topic Re: SAP Interface in Application Development and Automation Discussions

SAP Interface

Former Member — Tue, 10 May 2011 08:36:03 GMT

Hello,

Need some guidelines regarding SAP Interface.

Iu2019m an Oracle Developer u2013 all the applications are developed using Oracle Form Designer and Reporter thru PL/SQL language. Most of the applications we develop are for the Banking Industry.

I have a requirement in which I need to build an interface from my Oracle Application to SAP. My Oracle Application is my own and therefore customizable.

Iu2019ve read a bit about BAPI and JCo u2013 but is still undecided on which is the u201Cbestu201D approach.

Or if thereu2019s any other approach, kindly let me know.

The application (Banking) requires real-time posting of data from front-end (Oracle) to back-end (SAP).

If possible, kindly provide me with some guideline.

Best regards,

Re: SAP Interface

Former Member — Tue, 10 May 2011 10:37:51 GMT

Hi,

Do you have BAPI ADAPTER? I mean if you can call SAP bapi from oracle, BAPI is good appoach.

You can also use Idocs.

Thanks,

Sajid

Re: SAP Interface

Jelena_Perfiljeva — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:11:18 GMT

Welcome to SDN! In my opinion, "the best" is whatever works for you and whatever is easier to maintain.

I'm not familiar with anything Java related. BAPI (or any RFC-enabled function, for that matter) is still a valid approach and a relatively simple one.

The latest and greatest seems to be the web services or enterprise services (i.e. SOAP stuff). Any BAPI (or, again, an RFC-enabled function) can be exposed as a web service. There are a couple of good blogs about this right here on SDN (search for SOAMANAGER). Check with your SAP counterparts if this would work for them (there are some prerequisites).

Actually if SAP is a back-end, your SAP colleagues would have to provide some functionality to call from Oracle, I believe. They would decide whatever would work best, considering the options available in SAP, etc. Mind you, BAPI is not available for all the transactions.

Re: SAP Interface

Former Member — Thu, 12 May 2011 10:10:16 GMT

Thanks for the reply.

Are there any related licenses in such approach? (to call using BAPI)

Iu2019m not quite familiar with idocs u2013 any blogs or guidance regarding this approach?

@Jelena: by exposing a BAPI as a webservice, it would mean that it is now interoperable with any programming language or platform, am I correct?

Are there any additional licenses which are required for this approach?

Regards,

Re: SAP Interface

Jelena_Perfiljeva — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:39:08 GMT

Yes, the web service could be used in any platform and environment that is "web service able". I have used this in the past to integrate SAP with a variery of different systems and it worked quite well so far.

To my knowledge, there is no additional cost to call BAPI by RFC or to expose it as a web service.

I wouldn't recommend IDocs, if BAPI/RFC or web services are an option. They're not very intuitive for the developers and the whole design is quite rigid IMHO. Google 'IDoc cookbook' if you're interested.

Re: SAP Interface

Former Member — Fri, 13 May 2011 02:58:22 GMT

Thanks for the reply.

From what I understand, it seems I need to be able to call BAPI thru JCo?

Is that correct? Is this the only way?

Where do I start?

Any examples or resources available?

Thanks,

Re: SAP Interface

Jelena_Perfiljeva — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:05:22 GMT


> From what I understand, it seems I need to be able to call BAPI thru JCo?
> Is that correct? Is this the only way?

Quite honestly, I have no idea. This is the SAP ABAP developers forum. I'm not sure what needs to be done in Oracle to call a BAPI.

You might want to search on the Oracle web sites or reach to your Oracle sales rep. I know Microsoft has a lot of info on their web site (they're "friends" with SAP apparently). Or, better yet, go talk to the SAP developers for the system you'll connect to. Maybe they have a completely different view on this.

There is also a separate Java-themed forum here, perhaps someone would know more there: