Transport SAP Mobile apps using SAP Content Agent and SAP Cloud Transport Management

[gauravi_shukla]

Utilise the SAP Content Agent UI to export mobile applications in a transport request created within SAP Cloud Transport Management

Hello everyone,
I’m excited to announce a new feature for SAP Mobile service users that allows you to transport Native/MDK mobile applications across different SAP BTP accounts.

Context

If you're a developer working on Native or MDK mobile apps, this new capability will enable you to create transport requests to move your apps from the source SAP BTP account where you’ve tested and finalized your development changes to other SAP BTP accounts. 

For example, if you have an MBK app that's ready to be transported from your development account, as depicted here:

How to use

To do this, we would use SAP Content Agent that acts as a local agent on the Cloud Foundry subaccount level offering content management operations. SAP Content Agent provides an easy integration with SAP Cloud Transport Management which provides a central cloud-based transport management solution to handle the propagation of your changes in the cloud. It is the recommended tool to transport all your application-specific content across your SAP BTP landscape. It can work with local services from different environments - like SAP BTP ABAP, Cloud Foundry & Neo.

Example landscape 

Consider the following landscape DEV -> TEST -> PROD for moving your changes. Apart from this, you also need a central account form where you can configure and manage the transport routes defining how the changes should be moved.

 

Initial set up and configurations

Subscribing SAP Content Agent in DEV SAP BTP account

Getting started to use SAP Content Agent:

1. Subscribe to SAP Content Agent (free and auto entitled)
2. Assign the required roles - "Content Agent Admin" or "Content Agent Export operator". 

Content Agent Admin	Contains the overall administration authorization for all Content Agent tasks. With this access the user can export and import the content and has access to Content Agent Viewer authorization.
Content Agent Export Operator	Allows Export operation and access to read the operation details.

Subscribing SAP Cloud Transport Management in central SAP BTP account

Getting started with SAP Cloud Transport Management:

1. You must configure your entitlements to SAP Cloud Transport Management. Assign entitlements for a dedicated subaccount, and add service plans accordingly. Recommended are 'standard (Application)' and 'standard', which is used for programmatic access. Check this SAP Help Portal page for more details: Configuring Entitlements to SAP Cloud Transport Management.
2. Now, you must subscribe to SAP Cloud Transport Management. Use the standard plan for the subscription. Check this SAP Help Portal page for more details: Subscribing to Cloud Transport Management.
3. Create a space in your SAP BTP subaccount or reuse an existing one. In the space, create a service instance of SAP Cloud Transport Management. Select the standard plan of type 'Instance'.
   1. Runtime Environment: Cloud Foundry
   2. Space: Select the space that you created/selected previously
   3. Instance Name: Enter a meaningful name
4. Proceed to create a service instance and a service key for SAP Cloud Transport Management.

Configure HTTP destination to export to SAP Cloud Transport Management

In the SAP BTP subaccount DEV where your source Mobile Service is hosted, create a destination pointing to SAP Cloud Transport Management created using service credentials from the service key of your SAP Cloud Transport Management instance. 

Configure destination for transport nodes

In your SAP BTP Cloud Foundry subaccount (where you've subscribed to SAP Cloud Transport Management), create a new destination to create a destination pointing to the SAP BTP subaccount where your target SAP Mobile Service tenant is hosted.
For more information, see Creating Destinations Using SAP Cloud Deployment Service with Basic Authentication and Creating Destinations Using SAP Cloud Deployment Service with OAuth2Password Authentication.

Configure nodes and create routes in SAP Cloud Transport Management

Configure a landscape to create a route based on your landscape by creating nodes and destinations pointing to the target SAP BTP account. Create transport nodes as representations of the source and target endpoints of deployment processes in your landscape. Add configuration details as required. Create transport routes to connect transport nodes. For the configuration of simple landscapes, you can optionally use the landscape wizard offered by the service, as depicted here:

Use SAP Content Agent to export mobile apps to SAP Cloud Transport Management

1. Login to SAP Content Agent UI from the DEV account.
   
2. (Optional) Browse the overview page to see the content types enabled.
3. (Optional) Browse the Content Resources page to see the available content you would like to export.
4. Check the status of SAP Cloud Transport Management is showing as "Connected" to verify the destination is configured correctly in the DEV account. 
   Select the source node additional property in the configured destination as the entry node of the transport route you want to choose. 
   
5. Go to the Export Wizard screen. Select the mobile app you want to export.
   
6. You can also select Sub components - Application Base Information, Application Links, Route Configuration, Configuration Routes, Custom Routes, Versioning, Security, Configuration, and XSUAA Configuration. 
7. Go to the next step to select the transport mode option as "SAP Cloud Transport Management" service. 
   Enter a description for creating the transport request. This would be visible in the SAP Cloud Transport Management transport requests view.
   
   
   
8. Review your selection and proceed to the next step. This triggers an asynchronous process and you can view the progress and messages.
   
   
   
9. You can also use the "Activities Performed" page to see the past activities - export/ import done along with logs, content selected and transport information to track if the changes are deployed in the target account. 
   
   

 

View and Import Transport Request

You can either import all transport requests in an import queue or selected transport requests only. To execute an import of all transport requests in the import queue, you need the ImportOperator authorization. To execute an import of selected transport requests in the import queue, you need the TransportOperator authorization. For more information, see Security.

You're in the import queue of the transport node where you want to execute imports. Select one of the options, either 'Import All' or 'Import Selected (this is only recommended, if there are no interdependencies to other (earlier) transport requests, as otherwise, out-of-order issues might come up).
Optional: Schedule imports of all transport requests to be executed at regular intervals. For more information, see Schedule Imports.

Conclusion

When the transport request is successfully imported in SAP Cloud Transport Management, the application becomes available in the TEST account for you to validate.