SAP Unifier

Installation of SAP Unifier for R/3
Purpose
This document details the installation of SAP Unifier for R/3, an application that makes it
possible to integrate SAP R/3 systems into SAP Enterprise Portal. It thus enables enterprises
to unify SAP systems with other information sources and integrate business data on a single
platform.
Integration
You install SAP Unifier for R/3 on top of Unification Server. After setting the appropriate
parameters, you create a project that accesses an R/3 system from the portal. The unifier
fields requests launched from the portal, and forwards the requests to R/3 logical systems via
the SAP DCOM Component Connector (DCOM CC). It then binds the returned information to
the appropriate presentation elements and displays it in the portal.
In order to effect the integration of an SAP R/3 system into SAP Enterprise Portal through the
R/3 Unifier, it is necessary to perform specific configuration tasks that render R/3 data Drag&Relate
enabled.
Pre-installation Activities
Purpose
SAP Unifier for R/3 runs on Unification Server. In addition to Unification Server, there are
other components that you need to install, activities you need to perform, and settings you
need to configure on your system before installing SAP R/3 Unifier.
1. Install SAP Unification Server 5.0, SP4 Patch 3.
2. Download and install the Microsoft SQL Patch for dealing with access violations that
result from using distributed queries.
3. Install the SAP DCOM Component Connector (DCOM CC) from the Server
Components CD (Compilation 4.6D or higher), on the machine on which you intend to
generate the unifier project.
The SAP DCOM CC serves as the connection layer between the SAP Unifier for
R/3 and the SAP R/3 system data. It is also necessary for the full support of
Single Sign-On 2 (SAP Logon Tickets).
During project generation, a linked server and a DCOM destination are created
on all the relevant machines: the Unifier machine on which you are running the
Project Generator and the SQL server machine.
There must be an SAP DCOM CC installed on the R/3 OLE DB Provider

machine, as well, if the OLE DB Provider is not on the same machine as the
SAP Unifier.
4. Change the activation mode of the SAP DCOM CC to support connection pooling. See
Changing the Activation Mode of the SAP DCOM Connector [Page 8]
5. Install the OLE DB Provider for SAP R/3 on the SQL server machine.
6. Install Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 with SP2, or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 with
SP2, or Netscape Navigator. Note that support for Netscape is possible through
Java GUI only.
7. Install the latest version of ITS from the Server Components CD (Compilation 4 or
later), to support R/3 access via WEBGUI.
SAP Online Help 29-Apr-03

Installation of SAP Unifier for R/3 5.0 SP5 7
8. Install Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

During installation, when prompted to select the preferred SQL authentication method,
you must choose Mixed Authentication.
Integration of SAP Unifier for R/3 into SAP

Enterprise Portal
Purpose
SAP Unifier for R/3 can run as a standalone application, allowing you to create any number of
projects that retrieve SAP R/3 system information. However, if you want to access your unifier
projects through SAP Enterprise Portal, and Drag&Relate the data of various projects, you
need to integrate the unifier into the portal.
SAP Enterprise Portal provides a single gateway to all unifier projects based on different
information sources. This section explains how to integrate the SAP Unifier for R/3 into SAP
Enterprise Portal to enable portal users to work with SAP business objects from their portal.
Integration
Integrating SAP Unifier for R/3 entails the following:
Installing either SAP Enterprise Portal 5.0 SP4 Patch 2 or higher, or SAP Enterprise
Portal 6.0

Installing the SAP Enterprise Portal Plug-in for the R/3 component system
Configuring the Portal System for Drag&Relate
In the portal that lists the organization’s available SAP systems and their properties,
you either configure the systems.xml file, or you define the unifier as a portal system,
depending on your portal release. You also map users who are not SAP users.
Configuring the SAP R/3 system for Drag&Relate:
Configure the R/3 installation to which you are connecting

Configure the SAP Unifier for R/3 installation
Configuring the ITS if you require access to an SAP R/3 system in WEBGUI mode (for
Java). It is possible to run either Java or Windows versions of R/3 iViews.
Unifier Integration Workflow

Purpose
You need to properly integrate the SAP Unifier for R/3 into SAP Enterprise Portal to enable an
R/3 Unifier project to run successfully and retrieve R/3 data that is Drag&Relate enabled.
Prerequisites
You have installed an SAP Unifier for R/3 on Unification Server.
Process Flow
Install either SAP Enterprise Portal 5.0 SP4 Patch 2 or higher, or SAP Enterprise Portal
6.0.
The portal does not need to be installed on the same machine as Unification Server
Configure the portal system for integration of the R/3 Unifier into SAP Enterprise Portal;
Configure the SAP R/3 system for Drag&Relate functionality of R/3 data through SAP
Unifier for R/3.
Configure the ITS (optional);
Configure the Business Object Repository (BOR) in order to enable generating an

extended R/3 Unifier project;
Result
The end user will have various SAP business objects in the portal iPanel that can be
launched to retrieve data from R/3 databases.
Configuring Portal Settings

Use
Systems.xml is the Portal Content Directory file that contains the defined attributes of external
systems, such as SAP R/3 or SAP BW, enabling connection to those systems through the
portal. The portal systems.xml file stores all the attributes of the SAP R/3 system to which you
want to establish access through the SAP Unifier for R/3. This file must be configured before
you create an SAP Unifier for R/3 project
Configuring the SAP Internet Transaction Server

Use
The SAP Internet Transaction Server (ITS) is an extension of the Microsoft Internet
Information Server (IIS), providing a Web interface that enables communication between a
portal browser and an SAP R/3 system. The ITS must be running on the IIS machine.
The IIS receives requests from the portal browser, which it passes on to the ITS. The ITS
sends the requests to the SAP R/3 system, which returns HTML pages with the relevant data
inserted.
The following ITS configuration is necessary for Drag&Relate support:
Activating Link Generation: In order to support Drag&Relate operations with data

originating in SAP logical systems, you first need to add HRNP links to the relevant
SAP database properties.
Assignment of Users to Roles

Integration
An SAP Unifier for R/3 project that generates a bar in the iPanel is created for each SAP R/3
System registered in the portal. The bar contains a tree structure with branches. Each
individual branch represents the role of the user in the SAP R/3 System with its corresponding
transactions. If more than one branch appears in the tree structure, the user was assigned
more than one role in the SAP R/3 System.
The user can use the Drag&Relate navigation mechanism to click on a field in the content
area and execute it with parameters simply by pulling it to a transaction in the iPanel.
Activities
If the bar for an SAP Unifier for R/3 Unifier project is empty in the iPanel, the user must be
assigned one or more roles in the SAP R/3 System. There are two possibilities here:
The user roles in the portal are migrated to the SAP R/3 System.
The user roles are created or maintained directly in the SAP R/3 System.
Drag&Relate and the Business Object Repository
Use
The context information required for Drag&Relate is maintained as metadata for the
corresponding business object types in the Business Object Repository (BOR) in the logical
SAP R/3 System. This metadata describes the relationship between and business objects
and either
Screen fields
Possible target transactions
Other transactions that can be derived from the relationships between business
objects.
You can maintain the metadata for Drag&Relate in transaction SPO0. You must maintain the
Drag&Relate metadata in all the logical system in which the transaction is to be executed with
Drag&Relate.
You should only maintain your own BOR objects. If you maintain metadata that
was delivered by SAP, you must adjust the objects manually if you will import the
metadata again at a later time.
Changing the Activation Mode of the SAP DCOM

Connector
Use
To enable the SAP Unifier for R/3 to work with no user logged on to the server machine, you
need to change the activation mode of the installed SAP DCOM Component Connector (DCOM
CC).
Installing the SAP DCOM CC automatically installs the package SAP R/3 DCOM Connector. By
default the activation mode of the package is Server Application.
Component

SAP Unifier

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SAP Unifier

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

SAP Unifier

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Installation of SAP Unifier for R/3

1. Install SAP Unification Server 5.0, SP4 Patch 3.

There must be an SAP DCOM CC installed on the R/3 OLE DB Provider

SAP Online Help 29-Apr-03

8. Install Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

Integration of SAP Unifier for R/3 into SAP

Configuring the Portal System for Drag&Relate

Configuring the SAP R/3 system for Drag&Relate:

Configure the R/3 installation to which you are connecting

Unifier Integration Workflow

Configure the ITS (optional);

Configure the Business Object Repository (BOR) in order to enable generating an

Configuring Portal Settings

Configuring the SAP Internet Transaction Server

The following ITS configuration is necessary for Drag&Relate support:

Activating Link Generation: In order to support Drag&Relate operations with data

Assignment of Users to Roles

Changing the Activation Mode of the SAP DCOM

You might also like