I work for SAP Business Objects in Technical Customer Assurance.  My speciality is the Software Development Kits (SDKs) that we provide with our Business Intelligence products - BusinessObjects Enterprise, Web Intelligence, Desktop Intelligence, Crystal Reports and Crystal Xcelsius. 

In my blog, I discuss subjects that I personally find interesting - little known or not-well-documented corners of the SDK, new functionality or new SDKs, or interesting issues that I've come across in a SAP Incident or SAP Developer Network forums. 

You're more than welcome to suggest any topic (SAP Business Objects SDK related, of course...) that you'd like me to discuss - I have a dozen or so items on my blog to-do list, but I'm always on the hunt for anything interesting with our SDKs.   

Social Network Analyzer - an Innovation Center Project 

Clients occasionally ask me what's new and cool in Business Intelligence from SAP BusinessObjects, and I always direct them to the SAP BusinessObjects Innovation Center site.  It's where the thinkers and tinkerers in the Labs put out their great ideas for public comment.   You can see from their successes that they've got the right stuff!  Explorer (formerly Polestar), BI Desktop, MobI, QaaWS - all now used by customers to get a competitive edge on the competition when it comes to BI.

Alexis Naibo - one of the Labs guys - sent me an email a few weeks back about a new and exiting Innovation Center première:  the Social Network Analyzer (SNA).  If you think of Google Maps as an geographical roadmap, showing you how to get from point A to point B and then find out what's near point C (such as hotels, restaurants, etc), then you can think of SNA as an organizational/social roadmap, showing you how to get from person A to person B and to committee C, and find out who's associated with A, B, and C.  

Check out the on-line SNA demo here: http://sna-demo.ondemand.com/.  The Flash client enables navigation around the SNA - and it's pretty slick and awesome.  But don't let the pretty face fool you - there's a lot more going on behind the screen.

What really intrigued me about Alexis' email was an attachment for the SNA RESTful Web Services API (it's now available publicly here)!  A new API for a cool new product - I had to try it out and see what it could do.

Now that I've worked with it a bit, I can say that the API is fully-featured (anything you see done on the Flash demo you can do yourself via code using the API) but easy to code against - I was able to quickly bring up the two sample codes I present below in a few days of intermittent work (between Customer Support engagements).

So have no worries if you've looked at the demo, but was wondering if it's possible to integrate the SNA server into your existing applications and portals - the API makes it quite easy to do so.

One note: the Web Services is still evolving and yet to be finalized - there may be changes to the API by the time SNA is finally productized.  I think of that as a benefit - you still have the opportunity to test it out and provide feedback before it becomes an official product.

Relationship Analysis Server RESTful Web Services

Timo gives a clear and insightful overview of the SNA Web Services in his blog.  The hit points for the API framework are: a RESTful Web Services with ATOM 1.0 Syndication influenced by the OpenSocial API.

Use of the ATOM Syndication Format in particular widens the accessibility and utility of this API. Most general-purpose programming languages out there have supporting libraries ATOM,  for example Project ROME for Java, System.ServiceModel.Syndication for .NET, and as3syndicationlib for Adobe Flex/Flash.  These libraries encapsulate both ATOM Feed Documents and ATOM Entry Documents via classes, and expose any custom extensions to the format via the underlying XML parser.

I'll give two code examples below that highlight how you would integrate the SNA server into your own application and how you may use the information provided by the SNA to make your process workflow more efficient.

Both examples are desktop apps - one using Java, integrating Google Maps into the SNA data feed, and the other using C# (.NET), sorting email addresses in a intuitive way using data from the SNA.

Java Desktop App Integrating SNA with Google Maps

Here's a screenshot of a quick and not-so-pretty POC that links data from SNA to Google Maps:

 

 

When you enter a search phrase into the text box and click "Search", the list shows photos and names of the matching people.  Clicking on a person on the list updates the Google Map to center on their work location.

This app uses Apache HttpClient 4.0 for the HTTP client, ROME 1.0 (slighly modified to implement parsing for <atom:icon> elements within <atom:entry> elements) for the ATOM parser, and JDICplus 0.2.2 for the desktop Google Maps integration.  Java JDK 1.6+ is required for the libraries.

The sample connects to the http://sna-demo.ondemand.com and uses the (City, Country) information from the user profiles stored within the SNA database.  The SNA demo only provides (City, Country) geographical data, but the actual SNA product you can download and install on your own servers implement support for more detailed location data: both geocoding info - latitude and longitude - as well as full addresses.  One can easily customize the sample code it utilize the additiona information fields, if you have your own SNA deployment.

Here's the Java code:

SNAMap.java - desktop app displaying SNA user on Google Maps
package com.sap.sna.sample; import java.awt.Component; import java.awt.GridBagConstraints; import java.awt.Image; import java.awt.Toolkit; import java.io.IOException; import java.net.URLEncoder; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.Collections; import java.util.List; import javax.swing.AbstractListModel; import javax.swing.DefaultListCellRenderer; import javax.swing.ImageIcon; import javax.swing.JLabel; import javax.swing.JList; import javax.swing.JOptionPane; import javax.swing.JPanel; import javax.swing.JScrollPane; import javax.swing.ListSelectionModel; import javax.swing.SwingConstants; import javax.swing.SwingUtilities; import javax.swing.event.ListSelectionEvent; import javax.swing.event.ListSelectionListener; import org.apache.http.HttpEntity; import org.apache.http.HttpResponse; import org.apache.http.NameValuePair; import org.apache.http.client.entity.UrlEncodedFormEntity; import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet; import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost; import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient; import org.apache.http.message.BasicNameValuePair; import org.jdic.web.BrMap; import org.jdic.web.BrMapBalloonSprite; import org.jdom.Element; import org.jdom.JDOMException; import org.jdom.Namespace; import org.jdom.input.SAXBuilder; import com.sun.syndication.feed.atom.Entry; import com.sun.syndication.feed.synd.SyndEntry; import com.sun.syndication.feed.synd.SyndFeed; import com.sun.syndication.io.FeedException; import com.sun.syndication.io.SyndFeedInput; import com.sun.syndication.io.XmlReader; /** * Social Network Analyzer Mapper * * Displays address of Entry returned from the Social Network Analyzer in Google Maps. * * Libraries Used: * Apache HttpClient 4.0 * Apache HttpCore 4.0 * Apache Commons Codec 1.3 * Apache Commons Logging 1.1.1 * JDICPlus 0.2.2 * ROME 1.0 * JDOM 1.1 */ public class SNAMap extends javax.swing.JFrame { private final String SNA_URL = "http://sna-demo.ondemand.com"; private final String AUTH_URL = SNA_URL + "/social/authenticate"; //private final String LOGOUT_URL = SNA_URL + "/social/logout"; private final String PEOPLE_URL = SNA_URL + "/social/people"; private final Namespace SNA_XML_NAMESPACE = Namespace.getNamespace("http://sap.com/labs/esn"); DefaultHttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient(); private String logonToken = null; /* * Creates new form SNAMapFrame */ public SNAMap() { initComponents(); showLogonDialog(); } /* * Logon to SNA and retrieve the logon token. */ protected String logon(String username, String password) throws IOException, JDOMException { HttpPost httpPost; List<NameValuePair> httpFormVars; HttpResponse httpResponse; HttpEntity httpEntity; Element element; httpPost = new HttpPost(AUTH_URL); httpFormVars = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(); httpFormVars.add(new BasicNameValuePair("login", username)); httpFormVars.add(new BasicNameValuePair("password", password)); httpPost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(httpFormVars)); httpResponse = httpClient.execute(httpPost); if(httpResponse.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() != 200 ) { System.err.println("Unexpected return code: " + httpResponse.getStatusLine()); httpResponse.getEntity().consumeContent(); return null; } httpEntity = httpResponse.getEntity(); try { element = (new SAXBuilder()).build(httpEntity.getContent()).getRootElement(); return element.getAttributeValue("token", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE); } finally { httpEntity.consumeContent(); } } /* * Retrieve list of entries matching search string. */ protected List<SNAEntry> search(String searchString) throws FeedException, IOException, JDOMException { HttpGet httpGet; HttpResponse httpResponse; HttpEntity httpEntity; SyndFeedInput syndFeedInput; SyndFeed syndFeed; /* * Retrieve search results. For each result, create SNAEntry instance and * fill required properties. */ syndFeedInput = new SyndFeedInput(); syndFeedInput.setPreserveWireFeed(true); List<SNAEntry> snaEntries; snaEntries = new ArrayList<SNAEntry>(); httpGet = new HttpGet(PEOPLE_URL + "?token=" + logonToken + "&query=" + URLEncoder.encode(searchString, "UTF-8")); httpResponse = httpClient.execute(httpGet); if(httpResponse.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() != 200 ) { System.err.println("Unexpected return code: " + httpResponse.getStatusLine()); httpResponse.getEntity().consumeContent(); return snaEntries; } httpEntity = httpResponse.getEntity(); try { syndFeed = syndFeedInput.build(new XmlReader(httpEntity.getContent())); for(SyndEntry syndEntry : (List<SyndEntry>) syndFeed.getEntries()) { Entry entry; SNAEntry snaEntry; snaEntry = new SNAEntry(); /* * We go direct to wire entry to get the needed Atom entities * and set the relevant snaEntry instance properties. */ entry = (Entry) syndEntry.getWireEntry(); snaEntry.setId(entry.getId()); snaEntry.setTitle(entry.getTitle()); /* * If the entry has an atom:icon defining a URL to the icon image, then do * HTTP Get to retrieve the image. * * Note that Atom 1.0 does not define atom:icon element within atom:entry. * So here we've use a ROME 1.0 lib slightly modified to implement * the Entry.Icon property. */ if(entry.getIcon() != null && entry.getIcon().trim().length() > 0) { HttpGet imageHttpGet; HttpResponse imageHttpResponse; imageHttpGet = new HttpGet(SNA_URL + entry.getIcon()); imageHttpResponse = httpClient.execute(imageHttpGet); if(imageHttpResponse.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() == 200) { HttpEntity imageHttpEntity; byte[] imageData; imageHttpEntity = imageHttpResponse.getEntity(); imageData = new byte[(int) imageHttpEntity.getContentLength()]; imageHttpResponse.getEntity().getContent().read(imageData); imageHttpEntity.consumeContent(); snaEntry.setIcon(Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().createImage(imageData)); } } snaEntries.add(snaEntry); } } finally { httpEntity.consumeContent(); } /* * Address is not part of search results. SO we query for profile of each * SNA entry, and fill its address properties. */ for(SNAEntry snaEntry : snaEntries) { fillProfile(snaEntry); } return snaEntries; } /* * Given an SNAEntry with filled Id property, fill other SNAEntry properties * by retrieving profile information from SNA. * * Here just get the Address (Town, Country) properties. */ protected void fillProfile(SNAEntry snaEntry) throws IOException, FeedException { HttpGet httpGet; HttpResponse httpResponse; HttpEntity httpEntity; SyndFeedInput syndFeedInput; SyndFeed syndFeed; /* * Retrieve the profile for the entry. */ syndFeedInput = new SyndFeedInput(); syndFeedInput.setPreserveWireFeed(true); httpGet = new HttpGet(PEOPLE_URL + "/" + snaEntry.getId() + "?token=" + logonToken); httpResponse = httpClient.execute(httpGet); if(httpResponse.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() != 200 ) { System.err.println("Unexpected return code: " + httpResponse.getStatusLine()); httpResponse.getEntity().consumeContent(); return; } httpEntity = httpResponse.getEntity(); try { /* * Since the Address elements are extensions to Atom, we have to slog through * the XML using JDOM. * * Note: Rome 1.0 represents "Atom Entry Document" atom:entry element as SyndFeed * rather than SyndEntry (note that for Entry Documents, the atom:entry is root element). */ syndFeed = syndFeedInput.build(new XmlReader(httpEntity.getContent())); for(Element profileElement : (List<Element>) syndFeed.getForeignMarkup()) { if("p".equals(profileElement.getName()) && SNA_XML_NAMESPACE.equals(profileElement.getNamespace())) { for(Element addressElement : (List<Element>) profileElement.getChildren("fg", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE)) { if("address".equals(addressElement.getAttributeValue("id", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE))) { for(Element addressPartElement : (List<Element>) addressElement.getChildren()){ if("Country".equals(addressPartElement.getText())) { snaEntry.setAddressCountry(addressPartElement.getChildText("v", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE)); } else if("Town".equals(addressPartElement.getText())){ snaEntry.setAddressTown(addressPartElement.getChildText("v", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE)); } } } } } } } finally { httpEntity.consumeContent(); } } /* * SNA entity class - currently minimal properties, sufficient just for this sample code. */ class SNAEntry { public String id; public String title; public Image icon; public String addressTown; public String addressCountry; public String getId() { return id; } public void setId(String id) { this.id = id; } public String getTitle() { return title; } public void setTitle(String title) { this.title = title; } public Image getIcon() { return icon; } public void setIcon(Image icon) { this.icon = icon; } public String getAddressTown() { return addressTown; } public void setAddressTown(String addressTown) { this.addressTown = addressTown; } public String getAddressCountry() { return addressCountry; } public void setAddressCountry(String addressCountr) { this.addressCountry = addressCountr; } } /* * Display logon dialog. If Ok returned then log on. */ private void showLogonDialog() { while(logonToken == null) { if(JOptionPane.showOptionDialog(this, logonPanel, "Logon To SNA", JOptionPane.OK_CANCEL_OPTION, JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE, null, new String[] { "Logon", "Cancel"}, "Logon") != JOptionPane.CANCEL_OPTION){ try { logonToken = logon(usernameField.getText(), new String(passwordField.getPassword())); } catch(Exception e_ignore) {} } } } /* * Construct the Swing components. */ private void initComponents() { GridBagConstraints gridBagConstraints; JScrollPane leftScrollPane; JPanel topPanel; logonPanel = new javax.swing.JPanel(); usernameLabel = new javax.swing.JLabel(); usernameField = new javax.swing.JTextField(); passwordLabel = new javax.swing.JLabel(); passwordField = new javax.swing.JPasswordField(); centerScrollPane = new javax.swing.JScrollPane(); topPanel = new javax.swing.JPanel(); searchField = new javax.swing.JTextField(); searchButton = new javax.swing.JButton(); leftScrollPane = new javax.swing.JScrollPane(); resultList = new javax.swing.JList(); /* * Configure the SNA Logon Panel. */ logonPanel.setLayout(new java.awt.GridBagLayout()); logonPanel.setMinimumSize(new java.awt.Dimension(400, 100)); logonPanel.setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(400, 100)); usernameLabel.setText("Username:"); usernameLabel.setMinimumSize(new java.awt.Dimension(75, 24)); usernameLabel.setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(75, 24)); gridBagConstraints = new java.awt.GridBagConstraints(); gridBagConstraints.gridy = 0; gridBagConstraints.anchor = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.NORTHWEST; logonPanel.add(usernameLabel, gridBagConstraints); usernameField.setMinimumSize(new java.awt.Dimension(300, 24)); usernameField.setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(300, 24)); usernameField.setText("ncox"); gridBagConstraints = new java.awt.GridBagConstraints(); gridBagConstraints.fill = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL; gridBagConstraints.anchor = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.NORTHWEST; logonPanel.add(usernameField, gridBagConstraints); passwordLabel.setText("Password:"); passwordLabel.setMinimumSize(new java.awt.Dimension(75, 24)); passwordLabel.setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(75, 24)); gridBagConstraints = new java.awt.GridBagConstraints(); gridBagConstraints.gridx = 0; gridBagConstraints.gridy = 1; gridBagConstraints.fill = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.BOTH; gridBagConstraints.anchor = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.NORTHWEST; logonPanel.add(passwordLabel, gridBagConstraints); passwordField.setMinimumSize(new java.awt.Dimension(300, 24)); passwordField.setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(300, 24)); passwordField.setText("ncox"); gridBagConstraints = new java.awt.GridBagConstraints(); gridBagConstraints.gridx = 1; gridBagConstraints.gridy = 1; gridBagConstraints.fill = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL; gridBagConstraints.anchor = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.NORTHWEST; logonPanel.add(passwordField, gridBagConstraints); /* * Instantiate and configure the JDICplus BrMap Google Maps Internet Explorer Component. */ BrMap.DESIGN_MODE = false; map = new BrMap1(); map.setZoomLevel(12); map.setMapProvider(BrMap.MAP_GOOGLE); map.btMicrosoftMap.setEnabled(false); map.addPropertyChangeListener(new java.beans.PropertyChangeListener() { public void propertyChange(java.beans.PropertyChangeEvent evt) { String stPN = evt.getPropertyName(); if( stPN.equals("mapReady") ){ /* * Initialize the map - set the default location and remove map selections * to get a bit more screen real estate. */ map.execJS( ":_findAddress(\"Vancouver BC, Canada\")" ); try { map.btMicrosoftMap.setVisible(false); map.btMicrosoftMap.setEnabled(false); map.btGoogleMap.setVisible(false); map.btGoogleMap.setEnabled(false); map.btYahooMap.setVisible(false); map.btYahooMap.setEnabled(false); } catch(Exception exception_ignore_what_cannot_be_eaten) {} } } }); centerScrollPane.setViewportView(map); centerScrollPane.setMinimumSize(new java.awt.Dimension(400, 400)); getContentPane().add(centerScrollPane, java.awt.BorderLayout.CENTER); /* * Create the search box. */ topPanel.setLayout(new javax.swing.BoxLayout(topPanel, javax.swing.BoxLayout.X_AXIS)); topPanel.setBorder(javax.swing.BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10)); searchField.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() { public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) { searchButtonActionPerformed(evt); } }); searchField.setText("James"); topPanel.add(searchField); searchButton.setText("Search"); searchButton.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() { public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) { searchButtonActionPerformed(evt); } }); topPanel.add(searchButton); getContentPane().add(topPanel, java.awt.BorderLayout.NORTH); /* * Create the search result list panel. */ leftScrollPane.setMinimumSize(new java.awt.Dimension(100, 100)); leftScrollPane.setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(150, 150)); resultListModel = new ResultListModel(); resultList.setModel(resultListModel); resultList.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION); resultList.addListSelectionListener(new ListSelectionListener() { public void valueChanged(ListSelectionEvent event) { int index; SNAEntry snaEntry; String town; String country; if(event.getValueIsAdjusting()) { return; } index = SNAMap.this.resultList.getSelectedIndex(); snaEntry = SNAMap.this.resultListModel.getSNAEntryAt(index); town = snaEntry.getAddressTown(); country = snaEntry.getAddressCountry(); if(town != null && country != null) { map.execJS(":_findAddress(\"" + town + ", " + country + "\")"); } } }); resultList.setCellRenderer(new DefaultListCellRenderer() { public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList list, Object value, int index, boolean isSelected, boolean hasFocus) { return (Component) value; } }); leftScrollPane.setViewportView(resultList); getContentPane().add(leftScrollPane, java.awt.BorderLayout.WEST); /* * Configure the main Window Frame - specify title, size and window * close listener (for clean-up). */ setTitle("SNA Map"); setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE); setMinimumSize(new java.awt.Dimension(800, 600)); setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(800,600)); addWindowListener(new java.awt.event.WindowAdapter() { public void windowClosing(java.awt.event.WindowEvent evt) { formWindowClosing(evt); } }); pack(); } /* * Catch Window close events for cleanup. */ private void formWindowClosing(java.awt.event.WindowEvent evt) { logout(); System.exit(0); } /* * Catch Search Button Click. */ private void searchButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) { updateResultList(); } protected void logout() { // Currently the LOGOUT_URL does not appear to work. // // HttpGet logoffHttpGet; // HttpResponse response; // HttpEntity entity = null; // try { // logoffHttpGet = new HttpGet(LOGOUT_URL + "?token=" + logonToken); // response = httpClient.execute(logoffHttpGet); // // entity = response.getEntity(); // } finally { // if (entity != null) { // entity.consumeContent(); // } // } } /* * Update the UI by listing the search result SNAEntry. */ protected void updateResultList() { String searchString; List<SNAEntry> snaEntries; snaEntries = (List<SNAEntry>) Collections.EMPTY_LIST; resultList.removeAll(); searchString = searchField.getText().trim(); if(searchString.length() != 0) { try { snaEntries = search(searchString); } catch(Exception e_ignore){} } resultListModel.setSNAEntries(snaEntries); } public static void main(String args[]) { java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() { public void run() { new SNAMap().setVisible(true); } }); } /* * Create a ListModel class that returns a JLabel for each element, * and allows returning the SNAEntry at the element index position. */ class ResultListModel extends AbstractListModel { private List<SNAEntry> snaEntries = (List<SNAEntry>) Collections.EMPTY_LIST; public int getSize() { return snaEntries.size(); } public Object getElementAt(int i) { SNAEntry snaEntry; JLabel listItem; snaEntry = snaEntries.get(i); listItem = new JLabel(); listItem.setHorizontalAlignment(SwingConstants.LEFT); listItem.setText(snaEntry.getTitle()); if(snaEntry.getIcon() != null) { listItem.setIcon(new ImageIcon(snaEntry.getIcon().getScaledInstance(50, 50, Image.SCALE_SMOOTH))); } return listItem; } public SNAEntry getSNAEntryAt(int i) { return snaEntries.get(i); } public void setSNAEntries(List<SNAEntry> snaEntriesInput) { if(snaEntriesInput == null) { snaEntries = (List<SNAEntry>) Collections.EMPTY_LIST; } else { snaEntries = snaEntriesInput; } fireContentsChanged(this, 0, snaEntries.size()); } } /* * Extend BrMap JDICplus Google Maps component to indicate the found location with * a balloon specifying the name and address of the entry. */ class BrMap1 extends BrMap { private BrMapBalloonSprite mapBalloon; public void onFoundAddress(final String[] args) { SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){ public void run() { int index; setZoomLevel(Math.max(14, getZoomLevel())); setViewCenter(args[2] + "," + args[3]); index = SNAMap.this.resultList.getSelectedIndex(); if(index >= 0) { SNAEntry snaEntry; snaEntry = SNAMap.this.resultListModel.getSNAEntryAt(index); if(mapBalloon != null) { BrMap1.this.getSprites().remove(mapBalloon); } mapBalloon = new BrMapBalloonSprite( "<html><b>" + snaEntry.getTitle() + "</b><br>" + snaEntry.getAddressTown() + ", " + snaEntry.getAddressCountry() + "</html>", getPoint(getViewCenter()) ); mapBalloon.add(BrMap1.this); } } }); } } private BrMap1 map; private ResultListModel resultListModel; private javax.swing.JScrollPane centerScrollPane; private javax.swing.JPanel logonPanel; private javax.swing.JPasswordField passwordField; private javax.swing.JLabel passwordLabel; private javax.swing.JList resultList; private javax.swing.JButton searchButton; private javax.swing.JTextField searchField; private javax.swing.JTextField usernameField; private javax.swing.JLabel usernameLabel; }

Note that the RESTful Web Service bits are quite short, simple and staighforward: HTTP POST/GET and ATOM Syndication parsing.

.NET Desktop App Sorting Email Address Based on Relationships

A little background on why I wrote this POC.  A few months ago, I emailed David W. who sits a few desks away from me (and who happens to be a true Ace when it comes to fixing broken Web Intelligence deployments), only to have a reply immediately come back saying "Sorry, wrong David W."

There's always a risk that an email you send using Outlook auto-complete ends up in an unexpected inbox - say a Director half a continent away rather than an Engineer a few feet away.  Particularly so if your fairly large company had recently joined forces with an even larger company - chances of an email faux pas rises exponentially with the number of people involved...

So I learned I better double-check before I let Outlook do the thinking for me. But here's a puzzler: given people with identical names, or similar names, how do you find the one who's most relevant to you?

One way is to rank the people by how "close" they are to you.  For example, given two David W.'s, one two steps up then two steps down the organizational chart, and the other in an entirely separate division, it's more likely I'd be sending email to the first David than the second.  Four people separate me from David in a social relationship map, and more than eight people separate me from the other David (we're talking strict organizational charts here - I'm assuming if I input everybody in North America into the SNA and their relationships, then the Six Degrees of Separation rule will come into play).

So here's where the SNA comes in.  Given all people matching "David" in the SNA server, I can query for the "relationship path" between me and each "David", then rank them by how far they are from me, i.e. how many "hops" in people it takes to reach them.   

Where the SNA shines is that relationships aren't restricted to just between people.  You can define Groups and Committees as well, and relate them to people who belong.  So if I'm searching for someone to email, those people who belong to the same committee as I would be ranked higher.  Now that's a good heuristic - that I'd be more likely to email someone on the same committee.

Here's a screenshot of the app:

 

 

I enter a search string and click "Search", the app queries SNA for all people matching the query, retrieves the relationship path between me and each person, then sorts them according to increasing path length.  By selecting people on the list and clicking "Email", an email client with the selected email addresses in the "To:" field is brought up.

Here's the C# codes:

SNAEmailSearchForm.cs - list SNA user emails ranked by relationship distance 
using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Data; using System.Diagnostics; using System.Drawing; using System.Linq; using System.Net; using System.ServiceModel.Syndication; using System.Text; using System.Web; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.Xml; /* * Search SNA for Users, then list them by how close they are to the logged on User, i.e., * number of hops in the relationship path. * * Clicking on a User opens Outlook client with the User's email address in the To: field. */ namespace SNAEmailSearch { public partial class SNAEmailSearchForm : Form { /* * SNA URLs */ private const string SNA_URL = "http://sna-demo.ondemand.com"; private const string AUTH_URL = SNA_URL + "/social/authenticate"; private const string PEOPLE_URL = SNA_URL + "/social/people"; private const string SNA_XML_NAMESPACE = "http://sap.com/labs/esn"; /* * Authentication Logon Token for logged on User. */ private string logonToken; /* * SNA Entry for logged on User. */ private SNAEntry mySnaEntry; /* * List of SNAEntry returned by search, and map of SNAEntry.ID to number of nodes in * relationship path of SNAEntry to mySnaEntry. */ private List<SNAEntry> snaEntries = new List<SNAEntry>(); Dictionary<string, int> idToRelationshipCountMap = new Dictionary<string, int>(); /* * Container to persist HTTP Cookies between HTTP calls. */ private CookieContainer cookieContainer = new CookieContainer(); /* * Logon form to retrieve SNA credentials from user. */ private LogonForm logonForm; public SNAEmailSearchForm() { InitializeComponent(); } /* * Logon to SNA to retrieve mySnaEntry and logonToken. */ public void logon(string username, string password) { XmlReader xmlReader; string param; SyndicationItem item; param = "login=" + username + "&password=" + password; xmlReader = getHttpPOSTResponseXML(AUTH_URL, param); item = SyndicationItem.Load(xmlReader); logonToken = item.AttributeExtensions[new XmlQualifiedName("token", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE)]; if (logonToken != null) { mySnaEntry = new SNAEntry(); mySnaEntry.ID = item.Id; mySnaEntry.Title = item.Title.Text; fillProfile(mySnaEntry); } else { mySnaEntry = null; } } /* * Query SNA and return SNAEntry that matches the search string. */ public List<SNAEntry> search(string searchString) { string url; XmlReader xmlReader; SyndicationFeed feed; List<SNAEntry> snaEntries; snaEntries = new List<SNAEntry>(); url = PEOPLE_URL + "?token=" + logonToken + "&query=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(searchString, Encoding.UTF8); xmlReader = getHttpGETResponseXML(url); feed = SyndicationFeed.Load(xmlReader); foreach (SyndicationItem item in feed.Items) { SNAEntry snaEntry; snaEntry = new SNAEntry(); snaEntry.ID = item.Id; snaEntry.Title = item.Title.Text; fillProfile(snaEntry); snaEntries.Add(snaEntry); } return snaEntries; } /* * Query SNA and return edges in the path within the relationship graph between two * SNAEntry objects. */ public List<SNAEntryRelationship> retrievePath(SNAEntry sourceSNAEntry, SNAEntry targetSNAEntry) { string url; XmlReader xmlReader; SyndicationFeed feed; List<SNAEntryRelationship> relationships; Dictionary<string, SNAEntry> snaEntryMap; relationships = new List<SNAEntryRelationship>(); if (sourceSNAEntry.ID.Equals(targetSNAEntry.ID)) { SNAEntryRelationship relationship; relationship = new SNAEntryRelationship(); relationship.Source = sourceSNAEntry; relationship.Target = targetSNAEntry; relationships.Add(relationship); return relationships; } snaEntryMap = new Dictionary<string, SNAEntry>(); url = PEOPLE_URL + "/" + sourceSNAEntry.ID + "/path" + "?to=" + targetSNAEntry.ID + "&token=" + logonToken; xmlReader = getHttpGETResponseXML(url); feed = SyndicationFeed.Load(xmlReader); foreach (SyndicationItem item in feed.Items) { SNAEntry snaEntry; snaEntry = new SNAEntry(); snaEntry.ID = item.Id; snaEntry.Title = item.Title.Text; fillProfile(snaEntry); snaEntryMap.Add(snaEntry.ID, snaEntry); } foreach (SyndicationElementExtension extension in feed.ElementExtensions) { if ("rel".Equals(extension.OuterName)) { XmlReader relXmlReader; string sourceID; string targetID; SNAEntryRelationship relationship; relXmlReader = extension.GetReader(); sourceID = relXmlReader.GetAttribute("s", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE); targetID = relXmlReader.GetAttribute("t", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE); relationship = new SNAEntryRelationship(); relationship.Source = snaEntryMap[sourceID]; relationship.Target = snaEntryMap[targetID]; relationships.Add(relationship); } } return relationships; } /* * Query SNA for the profile of an entry specified by the SNAEntry.ID, then * fill out the SNAEntry object with the profile properties. Here we're only * filling in the Work Email property. */ protected void fillProfile(SNAEntry snaEntry) { string url; XmlReader xmlReader; SyndicationItem item; url = PEOPLE_URL + "/" + snaEntry.ID + "?token=" + logonToken; xmlReader = getHttpGETResponseXML(url); item = SyndicationItem.Load(xmlReader); foreach (SyndicationElementExtension extension in item.ElementExtensions) { if ("p".Equals(extension.OuterName)) { XmlReader profileXmlReader; profileXmlReader = extension.GetReader(); /* * Retrieve from field group "email" the field "email_work" value id and * save in snaEntry.WorkEmail. */ while (profileXmlReader.ReadToFollowing("fg", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE)) { if ("email".Equals(profileXmlReader.GetAttribute("id", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE))) { while (profileXmlReader.ReadToFollowing("f", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE)) { if ("email__work".Equals(profileXmlReader.GetAttribute("id", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE))) { while (profileXmlReader.ReadToDescendant("v", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE)) { snaEntry.WorkEmail = profileXmlReader.GetAttribute("id", SNA_XML_NAMESPACE); } break; } } break; } } break; } } } /* * Given a List of snaEntries, sort by closeness of relationship * to source. */ protected void sortByRelationship(SNAEntry source, List<SNAEntry> snaEntries) { if(snaEntries != null && snaEntries.Count > 1) { idToRelationshipCountMap = new Dictionary<string, int>(); for(int i = 0, m = snaEntries.Count ; i < m ; i++) { List<SNAEntryRelationship> relationships; relationships = retrievePath(mySnaEntry, snaEntries[i]); idToRelationshipCountMap.Add(snaEntries[i].ID, relationships.Count); } snaEntries.Sort(delegate(SNAEntry snaEntry1, SNAEntry snaEntry2) { int relationshipCount1; int relationshipCount2; if (snaEntry1 == null) { return (snaEntry2 == null) ? 0 : -1; } if (snaEntry2 == null) { return 1; } relationshipCount1 = idToRelationshipCountMap[snaEntry1.ID]; relationshipCount2 = idToRelationshipCountMap[snaEntry2.ID]; return relationshipCount1.CompareTo(relationshipCount2); }); } } /* * Minimal representation of SNA Entry object */ public class SNAEntry { private string _id; public string ID { get { return _id; } set { _id = value; } } private string _title; public string Title { get { return _title; } set { _title = value; } } private string _work_email; public string WorkEmail { get { return _work_email; } set { _work_email = value; } } public override bool Equals(object obj) { return (obj is SNAEntry) && Equals((SNAEntry)obj); } public override int GetHashCode() { return ID == null ? 0 : ID.GetHashCode(); } public bool Equals(SNAEntry other) { return (other != null) && (((other.ID == null) && (ID == null)) || other.ID.Equals(ID)); } } /* * Edge in relationship graph between SNAEntry objects. */ public class SNAEntryRelationship { private SNAEntry _source; public SNAEntry Source { get { return _source; } set { _source = value; } } private SNAEntry _target; public SNAEntry Target { get { return _target; } set { _target = value; } } } /* * Make HTTP POST request to URL with specified parameters, * return XmlReader for XML returned in body. */ XmlReader getHttpPOSTResponseXML(string url, string param) { HttpWebRequest webRequest; byte[] paramBytes; HttpWebResponse webResponse; XmlReader xmlReader; /* * Encode HTTP POST body content and POST to the url. */ paramBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(param); webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url); webRequest.Method = "POST"; webRequest.CookieContainer = cookieContainer; webRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"; webRequest.ContentLength = paramBytes.Length; webRequest.GetRequestStream().Write(paramBytes, 0, paramBytes.Length); webRequest.GetRequestStream().Close(); /* * Retrieve the response and transform to string. */ webResponse = (HttpWebResponse)webRequest.GetResponse(); xmlReader = new XmlTextReader(webResponse.GetResponseStream()); return xmlReader; } /* * Make HTTP GET request to URL and return XmlReader for XML returned in body. */ XmlReader getHttpGETResponseXML(string url) { HttpWebRequest webRequest; HttpWebResponse webResponse; XmlReader xmlReader; webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url); webRequest.Method = "GET"; webRequest.CookieContainer = cookieContainer; /* * Retrieve the response and transform to string. */ webResponse = (HttpWebResponse)webRequest.GetResponse(); xmlReader = new XmlTextReader(webResponse.GetResponseStream()); return xmlReader; } private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { logonForm = new LogonForm(); logon(); } /* * Display Logon Form, retrieve SNA credentials from user, and * log onto SNA. */ protected void logon() { /* * Keep requesting logon credentials from user till successful * logon. */ while (true) { if (logonForm.ShowDialog() == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK) { string username; string password; username = logonForm.Username; password = logonForm.Password; logon(username, password); if (logonToken != null) { break; } } } } /* * Update the result list UI with SNA search results. */ protected void updateResultList() { List<SNAEntry> searchResult; resultListBox.ClearSelected(); resultListBox.Items.Clear(); searchResult = new List<SNAEntry>(); /* * Filter out any SNAEntry objects without email */ foreach (SNAEntry snaEntry in search(searchTextBox.Text)) { if (snaEntry.WorkEmail != null && snaEntry.WorkEmail.Trim().Length > 0) { searchResult.Add(snaEntry); } } snaEntries = searchResult; sortByRelationship(mySnaEntry, snaEntries); /* * Show in list */ foreach (SNAEntry currentSnaEntry in snaEntries) { resultListBox.Items.Add(currentSnaEntry.Title + " (" + currentSnaEntry.WorkEmail + ") " + " hops=" + idToRelationshipCountMap[currentSnaEntry.ID]); } } private void searchButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { updateResultList(); } private void searchTextBox_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e) { if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter) { updateResultList(); } } /* * Collect selected entries in list, and spawn email client * with email addresses in the To: field. */ private void emailButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (resultListBox.SelectedIndices.Count > 0) { string mailto; mailto = "mailto:"; foreach (int index in resultListBox.SelectedIndices) { mailto += snaEntries[index].WorkEmail + ";"; } Process.Start(mailto); // Being a bit lazy here... } } } }

SNAEmailSearchForm.Designer.cs - definition of UI components for SNAEmailSearchForm.cs
namespace SNAEmailSearch { partial class SNAEmailSearchForm { /// <summary> /// Required designer variable. /// </summary> private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null; /// <summary> /// Clean up any resources being used. /// </summary> /// <param name="disposing">true if managed resources should be disposed; otherwise, false.</param> protected override void Dispose(bool disposing) { if (disposing && (components != null)) { components.Dispose(); } base.Dispose(disposing); } #region Windows Form Designer generated code /// <summary> /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify /// the contents of this method with the code editor. /// </summary> private void InitializeComponent() { this.searchTextBox = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox(); this.searchButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this.resultListBox = new System.Windows.Forms.ListBox(); this.emailButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this.SuspendLayout(); // // searchTextBox // this.searchTextBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 8); this.searchTextBox.Name = "searchTextBox"; this.searchTextBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(315, 20); this.searchTextBox.TabIndex = 0; this.searchTextBox.Text = "James"; this.searchTextBox.KeyDown += new System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventHandler(this.searchTextBox_KeyDown); // // searchButton // this.searchButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(333, 6); this.searchButton.Name = "searchButton"; this.searchButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(75, 23); this.searchButton.TabIndex = 1; this.searchButton.Text = "Search"; this.searchButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true; this.searchButton.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.searchButton_Click); // // resultListBox // this.resultListBox.FormattingEnabled = true; this.resultListBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(13, 38); this.resultListBox.Name = "resultListBox"; this.resultListBox.ScrollAlwaysVisible = true; this.resultListBox.SelectionMode = System.Windows.Forms.SelectionMode.MultiExtended; this.resultListBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(394, 147); this.resultListBox.TabIndex = 2; // // emailButton // this.emailButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(333, 191); this.emailButton.Name = "emailButton"; this.emailButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(75, 23); this.emailButton.TabIndex = 3; this.emailButton.Text = "Email"; this.emailButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true; this.emailButton.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.emailButton_Click); // // SNAEmailSearchForm // this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F); this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font; this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(420, 217); this.Controls.Add(this.emailButton); this.Controls.Add(this.resultListBox); this.Controls.Add(this.searchButton); this.Controls.Add(this.searchTextBox); this.Name = "SNAEmailSearchForm"; this.Text = "SNA Email Search"; this.Load += new System.EventHandler(this.Form1_Load); this.ResumeLayout(false); this.PerformLayout(); } #endregion private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox searchTextBox; private System.Windows.Forms.Button searchButton; private System.Windows.Forms.ListBox resultListBox; private System.Windows.Forms.Button emailButton; } }

Again, the parts that handle communication with the SNA are relatively simple and straightforward.

Summary

I've presented two samples that illustrate possible ways to integrate the SNA server with your app.

The SNA is still a SAP BusinessObjects Labs project and not yet productized, and the API may change before it becomes an official product.

I do encourage you, if you think the SNA would fill a role within your organization, to try it out, check out its Web Services API, and provide feedback!  We're always looking to improve our products, and any comments, suggestions, enhancement request you may have would be more than welcome.