A2A
See application to application processes.
ABAP
See Advanced Business Application Programming.
access control entry
Single entry in an access control list (ACL) that specifies an operation and an authorized user.
access control list (ACL)
List of user permissions associated with a document or folder. The access control list specifies which users have which permissions.
Accessible Content Administration
A set of interfaces for administrators working within an accessible environment, who need to create and manage portal content. The accessible Portal Content Studio provides functionality for creating and editing selected objects and enables the basic flows required by the administrator.
ACID
See Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability.
ACT
See Accessible Content Administration.
Active Server Pages (ASP)
A Microsoft technology allowing the insertion of server executable scripts in Web pages.
Add form
An ASP template, made available by the Unification Server, enabling the user to add a record to the database serving as an information source for a unifier project.
ADK
Administrator
Portal user who is not involved in developmental and deployment tasks, but who performs maintenance-oriented tasks, such as setting up the user management allocations.
Administrator Workbench
Tool for controlling, monitoring, and maintaining all those processes involved in data procurement and processing within the Business Information Warehouse.
Adobe Document Service (ADS)
Adobe Document Services is a shared service in SAP NetWeaver 2004S that is deployed on SAP XI J2EE as a Web service. It communicates with SAP WAS ABAP using the SOAP Protocol, and is most commonly used while integrating form-based business processes.
Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP)
ABAP is a programming language for SAP's Web application server. ABAP was one of the first languages to include the concept of Logical Databases (LDBs), which provide a high level of abstraction from the basic database level. SAP NetWeaver supports both ABAP and Java.
After-import method
Method that is used in connection with the transport of an object into a different system. The after-import method is called in the target system after the object has been imported. This method is object-specific, so it has to be rewritten for every object type. It is typically used to activate the imported object, in order to integrate it into a new context in the target system.
ALE
See Application Linking and Enabling.
Anonymous logon
Form of logon where users do not have to provide any form of authentication such as user ID and password or client certificate.
Analysis Process Designer
The Analysis Process Designer lets companies define complete processes that can disclose relationships within their data. An analysis process collects data from InfoProviders, queries, or other BI objects, transforms this data, and writes back the new information either into some BI objects (like InfoObjects or ODS objects) or even into an SAP CRM system.
API
See Application Programming Interface.
Application Components
Application components integrate business processes and provide predefined "closed-loop" business scenarios and predefined metrics that measure business operations' effectiveness and enable users to take immediate corrective action. Analytics within mySAP BI are built on consistent data stored in the data warehouse.
Application design framework
Sets the rules of interaction between the different components that participate in the content development environment. All editors and components working inside the application designer framework communicate with one another, and are influenced by, the framework eventing mechanisms.
Application key
A label that determines the application context in the Index Management Service.
Application Layer Protocol Optimization
In addition to being able to optimize the TCP protocol, WAN optimization technologies apply acceleration techniques to improve the performance of applications that use chatty protocols and formats such as HTTP/HTML and SOAP/XML. These protocols send data in small blocks that each require an acknowledgement before the next block can be sent.
Application Programming Interface (API)
An API is a source code interface that a computer system or program library provides in order to support requests for services. An API differs from an application binary interface in that it is specified in terms of a programming language that can be compiled when an application is built, rather than an explicit low-level description of how data is laid out in memory.
Application property
Application-defined resource property. Application-specific metadata (for example, categories) are stored as application properties in a database. Application property service Repository service for storing application properties (for example, the taxonomies and categories a document has been assigned to).
Application Sharing
Synchronous Collaboration tool enabling collaborative application sharing sessions among any number of online participants.
Application Sharing Server
Dedicated server for handling application sharing processes and data streaming on the portal.
Application to Application (A2A) processes
With application-to-application processes, organizations can connect SAP and non-SAP applications within the enterprise. Using message-based and standards-based methods for process integration allows for process flow between applications.
Application Linking and Enabling (ALE)
ALE provides a rigid integration service while allowing a high degree of independence. Users can integrate applications using synchronous and asynchronous communication without implementing a central database.
Approval workflow
Workflow that introduces formal checks into the publishing process. Documents submitted for publication have to go through a sequence of workflow steps where each step requires approval by an authorized user. Several approvers can be assigned to each step.
Approved Vendor List (AVL)
A list of manufacturers for a given material that have been approved by the customer and are the sole source of supply accepted by the customer. The AVL typically includes the vendor name as well as the manufacturer part number (MPN).
Approver
User who has been assigned to an approval workflow step as an approver.
Archive Development Kit (ADK)
An ADK provides the required functionality to write the archived data in such a manner that it can be read from the archive later regardless of operating system, hardware, data conversions, or code pages used.
Area
A link-sensitive part of an image map.
As-is .NET Custom iView
.NET Custom iView that points to a specific URL and retrieves and displays information in its native format, as it appears on the source site with no data, layout, and formatting manipulation. These iViews are not rendered by the SAP AG proprietary XML language.
Asynchronous collaboration
Non-simultaneous cooperation, for example using discussions, assigned tasks, and attachments to tasks and documents.
Asynchronous indexing
Data transfer method that uses a queue mechanism for creating document information in a retrieval system.
Attachment
Additional information that is attached to a document or similar object. An attachment can be a file or a link to an object. You can use attachments within SAP Collaboration or outside of it.
Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID)
Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability are the key transaction processing features/properties of a database management system (DBMS). Without them, the integrity of the database cannot be guaranteed. In practice, however, these properties are often relaxed somewhat to provide better performance.
Attribute
InfoObjects that are logically assigned or subordinated to a characteristic and that cannot be selected in a query. For example, in a cost center, you could assign the attributes "Cost":
- "Cost Center Manager" (characteristic as attribute)
- "Size of Cost Center in Square Meters" (key figure as attribute).
Attribute search
Search in retrieval system for documents with specific characteristics.
Attribute-based search
Search that retrieves documents whose properties (metadata) match the properties in the search query. Attribute-based search of metadata and full-text search of content can be combined.
authentication
A process of identifying a person or system component, usually as a prerequisite for allowing the person or component access to the system. You can authenticate yourself to a system by providing your user ID and password, for example.
Authentication and Single Signon (ASSO)
ASSO lets you streamline authentication systems already in place and cut down administration time. It also relieves end users from having to remember and continuously enter various user names and passwords.
authentication scheme
Defines various aspects of an authentication process. This includes:
- Type of information used to compute user's identity such as user ID and password, and client certificate.
- How user data is checked. For example, against LDAP directory or SAP R/3 System.
- Validity of user logon, that is, the amount of time after which a user has to log on again.
- Priority, allowing authentication schemes to be ordered.
In SAP Enterprise Portal users log on with a particular authentication scheme. Each iView is assigned an authentication scheme and only users that have logged on with that authentication scheme or one with a higher weight can access the iView.
autocomplete
To transparently make the connections required between database tables in order to complete a query. The process includes, on-the-fly, the relevant connecting tables necessary to complete the query.
Automatic Server Session Termination
Functionality provided by the Client Framework/DSM that avoids locks and deadlocks and also saves resources on the server when the user leaves an application, closes the browser, or logs off from the computer.
availability status
Indicates whether a user is logged on to the portal and available through collaboration services. An icon displays a user's availability status and can indicate the following:
- Blocked
- Online
- Away
- Not available
AVL
See Approved Vendor List.
axis data set
Combination of different values on an axis. Data sets for elements (members) of an axis dimension are used when defining MDX queries.