It’s a pleasure to keep you up to date on the latest features and improvements in SAP Profitability and Performance Management Cloud (SAP PaPM Cloud), and I do hope you find this information useful. 

You can use this tag: https://blogs.sap.com/tag/PaPMCloudWhatsNew/, if you want to read through all the blogposts previously published for SAP PaPM Cloud’s new features and enhancements.  

Meanwhile, the following is a list of the latest enhancements that have been made available in your SAP PaPM Cloud tenant: 

Modeling

Process Templates – error handling enhancement 

Previously, the user was able to create a process template and set Process State to Active even if it does not have any activities inside.

Now, If the Process template created contains only activity nodes with no activities (Input/Output, Execution, or URL), the template cannot be set to “Active Template.” Error message will be displayed if “Active Template” Process State is chosen.

Application Screens

Process Management – Format Preference for Comments

Previously, in the comment panel for Process Management, the user had the ability to post a comment and reply within the comment itself.

Thanks to this newly added feature, users now have the ability to format the text that they include in their replies and comments. The comment editing window now has a text format option available to choose from, such as bold, italic, underline, bulleted list, and number list. In addition to that, both the comments and the replies can make use of a list format depending on which one they choose

In addition,  the user is now able to post a comment and a reply on the activities that they have selected, and both of which can include line breaks by using the enter key

Users also now have the option to add a link to the content of the comment, in addition to changing the text that will be displayed at this time.

Systems Screen

Process Scheduler 

Improve filtering of field Environment and renaming Action fields

Previously, when creating a process schedule job , the user was prompted with a list of environments. There were duplicated options in the dropdown menu, for example, in the Environment dropdown, we were displaying options with Environment Description and Environment ID

With the new enhancement, the dropdown menu for filtering now introduces the combination of Environment ID and Version.  Now, there is only one field named Environment (Version). This approach will be more intuitive for the user as Environment ID and Version will be set in the form, so only one action will be performed while searching for proper environment

Additionally, Process Scheduler previously provided two options for the Action field during Job creation. These available options were:

• • New Process – the Process schedule to be created will create a Process Instance based on a Process Template and will run the execution activity.
  • Existing Process – the Process schedule to be created will reuse an existing process instance and will run the execution activity.

As Process Scheduler is involved with Process Instances and Process Templates, a new naming is being introduced. For the reason that the user is selecting from the Process instance or Process Template, the Action in Job creation has been renamed to From.

In relation, “Process Template” has replaced “New Process” as the user selects an existing process template in the Modeling screen, and “Existing Process” has been renamed “Existing Process Instance” since the target is a Process Instance in the Process Management Screen.

In this section, I will provide you with the enhanced capabilities of the Activity fields when creating a process schedule. There are 2 enhancements implemented and these are:

• • The Activity field will only display the execution activities which belong to an active Process Template
    
    In the environment I will be showing as an example, contains 1 Active Process Template and 1 Inactive Process Template. This enhancement was implemented to filter only the valid activities for creation of process scheduled jobs.

Active Process Template in the Modeling screen of the environment:

Inactive Process Template in the Modeling screen of the environment:

Once the user creates a new job in the Process Scheduler screen, having the environment details, it will only display the execution activity which belongs to an active process template in the Activity field dropdown field.

• • Execution Activity Function is not activated notification

In the environment I will be showing as an example, contains execution activities that belongs to an active Process Template, but the function used for it are not yet activated. This enhancement was implemented to prevent execution errors because of not activated functions.

Active Process Template with not activated execution activity function:

Once the user creates a new job in the Process Scheduler screen, having the environment details, it will display a notification in the Activity field dropdown field that the execution activity function is not yet activated.

And if the user insists on selecting the execution activity with not activated activity function, a warning field message will be displayed.

Even if the warning message is displayed, the user still has the capacity to proceed with creating the process schedule.

Administration Screen

Connection Management: oData Connection Improvements

There are two improvements added in Connection Management screen when creating an Odata Connection. One is having a dropdown in Destination name field and the other one is the validation for Entity Set Name.

• • Destination Name Drop-down

Previously when creating an Odata connection, the only way to add a destination name is to manually add or type it and there is a chance that the destination name added is not even created in the subaccount. This has been improved by adding a drop-down and all destinations available in the subaccount with type HTTP will be offered in the drop-down list.

Destination available in the subaccount can be found in SAP BTP Cockpit under Connectivity.

All Destination with type HTTP will now be offered in the drop-down list and can be selected by the user.

• • Validation for Entity Set Name

Another improvement added is the validation when Entity Set Name used is not valid. To ensure that Entity Set Name only contains letters, digits or underscore “_”, a validation is now available, and user will not be able to confirm the creation of connection until such error exist.

I hope you have a great perspective of some of the latest SAP PaPM Cloud features . You’re more than welcome to share this with other colleagues if you have found this blogpost helpful .

I highly recommend adding the SAP PaPM Cloud community tag to your bookmarks and sticking around for the next updates. Thank you!