SuccessFactors (SFSF) Adapter for SAP NetWeaver Pr... - Page 2

finny_babu · ‎2014 Mar 07

Update: New blog on how to configure SFSF adapter with REST Protocol: HowTo: Configure Communication Channel with SFSF Adapter (with REST Message Protocol) for SAP Proces...

SAP has released a new adapter called the “SFSF Adapter” for SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (PI) on 17 Feb 2014. This adapter is now available as part of a release independent add-on “SAP NetWeaver Process Integration, connectivity add-on 1.0”.

The connectivity add-on runs on the SAP NetWeaver Process Integration Adapter Framework, based on the Java Connector Architecture (JCA). Accordingly, its capabilities are being used for enabling the common message delivery options (exactly-once, exactly-once-in-order), an automatic retry mechanism and information logging. The configuration of connectivity adapters, monitoring and operations is done in the same way as for other adapters of SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (PI). The connectivity add-on runs fully in the Java stack and supports all valid deployment options of SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (ABAP + Java, Java only).

This SAP NetWeaver Process Integration, connectivity add-on 1.0 is included in your SAP Process Integration license and you do not need any further license to use the adapter.

Overview

With increasing focus on cloud applications, customers are looking for options to integrate their existing on premise systems and applications with SuccessFactors. SFSF adapter provides this capability and can be used for on premise to SuccessFactors integration.

Some example scenarios for integration between SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors Employee Central and how they can be achieved using the SFSF adapter:

1. Employee Central Compound Employee to ERP HCM Employee Replication

2. ERP HCM Cost Center to Employee Central Cost Center

3. Employee Central Compound Employee to ERP HCM Employee Organizational Replication

Prerequisites

SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (for supported SP’s refer the Compatibility Matrix below)
Administrative access to the following:

System landscape directory (SLD)
SUM tool
Enterprise service tool
SAP NetWeaver Administrator (NWA)

Capabilities of the SFSF Adapter

Login, Logout and Session Handling - The SFSF adapter uses basic authentication (user ID and password) for verifying the identity of the user. When you log in to the SuccessFactors system, it generates a session token that is required for transacting with the system. The SFSF adapter uses this token for session handling. The adapter internally takes care of login, logout and session handling.
Query, Insert, Update and Upsert Operations - The SFSF adapter supports all standard SFAPI operations: Query, Insert, Update and Upsert. These operations help you to send and receive data from the SuccessFactors system.
Simple and Compound SFAPI - The Simple SFAPI’s are flat structured entities whereas Compound SFAPI’s are nested entities. Both types of entities are supported by SFSF Adapter. For more details on the Employee Central Entities, read the blog Employee Central Entities and Interfacing
Auto XSD Generation for Mapping - The SFQL when modeled using the Operations Modeler generates an XSD file which can be used mapping purposes.
Automatic Data Polling using Scheduler - The scheduler enables you to configure SFSF adapter as a Sender Channel to automatically poll data from the SuccessFactors system at a regular interval.
Delta Sync - The delta sync features enables you to fetch only the records that were modified after the last successful data fetch from the SuccessFactors system. This increases the efficiency of the query operation.
Dynamic query specification using payload - The Process Integration mappings can be used to dynamically specify query using PI payload as and when you execute it.
Multiple SFSF calls and merge payloads - You can use the SFSF adapter to initiate multiple lines of communication to the SuccessFactors system multiple times.

Compatibility Matrix

SAP NetWeaver Process Integration, connectivity add-on 1.0 SP0 is compatible with:

SAP NW PI 711 >=SP12
SAP NW PI 730 >=SP10
SAP NW PI 731 >=SP09
SAP NW PI 740 >=SP04

Documentation & Download Link

Documentation: SAP NetWeaver Process Integration, connectivity add-on 1.0
Download Link: Software Downloads | SAP Support Portal > Support Packages and Patches > Browse our Download Catalog > SAP NetWeaver and complementary products > SAP NW PI CONNECTIVITY ADDON > PI CONNECTIVITY ADDON 1.0

Additional Resources

Hope this blog helped you know the new SFSF adapter and its capabilities. Please send in your feedback via the comments section.

Josephine_Damen · ‎2014 May 21

Hi Finny, are you aware that this statement is not in line with the recommendations from SF Product Management regarding integration of EC to SAP ERP in a Full Cloud integration scenario?

former_member91687 · ‎2014 May 23

Hi Finny

Does the SFSF adapter support all of the integrations that are currently available as standard file based imports into successfactors? Is there any documentation available around it?

We now have quite a few options for integration with SF using SAP PI:

-Using the SOAP AXIS adapter based on the webservices API (where there is RDS content available for a few of the integration scenarios)

-File based integration

-Integration using the new SFSF adapter based on SF API

What is the long term strategy on the way forward in terms of the above options?

Regards

Chandra

finny_babu · ‎2014 May 26

Hi Chandra

SFSF adapter doesnt support standard file based imports into successfactors.

With regard to the different options, we offer packaged Hybrid integrations between SuccessFactors and SAP HCM - http://service.sap.com/hybrid . These are pre-packaged so Customers can simply download the SAP HCM Add-On and NW PI integration content and get started. RDS offering simplifies the pre-packaged integration further.

In case customers have more integration use-cases, apart from standard pre-packaged integrations offered by SAP/SFSF, we also provide SF Adapter for NW PI allowing customers to easily develop their own integrations with existing IT systems.

finny_babu · ‎2014 May 26

Hi Anusha

Thanks for your feedback. Some of the scenario's i have already mentioned above in the blog. Please refer the documentation for more details on how to configure the adapter here: SAP NetWeaver Process Integration, connectivity add-on 1.0

former_member91687 · ‎2014 May 27

Thanks finny.babu for getting back. We do have more integration use cases apart from the pre-packaged ones. I'm looking for information about how much the new SF adapter supports integration to learning and performance modules in Successfactors? Would you have documentation on whats supported and whats not?

finny_babu · ‎2014 May 28

Hi Chandra

The SP0 of the connectivity add-on supports SuccessFactors webservices API (SFAPI) and hence all modules which are exposed via SFAPI like Employee Central. With SP1 which is planned to be released in June, we will support Adhoc & OData API's as well.

As far as i know, learning is exposed via REST API's and this is not yet supported by SFSF Adapter.

Please find the list of features here:

Currently present in SP0

SFSF server cookie handling for load balancing
SFSF session handling within the adapter
Multi page query result fetch
Auto XSD Generation for Mapping
Automatic Data Polling using Scheduler
Auto Delta Sync
Query Modeler

Upcoming features (SP1):

Adhoc API support
OData API support
Http destination based connection parameters
Optimized message processing for PI by grouping messages

You can refer to the documentation present here: SAP NetWeaver Process Integration, connectivity add-on 1.0

Former Member · ‎2014 Jun 11

So below are my question accross Successfull run date feature :

1. Is it SAP PI Connector internally maintains this last successful run date ?

2. what would be Time-Zone of Successful run date : Is it where SF DC is located or where PI Box is Located ?

3. what is it mean from successful run date ? - is it entire interface successful run date or is it just communication channel successful run date ?

subhro_de · ‎2014 Jun 15

Hi Finny,

Could you please advise that if we are using the new SAP PI adapter for replicating SAP Successfactors Employee Central data to SAP ECC , what are the network ports we need to open in SAP PI (on premise network) for the integration.

Regards

Subhro

Former Member · ‎2014 Jun 16

Hi,

I have a question on SFSF Query - " Can i build it dynamically ? "

Eg. :

Select Field1, Field2, Field3

from PerPerson

where Personal_id_external in ( ? )

and this in value clause I want to build it dynamically.

Regards

Prabhat Sharma.

finny_babu · ‎2014 Jun 17

If your PI is in DMZ, then you do not need to open any port.

If you are using HTTP Proxy to connect to internet, you do not need to open any port.

If not, then you will have to open the port 443 for the appropriate SuccessFactors server (eg. api4.successfactors.com).

Former Member · ‎2014 Jun 17

Hi Prabhat,

Currently the sender channel does not support dynamic building of query. But in the receiver channel you can supply a payload for query which we can execute and return back results synchronously. The query payload has to be similar to the web service payload for the successfactors endpoint.

e.g.

<queryString>select field1 from PerPerson where ...</queryString>

</query>

The query string you will have to build via mapping and call the receiver channel using generic lookup (similar to RFC/JDBC lookup).

The query string received by adapter has to be complete and without any dynamic variables.

Regards,

Bikash

finny_babu · ‎2014 Jun 17

Hi Prabhat

Please find the answers to your queries below:

1. Yes

2. Yes, it uses the timezone of SF DC

3. SuccessFactors system provides this information via payload and it is not related to the interface or communication channel.

We use these fields in the adapter: last_execution_time (query execution time) & last_modified_time (when was the entity modified?)

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 04

So Prakash ,

I have further Question on this :

1. So Request message would be exactly what you mentioned in above post. "Not a single change " . right ??

2. My assumption is Session handing and Query More operation handling for batch size of max 800 is automatically handled by Connector? we just query and in return we get all the records ??

3. According to you what should be ideal batch size so that " Not to face time out issues "?

4. RFC and JDBC are Graphical Lookup - Do we have SFSF Graphical Lookup option also available ??

or

5. Can we use it exactly as SOAP Lookup in UDF ( calling SFSF connector- pass it request query message and in response actual data then use xml parsing )??

6. How would it react if we just query all the 20000 records in mapping using lookup and entity would be compoundemployee entity with all historical data. How would it reach - will it hang ???

Regards

Prabhat Sharma

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 06

1. Yes you are right.

2. There is a little tricky situation here. When you are doing a lookup, you are essentially using the request-response pattern. Here one request can only have exactly one response.

When the response returned by successfactors is huge, we cannot split into multiple responses as indicated above. In certain circumstances we may get out of memory issues if we try to combine all responses and give you a single payload back. So to play safe we decided that the query and queryMore has to be handled by the caller.

3. We also could not arrive at an ideal batch size that will fit for all scenarios. e.g. if you are querying for compoundemployee and select all possible fields then the size of payload will be very very large. So you will have to figure out depending on the size of the payload you are getting. During testing periods you will have to check the payload size in message monitor and adjust the parameters accordingly.

4 & 5. There is no graphical lookup at present. You can use it exactly as SOAP lookup in UDF.

6. As per point #2, this situation will not happen at all. At 800 records the response is already paginated.

Best regards,

Bikash

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 06

I didn't understand this point :- "So to play safe we decided that the query and queryMore has to be handled by the caller".

can you please explain this with one example ??

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 07

When we receive a synchronous call in the receiver channel, we assume that it is a query call and we send the payload as it is to the successfactors endpoint. We do not do any manipulation or run any logic on the payload provided by the PI pipeline.

<queryString>select field1 from PerPerson where ...</queryString>

</query>

When you send a payload for start of query as above, you will get a query session id as response.

...

</sfobject>

...

</sfobject>

</result>

</queryResponse>

You will have to take the querySessionId and repeatedly send a queryMore too.

In such scenarios we will be able to provide a response for every call and thus maintaining the request-response pattern behavior.

May I know the usecase where you require such huge payloads in the receiver channel? Won't sender channel suffice in such usecases?

Best regards,

Bikash

finny_babu · ‎2014 Jul 08

Hi Rahul

You can also try to integrate SFDC's OData API's using new OData Adapter.

OData Adapter and SFSF Adapter (extensions) for SAP Process Integration

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 08

Thank you Finny for sharing the info. Great info on the SF adapter and its capabilities.

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 08

Scenario is . We are calling Standard SAP Replication Process . But is not covering all the required information/fields.

Eg. DirectDeposit and TimeOff information .

Plan is to enrich those field somewhere in between within message mapping using Lookup.

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 08

Just now one more question came into my mind .

EmployeeTime is OData Entity. - So OData entities are also supported same as SOAP Lookup ?

2. What should be query format here and what is the expected query response format?

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 10

Now I have one more question on SFSF Receiver Adapter capability :-

My query is on Successfactor Upsert case ..

Normally When we update some entity in Successfactors It immediately gives back with response. such as below :-

<jobStatus>ERROR</jobStatus>

<errorStatus>ERROR</errorStatus>

<editStatus>NOEDIT</editStatus>

<message>user-id is invalid. failed record info: {rel_user_id=81409, user_id=861, start_date=Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 CEST 2014, relationship_type=1951}</message>

</objectEditResult>

<editStatus>UPSERTED</editStatus>

</objectEditResult>

</result>

</upsertResponse>

Now Question is : Will SFSF Receiver Adapter respond in same way when I make it as QOS = "Best Efforts " and Synchronous ?? will it return me the how many records updated Ok and how many with error.

My requirement is - " I have to send this information back to sender system "

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 14

Initially we thought of synchronous scenarios only for query usecases. I will provide a patch to support all operations for synchronous scenarios. I will reply when the patch is available.

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 14

OData entities will also be supported. For OData you will have already configured the adapter with odata message protocol instead of soap. In the current state the odata call in the receiver channel will fetch either all the records or a very fixed number of records depending on the resource path given in the channel settings. We are working on it to improve it further.

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 14

Thanks Bikash

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 15

Bikash - what is your email id ?

I have tried above discussed scenario. I am getting following error in Receiver communication channel.

INVALID_SFQLInvalid SFQL! Error: query "

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ns0:query xmlns:ns0="urn:sfobject.sfapi.successfactors.com">

<ns0:queryString>select id, username from
user</ns0:queryString>

</ns0:query>"

is not properly formed

Message could not be forwarded permantely to the JCA adapter. Reason: SFAPI Domain Error!

I have sent the suggested requrest message . but error !!!

Regards

Prabhat Sharma.

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 16

my mail id is bikash.prakash.mishra@sap.com

We are releasing a patch to fix this issue. This will be available sometime mid of next week.

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 17

Hi Bikash,

Waiting for this patch eagrly.

We have to deliver a solution for a client and now we are waiting for your patch to deliver it successfully.

following is our expectation from SFSF Receiver Adapter.

1. In case of Query - it will give back the actual query data response.

2. In case of Update/Upsert - it will give back the succes/fail log message.

Regards

Prabhat Sharma.

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 24

Any Update - Bikash ?

Former Member · ‎2014 Jul 29

Hi finny.babu,

This is really great blog. Thanks a lot for sharing.

We are going to integrate SAP HCM with Sucessfactors. The project is in very initial stage, I need your help to get the latest integration add-ons and adapters provided by SAP to achieve this integration.

As you have mentioned, still developments are going on, which option is best to among the above which you mentioned considering in mind that SAP is working on these Addons.

Thanks,

Farhan

finny_babu · ‎2014 Jul 30

Hi Farhan

Currently these are the options available to integrate SAP HCM with SuccessFactors:

1. SOAP Axis adapter and integration add-ons

2. SFSF Adapter in Connectivity Add-on

There is preshipped content available for integration using the first option, but not with the second option as yet. Second option, is built solely for SuccessFactors integration, with support for Adhoc entities and OData API's.

Former Member · ‎2014 Aug 04

Hi finny.babu,

Thanks a lot for your quick help, and I am sorry for being late here.

Could you please explain me why there are two approach from SAP to integrate with Sucessfactors, I understand the SFSF adapters are designed for OData API's, however is this was limitation for SOAP Axis adapter? is there anything which was not achievable through Axis adapter?

Based on your experience which approach shall choose now, we are still in analyzing phase of our project. Shall We choose the first approach for integration?

Appreciated your help and efforts :smile:

Thanks,

Farhan

former_member184948 · ‎2014 Aug 11

Thanks a Lott!! finny for sharing such a nice blog.

In my project we are doing SAP HCM<->PI 7.4 dual stack<->Success factor integration.

We are in very initial phase of project.

I have never done set up from scratch.Could you please tell me if my following understanding is correct.

We go to SAP site to the path which you mentioned and download the connectivity add on 1.0 and install it.

1)By installing it, will will get to see a new SFSF adapter in Integration directory?

2)And if my understanding is correct , now we would need only one adapter "SFSF" for communication with SF,right? not again two SOAP adapters, one with and one without Aixs.

3)Will we still need to install the security certificates from link of Success factor, in Administation of SAP PI.

4)Operations Modeller, where query is written is part of Successfactor? the query would be provided by SF team?

Former Member · ‎2014 Sep 23

HI Finny!

Nice block and really helpful!

We are planning the integration landscape between HCM and SuccessFactors and I would like to confirm if I'm certain about the below points:

- In case of RDS, where predefined content is already available to import in PI for several uses cases, this SucessFactors Adpater Ad-on is NOT necessary given the communication is done over SOAP Axis adapter.

- In case of use cases not covered by above point we should implement bespoke interfaces using this SucessFactors Adpater Ad-on.

Am I in the right direction?

Many thanks!

Former Member · ‎2014 Oct 01

Hi..

I am trying to test SFSF adapter SP01, but could not solve the error.

Do you know any notes or patch related below problem?

Login successful, and then INVALID SESSION ID in next step

thanks..

Former Member · ‎2014 Oct 01

Hi Andy,

Please open an OSS message with nwa access on component BC-XI-CON-SUF. I will have a look. I may be little late in replying due to long holidays in India (Monday is the next working day).

-Bikash

finny_babu · ‎2014 Oct 06

Hi Dilip

Sorry for the late reply, please find my answers to your queries below:

1. Yes

2. Yes (For integrations using SFSF adapter, there is no pre-shipped content available as yet)

3. Usually these certificates are standard verisign certificates, but if doesnt work, please install them yourself.

4. Operations Modeller is an eclipse based modelling tool (for Juno or Kepler), which you can use to create queries and then use them in the adapter. Please refer the documentation, to find out from where you can download the plugin.

finny_babu · ‎2014 Oct 06

Hi Phileas

Yes, you are correct. If you are trying to access generic SOAP/SFAPI's then you can use the SOAP Axis adapter as it also provides pre shipped content. But SFSF adapter also supports OData API's, delta sync of data, automatic polling of data based on scheduler, etc.

former_member181959 · ‎2014 Oct 17

Thanks for the sharing the blog. It's very informative and keep up the good work...

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 19

Hi Finny

I am trying to use the SFSF Receiver Adapter to get an UPDATE message from PI to SF. I am using the updateRequest Message Type from SFIntegration. The message PI is sending to SF looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<ns1:update xmlns:ns1="urn:sfobject.sfapi.successfactors.com">

<ns1:type>JobRequisition$261</ns1:type>

<ns1:sfobject>

<ns1:id>1234</ns1:id>

<ns1:type>JobRequisition$261</ns1:type>

<ns1:sourcerName>someName</ns1:sourcerName>

</ns1:sfobject>

</ns1:update>

In the receiver channel I then get this error:

1:341: cvc-complex-type.2.3: Element 'ns1:sfobject' cannot have character [children], because the type's content type is element-only.

And when I check the log in SF, this is the message that SF received:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

<SOAP-ENV:Header />

<SOAP-ENV:Body>

<ns1:update xmlns:ns1="urn:sfobject.sfapi.successfactors.com">

<ns1:type />

<ns1:sfobject>

<ns1:type />

JobRequisition$261

</ns1:sfobject>

<ns1:sfobject>

<ns1:type />

<ns1:id>1234</ns1:id>

<ns1:type>JobRequisition$261</ns1:type>

<ns1:sourcerName>someName</ns1:sourcerName>

</ns1:sfobject>

</ns1:update>

</SOAP-ENV:Body>

</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Is my update statement wrong in any way or is this a bug of the SFSF Receiver Adapter?

Thank you & best regards,

Miriam

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 20

Hi Miriam,

Please follow the instructions mentioned in the url http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw-connectivity-addon100/helpdata/en/a5/940acc528043ccb90d9267e8e13f1e/f... to install the HCI query modeller. The link is a bit outdated. You will have to install Kepler and use the url https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/kepler.

After that you can model the operation to generate a data type that is understood by the sfsf adapter.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw-connectivity-addon100/helpdata/en/b8/d56a2c7ee743fc98bdc1e8c42dc4e7/c...

This xsd will give you the format that has to be supplied to the receiver adapter.

I see that you are using an entity containing a $ sign. e.g. JobRequisition$261

In the receiver channel you will have to check the checkbox "select entity for channel processing" in the processing tab and give the entity name JobRequisition$261

Best regards,

Bikash

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 20

Hi Bikash,

Thank you so much for providing this information!

My UPDATE statement is working perfectly now!

Best regards,

Miriam

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 27

Hi andy.jeon, I have the same problem as you, "Login Successful, and then a INVALID SESSION ID in next step" in PI 7.4, you may resolve the error? Could you tell me how resolved this error ?. Thank you very much

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 28

Hi Viviana,

Are you using the HCM integration addon content with the SFSF adapter?

-Bikash

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 28

Yes, I am using the addon 2.0. The problem is with the interface of recruiting, in the interface "SFSFGenericUpsertRequestConfirmation_Out", the error is "Error in Session ID, the length of the session should be 200".

Thanks,

Former Member · ‎2014 Dec 02

The scenarios developed with the interfaces are meant to be used with soap adapter (axis) by default. We have not shipped any scenarios yet that work with sfsf adapter. The new developments are underway. You can use soap adapter for now.

Best regards,

Bikash

Former Member · ‎2015 Jan 29

Hi Finny,

We are having issues while performing delta extraction from ADHOC entities using condition based on date time field (LastModified) and below is error in the communication channel log

"QUERY_FAILUREQuery failure! Error: Adhoc_XXX entities don't support function [to_datetime]"

Whether "Delta Sync" is supported for ADHOC entities?

Please update and also raised a thread SFSF Adapter - Delta Synch for the same issue.

Thanks & Regards,

Prakash

finny_babu · ‎2015 Jan 30

Hi Prakash

Bikash has already answered this question in the thread - SFSF Adapter - Delta Synch

Regards

Finny

Former Member · ‎2015 Mar 16

Hello Finny- Thank you for sharing your great blog.

Here I want to integrate SuccessFactor Learning Management System with SAP PI through SFSF adapter for accessing following Standard services to pull the Curriculum Catalog/ Curriculum Status.

SFSFLMSCurriculumCatalogue_Out
SFSFLMSCurriculumStatus_Out

But for pulling the data from LMS through SFSF Adapter , if we use the message protocol as SOAP I need to provide Query String in the Processing tab. So can you please let me what is the format of Query String to pull the data for the above services.

Thanks Goutam

finny_babu · ‎2015 Mar 16

Hi Goutam

Thanks for the feedback.

LMS uses REST API's and to cover these scenarios, we have released a new version of the SFSF Adapter with REST as a message protocol, in addition to SOAP and OData. Please use SP02 of the Connectivity Add-on for your LMS scenarios.

Regards

Finny

anoop20 · ‎2015 Mar 16

Hi Goutam,

I hope, you are using standard SAP delivered content with SWCV - SFIHCM03 for integration with SFSF LMS system.

If Yes, you can refer communication channel template "SFSF_LMS_REST_ADAPTER" for Curriculum Catalogue as sender adapter and use templates "SFSF_UserQuery_SOAP_ADAPTER" & "SFSF_LMS_CurriculumStatus_REST_ADAPTER" for Curriculum Status interface.

Thanks,

Anoop

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