Setting Up the Report Processing Mode

SAP supports many different types of processes (for example, batch, dialog (online), dynamic, print, and so on). Each WebFOCUS for SAP query creates a process within the SAP application server. This process can execute as either a dialog (online) or batch process.

These processing mode options allow you to adapt to the SAP application server configuration where there are a specific number of processes allocated for each process type per SAP application server.

You can change mode settings from the WebFOCUS Reporting Server browser interface by clicking Get Dataon the menu bar, right-clicking the name of a configured adapter, and choosing Change Settings from the shortcut menu. The Change Settings pane opens.

Setting Dialog and Batch Execution Modes

You can set execution processing to dialog (also called online) mode or batch mode.

• Dialog (or online) processing is the default mode for the Adapter for SAP. An SAP dialog process is suitable for a task that needs to run immediately at a higher priority. An SAP dialog process is subject to an idle timeout limit where the default value is 15 minutes. Check with your SAP Basis consultant to see if this default value has changed. Dialog process mode should be set for reports that have processing times below the idle timeout limit. If the processing time of a report exceeds the dialog process idle timeout limit, the SAP application server terminates the process and the report fails to run.

  In this mode, the report is executed online. The session is blocked until execution is completed. Execution time is bound to limits preset in the SAP system.

  The following command sets your Adapter for SAP to dialog processing mode:

  ENGINE SQLSAP SET EXECUTIONMODE ONLINE

  You would use this command if you had explicitly set batch execution mode and wanted to switch back to dialog mode within a single session on the server.

  If you have a WebFOCUS for SAP report that requires longer processing time, consider Batch processing.

• Batch processing is an alternative mode for the Adapter for SAP. An SAP batch process is suitable for a task that can afford to run in the background at a lower priority. This mode is for reports that require longer processing time (for example, reports that involve joining multiple tables or month end reports that need to process a lot of data). In this mode, the report will not time-out due to an execution time limit.

  The following command will set your Adapter for SAP to batch processing mode:

  ENGINE SQLSAP SET EXECUTIONMODE BATCH

To implement these settings from the WebFOCUS Reporting Server browser interface, click Get Dataon the menu bar, right-click the name of a configured adapter, and choose Change Settings from the shortcut menu. The Change Settings pane opens. Choose Online or Batch from the Execution mode drop-down menu.

Note that you can also insert these commands directly into the server profile (for example, edasprof.prf) or included within the report procedure.

Setting Polling Intervals for Batch Execution

Before you issue any requests for batch execution, you can define how often the engine will check for the completion of these requests.

The syntax is

ENGINE SQLSAP SET NONBLOCK n

where:

To implement this setting from the WebFOCUS Reporting Server browser interface, click Get Data in the navigation pane, click the name of a configured adapter, and choose Change Settings from the menu. The Change Settings pane opens. Enter a value in the NONBLOCK field.

Note that you can also insert this command directly into the server profile (for example, edasprof.prf) or include it within the report procedure.