Alternative to posting problem reports via OSS?

[Former Member]

Sometimes I find problems with SAP software, like the RFC library, that I'd like to be able to report, however I'm not always in a position to do so, as I may not be working at a client site at the time (and it would not be appropriate to log the problem under their installation).

What is needed, IMO, is a way to log these problems without the formality surrounding OSS and SAPnet. I imagine this would be important too for those coming into SAP for the first time from the Java side.

Perhaps the easiest way would be to mark a forum posting as a problem report, similar to the way it can be marked as a question. This would then allow for highlighting to forum members from SAP who could decide whether the problem warranted escalation.

Cheers,

Scott

[Former Member]

Hi Scott,

i agree. There should be a possibility to create a linkage between OSS notes and SDN postings in some cases, because (besides or in addition what you've already said):

1. Problems which are reported to OSS might already have been resolved in SDN and vice versa. A common knowledge repository would be very helpful for both parties, i guess. In my opinion it's easier (and cheaper) to <b>verify</b> a possible solution published already in SDN than finding/creating a new one for OSS.

2. IMHO it's probable that a steadily increasing number of "productive versions users" of arbitrary SAP software components will start to post problems and possible bugs at the SDN forums in the near future. It's absolutely ok to redirect them to the OSS, since this is the official place to report and handle such issues.

But it should be possible for example to add a link referring the "SDN problem thread" to the customer message(s). The support team could then post the SAP notes number as a reply to the thread as soon as a solution is available. Otherwise, if people aren't gentle enough to return to the forums and publish the problem solution, it's not easy to find the official answer, since nobody knows how to search for the corresponding note to get reliable search results. If the problem description of the note doesn't repeat parts of the question text in SDN, you are lost.

3. Resulting from 2., more and more "information leaks" will arise in the SDN forums. But i dare to argue that people will return asking the same question(s) over and over again, if there's enough interest, until "somebody" is lucky enough to find the solution in the OSS and post the notes number. Why not "automate" this?

Just to clarify:

I do <b>not</b> want to have the OSS team bypassed, this is definitely wrong from my point of view.

Cheers,

Stefan

[former_member181879]

No. OSS are for problems, which also means that there are major systems inplace to track problem, escallation, etc. There is an official support that must go into OSS. Which means our team works on OSS first. Also little things like traffic lights, emails to group managers, management of queue lengths, etc.

SDN is a more informal approach, without a tie to an official problem handling strategy.

What happens if big company writes in SDN a short few lines "we have problem X, production is down". And this we only see 5 days later among the rest of the clutter. In OSS such a problem gets handled correctly, which includes the correct legal aspects.

SDN is not the way for this, and for our team, we will always block it. (Which is not to say a friendly post with a pointer to a problem will not be taken seriously. Of course we are going to look. But unofficially!)

You can already find OSS notes via SDN. See top left of screen. It juts needs one major overhaul.

[Former Member]

Hi Brian,

I take what you say and agree to the importance of OSS, but what if I don't have access to OSS? I expect this will become more prevalent in the future with non-SAP clients developing with NetWeaver.

Case in point is a reproducible bug I have discovered with the 6.x Win32 RFC library. I can describe the problem concisely, but since I don't have proper OSS access at the moment, I can't report this problem to those responsible.

Cheers,

Scott

[former_member181879]

Scott,

It is also my opinion that we should not make it difficult for you to report problems. But attached to these are legal aspects, etc. And for this OSS is correct.

So one should reformulate the problem: how many ways are there to access OSS, and does it maybe require additional access routes. I can even envision having an OSS access via SDN. But not SDN itself. Just an access gate. Unfortunately this totally outside my scope of expertise.

> with non-SAP clients developing with NetWeaver.

You are right that we have now a special case, with a large beta base underway. But usually development is done by customers, partners or consultants. And AFAIK they all have some form of access to OSS and/or service market place.

If you have a problem with RFC and really no OSS access, email it to me (name.surname@sap.com) and I will open the problem for you.

brian