BAPI

[Former Member]

Hi,

What are the diff betn BAPI & RFC?

Thanks in advance.

[Former Member]

Hi,

BAPI stands for Business Application Programming Interface. It is a library of functions that are released to the public as an interface into an existing SAP system from an external system.

RFC is the protocol used to call functions in an R/3 system by a caller external to R/3 or to call programs external to R/3 from an R/3 system.

Functions can only be called via RFC, if they are tagged as RFC functions in the SAP development workbench. They are then called RFC function modules. BAPIs are complete sets of (BAPI) function modules that model a business application.

When you are familiar with web developments: RFC can be compared to HTTP and BAPIs are CGI applications.

In other words: A BAPI function is a function module that can be called remotely using the RFC technology.

Regards

Kiran

[Former Member]

Hi,

Definition

A Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI) is a precisely defined interface providing access to processes and data in business application systems such as R/3.

BAPIs of SAP Business Object Types

BAPIs are defined as API methods of SAP business object types. These business object types and their BAPIs are described and stored in the Business Object Repository (BOR). A BAPI is implemented as a function module, that is stored and described in the Function Builder.

BAPIs of SAP Interface Types

As of Release 4.5A BAPIs can also describe interfaces, implemented outside the R/3 System that can be called in external systems by R/3 Systems. These BAPIs are known as BAPIs used for outbound processing. The target system is determined for the BAPI call in the distribution model of Application Link Enabling (ALE).

BAPIs used for outbound processing are defined in the Business Object Repository (BOR) as API methods of SAP Interface Types. Functions implemented outside the R/3 System can be standardized and made available as BAPIs. For further information see BAPIs Used For Outbound Processing.

Integration

BAPIs can be called within the R/3 System from external application systems and other programs. BAPIs are the communication standard for business applications. BAPI interface technology forms the basis for the following developments:

Connecting:

New R/3 components, for example, Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO) and Business Information Warehouse (BW).

Non-SAP software

Legacy systems

Isolating components within the R/3 System in the context of Business Framework

Distributed R/3 scenarios with asynchronous connections using Application Link Enabling (ALE)

Connecting R/3 Systems to the Internet using Internet Application Components (IACs)

PC programs as frontends to the R/3 System, for example, Visual Basic (Microsoft) or Visual Age for Java (IBM).

Workflow applications that extend beyond system boundaries

Customers' and partners' own developments

The graphic below shows how BAPI interfaces enable different types of applications to be linked together.

RFC

Purpose

Communication between applications in different systems in the SAP environment includes connections between SAP systems as well as between SAP systems and non-SAP systems. Remote Function Call (RFC) is the standard SAP interface for communication between SAP systems. RFC calls a function to be executed in a remote system.

Synchronous RFC

The first version of RFC is synchronous RFC (sRFC). This type of RFC executes the function call based on synchronous communication, meaning that the systems involved must both be available at the time the call is made.

Transactional RFC (tRFC)

Transactional RFC(tRFC, previously known as asynchronous RFC) is an asynchronous communication method that executes the called function module just once in the RFC server. The remote system need not be available at the time when the RFC client program is executing a tRFC. The tRFC component stores the called RFC function, together with the corresponding data, in the SAP database under a unique transaction ID (TID).

If a call is sent, and the receiving system is down, the call remains in the local queue. The calling dialog program can proceed without waiting to see whether the remote call was successful. If the receiving system does not become active within a certain amount of time, the call is scheduled to run in batch.

tRFC is always used if a function is executed as a Logical Unit of Work (LUW). Within a LUW, all calls

· are executed in the order in which they are called

· are executed in the same program context in the target system

· run as a single transaction: they are either committed or rolled back as a unit.

Implementation of tRFC is recommended if you want to maintain the transactional sequence of the calls.

Disadvantages of tRFC

· tRFC processes all LUWs independently of one another. Due to the amount of activated tRFC processes, this procedure can reduce performance significantly in both the send and the target systems.

· In addition, the sequence of LUWs defined in the application cannot be kept. It is therefore impossible to guarantee that the transactions will be executed in the sequence dictated by the application. The only thing that can be guaranteed is that all LUWs are transferred sooner or later.

Queued RFC (qRFC)

To guarantee that multiple LUWs are processed in the order specified by the application, tRFC can be serialized using queues (inbound and outbound queues). This type of RFC is called queued RFC (qRFC).

qRFC is therefore an extension of tRFC. It transfers an LUW (transaction) only if it has no predecessors (based on the sequence defined in different application programs) in the participating queues.

Implementation of qRFC is recommended if you want to guarantee that several transactions are processed in a predefined order.

Data transfer

All RFC types are transferred by means of CPI-C or TCP/IP. They represent a kind of Gateway Communication.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/5c/f3f0371bc15d73e10000009b38f8cf/frameset.htm

[Former Member]

Hi,

RFC and BAPIs are remote enabled function modules. They are practicly the same. A BAPI is one step further as it usually is a self contained business function, such as "Create Purchase Order", or "Change Sales Document". BAPIs interface is very well defined and documented. BAPIs can be found in the BAPI browser via transaction BAPI. RFCs are just remote enabled function modules.

BAPI performs a complete business application like customer creation,material creation as it is encapsulated with business object.

Regards,

Raj.

[Former Member]

1)RFC is a direct system call means whenever you declare RFC FM within your program you must add destination 'dest name' ...so here you directly call the remote system.

But in BAPI you never call system directly..instead you just created one FM and add that one as API method in business object builder..so SAP.COMPONENT.1 will take care of this one.

2)In RFC you can handle errors using exceptions..but in BAPI you cannot handle exceptions instead you should declare one return parameter as BAPIRET2 for to get the errors.

3)Naming conventions are very important in BAPI like FM should alwalys start with 'BAPI_'.but there is no naming conventions in RFC.

4)COMMITWORK may work in RFC.butin BAPI it cannot work...instead use BAPI_TRANSACTION_COMMIT for the same.

I hope it is very helpful to you...

<REMOVED BY MODERATOR>

Dara.

Edited by: Alvaro Tejada Galindo on Apr 22, 2008 4:55 PM

[prasanth_kasturi]

hi

Definition

A Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI) is a precisely defined interface providing access to processes and data in business application systems such as R/3.

BAPIs of SAP Business Object Types

BAPIs are defined as API methods of SAP business object types. These business object types and their BAPIs are described and stored in the Business Object Repository (BOR). A BAPI is implemented as a function module, that is stored and described in the Function Builder.

BAPIs of SAP Interface Types

As of Release 4.5A BAPIs can also describe interfaces, implemented outside the R/3 System that can be called in external systems by R/3 Systems. These BAPIs are known as BAPIs used for outbound processing. The target system is determined for the BAPI call in the distribution model of Application Link Enabling (ALE).

BAPIs used for outbound processing are defined in the Business Object Repository (BOR) as API methods of SAP Interface Types. Functions implemented outside the R/3 System can be standardized and made available as BAPIs. For further information see BAPIs Used For Outbound Processing.

Integration

BAPIs can be called within the R/3 System from external application systems and other programs. BAPIs are the communication standard for business applications. BAPI interface technology forms the basis for the following developments:

Connecting:

New R/3 components, for example, Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO) and Business Information Warehouse (BW).

Non-SAP software

Legacy systems

Isolating components within the R/3 System in the context of Business Framework

Distributed R/3 scenarios with asynchronous connections using Application Link Enabling (ALE)

Connecting R/3 Systems to the Internet using Internet Application Components (IACs)

PC programs as frontends to the R/3 System, for example, Visual Basic (Microsoft) or Visual Age for Java (IBM).

Workflow applications that extend beyond system boundaries

Customers' and partners' own developments

The graphic below shows how BAPI interfaces enable different types of applications to be linked together.