Overview of WebSphere Adapter for SAP Software

By using the adapter, an application component (the program or piece of code that performs a specific business function) can send requests to the SAP server (for example, to query a customer record in an SAP table or to update an order document) or receive events from the server (for example, to be notified that a customer record has been updated). The adapter creates a standard interface to the applications and data on the SAP server so that the developer of the application component does not have to understand the lower-level details (the implementation of the application or the data structures) on the SAP server.

WebSphere Adapter for SAP Software complies with the Java™ Connector Architecture (JCA) 1.5, which standardizes the way in which application components, application servers, and Enterprise Information Systems (EIS), such as an SAP server, interact with each other.

The adapter, which you generate with the Adapter Connection wizard, uses a standard interface and standard data objects. The adapter takes the standard data object sent by the application component and calls the SAP function. The adapter then returns a standard data object to the application component. The application component does not have to deal directly with the SAP function; it is the SAP adapter that calls the function and returns the results.

For example, the application component that requested the list of customers sends a standard business object with the range of customer IDs to the SAP adapter. The application component receives, in return, the results (the list of customers) in the form of a standard business object. The adapter completes all the interactions directly with the SAP function.

Similarly, the message flow might want to know about a change to the data on the SAP server (for example, a change to a particular customer). You can generate an adapter component that listens for such events on the SAP server and notifies message flows with the update. In this case, the interaction begins at the SAP server.

For more information, see Technical overview of Adapter for SAP Software.