SAP Ariba REST APIs: Gain a comprehensive understanding of rate limits!

[DevPalanimuthu]

SAP Ariba offers various REST APIs that enables developers to integrate their applications with SAP Ariba's robust procurement and supply chain management capabilities. In this article, we will delve into a crucial aspect of utilizing SAP Ariba REST APIs: rate limits. We will explore what rate limits are, how to find them, and how to leverage them to develop in a scalable manner.

Understanding Rate Limits

Rate limits define the maximum number of API requests an application can make within a specified time frame, typically expressed as a number of requests per second, minute, hour, and day. These limits are crucial in ensuring fair usage and preventing abuse, as well as maintaining optimal performance for all customers of the SAP Ariba REST API gateway. By adhering to rate limits, developers can design scalable applications that efficiently interact with SAP Ariba's system, mitigating the risk of overwhelming server resources or negatively impacting user experience.

Discovering Rate Limits

To develop effectively using the SAP Ariba REST APIs, it is essential to comprehend the rate limits imposed by the platform. These limits are typically documented in SAP Ariba's API documentation, which provides detailed information on various endpoints, methods, and associated rate limits. SAP Ariba categorizes its API endpoints into different groups, such as Authentication, Master Data, Transactions and Reporting. Each category may have its rate limits, which can vary based on the API endpoint's complexity and resource requirements.

For example, Analytical Reporting – Job Submission API has rate limit as 1/second, 2/minute, 8/hour, and 40/day.

Another example - Document Approval API has rate limit as 300/second, 800/minute, 35000/hour

By understanding and considering these rate limits during the development process, developers can ensure their applications meet the necessary performance criteria while avoiding disruption due to exceeded limits.

Rate Limit Management

To effectively utilize rate limits, developers must implement proper rate limit management strategies. Here are some best practices to consider:

1. Respect Rate Limits: Always respect the rate limits set by SAP Ariba. Excessive API requests can result in rate limit exceedances or degraded performance. By being mindful of the limits imposed, developers can maintain the integrity of their applications.
2. Use pagination and filtering: SAP Ariba REST APIs often support pagination and filtering options to limit result sets and reduce the amount of data transferred. Utilize these options effectively to improve performance and minimize resource usage.
3. Implement error handling: Handle errors gracefully by capturing and interpreting response codes and error messages from SAP Ariba REST APIs. Implement appropriate error-handling logic to handle failures and provide meaningful feedback to the user.
4. Monitor API usage: To ensure your application stays within rate limits, it is important to monitor your API usage. The response of each API call includes headers that contain the available rate limits for the specific endpoint. For instance, refer to the screenshot below that displays the remaining rate limits for the Analytical Reporting API endpoint - Job Results.  To Learn more about these headers, visit SAP Ariba help documentation
5. Stay up to date with API changes: Keep track of any updates or changes to the SAP Ariba API and evaluate their impact on your integration. Regularly review SAP Ariba's release notes and documentation to ensure compatibility with the latest REST API versions.
6. Consider storing data centrally to meet multiple use cases: If your organization has the requirement to use the same data for multiple integrations, it is recommended to pull it from SAP Ariba once, updating a central DB, and using that DB to connect to each downstream application. This will allow for exponential scalability and mitigate any performance related concerns. For example, check out mission "Extract SAP Ariba Cloud Services data through standard APIs" in SAP Discovery Center that pulls business related procurement data from SAP Ariba and stores it in a central database in BTP! 
7. Leverage SAP API Management for Proxification, Governance, and Traffic Management and Monitoring. https://help.sap.com/docs/integration-suite/sap-integration-suite/api-management-capability

Conclusion: Overall, SAP Ariba open API enables businesses to extend the functionality of SAP Ariba and integrate it with other systems, fostering collaboration, automating processes, and enhancing procurement efficiency.