Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use

extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

Applies to:
Integration of Web Dynpro for Java applications into the SAP NetWeaver Portal for the SAP NetWeaver 04s
release.

Summary
The basic task of the SAP Application Integrator is to launch a Web Dynpro application running as a Web
Dynpro iView within the SAP NetWeaver portal. Besides that there are several extended features like
customer-specific parameter providers for the URL computing available, which helps also when running Web
Dynpro iViews. The document gives a comprehensive overview about the SAP Application Integrator and
describes how to use the extended features when running Web Dynpro iViews.
Author: Jochen Guertler
Company: SAP AG
Created on: 27th February 2007

Author Bio
Jochen Guertler works as a development architect within the Web Dynpro for Java team. His main
responsibilities are the integration of Web Dynpro for Java with other components of SAP NetWeaver,
especially the integration with the SAP NetWeaver portal.
Jochen is co-author of the “Maximizing Web Dynpro for Java” book.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

Table of Contents
Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application
Integrator.......................................................................................................................................... 1
Applies to: ........................................................................................................................................ 1
Summary.......................................................................................................................................... 1
Author Bio ........................................................................................................................................ 1
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ 2
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3
Classification of Web Dynpro iViews ........................................................................................... 3
Prerequisites.................................................................................................................................... 3
Using the examples ......................................................................................................................... 3
Deploying the example application .............................................................................................. 3
Deploying the portal content ........................................................................................................ 3
The SAP Application Integrator ....................................................................................................... 4
Launching a Web Dynpro iView................................................................................................... 4
Computing of the Web Dynpro application URL ...................................................................... 4
Handling of NW04 Web Dynpro iViews.................................................................................... 7
Handling of NW04s Web Dynpro iViews .................................................................................. 7
Extending the URL template ........................................................................................................ 7
<IView> context ........................................................................................................................ 8
<Profile> context....................................................................................................................... 8
<Request> context ................................................................................................................... 9
<System> context................................................................................................................... 10
<User> context ....................................................................................................................... 10
Using customer-specific parameter providers ............................................................................... 11
Prerequisites .............................................................................................................................. 11
Limitations .............................................................................................................................. 12
First example.............................................................................................................................. 12
Creating a portal development component ............................................................................ 12
Creating a portal service......................................................................................................... 14
Implementing the customer-specific parameter provider ....................................................... 17
Extending the service implementation.................................................................................... 18
To get it compiled ................................................................................................................... 19
Web Dynpro related scenarios ...................................................................................................... 20
Dynamic computation of system or Web Dynpro application .................................................... 21
Forwarding portal session content ............................................................................................. 21
Forwarding the iView profile....................................................................................................... 23
Mapping of JCo destinations...................................................................................................... 25
Copyright........................................................................................................................................ 27

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

Introduction
The basic task of the SAP Application Integrator is to launch a Web Dynpro application running as a Web
Dynpro iView within the SAP NetWeaver Portal. Besides that there are several extended features like
customer-specific parameter providers for the URL computing available, which helps also when running Web
Dynpro iViews.
The document gives a comprehensive overview about the SAP Application Integrator and describes how to
use the extended features when running Web Dynpro iViews including several running example applications
using the discussed capabilities.

Classification of Web Dynpro iViews

Before we continue with the SAP Application Integrator we have to clarify the naming used in this document
regarding the different types of Web Dynpro iViews.
We differentiate between two types of Web Dynpro iViews. First there are Web Dynpro iViews based on the
Web Dynpro iView template. This type of Web Dynpro iView could only be run as isolated iViews. As this
iView type is available since the SAP NetWeaver 04 release we name this NW04 Web Dynpro iView.
Second there are Web Dynpro iViews based on the Web Dynpro page builder. This type of Web Dynpro
iView could be run embedded in Web Dynpro pages. As this iView type is available since the SAP
NetWeaver 04s release we call this NW04s Web Dynpro iView.
For more details about the differences and capabilities of the Web Dynpro iView types please check the
related document of this series.

Prerequisites
This document and the provided examples are developed and tested using the SAP NetWeaver 04s SP11
release.

Using the examples

To demonstrate the different capabilities of the SAP Application Integrator we provide a running example
application: ParametersApp. This application shows the parameters passed to the Web Dynpro application.
It furthermore allows filtering the list of parameters to show or hide for example the SAP internal parameters.

Deploying the example application

The ParametersApp example application is part of the params Web Dynpro development component. To
deploy this development component you have to import it as a local development component into your
NetWeaver Developers Studio. You can find the zipped development component here.

Deploying the portal content

After deploying the params development component you have to import the associated portal content under
System Administration -> Transport -> Transport Packages –> Import. You can find the related portal
content archive here.
After deploying the portal content you have to assign the provided SAP Application Integrator role
under User Administration -> Identity Management to your user.
The following screenshot shows the provided example application running in the SAP NetWeaver Portal. We
use the ParameterApp example application in several iView showing different usages of the SAP
Application Integrator capabilities.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

The SAP Application Integrator

One main benefit using the SAP NetWeaver Portal is the possibility to structure and offer different types of
applications in one consistent way. Besides non-SAP applications all kinds of applications based on one of
the available SAP technologies are supported.
The SAP Application Integrator (AI) is responsible to launch all types of SAP applications like applications
based on HTMLB, ITS, BSP, Transactions or last but nor least Web Dynpro (both for Java and ABAP). The
SAP Application Integrator is implemented as a portal component executed by the Portal Runtime (PRT).

Launching a Web Dynpro iView

Independently of the used Web Dynpro (for Java) iView type the main steps to launch a Web Dynpro
application using the SAP Application Integrator are the following:
1. The iView URL is sent from the browser and it is handled by the Portal Runtime (PRT).
2. The PRT forwards the request to the SAP Application Integrator.
3. The SAP Application Integrator computes the target Web Dynpro application URL based on the
settings of the launched iView. This application URL contains several parameters defining the
current portal environment.
For NW04 iViews the defined system is used to determine the host running the Web Dynpro
application.
The computed URL is based on a URL template which could be also extended for certain iViews. As
we will describe later there is also a possibility to define certain exits for dynamic parameter
resolving.
4. The SAP Application Integrator sends a HTTP redirect to the browser pointing to the computed Web
Dynpro application.
5. The Web Dynpro runtimes starts the Web Dynpro application. The parameters defining the current
portal environment are used automatically by the WD runtime to ensure that the Web Dynpro
application is executed correctly. The most obvious example for this is the automatic usage of the
theme defined by the SAP NetWeaver Portal.

Computing of the Web Dynpro application URL

As the SAP Application Integrator is responsible to run different types of applications depending on different
URLs there are URL templates defining the structure and different parts of a computed URL. The URL
template for a specific type of application is defined inside the SAP Application Integrator and there is no

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

need to change this. We will discuss later in this document how to extend the used URL template to add
more parameters to the computed URL.
The URL template used to compute a Web Dynpro application URL for NW04 Web Dynpro iView looks like
the following (expressions denoted in angle braces <…> are resolved during runtime):
URL = <System.Access.WAS.protocol>://
<System.Access.WAS.hostname>\
/webdynpro/dispatcher<Request.DistributionZone>/
<WebDynproNamespace>/<WebDynproApplication>\
;jsessionid=<Request.JSessionID>?\
sap-ext-sid=<ESID[URL_ENCODE]>&\
sap-wd-cltwndid=<ClientWindowID>&\
sap-locale=<Request.Locale>&\
sap-accessibility=<User.Accessibility[SAP_BOOL]>&\
sap-rtl=<LAF.RightToLeft[SAP_BOOL]>&\
sap-ep-version=<Request.Version[URL_ENCODE]>&\
sap-cssurl=<LAF.StylesheetUrl[URL_ENCODE]>&\
sap-cssversion=<LAF.Version[URL_ENCODE]>&\
<Authentication>&\
<DynamicParameter[PROCESS_RECURSIVE]>&\
<ApplicationParameter[PROCESS_RECURSIVE]>
Once the URL template has been processed by the SAP Application Integrator, the following URL could, for
example, be calculated which could be used to launch the ParameterApp example application as NW04
Web Dynpro iView within the SAP NetWeaver Portal:
http://wdhost.wdf.sap.corp:50000/webdynpro/dispatcher/
sap.com/params/ParameterApp;
jsesionid=(WDFD00146855A_P37_00)
ID1615564250DB00783426715781195164End?
sap-extsid=w5pCY0L2j19l%2FB28gt1HhA%3D%3Dv
Vf%2B0Ky5v%2BiZ268a%2BYvFjA%3D%3D&
sap-wd-cltwndid=WID1138899091639&
sap-locale=en_US&
sap-accessibility=&
sap-rtl=&
sap-ep-version=6.4.200509182320&
sap-cssurl=https%3A%2F%2Fround-lake.dustinice.workers.dev%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fwdfd00146855a%3A50000 %2
Firj%2Fportalapps%2Fcom.sap.portal.design.urdesigndata
%2Fthemes%2Fportal%2Fsap_tradeshow%2
Fur%2Fur_ie6.css%3F6.0.15.0.0&
sap-cssversion=6.0.14.0.0
Based on the transferred parameters, different portal settings are sent to the Web Dynpro runtime
environment. In addition to the preferred portal language (sap-locale) and the selected theme (sap-
cssurl), these settings also include information on the preferred display variant (left-to-right or right-to-left
defined by the sap-rtl parameter) and on determining whether a barrier-free display is required (sap-
accessibility).
The next picture shows the ParametersApp example application showing the passed parameters.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

As all these parameters are passed as standard URL parameters you can access them easily inside a Web
Dynpro application (although there is normally no need doing this, as the Web Dynpro runtime handles the
settings defined by the different parameters automatically).
The following code example shows for example how to get the sent theme URL:
String themeURL =
WDProtocolAdapter().
getProtocolAdapter().
getRequestObject().
getParameter(“cssurl”);
Keep in mind that URL parameters are not forwarded to all follow-up requests. You have to access these
parameters therefore in the initial request (typically in one of the wdDoInit()methods of a component or
custom controller).
In the ParametersApp example application we copy the list of parameters to a certain Web Dynpro context
node. To make sure that we get all values even in case that there are more than one value for one
parameter we use the WDProtocolAdapter.getProtocolAdapter().getRequestObject()
.getParameterValues() method as shown in the following code example.

// Store full list of parameters with the inital request

Enumeration parameterNames =
WDProtocolAdapter.getProtocolAdapter().getRequestObject().getParameterNames();

while (parameterNames.hasMoreElements()) {
String parameterName = (String) parameterNames.nextElement();
if (parameterName.equals("eventQueue"))
continue;

String values[] = WDProtocolAdapter.getProtocolAdapter().

getRequestObject().getParameterValues(parameterName);

for (int i = 0; i < values.length; i++) {

IPublicParametersComp.ISourceElement parameter =
wdContext.nodeSource().createSourceElement();

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parameter.setName(parameterName);
parameter.setValue(values[i]);
wdContext.nodeSource().addElement(parameter);
}
}

Handling of NW04 Web Dynpro iViews

The computed application URL used for a NW04 Web Dynpro iView points directly to the Web Dynpro
application as shown above. This URL is the only connection between the SAP NetWeaver Portal and the
Web Dynpro runtime. The only way to share information between the SAP NetWeaver Portal and the Web
Dynpro runtime is the usage of several parameters sends together with the application URL.

Handling of NW04s Web Dynpro iViews

The main difference between NW04 Web Dynpro iViews and NW04s Web Dynpro iViews is the dependency
to the Web Dynpro page builder. NW04s Web Dynpro iViews are handled by the Web Dynpro page builder
and the Web Dynpro page builder itself is responsible to launch the associated Web Dynpro application in
the end. This is not done using additional HTTP requests but using internal server-side APIs between the
Web Dynpro page builder and the Web Dynpro runtime.
The SAP Application Integrator is nevertheless responsible to compute the URL needed to redirect the
original iView request to the Web Dynpro runtime. In contradiction to NW04 Web Dynpro iViews this URL
points not to the launched Web Dynpro application but always to the Web Dynpro page builder. Besides that
the same portal settings are transferred to the Web Dynpro runtime.

Extending the URL template

For some scenarios it could make sense to extend the used URL template to transfer additional information
from the SAP NetWeaver Portal to the Web Dynpro runtime. The SAP Application Integrator provides
therefore several contexts which could be used to add certain portal settings to the computed application
URL. For Web Dynpro iViews you have to define these contexts using the Application Parameters
iView property of the iView. The following picture shows for example the usage of the <IView> context:

The following sub-chapters describe the most important ones.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

<IView> context
The <iView> context enables you to determine additional information on the Web Dynpro iView and transfer
that information to the Web Dynpro application:
• <IView.ID>
As mentioned in Section 5.2.2, all objects that you create for the SAP NetWeaver Portal are stored in
the Portal Content Directory (PCD). Each object can be described by a unique path that is also used
to specify navigation targets in the portal navigation.
The <IView.ID> variable contains exactly this path for the called Web Dynpro iView. Using this
path, you can directly access the iView object in the PCD within your Web Dynpro application.
• <IView.PCDUnit>
The <IView.PCDUnit> variable provides access to the roles assigned to the iView within your Web
Dynpro application. If the iView that is called has not been assigned to any role, the
<IView.PCDUnit> variable provides the iView by itself.
The following picture shows the transferred data using the iView located under SAP Application Integrator
-> NW04 Web Dynpro iViews -> iView ID and PCD Unit.

<Profile> context
You can use the <Profile> context to transfer the values of any iView property to a Web Dynpro
application. The <Profile.xyz> variable determines the value of the iView property xyz.
Please have a look at the following example: we would like to pass the Tray Type iView property to a Web
Dynpro application. This could be used to adjust the background color of the Web Dynpro application based
on the defined tray type of the iView running the application.
As we need the technical ID of the property we have to select this property in the property editor of the
related iView. Using the small triangle icon on the left side we could display the meta attributes of the
property as shown in the next picture.

The meta attribute Property ID describes the technical name. Because

com.sap.portal.iview.TrayType contains special characters (.), you must specify the URL template
variable using the following syntax: <Profile."com.sap.portal.iview.TrayType">. By doing this,
you can ensure that the URL template will be processed correctly. The following picture shows the definition
of the variable using the Application Parameters iView property.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

You can now access the forwarded trayType parameter using the WDProtocolAdapeter class as shown
in the following code example:
String trayType =
WDProtocolAdapter().
getProtocolAdapter().
getRequestObject().
getParameter(“trayType”);
The following picture shows the transferred data using the iView located under SAP Application Integrator
-> NW04 Web Dynpro iViews -> Profile. It shows the used tray type and the define iView size.

These parameters are passed using the following Application Parameters iView property value.
trayType=<Profile."com.sap.portal.iview.TrayType">&iViewSize=<Profile."com.sap.p
ortal.iview.HeightType">

<Request> context
You can use the <Request> context to determine how and where the SAP NetWeaver Portal was launched.
This can be particularly useful in scenarios when you don’t run your Web Dynpro application on the same
SAP NetWeaver installation as the SAP NetWeaver Portal.
<Request.Protocol> provides the protocol (HTTP or HTTPS), while <Request.Server> provides the
fully qualified host name on which the SAP NetWeaver Portal was launched (for example,
portal.domain.com). You can use the <Request.Port> variable to determine the port that is used. In
addition to these technical parameters, you can also use the <Request.xyz> variable to obtain the value of
any parameter that was transferred when the SAP NetWeaver Portal was launched; <Request.xyz>
provides the value of the xyz transfer parameter. If no xyz transfer parameter has been defined, the SAP
Application Integrator will ignore the variable when processing the URL template.
The following picture shows the transferred data using the iView located under SAP Application Integrator
-> NW04 Web Dynpro iViews -> Request. It shows the used host, port and protocol.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

<System> context
As described earlier in this chapter, you use a system alias for each Web Dynpro iView in order to define the
SAP NetWeaver installation on which you want to run the Web Dynpro application. The <System.xyz>
variable of the <System> context enables you to determine any property of the system that is used in the
iView, which has been launched. <System.xyz> determines the value of system property xyz.

<User> context
The <User> context helps you to transfer the various pieces of user information to the Web Dynpro
application. This is especially useful on those occasions when the SAP NetWeaver installation that runs your
Web Dynpro application is different from the SAP NetWeaver Portal and does not use the same user store.
The <User> context defines the variables listed in the following. You can infer the meaning of these
variables from their names:
• <User.displayname>
• <User.salutation>
• <User.firstname>
• <User.lastname>
• <User.jobtitle>
• <User.department>
• <User.telephone>
• <User.fax>
• <User.streetaddress>
• <User.zip>
• <User.city>
• <User.country>
• <User.timezone>
• <User.mobile>
The following picture shows some of the user data using the iView located under SAP Application
Integrator -> NW04 Web Dynpro iViews -> User.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

Using customer-specific parameter providers

In the last chapters we discussed how the SAP Application Integrator computes the needed Web Dynpro
application URL. We explained the usage of URL templates and gave and overview how the used URL
template could be extended to transfer certain data from the SAP NetWeaver Portal to the Web Dynpro
runtime.
We now will continue with the customer-specific parameter providers, which offer a flexible approach to
dynamically compute parameters (and their values).

Prerequisites
To make sure that customer-specific parameter providers are not used “by accident” you have to turn on the
general support for this using the Server Configuration under System Administration -> System
Configuration. You have to open the configuration for the com.sap.portal.appintegrator service as
shown in the next picture using the Configure context menu entry of the Common Configuration node.

To turn on the support for customer-specific parameter providers you have to set the
Use_CustomerExit_ParameterProvider parameter to true. After changing this value you have to
restart the SAP Application Integrator service. To do so you have to open the administration view using the
Administrate context menu entry of the com.sap.portal.appintegrator node. Using the Restart link
you could restart the service.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

After that you could use customer-specific customer-providers.

Limitations
With the current SP of the SAP NetWeaver 04 release the usage of customer-specific parameter provider is
only supported for NW04 Web Dynpro iViews. For NW04s Web Dynpro iView we will introduce this in one of
the next SPs.

First example

Creating a portal development component

We will create now a first simple example for a customer-specific parameter provider. We will do this using a
local portal development component. To create such a development component you have to switch to the
Enterprise Portal Perspective of the SAP NetWeaver DeveloperStudio as shown in the next
picture.

Use File -> New -> Project to open the New Project dialog. Choose a Development Component
Project and press the Next button at the bottom of the dialog.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

On the next screen you have to select whether you want to create a local development component or a
development component of a specific development configuration. For our test examples we use local
development components (as this does not require a full NetWeaver Development Infrastructure (NWDI)
installation). Choose Local Development -> MyComponents and go to the next dialog step pressing the
Next button.

Now you have to define the protect name, an (optional) caption text and the type of the development
component. We choose the Portal Application Standalone (Packed as SDA) type as shown in
the next picture.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

The last dialog step does not need any further input and after pressing the Finish button the simple
development component (and the associated LocalDevelopment~simple~sap.com project) is created
automatically. The next screen shows the created project structure. Most of the shown folders are empty at
the beginning.

Creating a portal service

A customer-specific parameter provider is from a technical point of view implemented as a standard portal
service. Therefore we have to create now such a portal service. The easiest way to do this is to open the
portalapp.xml editor by double-clickling the portalapp.xml entry under dist -> PORTAL-INF.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

This editor offers several tabs. Please choose the Services tab and create a new portal service using the
Create … button at the right top side of the editor.
The next picture shows the dialog, which allows you to create any kind of portal application. We would like to
create portal service; therefore we select Portal Service and switch to the dialog step by using the Next
button.

We have to define now the name, the class name and the package name of the portal service. The next
picture shows the chosen values. We use the same entry for both the name and the class name.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

After pressing the Finish button the portal service is created. There are three important parts are created.
First the portalapp.xml is extended as shown in the following (you can see this by choosing the Source
tab of the portalapp.xml editor.

<application>
<application-config/>
<components/>
<services>
<service name="SimpleExample">
<service-config>
<property name="className"
value="com.sap.tc.wd.test.ai.simple.SimpleExample"/>
</service-config>
</service>
</services>
</application>

Besides that two Java files are created. First the service interface called ISimpleExample.java and
second the service implementation called SimpleExample.java as shown in the next picture.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

Implementing the customer-specific parameter provider

The only change needed in the ISimpleExample.java file is the definition of the service key as shown in
the next code example.

import com.sapportals.portal.prt.service.IService;

public interface ISimpleExample extends IService

{
public static final String KEY = "SimpleExample";
}

We use the service name also as key. This is not mandatory but it makes things easier as we do not have to
keep in mind different values. Before we describe the needed extension in the ISimpleExample.java file
we would like to discuss the needed extension of the portalapp.xml. The following example shows the
extended portalapp.xml (the bold entries are added).

<application>
<registry>
<entry path="/com.sap.portal.appintegrator/customer_exits/
parameter_provider/SimpleExample"
name="SimpleExample" type="service"/>
</registry>
<application-config>
<property name="SharingReference" value="com.sap.portal.appintegrator"/>
</application-config>
<components/>

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

<services>
<service name="SimpleExample">
<service-config>
<property name="className"
value="com.sap.tc.wd.test.ai.simple.SimpleExample"/>
<property name="SafetyLevel" value="no_safety"/>
<property name="startup" value="true"/>
</service-config>
</service>
</services>
</application>

The most important extensions are the definition of the registry of the portal service (doing this the SAP
Application Integrator could access later on this portal service) and the definition of a sharing reference to the
com.sap.portal.appintegrator portal application (needed to run in the end the portal service
correctly).

Extending the service implementation

Although a customer-specific parameter provider is from a technical point of view a standard portal service
there are some extensions needed comparing to a standard portal service. The most important on is the fact,
that the portal service implementation class must implement besides the ISimpleExample interface the
com.sapportals.portal.appintegrator.parameter.ICustomerParameterProvider interface.
The most important method if this interface is the getParameter() method. The following code example
shows the implementation for our first simple example:

if ("parameter1".equals(key)) {
return "parameter1=This is the resolved parameter1";
}
if ("parameter2".equals(key)) {
return "parameter2=This is the resolved parameter2";
}
return null;

The implementation is quite simple but shows nevertheless the basic idea. The key parameter defines the
requested parameter. Depending on the current value we return a string value defining at least one
name/value pair.
The SAP Application Integrator adds this string to the computed Web Dynpro application URL. In the
example above there are in the end two parameters parameter1 and parameter2 added and accessible
within the called Web Dynpro application.
The next picture shows the ParameterApp example application displaying the mentioned parameters.

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

The usage of a customer-specific parameter provider is really simple. The only thing to do is to define for the
needed iViews instance the used customer-specific parameter provider. This is done using the Customer
Exits for ‘ParameterProvder’ iView property. The parameter provider is called during the URL
computation as soon as you add the needed variables to the Application Parameters iView property.
The next picture shows the usage of the SimpleExample parameter provider within a NW04 Web Dynpro
iView.

In general it is also possible to use more than one customer-specific parameter provider. You have to define
all needed parameter providers using the Customer Exits for ‘ParameterProvder’ iView property.
Separate the different parameter provider names using commas.
The getParameter() method is called for all parameters added to the computed Web Dynpro application
URL. You could therefore also use this method to change one of the technical parameters like the application
name or the namespace of the Web Dynpro iView. We will describe this in more detail later one.
Besides the getParameter() method you should implement at least the getProviderName() method.
You should return the same value as defined as service key here. The getAllParameterNames() and
getParameterDefault() methods are optional and are especially helpful during debugging.

To get it compiled
As mentioned above your portal service has to implement the
com.sapportals.portal.appintegrator.parameter.ICustomerParameterProvider interface.
We would like to mention that the needed JAR archives are not automatically available for a local portal
development component. One way to access them is to define a certain external library development
component containing the needed JARs. Doing this you could access these JARs using a certain public part
as shown in the next picture.

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To get more information about the definition and usage of library development components please have a
look to help.sap.com or sdn.sap.com.

Web Dynpro related scenarios

After the general description of a simple parameter provider we will now discuss several usages of a
parameter provider which are especially useful when running Web Dynpro iViews.
Each of the following parameter provider are implemented as the discussed simple example as local portal
development components. You will find a link to the archives containing the local development components
in each of the following chapters.

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Dynamic computation of system or Web Dynpro application

The getParameter() method of the parameter provider interface is called for each parameter, which is
resolved during the application URL computation. Therefore you could also change predefined iView
properties like the System, WebDynproNamespace or WebDynproApplication properties used for a
NW04 Web Dynpro iView to define the host running the Web Dynpro application and the Web Dynpro
application itself.
The system parameter provider allows you to define a mapping to another system. The mapping could be
based on any logic. Possible scenarios are for example a system mapping depending on the current user
(user with last name starting with “A-P” is running on system A and users for “Q-Z” are running on system B
for example). Another example could be the mapping based on the current location. The system parameter
provider uses only a very simple getParameter() method.

// Feel free to add here any logic you want

if ("System".equals(parameter)) {
return "WebDynproSystem1";
}
return null;

Important to mention here is the fact, that for all default iView properties the return value is only the value
and not a complete name/value pair.
The appmapp parameter provider is an example how to map the application namespace and / or the
application name of the executed Web Dynpro application. The getParameter() method is also a very
simple implementation but you could use here any meaningful logic.

// Feel free to add here any logic you want !!!

if ("WebDynproApplication".equals(parameter)) {
return "AnotherParametersApp";
}
return null;

To demonstrate the application mapping we provide a second example application named

AnotherParameterApp. We following picture shows the running application, displaying the current
application name. As soon as you start the iView located under SAP Application Integrator -> NW04 Web
Dynpro iViews -> Application Mapping you get the mapped application name as shown in the next picture.

Forwarding portal session content

Especially in scenarios where Web Dynpro and non Web Dynpro iView run together within the SAP
NetWeaver Portal there could be the need to access certain values stored in the portal session within a Web

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Dynpro application. The session parameter provider shows how to achieve this. It supports two usages.
You can specify explicitly which attributes stored in the portal session should be forwarded to the Web
Dynpro application. To do this you have to define the session attribute using for example
<"Session.parameter1"> to add the parameter1 attribute to the URL.
The second usage is to pass all attributes stored in the portal session to the Web Dynpro application. For
obvious reasons this makes sense only for string attributes. To pass the complete portal session to the Web
Dynpro application you have to add <"Session.all"> to the Application Parameters iView property.
The getParameter() method of the session parameter provider support both usages:

if (parameter != null) {
if (parameter.startsWith("Session")) {

String key = parameter.substring(8);

StringBuffer parameterString = new StringBuffer(1024);
boolean firstParameter = true;

if (key.equals("all")) {

Enumeration attributes =
request.getServletRequest().getAttributeNames();

while (attributes.hasMoreElements()) {
String parameterKey = (String) attributes.nextElement();

if (!firstParameter) {
parameterString.append("&");
} else {
firstParameter = false;
}

parameterString.append(parameterKey).append("=").append(

request.getServletRequest().getAttribute(parameterKey).toString());

}
return parameterString.toString();
} else {
object object =
request.getServletRequest().getSession().getAttribute(parameter);

if (object == null) {

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return parameter + "=Object not found";

} else {
return parameter + "=" + object.toString();
}
}
}
}
return null;

The following picture shows the iView located under SAP Application Integrator -> NW04 Web Dynpro
iViews -> Complete Portal Session.

Forwarding the iView profile

Another usage of a customer-specific parameter provider is the access to the complete iView profile within a
Web Dynpro application. Using the <Profile.xyz> context you could add specific profile properties to the
computed application URL. Using the profile parameter provider you can add the complete profile to the
application URL. The getParameter() method of the parameter provider accesses the profile, loops the list of
properties and creates one string containing all properties as name / value pairs.

if ("IViewProfile".equals(parameter)) {
StringBuffer parameterString = new StringBuffer(1024);
boolean firstParameter = true;

Enumeration attributeNames =
request.getComponentContext().getProfile().getProperties();

while (attributeNames.hasMoreElements()) {
String attribute = (String) attributeNames.nextElement();

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if (!firstParameter) {
parameterString.append("&");
} else {
firstParameter = false;
}

parameterString.append(attribute).append("=")
.append(request.getComponentContext().
getProfile().getProperty(attribute));
}

return parameterString.toString();
}
return null;

The following picture shows the iView located under SAP Application Integrator -> NW04 Web Dynpro
iViews -> iView Profile. I contain all properties of the profile of the current iView.

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Mapping of JCo destinations

The last example how to use a customer-specifc parameter provider is the definition of JCO destination
mappings which is done using the sap-wd-arfc-useSys URL parameter. In the past we got a lot of
questions regarding this. The jcomapp parameter provider provides an easier (and less error-prone) way to
define the needed mappings.
To define a JCO mapping you have to add for example <"WDJCODest:WD_MODELDATA_DEST
:WD_RFC_METADATA_DEST:BCE"> to the Application Parameters iView property. This defines a
mapping of the WD_MODELDATA_DEST and WD_RFC_METADATA_DEST JCo destinations.
The following picture shows the iView located under SAP Application Integrator -> NW04 Web Dynpro
iViews -> JCo Destination Mapping.

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The getParameter() method creates the needed values of the sap-wd-arfc-useSys URL parameter
automatically.

if (parameterID != null && parameterID.startsWith("WDJCODest:")) {

StringTokenizer scanSysMap = new StringTokenizer(parameterID, ":");

String dummy = scanSysMap.nextToken();

String from1 = scanSysMap.nextToken();
String from2 = scanSysMap.nextToken();
String to = scanSysMap.nextToken();

return "sap-wd-arfc-useSys="

+ from1 + ":" + to + "&sap-wd-arfc-useSys="

+ from2 + ":" + to;
}
return null;

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 Integrating Web Dynpro and SAP NetWeaver Portal: How to use extended features of the SAP Application Integrator

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