topic Re: SAP Integration in Application Development and Automation Discussions

SAP Integration

Former Member — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 05:26:23 GMT

Hi All,

I am new to SAP, my objective is to integrate the SAP system to other CRM system.

According to experience I connected only through REST and SOAP(through WSDL file consumption) to other system.

1) Is there any way other way to connect the SAP system?

I came to know that only SOAP way is free of cost and REST user have to pay some licence cost to start REST communication.

Objective is the we have to build an generic app which can connect to all SAP system and perform pull and push function in SAP.

We want to get names of tables and rows so that it can be mapped with other external system, after mapping which can perform normal push and pull functions.

Thanks.

Re: SAP Integration

Ulrich_Schmidt1 — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 08:43:49 GMT

Hi Vinayaka,

in SAP you can't access tables directly (or at least: you should not...). Because by changing tables directly, you can quickly cause data inconsistencies! (E.g. if two or more tables depend on each other via are common key, and you change one of the tables without also updating the corresponding lines of the other table, you have inconsistent data in the system, which will bring you into devil's kitchen... )

What you should do instead: for almost every application table there are Create, Read, Update and Delete BAPIs, which can be called via RFC. These BAPIs perform the necessary data validation (as well as the necessary user permissions check) and make sure that only consistent data is committed to the tables.

Decide, which application you are interested in (e.g. Finance, Logistics, Human Resources, etc.) and then look for the corresponding BAPIs (either in the documentation, in the BOR or by ABAP DevClass). Then call these BAPIs via RFC (there are RFC libraries for C/C++, Java and .NET, see https://service.sap.com/connectors) and finish with BAPI_TRANSACTION_COMMIT in case of a Create or Update operation.

Best Regards, Ulrich

Re: SAP Integration

Former Member — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 09:16:10 GMT

First of all Thank you so much for your help.

Need is first we want to make a connection to SAP so that we can get name of table and its rows(eg: table in SAP can be Purchase order but name in other system can be only Order) so make some call to get name and map both the tables in external system(eg: purchase order no in SAP can be order no in external system.). As it has been mapped when data has been created in SAP same thing should be replicated in external system vice versa.

Is there any way to get table and rows name from sap so that I can create mapping in external source?

According to my understanding you are suggesting to use BAPI via RFC through any of the libraries so that it can connect SAP through this and some services to connect external CRM system which will behave as mediator between two systems.

Is my understanding correct?

Thanks.

Re: SAP Integration

Ulrich_Schmidt1 — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 15:55:39 GMT


Vinayaka murthy wrote:

Is there any way to get table and rows name from sap so that I can create mapping in external source?

You mean like all of them?! That might be a bit difficult. In a standard SAP system there are thousands of tables, maybe even several ten thousands! So you definitely need to limit yourself to what you are really interested in.

However, given a certain table name, there are ways to retrieve the names and data types of all that table's fields. E.g. DDIF_FIELDINFO_GET could be used. In fact the SAP Business Connector has built-in functionality to automatically generate structures for data mappings from DDIC table definitions. Perhaps that tool can also be used for your mapping requirements?

Whether or not you need a "mediator" between the two systems depends on whether or not your external system can be modified. E.g. if you can "plug in" the JCo jar file and then use it inside you external system, you won't need any mediator! In that case you could communicate directly between the two systems.

If you do need a "mediator", then I would recommend the Business Connector as above. It is a great tool for all kinds of data mappings from SAP formats to external formats with a lot of built-in features that can be used in the mappings via drag-and-drop: e.g. digital signature, encryption, zip/gzip, Base64, etc.

Best Regards, Ulrich

Re: SAP Integration

Former Member — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 05:39:26 GMT

Hi Ulrich,

Thank you for the help.

Regarding mediator our external system can not use jar file to make connection.We are thinking of creating some mediator in java which can be hosted in AWS or some other platform to make connection between two system.

Suppose I have username and password of SAP and some how I am able to make a login call to SAP system to get sessionId, Is this enough to get name of Table fields and perform DML operation in SAP or some thing else has to be done in SAP environment.(eg; enabling the object to access in HTTPS way from external resource{like some kind of security setting}).

Thanks.

Re: SAP Integration

Ulrich_Schmidt1 — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 09:18:56 GMT

Hi Vinayaka,


Vinayaka murthy wrote:

Regarding mediator our external system can not use jar file to make connection.We are thinking of creating some mediator in java which can be hosted in AWS or some other platform to make connection between two system.

In that case I recommend to take a look at the introductory documentation & tutorial of the SAP Business Connector. I expect it can be used as the "mediator" here. Then you don't need to create your own.

As an example, here is a screenshot of a table lookup in the Business Connector (for the table named SWFREVTPOQ). It displays all table fields with their data type (CHAR, FLOAT, BCD, DATE, TIME, etc.) and the field length/decimals. From this you can then generate structures that can be used in graphical mappings to other formats, for generating an XML document, a flat file format, JSON or whatever.


Vinayaka murthy wrote:

Suppose I have username and password of SAP and some how I am able to make a login call to SAP system to get sessionId, Is this enough to get name of Table fields and perform DML operation in SAP or some thing else has to be done in SAP environment.(eg; enabling the object to access in HTTPS way from external resource{like some kind of security setting}).

If you do it via RFC, nothing needs to be done in the SAP environment. You only need to make sure the SAP user has the required permissions to access the DDIC (= "Data Dictionary" -- the component that contains the table definitions). These permissions changed quite a bit over time... In a 3.1I R/3 system they were quite different from todays 7.40 Netweaver system. SAP note 460089 describes how to give a user the required authorization profile in each SAP release. For DDIC lookups you would need the permissions as given under point 3: "Call a function module using the dynamic repositories --> Repository user". (This is by the way also what the SAP Business Connector would need.)

If you do it via HTTP, I'm not sure. (This is not exactly my field.) You may need to customize some settings in the ICF (Internet Communication Framework), activate some WebServices, etc. And you need to find out, how to access the DDIC via HTTP and what permissions your SAP user would need for that.

Best Regards, Ulrich

Re: SAP Integration

Former Member — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 11:59:25 GMT

Hi,

Once again Thank you so much for your help.

I am describing about my whole requirement which we are intended to do.

Our external system is Salesforce CRM, we have customers who follow SAP as their ERP so they want integrate with Salesforce and maintain two live systems one in SAP and other in Salesforce.

We thought of creating some generic connector so that people can configure their one SAP system tables to Salesforce which can be re utilized for other customers.

Only way to connect salesforce with other system is SOAP and REST. In SOAP we have to consume wsdl file from SAP to make a call to system, so if wsdl comes into place I think the connector will not be generic and have to consume every wsdl for every SAP implementation.

Dont know about REST.

So we had an idea of creating an connector which can be hosted and connected to both ways is some way.

Can you suggest us with some ideas to me which can be very helpful to us.

We are very much proficient in sales force side but not that much in SAP side.

Can I get your skype id or some other contact information just to contact you in any case.

Thanks.

Re: SAP Integration

Former Member — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 05:00:43 GMT

Hi Ulrich Schmidt,

Once again Thank you so much for your help.

I am describing about my whole requirement which we are intended to do.

Our external system is Salesforce CRM, we have customers who follow SAP as their ERP so they want integrate with Salesforce and maintain two live systems one in SAP and other in Salesforce.

We thought of creating some generic connector so that people can configure their one SAP system tables to Salesforce which can be re utilized for other customers.

Dont know about REST.

So we had an idea of creating an connector which can be hosted and connected to both ways is some way.

Can you suggest us with some ideas to me which can be very helpful to us.

We are very much proficient in sales force side but not that much in SAP side.

Your inputs will be most helpful in understanding the system.

Thanks.