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EP: Portal Activity Report Vs Activity Data Collector

troy_cronin2
Active Contributor
‎07-25-2016 2:41 PM

Introduction


In a business environment which utilizes the Enterprise Portal (EP) as a central platform as we know the number of users can vary from a few hundred to a few thousand depending on the business setup. In true essence the SAP NetWeaver Portal is a key cornerstone in the SAP NetWeaver architecture. Through web browser interfaces the EP is the conduit channel through which users begin going about their daily tasks and the portal itself provides such users with a central point of access for all work related procedures and processes.

Usage Statistics EP Environment:


With the EP offering users a single point of access to information, documents, enterprise applications, processes and services both inside and outside of an organization its understandably easy for a simple environment to become complex quite quickly in terms of a high level perspective. In short the Portal provides access to business processes and information, social collaboration and content management across various consumption channels. Also with the ever-growing number of mobile phone business users the Portal needs to be maintained in an optimal an efficient manner.


Portal Activity Report & Activity Data Collector - Are They Similar?


You can make use of the Activity Data Collector (ADC) or the Portal Activity Report depending on your core business requirements and operational preference. The Activity Data Collector (ADC) collects more detailed information about portal requests and saves this information into files with one line dedicated to each logged request. With the Activity Data Collector (ADC) you are given access to raw data which can be gathered and deciphered as required. Here it is a non-automated process and you (yourself) are responsible for analyzing the raw data and created subsequent reports upon it or graphical representation breakdowns.


The Portal Activity Report on the other hand is a dedicated statistical based tool for the Enterprise Portal (EP). The underlying functionality of the Portal Activity Report is focused upon gathering information pertaining to Portal visitors and the pages/iViews viewed during the user sessions of such visitors. This information is contained with a dedicated iView through which fundamental reports can be generated based upon the Portal's activity. Such data (contained within the report iView) is aggregated generated within predefined report types.


Activating the Portal Activity Report


  1. Login to portal NWA.
  2. Select operation tab -> Start & stop Java application tab.
  3. Search application name: com.sap.portal.activityreport.core.
  4. Under the table below of the portal press the "Portal service configuration" (link above the table), this will open a collection of properties.
  5. Change the value of the first line "activate portal activity report" to "true" or "false" depending on your requirements.
  6. Select the details change the status of the ActivityReport service set the value of the report to 'true' or 'false').
  7. Press the save button ( located in the middle of the form ).
  8. Press the button More action-> view corresponding to application.
  9. Press the "Restart" button it will restart the application and with the desired status change (activated/deactivated).

Monitoring Pages of Interest


If you wish to monitor a certain core application iView or simply a page of interest this is indeed a feasible notion and can be achieved quite simply once the correct parameter settings are maintained. In order for such results to be firstly captured and then aggregated within the Portal Activity Report you need to ensure the following:




  • The page is assigned to a role as opposed to being classified as a unit or sub-unit within the report.
  • You can view this by opening the role and viewing the iviews/pages currently assigned to it
  • Right click on the role to add it to the Report Listing
  • Then subsequently assigned the role to the Activity Report itself.

In summary iViews which need to be monitored need to be assigned to a role and then subsequently to the report itself.


Monitoring Page Hits


If you are using a configured Activity Report in the Enterprise Portal (EP) to gather and report findings on all of the pages that have been visited you may want to include page hits as a metric in the report listing.

  1. Navigate to the Service Configuration Editor.
  2. From the top-level navigation, choose System Administration -> System Configuration.
  3. In the detailed navigation, choose Service Configuration. The Service Configuration Editor is displayed.
  4. Open the configuration page for the data collection service.
  5. In the Portal Catalog, navigate to Applications > com.sap.portal/activityreport.core -> Services -> ActivityReport.
  6. Go to “Customer Activity Reports” -> “Daily Activity Report by Page”.






Monitoring Certain Users


To monitor hits for a certain user types you need to ensure the property “Monitor Hits” is set to true. For additional guidance on this topic the following Wiki is a great source of reference.


Creating Portal Activity Report iViews



FAQ’s - Portal Activity Report Functionality



Issues - Portal Activity Report

Activity Report issues are often solved by applying the latest SDA release file.


  • SAP Note: 1084379 - Portal Activity Report - Latest Version (SDA file)
  • SAP KBA: 1693822 - how to check if you are on the latest SAP Activity Reports support package level or if the package (SDA) has been applied successfully.



Key Reference & Troubleshooting Documentation


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