V4 Connection Service

The Connection Service can be used to provide a central point of control for all users’ SAP Server connections. This means that your IT team can configure the Promenta Excel Add-in installer to have a base configuration and the connection file (the ini file) does not have to be deployed for each new SAP system that is added.

The Connection service is run and administered centrally for all SAP systems – normally the DEV system. Note that DEV systems are also normally transport controllers for the whole landscape and so are a suitable system for this type of service.

This is an optional component available from 6.46.3.0 and Add-on version 4.0.1.014

The connection service allows the excel installation package to be configured once and then the service will provide the additional SAP connections without needing to update the Excel installation package further.

Note : the Connection Service is accessible to anyone on your network but it does not contain any logon credentials or other confidential information. It only provides a list of available SAP systems. If you want to set up the service with a specific service user please see the link here.

Key features

Centralized control of your connection parameters for all users – normally your DEV system

Add a new SAP system to the Excel Add-in at any time without re-install

Create a single deployment package (rather than updating for every system)

All your users still require their own logon credentials/SSO for access to systems –> no backdoor access

 

Process Flow

(1) ADMINISTRATOR : Adds SAP systems to the Promenta Connection Service (in DEV)

(2) EXCEL End User requests available SAP systems (from DEV). The available systems are provided by Promenta Connection Service

(3) EXCEL End user selects the desired SAP system and connects

Restrictions

The Promenta Journal solution must be fully working before configuration.

Any web-dispatcher or other load balancer must be setup and configured first.

SAP service /SAP/PUBLIC/BC/UR must be activated. 

SAP service /SAP/PUBLIC/BC/UR will be set up for public anonymous access and Promenta will use anonymous access.

The Connection Service will run from the DEV system (normally) so it should be available at all times. However if the DEV system becomes temporarily unavailable that will not prevent users from connection to SAP. It will only prevent users from connecting to new SAP systems that they have not used before. DEV systems are also users for transport control and so should be available.

 

INI FILE SETUP : 1 Generate ini

Start Transaction /PROMENTA/EXCEL_INI and select the appropriate Variant for your use case

/PROMENTA/POST    ==> Promenta : Post/Park  
/PROMENTA/WF    ==> Promenta : Workflow

Normally there are no other changes to make on this screen

Execute transaction

 

INI FILE SETUP : 2 Download ini file

Download the generated ini file using the button as shown below

Save the ini file to your desktop 

Do not change the file name : it should remain Promenta_Excel_RFC_Service.ini

INI FILE SETUP : 3 Distribute ini file

You should now give the ini file to all users.

If you are using automated or store/portal distribution you can build your package using this file.

NOTE : There will not yet be any actually systems defined in the file as that will come in the next steps

Your users require this file for their installation of the Excel Addin

ADD SYSTEM : 1 Generate connection

To add a system to the Connection Service you will use the “Add System” option of the transaction /PROMENTA/EXCEL_INI to generate a connection parameters set into your clip-board. You will then paste that into the Configuration.

For the system that you wish to add, Promenta SAP ABAP components must be deployed and fully configured already and the SAP system must be configured for load balancing etc

[1] Log onto the SAP system that you want to add to the connection service. This could be DEV, QA, PRD etc

[2] Execute transaction /PROMENTA/EXCEL_INI and select the “Add system” option. When selected the screen will automatically change as shown below

[3] Check the values for System name and description. Default values will be taken from the system but they can be changed.

[4] Hit the execute button

[5] The connection parameters are shown as below

[6] Click the “Copy  to clip-board” button to export the parameters to your laptops memory. 

Do not use copy/paste of any other data on your laptop or you will loose this data .

You can paste the data to a text file / notepad to preserve it if needed.

ADD SYSTEM : 2 Store Connection

Log into the SAP system running the connection service – this is normally the DEV system.

1] Execute transaction /PROMENTA/EXCEL_SYS

2] Hit the “Add from CB” button. This will paste the connection parameters from your clip-board into the screen

You should see a success message similar to the below image.

ADD SYSTEM : 3 Publish Connection

Now you will publish the connection so that it is available to users of the service.

[1] Click the “Execute” button to generate the connection service data

You may receive warning messages regarding System Linking which can be ignored 

[2] On the next screen check that your new system appears in the parameters (the parameters are XML)

[3] Hit the “Activate” button to publish the system information. 

You should see success messages such as the ones shown below. 

This informs you that the system is now successfully added to the service

Complete – you have now added the system to the connection service.

You can repeat these steps for each system

Always add the new system to the DEV system as the connection service runs only in DEV.

TEST connection service

To confirm that the connection service is responding with data you can take the following steps

[1] Login to the DEV sap system – DEV is the central system and is used by all other systems. Hence do not log into QA/PRD etc

[2] Execute transaction /PROMENTA/EXCEL_INI

[3] Hite the “Test URL” button as shown below ==> a browser should be opened

The opened browser should show some content – example below. This is success!

If you receive any browser errors like “Resource not found” or similar then there is a problem.

Technical note : This content is encoded in Base64 which is industry standard method for transmitting data across the internet. The actual content is a simple XML file. If you wish to inspect  the actual content please use an editor capable of decoding Base64 (for example Notepad++) 

 

TEST connection in Excel

To test the connection

[1] Ensure you have the excel add-in installed already

[2] Ensure that the you used the correct ini file containing the connection service configuration 

[3] Open Excel and navigate to the Promenta tab

[4] Hit the “Help” button 

[5] In the help popup – hit the “Systems” button

[6] The list of available Server groups and systems will be shown. Initially groups will be empty unless configured. Select the “Systems not assigned to groups” checkbox

[7] The list of selected systems will be shown on the right as below

 

[8] Hit the “Save” button to store the selected systems

[9] You can now logon to these systems

 

NOTE : If a new system is added your users must perform these steps to import the new system into their Excel connection list.