EP: Portal & BCM – Broadcast Messages

Introduction

EP: Portal & BCM – Broadcast Messages: The Enterprise Portal (EP) serves as a baseline channel towards providing a centralized means of access to organizational information, data and applications. As we know the content contained within the Enterprise Portal itself is particular to a company’s operational processes.

BCM – Broadcasting Messages

A functionality known as “Broadcast Messaging” can be utilized as a means to send and transmit important information messages across the Portal. These messages can be tailored according to administrator preference and are then subsequently set out to end-user bases.

BCM Setup Guide & Configuration Pointers

The Broadcast Message Framework iView should be located in the hidden container and not in the masthead container.

In order to configure the functionality as per business requirements and operational preference, the following documentation can be utilized as a guidance source:

New Development: Broadcast Messages in SAP NetWeaver Portal

• https://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver-portal/administration-and-development/blog/2014/03/12/new-development-broadcast-messages-in-sap-netweaver-portal

Broadcast Messages in SAP Enterprise Portal (BCM)

• https://blogs.sap.com/2014/08/29/broadcast-messages-in-sap-enterprise-portal-bcm/

A sample UI iView (like the one highlighted in the article above) can be added to your classic/afp framework page.

• If you wish to use the BCM out of the box sample UI you will need to add it to your classic/afp framework page,

The application can be found under:

• Portal Content >> com.sap.portal.broadcast.message.framework >> Sample_BroadcastMessageIview)

Important Consideration Factors

The BCM Setup and the sample UI was developed for the AFP in Quirks mode and there are no plans to expend it and support also the standards mode. As per the documentation guide sample in true essence this is only a sample UI, designed for functional testing of the framework and customers are free to develop the UI by themselves.
The Sample UI provided with the BCM is supported only in out of the box Ajax Framework Page and Classic Framework page without ANY customization. Any custom pages will require a new BCM Setup (your own custom UI) to be run alongside it.

You cannot broadcast “new” Messages

One critical point of interest in the case of not being able to broadcast new messages it to firstly ensure that compatibility mode  is not setup & enabled -> Compatiblity Mode or Enterprise Mode.

After verifying that compatiblity mode is NOT enabled double check and see now that the BrowserDocument Mode in itself is maintained correctly as IE=5.

If both of the above checkout ok (i.e. they are set correct) then you can capture traces from the broadcast location to troubleshoot further

• The location of interest is that of the process @ location: com.sap.portal.broadcast

Core Troubleshooting Documentation 

• SAP Note: 2142013 – Links are not working in BCM messages sample UI
• SAP Note: 2381605 – Portal broadcast polling doesn’t occur due to browser side cache
• SAP Note: 2276701 – BCM Not showing messages after upgrade
• SAP Note: 1930281 – Broadcast Message