Performance Issue with RF Scanners after SAP Enhancement Pack 5 Upgrade

[Former Member]

We are on component version SAP ECC 6.0, and recently upgraded to Enhancement Pack 5. I believe we are on Net Weaver 7.10, and using RF scanners in one plant that is Warehouse Managed. Evidentially when we moved to EHP5, the Web SAP Console went away and we are left with ITS Mobile. This has created several issues and continues to be a performance barrier for the forklift drivers in the warehouse. We see there is a high use of java script, and the processors canu2019t handle this. When we login to tcode LM00, on a laptop or desktop computer, there are no performance issues. When we login to tcode LM00, with the RF scanners, the system is very slow. It might take 30 seconds to confirm one item on a WM Transfer Order.

1.) Can we revert back to Web SAP Console, after we have upgraded to EHP5?

2.) What is creating the performance issues with the RF Scanners now that we switched over to SAP ITS mobile?

Our RF Scanners are made by Intermec, but I donu2019t think that is where the solution lies. One person in our IT Operations has spent a good deal of time configuring SAPITS to get it to work, but still it isnu2019t performing.

[naimkhans_babi]

Please view this wiki link on performance:

[WIKI ITS Mobile Performace check List|http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/HOME/Performance]

Edited by: Naim Khan S Babi on Jan 26, 2012 11:35 AM

[naimkhans_babi]

Please see this:

1) Performance checklist

First step is analyzing and understanding the performance problem. That means we have to check the performance of each involved component. In rare cases, you additionally have to check if the problem is related to a specific SAP server, to a single location, to a specific application or to distinct screens of an application.

Involved components:

SAP system

Application

ICMAN/ITS

Mobile Device

SAP system

To check the system's performance, start the SAPGUI for Windows and call a couple of SAP basis transactions like SE38, RZ11, SM50 or SM04 to get an idea of the application servers performance. If the performance of these transactions is already poor it does not make sense to continue with performance analysis of the mobile services. Use the SAP basic tools to find the reason for the poor system performance.

Application

ITSmobile Services are ABAP based, that means the mobile transactions can be called with the SAPGUI for Windows. Logon to the system and call the mobile transactions with the SAPGUI for Windows. You will find the transaction of the mobile service within the ICF service tree (transaction SICF), in the GUI settings, parameter name ~transaction. Sometimes, if you start this transaction within the SAPGUI you will get an error message, that the transaction could not be started. Simply terminate the easy access menu ( enter "/n" in the okcode field until you get the "Start Easy Access Menu" screen.). Now the transaction can be started in the SAPGUI for Windows.

Input exactly the same data as on your mobile device and you will get an idea of the performance of the transaction. It doesn't matter if you call the transaction using SAPGUI for Windows or via Browser using HTTP, in both cases the same application code is running and will need the same execution time to reproduce the same results. If the performance of the transaction is bad, use ABAP tools to find out the reason. In that case it does not make sense to continue with the analysis of the performance of the mobile service.

ICMAN / ITS

Next step is to check the response time of the HTML/HTTP related components in the backend. Start your favorite browser on your desktop PC and call the ping service ( URL: http://<server>:<port>/sap/public/ping?sap-client=000 ) to get an idea how long the access of an HTTP service in the backend takes. After testing the ping service, start the ITSmobile service "itsmobile00" (URL: http://<server>:<port>/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/test/mobile/itsmobile00?sap-client=000 ). On your desktop PC you probably will not experience a big difference between both services, despite the fact that the service "itsmobile00" has to run a small piece of application coding, the ITS has to convert the data stream to HTML and the browser has to draw the HTLM page. If possible repeat the test with your desktop PC connected using the same WLAN as your mobile devices, that gives you an idea if the wireless network has any effect on the response time.

Mobile device

Test on your mobile device:

Do the same test calling service "ping" and calling service "itsmobile00" on your mobile device. If there is a big difference between the response times on your desktop PC and your mobile device the performance problem is related to the mobile device. The performance problem is NOT backend related.

2) Known performance issues with mobile devices

If you run the tests described in 1) "Performance checklist" you usually end up with the insight, that as long as no mobile device is involved the performance is perfect. The ping test from above is the only test case which is pretty fast on mobile devices too. The reason is, that the transferred data rate is pretty small and there is not much to paint for the browser. If you start the "itsmobile00" test service on your mobile device you probably already recognize a much longer response time. This longer response time is the result of the limited CPU power and the poor rendering performance of the browser on many mobile devices. Let us now look closer to these limitations and discuss how we can get around them to improve the performance on mobile devices.

Configuration: battery lifetime versus CPU speed/RAM retention

On many mobile devices you will find a menu path like "Settings->System->Power->Battery" that leads to a slider where you can configure the mobile device to increase battery lifetime by decreasing RAM retension/performance.

Check this setting on your mobile device.

Mobile browsers without cache

The HTTP data stream of ITSmobile services can be divided into mimes and template data. The template data contains application values and is changing with every application screen. Mime data is very stable, the content of mime files usually changes only during the developing phase of a service or if you implement bugfixes. If a mobile device has no browser cache, the mime data is requested and send again and again from the server with every submit even if the content does not change.

You can use the ITS publish service to store the mime data directly on each mobile device and avoid unnecessary network traffic. To access the local stored mime data you have to set the ITS parameter ~urlmime to the local storage location. That's it. At runtime the ITS will read the ~urlmime parameter and use its content to generate the mime links in your html templates referring to the local storage location. The mimes will not longer be sent over the network, the mimes will be read from the local file system instead. The disadvantage is the administrative overhead. You have to copy the mimes onto every mobile device. If a mime file changes, you have to get the changed file to every mobile device. By the way, many mobile devices already has software available which helps you to automate the distribution of files to many single devices.

Sample, store mime files in local file system on the mobile device

1) Logon to SAP system. Call transaction SE80 ( ABAP workbench ).

2) Change publish location for ITS.

In the workbench menu select Utilities->Settings. Change to tabstrip page "Internet Transaction Server". Select tabstrip page "Publish". Select "To local directory" instead of "INTERNAL" and specify a local directory path. Save the setting.

3) Change to your ITS services in the ABAP workbench. Select your service, use the right mouse button and select "Publish->Complete Service". Check the message line to verify that the service has been published to the local file system.

4) Change to ITSMOBILE default service in the ABAP workbench. Publish this service to local file system too.

5) Restore the default. Select "Utilities->Settings" in the workbench menu again, Select tabstrip page "Internet Transaction Server", Select page "Publish" and reset to SITE INTERNAL.

6) The local directory to which we published the services should now have the following subdirectories:

mimes

services

templates

Move the directory mimes (including all subdirectories) to the mobile device e.g. under path : \sap\mobile (the folders services and templates can be ignored)

7) Change ~urlmime parameter to local directory path

Call transaction SICF, select your service, edit GUI settings and set the ITS parameter ~urlmime to "file://\sap\mobile\mimes" to redirect the mime access to the local directory. Save the setting.

😎 Test the service on the mobile device and verify that the mimes are accessed locally.

To check the new url access path, do a view html source on your desktop browser: The mime requests in the templates like:

src="`mimeURL(<sub>service=" itsmobile",</sub>theme=99,<sub>language="",</sub>name="scripts/all/mobile.js")`"

should be resolved in the html source to the local directory:

src="file://\sap\mobile\mimes/itsmobile/99/scripts/all/mobile.js"

Mobile browsers, not supporting table-layout style (slow table rendering) [only valid for old ITSmobile generator]

Some mobile browsers do not support absolute positioning in HTML pages therefore the ITS template generator has to use HTML tables for the page layout. The table layout is done with a character table spanning the complete screen using the character positions from the dynpro for the single fields. This produces an HTML layout pretty close to the dynro screens. To help the browser to render this pages faster the style "table-layout:fixed" is set. Mobile browser which do not support this attribute need much more time for rendering because they have to calculate each single cell and column size based on the content. Tables are also used for rendering subscreens, frames and step loops. Having a dynpro screen, containing a subscreen with a step loop on it leads to HTML pages containing 3 nested tables. The result is a poor rendering performance on browsers not supporting fixed table layouts.

For the old ITSmobile template generator (which creates templates with HTML tables) the following information applies:

If possible, avoid such constructions on mobile screens. Anyway it's always a good idea to keep mobile screens simple. If you don't like to change the dynpro layout, you have to manually change the generated template to speed up the rendering. The ITS template generator can not do this, because of its generic way creating the templates.

If you manually change the generated template, try to replace the <table> with a <div> tag, convert the table lines (<tr></tr>) to line breaks (<br>) and use the <span> tag for cells (<td>). This could reduce the rendering time to less than 50% of the original, generated page if nested tables occur on the page. You may optimize the HTLM for a single screen only, or create your own template generator to optimize all screens for your specific browser. Please keep in mind, optimizing the generated HTML is a consulting issue. You need detailed HTML knowledge.

For the new ITSmobile template generator (which creates templates with HTML DIVs) the "slow table rendering perfromance information" is not valid anymore.

However - here it is sometimes required to optimize the screen using an own CSS stylesheet (consulting issue). From consulting point of view (where performance plays an important role) the recomendation is to use the new DIV HTMLB ITSmobile template generator. The new generator cannot ensure that all screens look the same as in the SAP Gui but the performance is better compared to the old ITSmobile generator.