Release Notes for SAP NetWeaver Cloud

SAP Cloud Connector

SAP Cloud Connector (SCC) 1.2.0 has been released with the following enhancements:

• An automatic check for landscape host and proxy (if existing) that shows whether a connection to the Cloud is possible. The result appears on the Home tab.
• A manual connectivity check for all exposed systems, which shows whether the backend is reachable from SCC.
• A process monitor that shows the status of all SCC processes and provides a restart option for the different process groups.

You can download SAP Cloud Connector via the SAP NetWeaver Cloud update site -> Additional Software tab.

Sample Application “Paul the Octopus”

“Paul the Octopus” is a sample Web application that provides a complete example of all platform services of SAP NetWeaver Cloud, synchronously working together. The application code samples are provided and explained in details in a community blog.

For more information, see:

Community blog: Get Ready for Your Paul Position

Documentation: Running Sample Applications.

The SAP HANA database is now available for use on the nwtrial.ondemand.com landscape. The default database type to be used (the SAP HANA database or SAP MaxDB) can be selected when you register for a developer account. For more information, see Signing Up for an Account.

The issue with deploying to the Cloud when your IDE is behind a proxy requiring basic authentication has been resolved.

For more information, see this thread.

Alerting based on custom JMX checks

It is now possible to receive alerts based on custom JMX checks defined via the SAP NetWeaver Cloud Console Client. The feature allows you to select an MBean attribute value to check and define a threshold for receiving alerts.

For more information, see Configuring Custom JMX Checks with SAP NetWeaver Cloud Console Client.

Debugging connection problems to the mail provider is now documented.

For more information, seeUsing the Mail Service-> Enabling the Debugging Feature section.

The deprecated mail service APIs needed for the OSGi programming model and for accessing the SAP Cloud Mail Gateway have been removed as announced.

To send e-mails from NetWeaver Cloud applications, use a mail account at an internet-accessible mail provider (for example GMail).

Persistence Service Based on the SAP HANA Database

Persistence Service based on the SAP HANA database is now available for productive usage in SAP NetWeaver Cloud. It can be used with the following features and limitations:

• Row and column store
• Access via JDBC and JPA
• No support of XS Engine
• No access with SAP HANA Studio

Currently, the database platform (SAP HANA database or MaxDB) can only be chosen on account level.

Identity federation is now available for productive use. For more information about using identity federation, see Securing SAP NetWeaver Cloud Applications.

Changed UI for identity federation in the Account page. The UI now adds the following tabs:

• TRUST– You manage here the trust configurations of SAP NetWeaver Cloud as service provider, and an on-premise identity provider. For more information on using this part of the UI, see Using a Custom Identity Provider.
• AUTHORIZATIONS– You manage here role assignments of users and groups on SAP NetWeaver Cloud. For more information on using this part of the UI, see Managing Roles and Groups.

SAP NetWeaver Cloud Connectivity Service

The SAP Cloud Connector version 1.1.1 is released with the following enhancements:

• SCC audit log has been extended to contain information about SCC configuration changes
• System mappings that expose the available backends include the configuration of the backend type (e.g. ABAP system, SAP Business Connector, non-SAP system)
• Support of cookie domain attribute and HTTP redirect.

New control library sap.m is available for developing applications running on mobile devices.

For detailed information on all new features, see SAPUI5 Release Notes.

Local Development Scenario

SAP NetWeaver Cloud is now certified as Java EE 6 Web Profile compatible. For more information, see SAP NetWeaver Cloud Java EE 6 Web Profile Certified! and Java EE Compatibility.

The Java EE 6 Web Profile functionality comes as Beta and is delivered with SDK-2.0.2.Beta. The new major version of the SDK can be downloaded from https://tools.netweaver.ondemand.com with any free developer account. Currently, with this SDK it is possible to deploy applications only in Beta and Trial accounts (not allowed for productive accounts).

More information on the newly supported features with SDK-2.x is available in this blog post.

Local Development Scenario

The SAP JVM 7, a JDK 7 compatible Java Virtual Machine, is now available as a separate download from the Additional Software section on https://tools.netweaver.ondemand.com. It can be used for running a local SAP NetWeaver Cloud server.

For more information see Java Execution Environment and Installing the SAP JVM.

You can now use the SAP NetWeaver Cloud Console to configure:

• Availability check (URL) and response time thresholds for your application
• E-mails to receive alerts if the availability check fails because the application is not available or because of poor performance.

You can do these configurations for a whole account and then they are applied to all applications running in this account.

For more information, see Application Monitoring and Alerting.

Eclipse Tools Support for JDK7

You can use Eclipse to develop, run and test your applications on SAP NetWeaver Cloud on top of Java Standard Edition Virtual Machine for Java 6 and 7. The desired version can be specified by changing the version of the Java facet of the deployed web project. For more information, see Creating an SAP NetWeaver Cloud Application.

When configuring the local provider, you can now choose among three configuration options:

• Default – the local provider for this tenant inherits the configuration for SAP NetWeaver Cloud
• None – no own trust settings for this tenant
• Custom – the tenant admin can configure the local provider settings. This option contains pretty much the configuration options existing up to now.

For more information, see Using a Custom Identity Provider.

• A new API for deleting a repository is now available.
• HTTP headers If-Modified-Since and Last-Modified are now supported.

Choosing application VM (compute units) size

SAP NetWeaver Cloud offers four different sizes of application VM (compute units) that can be purchased for productive accounts. When deploying an application to a productive account using the SAP NetWeaver Console Client, you can now choose the application VM size from the options you have purchased.

For more information about the different sizes of application VM (compute units), see Application Runtime.

For more information about choosing application VM size using the console client, see Deploying Using SAP NetWeaver Cloud console client.

A wizard for collecting support information in a ZIP file is now available. When this ZIP file is attached to a support ticket, it may help SAP support to get better understanding of the user environment and process the issue faster. The wizard can be launched from the menupath Help -> Collect Support Information.

• The Logging tools now have the following enhancements:
  • There is an easier way to open the Server Logs view from the Servers view either by clicking a button in the view’s toolbar, or by double-clicking on the special node under each SAP NetWeaver Cloud server.
  • Log files are now opened in the standard Eclipse Console view
  • Refresh button has been added in the Loggers editor and Server Logs view
  • The sorting order of table columns in the Loggers editor and Server Logs view can now be changed.

For more information, see Viewing Logs and Setting Log Levels from the Eclipse IDE.

• When the Users and the Connectivity editors are opened and there is no content, short help information is displayed in the empty space in the editor.

Application developers and application operators can run and test applications on the cloud on top of Java Standard Edition Virtual Machine for Java 6 and 7.

By default, all applications are still deployed on Java Standard Edition Virtual Machine for Java 6. Optionally, as a result of extensions in the application runtime, it is possible to designate in the SAP NetWeaver Cloud Console client that the application should be run on Java Standard Edition Virtual Machine for Java 7. In this way, application developers can also create applications which rely on features that are specific for Java Standard Edition Virtual Machine for Java 7.

For more information, see Deploying Using SAP NetWeaver Cloud Console Client.

The Connectivity Service is now available also on the SAP NetWeaver Cloud Trial Landscape for free evaluation and demo purposes.

To use the on-demand to on-premise connectivity features of the Connectivity Service, you have to download and install the SAP Cloud Connector, which can now be downloaded from the SAP Service Marketplace with every valid S-User.

Be reminded to plan and perform the required migration to the SAP Cloud Connector version 1.1.0, as announced already with this blog post.

The Programmatic Logout section is enhanced with information and examples how to avoid common problems with implementing logout.

For more information, see User Authentication.

Persistence Service based on the SAP HANA database is now available in SAP NetWeaver Cloud as a beta version. It can be used with the following features and limitations:

• Row and column store
• Access via JDBC and JPA
• No support of XS Engine

Currently the database platform (SAP HANA database or MaxDB) can only be chosen on account level. However, this is only possible for beta accounts.

SAP NetWeaver Cloud Connectivity Service and SAP Cloud Connector

Audit logging is now supported by the Connectivity and Configuration service.

The SAP Cloud Connector version 1.1.0 has been released (check this blog post for details) with the following features:

• Upgrade support from older SAP Cloud Connector versions starting with version 1.0.1.
• LDAP integration for authenticating SAP Cloud Connector administrators
• System certificate for mutual authentication with connected backends
• Easy temporary resource disablement

For more information, see Installing SAP Cloud Connector and LDAP Authentication.

The SAP JVM Profiler can be used to address the root cause of performance and memory problems.

It is a powerful tool that supports the developer in identifying runtime bottlenecks and reducing the memory footprint. Profiling can be enabled on the NetWeaver Cloud Server for Local testing without VM configuration changes and works reliably even for very large Java applications.

The SAP JVM Profiler can be easily integrated into any Eclipse-based environment by using the established plugin installation system of the Eclipse platform. It allows you to connect to a running SAP JVM and analyze collected profiling data in a graphical manner. The profiler plug-in provides a new perspective similar to the debug and Java perspective.

It is available through the SAP NetWeaver Cloud update site.

For more information, see Profiling a Web Application Locally.

The SAP JVM is now available as a separate download from the additional software section on https://tools.netweaver.ondemand.com. It can be used for running a local SAP NetWeaver Cloud server.

The SAP NetWeaver Cloud infrastructure runs on SAP's own implementation of a Java Virtual Machine - SAP Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

SAP JVM is a fully certified Java Standard Edition Virtual Machine for Java 1.4, 5, 6, and 7. It is derived from Oracle’s HotSpot VM and JDK implementation, but enhanced with several supportability features such as the SAP JVM Profiler for better monitoring, and profiling applications running on the SAP NetWeaver Cloud server for local testing.

For more information, see Application Runtime and the SAP JVM section in Setting up the Tools.

Filter field has been added to the Loggers editor to make finding a particular logger easier.

For more information, see Viewing Logs and Setting Log Levels from the Eclipse IDE.

New version 1.6.3 of SAP UI Development Toolkit for HTML5 (SAPUI5) has been released. For more information, see SAPUI5 detailed release notes.

Note that the RichTextEditor control of SAPUI5 will be changed with the next SAPUI5 release 1.8., which will be included in one of the next SAP NetWeaver Cloud releases. The reason is the embedded third-party component TinyMCE from Moxiecode Systems AB, which potentially can be used by customers/partners without being aware of the specific license terms. To prevent this accidental usage, the TinyMCE code will be removed. More instructions how to manually add TinyMCE code will follow in the release notes of SAPUI5 release 1.8.

The following features of the ID Federation are now available:

• Single sign-on with SAML 2.0 compliant on-premise identity providers (Beta)
• Sharing of user profile information between SAP NetWeaver Cloud and on-premise user directories (Beta)

For more information, see Using a Custom Identity Provider.

• Direct user-to-role assignments (Beta)
• Role assignments based on user attributes  (Beta)

For more information, see Managing Roles and Groups.

SAP Cloud Connector supports LDAP-based authentication. If you have an LDAP server in your landscape, you can test the users available on the LDAP server.

For more information, see LDAP Authentication.

It is now possible to view the application logs directly in the Eclipse IDE.

For more information, see Viewing Logs and Setting Log Levels from the Eclipse IDE.

Eclipse Tools allow changing the effective level of loggers.

For more information, see Setting Log Levels for Loggers from the Eclipse IDE.

• Performance improvements for initial connection and session creation have been made.
• Locking optimizations have been introduced that greatly reduce the probability of getting a BlockedException.

To support the development of HTML5 applications, SAPUI5 offers a set of Eclipse-based tools and editors. They provide wizards for creating application projects and views according to the model-view-controller concept, and other features like JavaScript code completion and in-place application preview. SAPUI5 tools can be downloaded as a feature from the Eclipse Tools update site both for Juno and Indigo versions.

For more information, see the SAPUI5 Development Tools section in the documentation.

You can now develop applications that use the Document service using only pure Java EE consumption mechanism. You do not need to convert your Dynamic Web Project to OSGi Bundle Project, and you do not need to take care of imports in the manifest file.

For more information, see Using the Document Service in a Web Application.

The SAP NetWeaver Cloud SDK has been extended with:

• Commands for installing, starting and stopping (non-blocking for usage in scripts) of a server for local development.
• Samples (basic, authentication, and persistence) demonstrating the specific services. In addition, the samples show how to automate a headless build and test of Java EE web applications (WARs) with Apache Maven that:
  • Builds a WAR based on the SAP NetWeaver Cloud platform API
  • Shows how to run rudimentary unit tests
  • Installs, starts, waits for, and stops the local server runtime
  • Deploys the application to the cloud server runtime and runs the integration test
  • Starts, waits for, and stops the cloud server runtime
  • Deploys the application to the cloud server runtime and runs the integration test
• Simplified and more comprehensive file system structure.

For more information, see Understanding the Development Environment and Running Sample Applications.

Repositories are now isolated within an account. Only applications deployed in the same account as the application that created a repository can access that repository.

For more information, see Document Service Concepts.

The log files are now rotated not only by date but also by size, to prevent generation of very large log files. After a file reaches 50 MB in size, it is archived and an index is added to its name. The oldest log file has the biggest index and the latest file is always without an index.

The APIs documentation is now available online.

For more information, see API Documentation.

A new document describing how you can protect your applications against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) security attacks has been added.

For more information, see Protecting from CSRF.

The SAP NetWeaver Cloud Connectivity service is now available for productive use.

For more information, see SAP NetWeaver Cloud Connectivity Service.

The SAP NetWeaver Cloud Document service is now available for productive use.

For more information, see SAP NetWeaver Cloud Document Service.

The SAP NetWeaver Cloud documentation has a redesigned and more user-friendly welcome page.

For more information, see SAP NetWeaver Cloud Documentation.

New commands for managing application logs have been introduced in the SAP NetWeaver Cloud Console Client. For more information, see Managing Application Logs Using SAP NetWeaver Console Client.

A new API of Connectivity Service is introduced, the old API is deprecated and removed. For more information, see How to Use Destination API.

Improved error handling of the SAP Cloud Connector and destination service.

For more information, see Installing and Configuring SAP Cloud Connector.

The description of the local server scenario is updated; the location of the json file containing the configuration of local users has been added.

For more information, see User Authentication.

Improved supportability, error handling, logs, OS support. Console commands with the same name can be identified by their group (for example, deploy:start and local:start).

References to a  javax.sql.DataSource resource should now be defined in your application’s web.xml descriptor, in accordance with the Java EE Specification. The use of context.xml has been deprecated and will no longer be supported as of 13 September 2012. You should migrate all Web applications that consume the Persistence Service (javax.sql.DataSource) via JNDI lookup by following the straightforward three-step procedure described in Migrating Web Applications That Use context.xml.

The update site provides now Indigo and Juno versions of the SAP NetWeaver Cloud Eclipse Tools.

The Eclipse Connectivity Editor now provides a drop-down list widget for configuring the ProxyType property.

For more information, see Configuring an Application in the Eclipse IDE.

SAP NetWeaver Neo is now officially called SAP NetWeaver Cloud.

Documentation and Eclipse Tools are rebranded to the official name.

The new developer center is now the central point of entry to get information, news and support for SAP NetWeaver Cloud.

For more information, see SAP NetWeaver Cloud Developer Center.

A 90-days trial account can be obtained with a valid SCN account for free via the SAP NetWeaver Cloud Developer Center following these steps.

The Eclipse Connectivity Editor now automatically removes the “TrustAll” property if “ProxyType” is set to “OnPremise”. “TrustAll” should not be used in OnPremise scenarios.

For more information, see Configuring an Application in the Eclipse IDE.

Official documentation of SAP NetWeaver Cloud is now added in the Eclipse Help and is installed together with the Eclipse Tools for SAP NetWeaver Cloud.

Context help is added to the wizards and dialogs of the Eclipse Tools.

In the Neo Console client you can now specify which hosts can be contacted without a proxy.

The SAP NetWeaver Neo Tools page look is enhanced with the Gold Reflection theme.

Documentation describing how to consume BAPIs from an ABAP system via the SAP Cloud Connector and SAP Business Connector has been released in the Neo Community.

The SAP NetWeaver Neo Mail Service allows you to send electronic mail messages from your Web applications.
For more information, see SAP NetWeaver Neo Mail Service.

The Account page is the central point for managing all activities associated with your account and for accessing key information about your applications.

This feature allows developing and testing user authentication and authorization in an application on the local server in the Eclipse IDE without the need to have network connectivity and a user account in SAP ID Service.

The Neo application developers can now access SLF4J API directly without adding any references or packaging the library in the application archive.

The SAP Netweaver Neo Document Service provides an on-demand content repository for unstructured or semi-structured content.
For more information, see SAP Document Service.

The SAP NetWeaver Neo Connectivity Service service allows SAP NetWeaver Neo applications to consume services from on-premise systems via HTTP based protocols using secure tunnel.
For more information, see  SAP Connectivity Service.

New tab Connectivity in the Server Editor allows configuration of HTTP destinations for the Connectivity service.

The UI is changed to use the “account” and “application” terms instead of the internal technical terms of “space”, “appliance” and “component”.

Resolved issue when stopping the local server, while it is still in starting state.

For more information about deploying a Web application locally, see

Deploying from the Eclipse IDE.

Resolved issue with incorrectly selected target definition when editing the server runtime environment.

The console output of the local server is cleaned of confusing logs.

Resolved issue with not removing the error marker when selecting valid location for the SAP NetWeaver Neo SDK in the Preferences page.

SAP UI Development Toolkit for HTML5 (SAPUI5) is a user interface technology that you can use to develop Web user interfaces.

For more information, see Getting Started With SAPUI5

A new SAP NetWeaver Neo Console Client is introduced to provide command line interface to the SAP NetWeaver Neo platform. The console client provides deploy and start capabilities.

For more information, see Deploying Using SAP NetWeaver Neo Console Client