing Java applications for the portal. Web Dynpro is SAP’s strategic approach to building Web-based user interfaces.

The PDK for Java enables developers to create Web Dynpro applications that access portal services, and to integrate the Web Dynpro applications into the portal. The PDK also enables the creation of portal services that run on top of the Portal Runtime engine.

Architecture / Landscape

The PDK for Java is included in the installation of SAP NetWeaver. No additional setup is required.

The design time (development) environment is generally NetWeaver Developer Studio (based on Eclipse), with NetWeaver Developer Infrastructure as the change management and deployment system, although any Java environment can be used.

What’s In It

• Java APIs

• Web Dynpro components

• Developer’s Guide, including API reference What You Can Do With It

With the PDK for Java, you can:

• Develop portal applications (services and UI components) by coding in Java with the EP Perspective in the NetWeaver Developer Studio

The following can be included in a portal application:

− UI elements provided by HTMLB (Java classes or JSP tag libraries) − JSP pages packaged as portal components

− Portal services

• Access portal services from within a Web Dynpro application • Modify portal look and feel

− Create portal wizards and editors for creating and editing portal objects − Create custom page layouts

• Implement client-side communication between iViews (portlets) on the same page Target Audience

The PDK for Java is targeted at Java developers who need to design, implement and support portal applications for SAP NetWeaver Portal.

Required Skills

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• Familiarity with the main concepts and architecture of SAP NetWeaver Development Features

Platform

Windows 2003 or XP

Development Environment

SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio, with the JDK for the current NetWeaver version.

Runtime Environment

SAP NetWeaver, installed with usage type EP

Accessing Data Sources

• Standard databases and SAP back-end systems via the Connector Framework

Accessing Portal Features and Services

The SAP PDK for Java exposes the following portal services: • User Management

• System Landscape • Navigation

• Object-Based Navigation (OBN) • Wizard Framework

• Editor Framework

• Portal Content Directory Generic Layer (PCD GL) • Page Builder

• HTML-Business (UI controls) • Application Integrator

• Connector Framework Runtime Features

Not applicable.

Application Lifecycle Management

Administration

• Visual Administrator: used for configuring J2EE applications

• NetWeaver Developer Studio: contains views for monitoring AS Java, deploying and undeploying applications, debugging

Change Management

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Deployment

Deployment is through the Deploy View of the NetWeaver Developer Studio. Applications can also be deployed via the standalone Deploy Tool.

NetWeaver 2004/2004s: Portal applications are packaged as portal archives, which can be deployed in one of two ways:

o Via the NetWeaver Developer Studio o Via portal upload tool

Upgrading

All non-deprecated APIs in each new version of the PDK for Java are backward compatible with previous versions.

Usage Characteristics

Tool Maturity

Each new version of SAP NetWeaver contains a new or revised PDK for Java. The following are the major versions:

• EP 5.0 • EP 6.0 SP2

• SAP NetWeaver 2004 (SP9) • SAP NetWeaver 2004s

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Disclaimer & Liability Notice

This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include SAP official interfaces and therefore is not supported by SAP. 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 the information, code or methods suggested in this document, and anyone using these methods does so at his/her own risk.

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

SAP NetWeaver Portal Development Kits for.net and Java