1701 Lessons Learned at P&G - Employee Self-Service

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Orange County Convention Center

Orlando, Florida | May 15-18, 2011

Lessons Learned at P&G: SAP Employee Self-Service –

What You Need to Know about Custom Portal/Homepage

Framework Implementations

Pete Rauchenstein

[email protected]

Real Experience. Real Advantage.

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Agenda

Examine the various technical SAP ESS components and

how they are inter-connected:

R/3 Homepage Framework Configuration

ABAP Function Modules & Proxy Classes

Portal Content Directory Objects (eg. Business Packages)

Java Web Dynpro development components

This is a technical deep-dive – Not a complete

implementation guide

Will not cover web dynpro coding customizations in detail

Discuss How customizations will impact future SAP_ESS

support pack upgrades


[ P&G Demographics

World’s Largest Consumer Product Company

• Founded 1837

• Headquarters in Cincinnati

• $78.9 Billion annual sales

• 127,000 employees

• More than 300 brands sold in 180 countries

• Operations in more than 80 countries

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[ HR / Employee Services at P&G

One of the largest, single global HR instances

June 2009 - SAP ECC 6.0 + NW 7.0 Portal + SAP ESS

April 2011 – completed global launch of “Life & Career”

Portal for all employees (NW 7.01)

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[ Employee Self-Service Applications @ P&G

Currently offering ESS solutions:

For employees in 24 countries - 77% of employees

130 total country-specific ESS scenarios

Use 86 distinct SAP_ESS development components

Most customizations were “cosmetic” in nature:

“removing” applications from the portal role - many

applications not used by P&G

Changed the name of some services or names of field

labels

Attempt to minimize “major customizations”

Adding fields to screens

Hiding/Showing fields based on subtype

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[ Before & After

Goal - to achieve a

“custom homepage

framework”, using the

SAP delivered

configuration as a

starting point.

Customizations in some

places will require other

customizations that

might not be

immediately obvious…

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[ Getting Started - Authorizations / Roles Needed

SAP R/3

SAP ESS Authorizations – start with roles SAP_ESSUSER*

Transaction HRUSER / SU01

ABAP authorizations (SE80)

Ability to execute / debug function modules

Proxy Class development

Portal Roles

Content Administrator

User Administration / Delegated User Administration

Self-Services Administrator

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[ Getting Started - Authorizations / Roles Needed

NWDS / NWDI

NWDI Track configured with SCA installed

Developers need access to NWDI.Developers Group (ability

to check out projects)

Web Application Server Java

Local SLD configured with system information about R/3

At least one node with debugging enabled

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[ Getting Started - Software Installation

3 main technical components installation:

SAP ECC 6.0 (SAP_ABA, SAP_BASIS, SAP_HR, EA_HR)

Configuration Tables, ABAP Function Modules/Proxy

Classes/BADIs, Data Dictionary Structures, etc

Java Software Components (SAP_ESS, SAPPCUI_GP,

SAP_MSS)

Java Source code, some portal config (srvconfig)

Portal Content - Business Packages

Roles / Worksets / Pages / iViews

Employee Self-Service (BP ERP 05 ESS)

Manager Self-Service (BP ERP 05 MSS)

Common Parts (BP ERP 05 Common Parts)

Self-Service Administrator (BP ERP 05 ASS)

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[ Getting Started - SAP ESS Basic Overview

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[ Portal Content Directory – COPYING SAP-

Delivered ESS Portal Content

When SAP delivers portal

content, they really intend for

you to build your own roles by

creating delta-linked copies

If you are planning ANY

changes to PCD content,

you will need to create your

own custom copy of the

delivered content.

Whenever you apply an SP,

content in this area of the

PCD is overwritten. By

making a custom copy, your

customizations will be

protected.

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[ ESS Touch Point #1 – Resource configuration and

PCD Page URL

You can build a URL to an iViews using “NavigationTarget”http://<host>:<port>/irj/portal?NavigationTarget=<Resource Configuration – URL of PCD Page>

The xssMenu application reads this configuration in order to render

the correct links at runtime

If you want to use your custom PCD copies, PCD location of the

content has now changed, so the link also has changed!

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[ More on PCD Page URLs

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Resources configuration in the

Homepage Framework does not

point to an iView.

Instead, it points to the specific

instance of a page within the

Employee Self-Service Portal role

ESS WD applications are

contained in iViews

Those iViews are added to Page

objects via delta links

Those Pages were added to

Worksets, which are part of the

ESS Role.

In order to make sure correct Top-

Level and 2nd Level navigation are

highlighed, URL of PCD must be

the reference to the page within the

ESS Role


[ Key Learning #1

When you make a custom copy of the PCD, you must either:

Modify the SAP delivered resources (not recommended because they

would get overwritten during HRSP upgrades)

Create an entire Z-Copy of the Homepage Framework

Steps:

Copy & modify the SAP-delivered “Link” Resources for individual ESS

Services

Define a “main” Area Group Page

Define several Area Pages and assign them to the Area Group Page

Define Sub-Areas if necessary and assign them to Area Pages

Define country-specific services to be displayed on that area page

Define services, assigning services to country groupings and link

resources

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[ Homepage Framework Configuration Hierarchy

Area Group

Main key/starting point for all ESS configuration

Corresponds to Entry Point portal role

Areas

Corresponds to Second Level navigation

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[ Homepage Framework Configuration Hierarchy

Sub Areas

Within an Area, grouping of related applications

Service

“Generic definition” of a service (name, quick link)

Global vs. Country-specific

Resource

Services must resolve to a resource

Contains information on how to launch application

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[ ESS Touch Point #2 - Overview/Area PCD iViews

“Application Parameters”

Each “menu page” in ESS contains a single iView

This iView contains the xssmenu webdynpro application

(part of SAPPCUI_GP), which reads the homepage

framework configuration and renders the appropriate

“menu”

You must point your custom role’s “overview” to your

custom Area Group configuration

You must also point your any 2nd level area pages to

the Areas configured within your Area Group

Application Parameters:

sap.xss.menuargrp = your custom area group

sap.xss.menuarea = your custom area (for area pages)

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[ “Menu” iView Application Parameters

To make the “Overview” page

show our custom code, change

the application parameters in

the iView to point to your new

custom area group

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[ “Menu” iView Application Parameters

For “Area Pages”, you must include

both the area group key and the area

page key application parameters.

These are the same values that you

would use if you were debugging the

HRXSS_SER_MENUCONFIG

functions

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[ Watch out – Removing Unused Worksets

You may need to manually remove worksets from the ESS Role

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[ Debugging the Homepage Framework

Function Group HRXSS_SER_MENUCONFIG

HRXSS_SER_GETAREAGROUPMENUDATA (overview)

HRXSS_SER_GETAREAMENUDATA (area pages)

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[ ESS Touch Point #3 - Proxy Classes

Homepage Framework configuration allows the application menu to

be built for a user using one basic variable: MOLGA (country)

Proxy classes are used if you want to implement other conditional

logic to determine whether an application is available for a particular

user

Open Enrollment – only show application link if it is currently time

for this user’s benefits enrollment or do they have a special

enrollment reason

Timesheet – only show this link if the user has a CVR parameter

on their user master record

Watch out – many of the delivered Proxy Classes have hard-

coded references to service names. To solve:

Create z-copies of any needed proxy classes

Change hard-coded services references to your z-versions

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[ ESS Touch Point # 4 – PCD Application iView

Parameters

So how is the portal content linked to the Web Dynpro

Applications themselves?

Find the iView that contains that application in the PCD

“ExternalLink” parameter shows

Which Development Component? “sap.com/ess~us~addr”

Which “application / entry point”?

com.sap.xss.hr.per.us.Per_Address_US

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[ Getting your hands on the WD source code

If you have created an NWDI Track / Development

Configuration which contains the SAP_ESS source code,

you now can now check out component project from

NWDI

If you plan on making modificiations, be sure to check out

from the “Inactive DC’s” workspace

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[ ESS Touch Point #5 – The WD Application config

We can see two main things from the “web dynpro

application”

Where the “Confirmation Page Links” are defined

Information on where the application Roadmap is defined

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[ Confirmation Links

Application Parameter: sap.xss.linkListKey

Points back to R/3 Homepage Framework config

Note: P&G did not customize this for any apps

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[ ESS Touch Point #6 - Self Service Administrator

Configuration

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Parameter:

sap.xss.BaseConfigurationID

shows:

Steps in the FPM (Floor Plan

Manager) RoadMap

Which VC’s (Visual

Components) are used to

build the web dynpro user

interface

You must have the Self-

Service Administrator role to

view FPM configuration

Most common customization:

Can be used to remove the

“Review Step” from the

roadmap


[ More on the Floor Plan Manager

Example FPM application configuration

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[ More on the Floor Plan Manager

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[ SAP ESS 600 vs 603 (Enhancement Packs)

Code and configuration are delivered

“together” for both Original applications and

Enhancement Pack versions.

Which version of the app you get is

determined by the resources selected (*05

vs. *13) in homepage framework

The “*13” resources point to new iViews

delivered in Business Packages in additional

folders

New iViews launch new WD applications

New WD applications make use of new FPM

Configuration

New FPM Configuration steps use code

from the “_13” web dynpro projects for

Edit/Review screens

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[ Watch out for Stack Dependencies!!!

Which versions to install?

Not all component combinations will work together

ABAP Dictionary structure changes may require changes to

Web Dynpro code

As new applications are introduced, Portal content

iViews/pages/worksets/roles are updated

You should consult:

Solution Manager Maintenance Optimizer (preferred)

ESS Stack Mismatch Wiki on SDN

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/ERPHCM/HOW+TO+GE

T+RID+OF+SP+STACK+MISMATCH+ISSUES

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http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/ERPHCM/HOW+TO+GET+RID+OF+SP+STACK+MISMATCH+ISSUES

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/ERPHCM/HOW+TO+GET+RID+OF+SP+STACK+MISMATCH+ISSUES


[ Software Maintenance

Define Patching & Landscape Maintenance Strategy Early

CRITICAL–ESS is delivered, patched, and imported as

one software component!

When you customize SAP_ESS, you are customizing SAP-

delivered code. Whenever you need to upgrade to a new

version, you will need to re-implement any customizations.

Depending on the extent of customizations, this could be

rather expensive to support ongoing.

This can be “problematic” when you are told to upgrade

your entire ESS software component to fix one bug in one

development component

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[ General Lessons Learned from ESS Customizing

Protect yourself from upgrades where possible:

Copy PCD Content

Copy Homepage Framework Configuration

Document your Web Dynpro customizations!

Develop NWDI expertise

Each time you upgrade to a new version, make sure you create a

Master Track and a Modification Track.

When you next upgrade, you can compare your new Master track

to your old master track to see if the “starting point” was the same.

If so, simply re-implement your customizations per your

documentation

If not…. well… SAP have made some significant changes and you’ll

need to adjust your customizations accordingly

Resource: XSS Cookbook

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[ Experience with SAP Customer Messages

If you have customized the SAP ESS, getting support for ESS can be

an iterative process.

Some tips to help you out:

Try to stay in stack alignment when possible

Always provide Stack/Component level information in customer

messages

More likely to get a quick answer if you can prove that the issue is

on one of their supported stacks as per SDN stack mismatch wiki.

Have one test system without any customizations applied (can be

on a developer’s PC). Use it to prove that bugs are in SAP-

delivered code and not caused by something you’ve customized

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[

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Key Learnings

Broad set of skills / tools needed for an ESS

implementation project

The debugger is your friend!

Customizing can be expensive, but understanding “how

ESS works” will help you gauge the impact of your

customizations


[

] Thank you for participating.

SESSION CODE:

1701

Please remember to complete and return your

evaluation form following this session.

For ongoing education in this area of focus, visit

www.asug.com.

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