Portal Activity Report Iview – Customized way of development

Applies to:

SAP Netweaver 7.0

Summary:

This article provides a way of creating Portal Activity
Report Iview using Portal Application Development that can be used as a
template for generating reports which suits the organization or business
demands.

Author(s): Swaminathan Ramamurthy

Created on: 25th August 2014

Author Bio: Swaminathan Ramamurthy is an SAP Portal Consultant from Cognizant Technology Solutions with more than 5 years of experience. His work has involved application development with Webdynpro Java, PAR; SAP ESS MSS and portal administration.

Introduction

SAP has provided Standard Portal Activity Report Iview template for activity report generation. It has number of customization in itself, like, a hourly report of number of hits or a quarterly report and so on. But when the data to be handled is becoming more, at some point in time theStandard Activity Report produces time out error. i.e., the run time data is huge, so it takes more time to generate report than the standard iview expects.

A Customized Development will help in avoiding these problems and provides options to add more features and customizations necessary. In this article we will be seeing about a way to create Activity Report Iview template using Portal Application Development in NWDI environment and deploy it as SDA file in Portal directly and create report like,

Daily Report – Hourly Basis

Before diving into details, lets see what portal activity report is all about.

How the Portal Activity Report Works

Process Flow

The portal activity report feature is comprised of the following components:

Data Collection Service

The data collection service gathers raw data from the Portal Runtime (PRT) about logged on users and the pages and iViews that were viewed. There is one data collection service on each node in the portal cluster.

The data is stored in the portal database.

The data collection service is started automatically when the portal is installed.
We can turn it off or configure the service from the portal. For more information, see Configuring the Data Collection Service.

Aggregator Application

A program that combines the collected data from all the nodes in the portal cluster and, based on this data, generates aggregated data about users and
their use of portal content. This aggregated data is also stored in the portal database.

The aggregator application deletes the data collection service’s raw data after generating the aggregated data.

The aggregation application is run automatically and you do not have to install or configure it in any way. It is stopped or started whenever the data collection
service is stopped or started.

Portal Activity Report iView Template

A template to create iViews for displaying the aggregated portal activity data.

Note: This article will describe on how to create the Portal Activity Report iView template

Portal Database Tables – Direct Access

The aggregated data will be stored in Portal Database Tables from time to time. We can access the Portal Database using the Java Database
Connectivity (JDBC) standard. It enables us to create and manage DataSource objects from our Portal Application.

Database Overview

The following lists the portal database table, along with
each table’s fields, for holding the aggregated data that is used for creating
portal activity reports

Table Name: WCR_WEBCONTENTSTAT

Purpose: Holds information about the content that was viewed

Table Column Details

Field Name	Data Type	Length	Description
TIMESTAMPHOUR	Bigint	8	The time the content was viewed, a long value equal to the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT.
AGGREGATIONLEVEL	Nvarchar	1	The aggregation level, either h, d, m, q
COUNTER	Bigint	8	For internal use
PCDURL	Nvarchar	1024	The PCD address of the object
OBJECTTYPE	Nvarchar	1	The type of object, either Page or iView
IMPRESSIONS	Int	4	The number of times the object was viewed in the specified period (hit count)
VISITS	Int	4	The number of unique users who saw the object in the specified period
CUSTOM	Nvarchar	1024	The title of the object
ID	Bigint	8	A unique ID for each page in the table, later used for retrieving the users who saw the page

Each page is given a unique ID for each aggregation period in which it was viewed. For example, if a page was viewed between 9 and 10 a.m.
and also between 10 and 11 a.m., two records are created in the table, each with has the aggregation level and each with a unique ID field. At the end of
the day, a third record is created, with d as the aggregation level and a different unique ID.

For more information, see Direct Access to Database Tables

Let’s Start the Development!

The steps described here is in conjunction with NWDI. The development will be done as Development Component and deployed to the server as
SDA file.

Creating New DC

Open NWDS. Go to Development Configuration perspective.Right Click on the SC in which the DC needs to be created and click on
“Create New DC…”

2. A new dialog box will appear. Provide details like Vendor, Name prefix, Name of the DC and Type. The Type of DC we will be using is , Enterprise Portal -> Portal Application Standalone (Packed in SDA) .

If “Portal Application Module” type is selected, the par file generated as a result of building the application, needs to be manually uploaded to Portal.

If “Portal Application Standalone (Packed in SDA)” type is selected, the par file generated as a result of building the application will be packaged automatically as an SDA file which can be directly deployed in the portal from NWDS.

Click on “Next” after providing the details.

3. A DTR activity needs to be created. Click on “New Activity…” and provide the activity name and description and click on “OK”. This will capture all
our development changes to the SC.

Click on ‘Next > “

4. A new dialog box will appear where we can edit the PAR file name that will be generated form this project. Click on “Finish”.

5. A new dialog box, “Add Files to DTR” will appear . It will add portalapp.xml file to DTR. It will be checked by default. Click on “OK”

Select the already created activity, and click on “OK”

Now the DC is created as shown below.

6. Go to “Enterprise Portal” perspective. We can see the DC we have created as shown below.

Let’s take a look on the project structure.

A set of Jar file references.
src.api
– folder holds file that will be public (accessible for other project).
src.core
– folder holds file that will be private (accessible only within the project).
Portalapp.xml
– a deployment descriptor file in xml that defines components and services contained in the application and its configuration. It can be located in dist ->
PORTAL-INF.

Creating Abstract Portal Component : DailyReport

7. Now its time to create Portal Components for the project. Right Click on the root folder go to New -> Other…

8. A new wizard for creating Portal Component will open. Select “Portal Application” in the left pane and “Create a new Portal Application Object” in the right
pane and click on “Next >”

9. Select the project under which we are creating the portal component and click on “Next >”

10. Select “Abstract Portal Component” and click on “Next >”

12. Provide the

Name - DailyReport
Location – Core
Class name - DailyReport
Package name

Click on “Finish”

Select the Activity already created and click on “OK”

The component is created. DailyReport.java file is created under src.core folder. Also , the component will be registered automatically in portalapp.xml file found dist -> PORTAL-INF as shown below.

Configuring portalapp.xml

12. The portalapp.xml file needs to be configured in order to maintain certain application parameters as iView properties to improve the reusability.

For our application the following properties will be maintained under <component-profile> tag. Once it’s maintained, the properties will be available as iView property and the value can be provided for these in Portal while creating the iView.

PCDURL to monitor – this will hold the pcdurl of the page that will be monitored
Application Name – this will hold the name of the Application to be displayed in the report
Report Header – this will hold the suitable description of the Report to be displayed as as Header

The portalapp.xml will now look like this,

Creating Abstract Portal Component : ExcelReport

13. Create a new Abstract portal component, as above and name it as “ExcelReport”. This component will help in exporting the generated report data as Excel Sheet.

Now the project structure will look like as shown below,

Note: ExcelReport component will be called internally from DailyReport , so there is no need to add any property for it in portalapp.xml file

14. To generate Excel Report, POI jar has been used. In NWDI environment, the best practice is to have all external libraries in a separate DC and utilize it in other DC if required.

Note: Make sure the jar file is available in the required DC say EXTLIB and it has been added to its public part ‘assembly’ and ‘libs’

To use the POI jar in the project,

Add the EXTLIB DC as Used DC in our hrms/content/par/monitor DC as shown below, Go to Portal DC Explorer tab , expand the DC MetaData -> DC Definition -> Used DCs. Right click on ‘Used DCs’ and click on “Add Used DC…”

Select the DC containing jar file under “Inactive” tab and click on “Finish”.

This will enable our DC to use the poi jar functionality.

15. Include code in ExcelReport class

Functionality: This component creates the excel report based on the input parameter. It acts as a centralized component for Export to Excel functionality (daily, weekly and quarterly report)

Short description of the input Parameters passed on from other report components

Parameter	Short description
PCDURL	Holds the PCD URL path of the page/iview to monitor to be displayed in excel report
Name	Holds the iview/page application name that will be displayed in the excel report
Report	Holds the header text for the excel report
Key	Used to identify the report component (DailyReport / WeeklyReport / QuaterlyReport ) that gives a call to ExcelReport
day_xcel	Holds the string values for “Day” field concatenated using “ilP”
date_time_xcel	Holds the string values for “Date/Time” field concatenated using “ilP”
users_xcel	Holds the string values for “Users” field concatenated using “ilP”
hits_xcel	Holds the string values for “Hits” field concatenated using “ilP”

Component details:

Component name:

ExcelReport

Functionality:

This component uses the above mentioned input
parameters and create an Excel Report
The API used for creating excel report is POI.
The value in “Key” variable differentiates the
type of excel report to be generated , for eg., daily or weekly or quarterly
report
Once the excel report is ready , the
httpservlet response is used for providing an option for the user to download
/ view the excel locally .

The code for 'ExcelReport' component has been attached.

Creating Helper class : Utility

16. Create a Utility class for

maintaining code to establish and maintain connections to the database
storing constant text which are used across all components

Right Click on the project, New -> Other…

17. A new dialog box will appear. Select Java Class and then click on “Next>”

18. Change the Source Folder to src.core and click on “OK”

Click on Browse… and select “src.core” folder

Provide the package and class name and click on “Finish”

Select the activity already created and click on “OK”

Now the project structure will look like this ,

19. Adding Code in Utility.java. The technical details for the class is as follows ,

Short description of the Class variables:

Variable	Short description
PROPERTY_NAME_PCDURL	Constant String - that holds the string value of the parameters that are customized in iview level i.e., PCDURL to monitor
PROPERTY_NAME_APPLICATIONNAME	Constant String - that holds the string value of the parameters that are customized in iview level i.e., Application name
PROPERTY_NAME_REPORTHEADER	Constant String - that holds the string value of the parameters that are customized in iview level i.e., Report header
ERROR_MSG_NO_PCDURL	Constant String – that holds the string value of the error message to be displayed when 'PCDURL to monitor' property is not provided value in iview level
HEADER_COLUMN_DAY HEADER_COLUMN_DATE_TIME HEADER_COLUMN_OBJECT_NAME HEADER_COLUMN_USERS HEADER_COLUMN_HITS HEADER_COLUMN_ID	Constant String – that holds the string value of the Column Header names for the report
SEPERATOR	Constant String – that holds the string that is used as a Separator which helps in transporting the values from Report to Excel
EXCEL_PARAMETER_PCDURL EXCEL_PARAMETER_REPORT EXCEL_PARAMETER_NAME EXCEL_PARAMETER_KEY EXCEL_PARAMETER_DAY EXCEL_PARAMETER_DATE_TIME EXCEL_PARAMETER_USERS EXCEL_PARAMETER_HITS EXCEL_PARAMETER_KEY_VALUE_DAILYREPORT EXCEL_PARAMETER_KEY_VALUE_WEEKLYREPORT EXCEL_PARAMETER_KEY_VALUE_QUATERLYREPORT	Constant String – that holds the string value of the parameters that is passed from Report to Excel Component
REPORT_HEADER_DATE_FORMAT	Constant String – that holds the string value which resembles the Date Format that is used in Report Header
Con	Connection Object that is used by all Report Components

Methods in Utility Class:

Method name:	getConnection ()
Return parameter:	Connection
Input parameter:	IPortalComponentRequest request
Functionality:	This method helps in creating the connection to the Datasource and return the connection object to the requested component

Method name:	closeConnection ()
Return parameter:	Void
Input parameter:	IPortalComponentRequest request
Functionality:	This method helps in releasing the resources by closing the connection object

The code for 'Utility' helper class has been attached.

20. Lets start creating with our first report - DailyReport.java.

Functionality:
The component creates activity report for the current day on hourly basis.

Technical Details:

Input Parameter	Short description
PCDURL to monitor	Holds the PCD URL path of the page/iview to monitor
Application name	Holds the iview/page application name that will be displayed in the report
Report header	Holds the header text for the report

Component details:

Component name:

DailyReport

Functionality:

This component need the parameter value for
“PCDURL to monitor” for successful
generation of report
The output report is displayed using HTML
This Component uses Utility class for
establishing the connection to the portal database.
It aggregates the data for the current day on
per hour basis and displays it in HTML table format.
It also stores the report data that is
generated into variables like day_xcel, date_time_xcel, users_xcel, hits_xcel
which are passed to ExcelReport Component in order to generate the Excel
Report.
The Component also provides a HTML button
“Export to Excel”
The Component uses Utility class for closing
the connection once the report is generated.

The code for 'DailyReport.java' has been attached.

Creating Abstract Portal Component : WeeklyReport and QuaterlyReport

Similarto ‘Daily Report’, create 2 more abstract components and include relevant logic as required.

WeeklyReport
QuaterlyReport

22. The portalapp.xml file needs to be configured for the WeeklyReport and QuaterlyReport in the same way that is done for DailyReport. The complete
portalapp.xml file will contain the code as shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><application>  <application-config/>  <components>    <component name="DailyReport">      <component-config>        <property name="ClassName" value="ibm.com.DailyReport"/>      </component-config>      <component-profile>        <property name="PCDURL to monitor" value="">          <property name="personalization" value="no-dialog"/>            <property name="type" value=""/>        </property>        <property name="Application name" value="">          <property name="personalization" value="no-dialog"/>          <property name="type" value=""/>        </property>        <property name="Report header" value="">          <property name="personalization" value="no-dialog"/>          <property name="type" value=""/>        </property>      </component-profile>    </component>    <component name="ExcelReport">      <component-config>        <property name="ClassName" value="ibm.com.ExcelReport"/>      </component-config>      <component-profile/>    </component>    <component name="WeeklyReport">      <component-config>        <property name="ClassName" value="ibm.com.WeeklyReport"/>      </component-config>      <component-profile>        <property name="PCDURL to monitor" value="">          <property name="personalization" value="no-dialog"/>          <property name="type" value=""/>        </property>        <property name="Application name" value="">          <property name="personalization" value="no-dialog"/>          <property name="type" value=""/>        </property>        <property name="Report header" value="">          <property name="personalization" value="no-dialog"/>          <property name="type" value=""/>        </property>      </component-profile>    </component>    <component name="QuaterlyReport">      <component-config>        <property name="ClassName" value="ibm.com.QuaterlyReport"/>      </component-config>      <component-profile>        <property name="PCDURL to monitor" value="">          <property name="personalization" value="no-dialog"/>          <property name="type" value=""/>        </property>        <property name="Application name" value="">          <property name="personalization" value="no-dialog"/>          <property name="type" value=""/>          </property>        <property name="Report header" value="">          <property name="personalization" value="no-dialog"/>          <property name="type" value=""/>        </property>      </component-profile>    </component>  </components>  <services/></application>

Creating Activity Report iView in Enterprise Portal

22. Now as the development is completed, the development component needs can be Build and Deployed. Once its deployed, it will be automatically be
available on the target portal server where it is deployed.

Note: Once deployed , the associated par which is generated from the project will be available in portal

Go to Content Adminsitration -> Portal Content , right click on a folder and select New-> iView

Select the “Portal Component” option

Select the name of the PAR deployed and click on “Next >”. It will be the name of the DC created. In this document example it will be hrms.content.par.monitor

The Abstract Portal components that have been created in the project will be shown for selection. For example DailyReport can be selected.

Provide the iView general properties and click on “Next>” and then “Finish”.

Select “Open the object for editing” and click on “OK”

3 important iView properties that is configured in portalapp.xml:

PCDURL to monitor

Provide the pcdurl of the page that needs to be created a report for.

Application name – Name for the page for which the activity report is being created

Report Header– Suitable header name for the report e.g., Daily Report

Click on “Save” and then “Preview”.

On Click of “Export to Excel”,

Thus this customized activity report development will help in overcoming the timeout error faced in Standard activity report iView and develop various reports according to the requirements of the business in a more flexible and reusable way.