How to create a simple list of hyperlinks

[Former Member]

I am brand new to EP6 and PDK. Not sure where to start. So I wanted to start with a very very simple example.

I have an existing ASP that is a simple list of HyperLinks.

I assume I should be able to create a JSP that runs on EP6 that does the same thing and when shown in EP6 to a user it has the look and feel of the rest of his iViews.

- I assume I use the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio and create a PDK Project and a JSP. What stylesheets do I use and graphics (eg a button and an arrow) should I use.

- I have seen on eLearning site a presentation Developing iViews for SAP Enterprise Portal with the Portal Development Kit (PDK) for .NET. Is there one for JAVA/JSP ?

[Former Member]

I wanted to start on something that I thought would be very very easy to do - just to get a feel for things.

Yes I started to steer away from HTMLB - mainly because I could not find any suitable documentation on how to use it within NWDS - looked like had to know all the tags and write it all by hand - unlike JSP development in Dreamweaver - if that makes sense. Hoping to find some guide on how to use HTMLB with the NWDS IDE.

Anyway I read a SAP presentation and it suggests that WebDynPro is the way to go. But not too sure for very simple pages. Very hard to tell without trial and error I guess.

Message was edited by: Peter Munt

[Former Member]

Hi Peter

Thats true you will have to use a reference guide to help you with the tags for HTMLB. Web Dynpro is ofcourse an option but its better to play around withit for sometime before you decide on it. There are some limitations such as not being able to use javascript, creation of new controls not possible but then there are also advantages. In most cases it is easier to get a webdynpro app up and running compared to an PDK/HTMLB one (my opinion).

Regards

Pran

[Former Member]

After playing with WebDynPro and PDK - finally I have a simple list showing. This simple example has provided me with a good starting point - it is a pity that SAP do not provide such simple examples to allow you to get your head around the concepts.

I used the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio to produce a version of my example using a WebDynPro and a JSPDynPage (PDK). Deployed to my EP6 server and then created iVews to show then in the appropriate theme.

My thoughts on this now are that both WebDynPro and PDK have merits - both achieve same end result with various affects. WebDynPro is clunky and PDK is not tighly integrated with the Studio (unlike the .NET one).

To use the PDK you need to understand the TAGs and the SAPDesignGuild website helps - but would be better if the Studio presented a graphical interface much like DreamWeaver does.

SAP's direction seems to be with WebDynPro and no longer PDK - wonder if this is truely the case ?. SAP does have a lot of work to do in my opinion to get both products up to scratch from a useability point of view.

[Former Member]

Can you please elaborate on what you found difficult to create a list of links using Web Dynpro?

Armin

[RichHeilman]

I do believe that Web Dynpro is the way that SAP is going. I believe that most if not all business packages have been converted to Web Dynpro, at least that is what I've heard. Also, with WebDynpro for ABAP coming up, it makes it that much easier to develop web applications for you business.

I also would like to know what you didn't like about Web Dynpro. I think it is the best thing since sliced bread. And no, I don't work for SAP. I have develop apps using JSPDynPage, my biggest problem there was the coding of the UI. That was a pain. I love the drag and drop functionality with the UI.

Regards,

Rich Heilman

[Former Member]

In reply to Armin and Rich. As mentioned both WebDynPro and PDK have merits.

At the moment I am looking at converting some of our Intranet .ASP into EP6

most of these are very simple - no backend connections - just simple lists

and simple tables etc. (the more complex work will begin once the simple

things are understood).

My options within EP6 seem to be WebDynPro and JSPDynPage as I also want

(like css) to retain theme/look and feel.

These tools are not as flexible nor a intuitive as I would have hoped for

but it is early days - for both myself and SAP with this. There would

be lots of room for improvement and I look forward to this.

[Former Member]

Thanks Martin - I'll start looking at htmlb

[RichHeilman]

If you are running a was 6.40, you can do this really easily with WebDynpro. You don't have to bother with the HTMLB at all. Just pull in the UI element and set the URL. That's it.

Regards,

Rich Heilman

[Former Member]

Hi Peter,

yes, PDK is available in Java. If you're developing with htmlb for java you don't need to take care about stylesheets. With Htmlb you build up a control tree in java. (e.g. a table or a grid layout containing your links). Htmlb takes care about how this control tree is rendered to html. This asures that the look and feel fits to the rest of the portal components. Htmlb can be used eather in java or in jsp. There is a lot of information about htmlb and PDK available here in SDN.

best regards,

Martin

Message was edited by: Martin Hermes