Dear Portal Experts,
Lately, we have received plenty of questions asking for clarifications about the best way to integrate Portal content and applications from one Portal to the other. Should we use Application Integration? Should we use Federated Portal Network (FPN)? What are the main use cases for each solution?
These questions are indeed none trivial questions and the answer rely heavily on the customer specific requirements. With this blog we will cover the main use-cases and scenarios for choosing the right solution for each use case.
So, let's start with the basics:
- Application Integration (AI) is the preferred integration solution when integrating a specific application from a remoteproducer Portal to the central corporate Portal (consumer Portal)
- Federated Portal Network (FPN) is the preferred integration solution when maintaining the Portal roles with its full hierarchy in a remote Portal and integrating the full role into a central corporate Portal (consumer Portal)
Bellow we will cover the typical use cases and the most common solution for each use case. Please note, this is NOT the one and only solution for each scenario. Each solution should be decided according to customer specific needs, nevertheless, these are the common solutions for the listed scenarios given that the customer has upgraded to the latest Portal version (EhPSP).
In order to enhance the Application Integration component to support all the above scenarios, SAP has done major improvements in this component in the latest versions. Please check the following Best Practice for Integrating SAP Applications into the SAP NetWeaver Portal to understand the minimum version required to run these scenarios with the most updated technology. In general, we highly recommend you to upgrade to the latest and most updated version.
Additional reading material:
One additional comment before we say goodbye (:-)), please remember the following rule: no AI to AI is allowed! Meaning, you cannot create an Application Integration (AI) iView to another Application Integration iView. Keep this is mind when planning your landscape.
Finally, if you have in mind more very common application integration scenarios, please comment bellow and we will add them to our decision matrix.
Hope you will find this article beneficial,