Differences between B2B IPCUI and CU50 IPCUI?

[Former Member]

Dear all.

We have SAP ERP 6.0 installed with integrated IPC in VMC running. On another box we have NW 7 with E-Commerce 5.0 and TREX 7.0 and MS ISS 7.5 running.

We have two scenarios:

Scenario 1: http://host:port/b2b/b2b/init.do

After a logon a shop list appears. After going into a shop, navigating through the catalog and choosing a configurable product, the IPC UI gets displayed.

Scenario 2: SAP Gui transaction CU50

After choosing the same configurable material as in scenario 1 and running it through the IPC, the IPC UI gets displayed.

The IPC UI via CU50 shows correctly status ligths as configured through XCM parameter appearance.showstatuslights=T.

But the IPC UI in the B2B does not show the status lights, but the texts.

My assumption is that both scenarios are using the same IPC UI.

Or is there maybe a difference?

What I also do not understand is:

Why do I have XCM configuration for IPC two times?

One "Internet pricing and configurator" in ../ipc/admin/xcm and another "IPC" in ../b2b/admin/xcm

Maybe this is a silly question, but I haven´t found any solution nor answers to these issues and questions after long investigations.

Thanks and regards

Stefan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Your Scenario 1: uses IPC-SCE (Configuration Engine) for runtime configuration of a configurable product. This uses the IPC as the runtime engine for configuring the product. The IPC UI (along with appropriate Java application) helps you render the design and get your input.

Your Scenario 2: SAP Gui transaction CU50 uses the classical Variant Configuration LO-VC module of the SAP R/3 (ECC 6.0) system. The SAPGUI Variant configuration screens don't use IPC at any instance.

The IPC UI via CU50 shows correctly status ligths as configured through XCM parameter appearance.showstatuslights=T. But the IPC UI in the B2B does not show the status lights, but the texts. 

It is very likely that you are seeing the default behavior of CU50 set elsewhere. Try changing the XCM setting and see if CU50 display property changes.

My assumption is that both scenarios are using the same IPC UI.

Not correct.

See more detailed functional differences between IPC-SCE and LO-VC at this link Comparison of SCE and R/3 Variant Configuration.

Why do I have XCM configuration for IPC two times?
One "Internet pricing and configurator" in ../ipc/admin/xcm and another "IPC" in ../b2b/admin/xcm

Technically they are two different applications for use in different contexts. ../ipc/ for both design time and runtime of product configuration. This is what actually controls the IPC UI appearance in the web. The ipc component in the ../b2b/ application is for picking up the right configuration type that is defined in XCM of the _ipc application _.

Maybe this is a silly question, but I haven´t found any solution nor answers to these issues and questions after long investigations.

Probably, this was "intuitive" by SAP standards, so they don't have any documentation for developers who don't work in SAP.....

(1) Define a custom configurations for application configuration isab2b and isacatalog in ipc/XCM.

(2) After making changes to ipc application (XCM) for UI settings, you have to restart the ipc application.

(3) Define custom component for application component ipcdefaul in b2b/XCM

(4) In the place of isab2b and isacatalog, input the names of the custom configurations you defined in ipc/XCM

(5) Restart the b2b application.

Hope this helps...

Easwar Ram

http://www.parxlns.com

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

That´s it!

Now the status lights are visible

Thanks you very much.

Now I also understand the differences between all these things.

Regards

smolzen