There are a variety of tools out there if you’re looking to develop content for SAP Enterprise P ortal. But options lik e Java progr amming with the help of the Portal Development Kit (PDK) are code-heavy and can be cumbersome when all you want to do is get a simple little iView deployed and into the hands of your Enterpr ise Portal users. What’s more, people are looking f or yet another option for creating iViews — one that also allows business users without Java skills to model and design their own iVi ews for SAP Enterprise Portal. They now have a graphical design tool for just that purpose — the Visual Composer. Without any codi ng, you can design a straightforward iV iew with th is new tool. Vi sual Composer eases develop- ment of iViews — the interactive, Web-based applications running inside the portal — with a model-driven approach, so you avo id all cod ing effort. You have access to backend systems lik e SAP R/ 3, mySAP ERP , and myS AP CRM with connectivity based on Web services. And you can connect to those services via SAP Enterprise Portal. Visual Composer allows business users Visual Composer — A Model-Driven Development Tool for Enterprise Portal iViews Regular Feature Under Development Karl Kessler, SAP AG to compose an iView that accesses data from vari ous data sources (e.g., BAPIs from SAP backend systems such as CRM) without actually writing code. You are in a pure modeling environment, one that not only lets you model the layout of the user interface , but also the flow of control between different user interface el ements, as well as the access to backend data and the binding of data to UI elements. So how do you create a simple iView with Visual Composer? This article will take you through the basics of the process and offer a view of how Visual Composer will fit into the range of options for bringing dynamic and inter- active content to your Enterprise Portal. Creating a New iView In this example , we’ll create a simple iView , shown in Figure 1, that wi ll allo w Figure 1 The Flight iView This article appeared in the Oct ■ Nov ■ Dec 2004 issue ofSAP Insiderand appears here with permission from the publisher, Wellesley Information Services (WIS), www.WISpubs.com. Subscribe today .Visit www.SAPinsider.com.
