The Socket Agent is a TCP/IP client that connects to one or more TCP/IP servers defined by IP address/host in an agent definition.
Socket Agent was introduced originally to support SAP EWM integration with Siemens S7-300 PLC's used in the distribution controls of a warehouse.
Common uses of the Socket agent outside of EWM are for receiving stream data over the socket from a device like a weigh scale, RFID reader, or serial devices (i.e., barcode scanners, etc.) connect to Ethernet via a Serial-Ethernet server
You create one or more named connections in the Socket agent, each having a unique IP address/port combination. The connection can be used to receive either a fixed length stream or a terminated stream. for a Terminated stream, you can specify one or more termination characters; control characters (i.e., cr-lf, etc.) are specified using \nn where nn is the HEX value of a control character (for example, cr lf terminators are entered as \0D\0A). Each connection in an agent instance exposes a single subscription tag named <name>,message, where <name> is the name of the connection in the Socket Agent.
The Socket agent exposes some custom functions that can be executed from MII to write to a socket. Please see this scn article: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-54265
To piggy back Steve's excellent answer, most industrial label printers support this kind of interface as well. Here is a simple example I blogged about last year:
I have also come across a few legacy/custom shop floor systems that I have been able to integrate with this agent and therefore extend their useful life. 99% of the time though you will probably be dealing with a one way signal from a barcode scanner or weight scale.
Bluesky
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