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Kishor Gopinathan Print
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Company: SAP Global Delivery, Bangalore
Posted on Aug. 28, 2008 12:28 AM in Application Server, Beyond SAP, ERP

Introduction

In this blog, you can see the procedures to configure the E-Recruitment component in such a way that the external applicants can access the e-recruitment web applications over internet, so that
the entire recruiting procedure would be accelerated and your company and external applicants both profit. Using these Web applications, companies can publish job advertisements on the
Internet, process online applications and applicants can monitor the processing status of their applications via Internet.

Activities in SAP E-Recruiting – External Candidates

The external candidate is a non-employee or ex-employee of the company. The external candidates perform the following activities.

For performing the above mentioned activities by external candidates, the corresponding web applications should have been exposed and the external users should have the P_RCF_APPL
authorization object. For searching for vacancies, the TREX engine with FUZZY search needs to be installed and the documents should have been indexed.

System Landscape

The ERP system has been separated from the internet users with a firewall and DM zone, so that the external candidates can access the e-recruitment web applications residing on the ERP system
only through ISA reverse proxy server. In this way, the direct access to the ERP system can be avoided and can make the system more secure while accessing web applications via internet.

Prerequisites

1) On the ECC system, you should have checked your systems technical settings to ensure that the system would run properly.

2) System Parameters in E-Recruiting should have been maintained properly.

3) Communication Interface (SMTP mail server and port details) should have been configured properly.

4) User Administration (Creation of User Profiles, Creation of User Groups, and Creation of Special Users - service user with role SAP_RCF_CONTENT_SERVER to enable documents of the
document area to be accessed and another service user with user role SAP_RCF_UNREGISTERED_CANDIDATE to enable unregistered user to use the necessary services) should have been done
properly.

5) External candidates should have the authorization objects, P_RCF_APPL, P_RCF_STAT, and P_RCF_ACT for performing the above mentioned activities.
6) Different communication destinations required for E-Recruiting should have been maintained via SPRO.
7) TREX engine with FUZZY search should be installed and all the post installation steps should have been performed (Activating Python Extensions).

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8) ISA Server 2006 should be installed and should have been moved to DM zone for reverse proxy configurations.

Steps to be performed

The different steps to be performed are,

1) Connecting TREX with an ABAP Application (RFC Connection)

2) Set up of Search Engine for E-Recruiting

3) Generate URLs for E-Recruiting Web Applications for External Candidates.

4) Configure Reverse Proxy for the Web enablement of E-Recruiting Web Applications

1) Connecting TREX with an ABAP Application (RFC Connection)

To configure the search functionality for E-Recruitment, we need to create RFC destinations on the ECC system using TREX Admin Tool. As a rule, ABAP Applications communicate with the TREX
Servers by means of the TREX ABAP Client using RFC/SNC protocol. Communication takes place using an instance of the SAP gateway and an RFC Server.

1.1 Run TREX Admin Tool

Based on the TREX installation platform, we need to execute either TREXAdmin.bat or TREXAdmin.sh to open the TREX Admin Tool. In our case, installation platform is AIX and the script for TREX
Admin can be executed as depicted below. We can see the TREXAdmin.sh file in the following path -:/usr/sap/<System ID>/TRX01/

The shell script for TREX Admin Tool can be triggered like this, (make sure that you are already in the above mentioned directory and your user has got enough permissions to execute the admin
script. It is recommended to login with the <System ID>adm user, for eg: If system ID is TP1, then the user id is tp1adm)

./TREXAdmin.sh

1.2 Create New SAP System Connection

First step is to create new SAP system connection using TREX Admin Tool. For this, in the TREX Admin Tool, Click on link RFC -> then choose “Create Connection”.

You need to mention the ECC system and client details here. Under logon data, you can see the mentioned user, which is “TREX_ADMIN”. The prerequisite is that, this user should have
“SAP_BC_TREX_ADMIN” role attached on ECC system. (The user has the necessary authorization for secure use of the TREX Admin Tool in the SAP System).

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1.3 Set SAP System Logon Data

If you have not mentioned the logon data while creating the SAP System connection, you can edit the details later. For this, Click on RFC-> Edit: Logon Data.

1.4 Create New RFC Destination in SAP System

This step is basically for creating TREXDEFAULT_REG and TREXDEFAULT_START RFC destinations on the SAP System. These two destinations are mandatory for configuring the Search Server
Relation (SSR) on the SAP R/3 system. Click RFC-> Create: RFC Destination (sm59).

After saving these entries, you would be able to see the above mentioned destinations in the menu tree for RFC Destinations under TCP/IP Connection on ECC system.

2) Set Up Search Engine for E-Recruiting

Search Engine for E-Recruiting should be configured properly if you want to use the search functions for candidate data, job posting and so on. For external candidates, they should be able to
search for available vacancies and for Recruiter; he/she has to search for candidates from the Talent Pool.

2.1 Set up access to documents

You set up access to the contentserver service of the SAP E-Recruiting system. This enables users to access documents of the document area HR_KW (Document Storage for HR Objects).
Attachments, search profiles, and so on, are stored in this document repository. The communication user RCF_CONTENT with role “SAP_RCF_CONTENT_SERVER” should have been
created.

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When we execute, it would be redirected to the “Maintain Services” page. There we need to mention the Service Name – CONTENTSERVER and press execute.

We need to mention the name of the created communication user in the details screen of this service. For this double click on the service.

2.2 Create Search Server Relation

Execute the transaction SRMO -> Choose “Create SSR” from the Application Menu on the E-Recruitment System. Mention the SSR ID as “SSR_TREX”.

In the following screen, enter the Search Engine as “DRFUZZY” and RFC destination (TCP/IP) as “TREXDEFAULT_REG”. Maintain meaningful description for the same and save the entry.

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After this, we can see two entries for the created SSR under “RFC Destinations” tab. One for action “I” - indexing and other for action “S” - Searching.

Select the entry with action = ‘I’ and choose Change Destination. Here we have to enter the RFC Destination with activation type ‘start’ into the field ‘New RFC Destination’. Maintain
TREXDEFAULT_START as new value, so that the SSR entries created for different actions (I and S) would be using different RFC destinations.

2.3 Activate Indexing

You activate the document area HR_KW (Document Storage for HR Objects) to index and classify the documents stored there. Indexing is required to enable the search engine to search the search
profiles.

Click on “Activate Indexing”

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Mention the created Search Server Relation ID against the document areas “HR_DOC” and “HR_KW”. Check boxes for “Index Release” and “Classify” should have been selected to index and
classify the documents stored under these document areas.

2.4 Create Index Category

At least one document should be uploaded in the system. For creating Index Category, execute the transaction SKPR07. Here select the document class “HR_DOC” and click on “Clean up Table
Entries”.

From the results list, return to the transaction. Deselect the limited to selected language indicator and “Choose Re-Index”. Select the created Index category. In the “Defining Indexing Area” group
box, set the document area indicator and “Choose Trigger Process”.

After this, all available data would be transferred to TREX for indexing. Based on the Queue Server settings, the real indexing would be happened.

3) Generate URLs for E-Recruiting Web Applications for External Candidates

The links for “Candidate Register”, “Candidate Login”, “Candidate job Search”, “Change password”, and “Password Forgotten” have to be generated for external candidates. This can
be done by executing the standard report “RCF_GENERATE_URLS” on the E-Recruitment system. For this, execute transaction SA38 and mention the report name.

Click on Execute or Press F8.

You can see the generated URLs for different BSP applications in the result page.

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4) Configure Reverse Proxy for the Web enablement of E-Recruiting Web Applications
For external candidates to register and search for vacancies available in the company, the web applications (BSP Applications) residing on the E-Recruitment system (ECC System) should be made
available via internet. For providing additional security to the Intranet ERP system, the ERP system has to be separated from the external users using reverse proxy server configured in the DM
zone (neutral zone in between Intranet and External network, which is protected by firewall) of the company, So that, external candidates/users would not have direct access to the E-Recruitment
system. Instead of exposing the IP address of E-Recruitment system, we would expose the IP address of reverse proxy server for public access. Then the reverse proxy server would be configured
in such a way that all the requests for E-Recruitment applications would come to the standard HTTP port 80 of the reverse proxy server and the reverse proxy would take care of forwarding the
requests and (transparently) sending them back as if it was the content server itself. We used, ISA Server 2006 as the reverse proxy server for this purpose. Compared to other reverse proxy
servers, ISA Server 2006 has so many additional features and because of these reasons, most of the customers prefer to implement their reverse proxy scenarios on ISA Server series.

Recommended Landscape

In general, ISA Server 2006 should be located in DMZ. The E-Recruitment servers are located in the Intranet. The figure depicts the recommended landscape and a DMZ scenario.

4.1 Create Web Publishing Rule

For this, in the ISA Server Management, Right click on “Firewall Policy” and choose “New->Web Site Publishing Rule”. Wizard for creating Web Publishing Rule will be popped up. Web Publishing
Rule determines how the incoming requests to the server will be handled.

You need to mention the “Rule Action Type”, “Publishing Type”, “Server Connection Security”, “Internal Publishing Details”, “Public Name Details”, “Web Listener Name”, “Client
Connection Security”, “Web Listener IP Addresses”, “Authentication Type”, “Authentication Delegation” and “User Sets” within the road map of “Create Web Publishing Rule”,
where all the steps are self-explanatory.

Rule Action Type

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Select Publishing Type

Select Connection Security Type

Mention the details of Internal Server to be mapped

Public Name Details

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Select Listener

4.2 Publishing all necessary paths

All the E-recruitment related external BSP applications are in the “sap” name space. We can see the service path “/sap/bc/bsp/” and the name space “sap” in the URL of all e-recruitment BSP
applications. So we have to configure the reverse proxy server in such a way that the external candidates can access only the BSP applications over internet from the E-Recruitment system. In ISA
Server, this can be controlled by publishing necessary paths. In order to do this, you have to activate the Paths Tab in the Web Publishing Rule’s properties dialog. Add the entry /sap/* path.

4.3 Changing the target Port

By default, the web server publishing rule redirects the incoming requests to the standard port 80 on the specified target. Based on your requirement you need to change this target port. In our
case, all are BSP applications and we need to mention the Web Application Server listening port. For this, in the properties dialog of the Web Publishing Rule, go to the tab “Bridging” and mention
the appropriate value there. In our case, Web Application Server is listening on port 8010.

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4.4 Activate Link Translation

To make sure that no fully-qualified static links may reference internal host names, you need to activate the Link translation functionality. In the Web Publishing Rule’s properties dialog, go to the
“Link Translation” tab. Here you have to check the option “Apply link translation to this rule” and add a new dictionary entry.

Useful Links
Recruitment (PA-RC)
TREX Configuration
TREX 7.0 for SAP NetWeaver 7.0
SAP Network Blog: SAP E-Recruiting (Special Thanks to Shailesh Kumar Nagar)
SAP Network Blog: ISA Server as Reverse Proxy for SAP Applications!!!
SAP Network Blog: Introduction to Reverse Proxy (Special Thanks to Alon Weinstein)
Tutorials - ISA Server
Key Differences between ISA Server 2004 and ISA Server 2006
ISA Server 2006

Kishor Gopinathan is an Enterprise Portal Consultant working for SAP Global Delivery, Bangalore.

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Comment on this weblog

Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4.

Titles Only Main Topics Oldest First

Portal integration
2008-10-23 02:31:35 Zarine Ghaboos Business Card [Reply]

Hi there - your blog has been really interesting to read.

I'm currently looking at implementing e-Recruiting with a portal front end. Are you able to advise on how to integrate with the portal? We also require portal to integrate with other applications
such as Supplier Self-Service.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks.

Portal integration
2008-10-23 06:27:42 Kishor Gopinathan Business Card [Reply]

Hi Zarine,

Thanks for your comment.

We have mainly 4 e-recruiting roles, which can be integrated with Portal.

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a)Recruiter
b)Administrator
c)Approver and
d)Business Team

In older versions, user interfaces for all these roles were using BSP. So we can directly integrate those BSP applications with portal. Based on your scenario, you can either prefer SSO using
user id / password or SSO using logon tickets as authentication mechanism.

With EHP4 for E-Recruiting 6.0, we have new user interface technology - WebDynpro for ABAP. We have completely new UI for the roles Recruiter and Administrator. For handling
Recruiter's work, we have Workcenter application. You only have to integrate these WebDynpro applications with Portal. You need NetWeaver 7.01 components and business packages for
Recruiter (version 1.40) and Administrator(version 1.40) to implement EHP4.

You will get enough informations on the same from SDN and Service Market Place.

Thanks & Regards,

Kishor Gopinathan

BSP vs Web Dynpro for e-recruitment

2008-09-16 03:38:34 P G Business Card [Reply]

Hi,

That was a very nice blog. It was very useful for me.

Could you explain me the advantages and disadvantages in using BSP and Web DYnpro for E-Recruitment. We are in the initial stages of implementing E-Recruitment in our organisation. Your
answer might help me in taking a goos decision.

I would appreciate your help.

Kind Regards,
Gopal.

BSP vs Web Dynpro for e-recruitment

2008-09-17 06:27:55 Kishor Gopinathan Business Card [Reply]

Hi Gopal,

Thank you very much. :)

In general, when we think from the UI perspective, WebDynpro application is the best option. The differences between these two UI technologies have been discussed in this Forum Query
- https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/thread?threadID=358198

I believe, from EHP 4 onwards we have WebDynpro ABAP application for external candidates and it is released for limited customers.

Most probably, SAP may not be supporting the BSP applications in future.. So, It is better to go ahead with WebDynpro ABAP applications !!!!!! :)

Thanks & Regards,

Kishor Gopinathan

Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4.

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