integration options avaliable in abap

[anil_lahori2]

Dear ABAP team,

Pls throw some light on various intergration options avaliable .

i mean when to choose which integration framework  when connecting s4 hana with non-sap systems ?

pls illustrate  wth some real time use cases where you have implemented different intergation frameworks - idoc/proxies/web apis and so on ..

Thanks.

Anil

[Ulrich_Schmidt1]

I think this question needs to be asked from the "opposite end": not "what integration technologies are available in ABAP" (because the answer to that would be dozens of pages long...), but "what kind of data does my non-sap system expect", and then based on that, you can select the most appropriate ABAP integration tool.

So perhaps you can provide more details about your non-sap system and what kind of data it needs/can process? Then I can perhaps give some recommendations into which SAP technology you should look in more detail (Web Service Engine, PI/PO/CPI, Business Connector, low level C/C++ / Java / C# library like RFC lib or JCo, IDoc or EDI interface, etc. etc.)

In any case, here is a list of integration technologies that can be used with SAP Systems (only the ones that I know of):

RFC-based:

• EDI subsystem
• IDoc/ALE (transactional RFC)
• NW RFC Lib for C/C++
• JCo for Java
• NCo for Microsoft .NET

HTTP-based:

• ABAP classes around CL_HTTP_CLIENT & type G destinations (HTTP Client)
• Internet Communication Framework (HTTP Server to make ABAP classes callable from the outside)
• IDoc/ALE (HTTP/XML-based)
• WebService Engine (you can generate WSDLs for the APIs you want to provide as well as import WSDLs of external APIs you want to consume)
• Netweaver Gateway (for OData and REST-based communication)

Bridge between RFC and HTTP (or FTP or Email) -- middleware based:

• SAP Business Connector (provides many different integration tools out-of-the-box, e.g. network protocols like HTTP, FTP, SMTP, IMAP, POP3, JDBC and data transformation tools like graphical mappings, encryption, digital signature, zip/gzip, Base64, XML parser&renderer, HTML parser, IDoc and EDI mappings, custom Java or C/C++ routines)
• PI/PO (similar to SAP BC but with a different focus: strong points are more on "store & forward" (asynchronous scenarios) and on latest WebService/OData/REST standards)
• CPI (Cloud-based PI/PO system)

In general, these middleware-based solutions talk RFC towards the SAP System and then convert the SAP-proprietary RFC-data into other data formats suitable for HTTP/FTP/Email/JDBC (CSV, XML, SOAP, OData, JSon, whatever) and forward it to a third-party system or external business partner.

But again: if you describe in some detail, what your non-sap system needs or provides and in which direction the communication is going to take place (SAP --> non-SAP, non-SAP --> SAP, bidirectional), I can give more specific recommendations of what would be the best way to integrate it with an SAP System.