Upgrade NW 2004 - 2004s

Question

1. We are currently working with ECC50 - NW2004 but we would like to upgrade to NW2004s to be able to use new features like Web Dynpro for ABAP and Guided Procedures in ECC50. I already found detailed upgrade information but I would like to get a feel for the amount of time it will take to get a NW2004 -> NW2004S upgrade project completed successfully. Can it be compared with an upgrade like 4.6C -> ECC50? If you take installation, regression testing, user acceptance testing etc. into account: do we talk about days, weeks or months?
2. Is there a way to keep ECC50 - NW2004 (application server) as is but install NW2004S in a way that we can use it in ECC50?
kind regards,
Angelique Heutinck
[email protected]

Answer 1

We will start developing an offline Adobe interactive form with email functionality for ECC 5 on very short terms. We have to decide asap what client/server configuration we will use for this new functionality. We will also develop an online interactive form and an offline form with upload/download functionality for ECC 5. We will have to setup a client/server configuration that supports all 3 scenario's. 
The main reason we would like to have NW2004S available for ECC 5 is because we would like to develop the forms in Web Dynpro ABAP instead of Java. Guided Procedures is a "nice to have" too, but not really important at this moment.
At this moment we think we have 3 options:
1. Investigate if we can make an Adobe solution in WDA for ECC 5 with our current setup
2. Upgrade ECC 5 - NW 2004 -> NW 2004S to get WDA functionality available
3. Install ADS for NW 2004 to be able to create Adobe solutions in ECC 5, then we will have to develop in WDJ
1. We have the following configuration up and running: NW2004S - CRM 5 and ADS installed: both Java and ABAP stack work properly. We are wondering if we could develop an Adobe interactive form in Web Dynpro ABAP in CRM 5 using BAPI's to retrieve the data from ECC 5 and put it on the form for display or update purposes. Also we have questions about the email functionality: do forms have to be send by email via a mailserver from ECC 5 via CRM 5 and back or can this be done directly from and to ECC 5 or is it not possible at all? Also we don't know if we can develop an online interactive form for ECC 5 via CRM 5. The current setup is not a real option for us right now as we see far too many uncertainties. Does somebody can give us some answers on the possibilities we are looking for?
2. My assumption is that upgrading ECC5 to ECC6 can be compared with upgrading 46C to ECC5. If my assumption is correct, this would mean an upgrade project with a 6 months leadtime within our company. If my assumption is wrong, please let me know. This upgrade will happen some day, but it has not been planned for 2007. So unfortunately, for us this is not an option at the moment because we cannot wait that long. I was hoping an upgrade of NW2004 -> NW2004s was not that time consuming but I guess this can be compared with a SAP upgrade project like 46C -> ECC 5.
3. Installing Adobe Document Services for NW2004 is not our preferred solution but we think it is the safest/easiest solution at this moment to get started with Adobe interactive forms for ECC 5 on short terms. We will have to develop in Web Dynpro for Java, so be it.
WDA is not a must but if we can find a client/server setup which gives us the possibility to build in WDA for ECC 5 functionality, that would be great. That's why I dropped the question on SDN. I want to be sure we choose the best option possible at this moment for us.
kind regards
Angelique