WebSphere® Adapter for SAP Software provides multiple ways to interact with applications and data on SAP servers. Outbound processing (from an application to the adapter to the SAP server) and inbound processing (from the SAP server to the adapter to an application) are supported.
WebSphere Adapter for SAP Software connects to SAP systems running on SAP Web application servers. The adapter supports Advanced Event Processing (AEP) and Application Link Enabling (ALE) for inbound processing, and the Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI), AEP, ALE, and Query Interface for SAP Systems (QISS) for outbound processing. You set up the adapter to perform outbound and inbound processing by using the Adapter Connection wizard to generate business objects based on the services it discovers on the SAP server.
For outbound processing, the adapter client invokes the adapter operation to create, update, or delete data on the SAP server or to retrieve data from the SAP server.
For inbound processing, an event that occurs on the SAP server is sent from the SAP server to the adapter. The ALE inbound and BAPI inbound interfaces start event listeners that detect the events. Conversely, the Advanced event processing interface polls the SAP server for events. The adapter then delivers the event to an endpoint, which is an application or other consumer of the event from the SAP server.
You configure the adapter to perform outbound and inbound processing by using the Adapter Connection wizard to create a library that includes the interface to the SAP application as well as business objects based on the functions or tables that it discovers on the SAP server.
WebSphere Adapter for SAP Software provides multiple interfaces to the SAP server for outbound processing.
BAPI calls are useful when you need to perform data retrieval or manipulation and a BAPI or RFC function that performs the task already exists.
This interface is useful when the event sequence must be preserved.
The ALE interface, which is particularly useful for batch processing of IDocs, provides asynchronous exchange. You can use the queued transactional (qRFC) protocol to send the IDocs to a queue on the SAP server. The qRFC protocol ensures the order in which the IDocs are received. It is often used for system replications or system-to-system transfers.
You also use asynchronous transaction RFC if you want to deliver the functions from a predefined queue on the SAP server. Delivering the files from a queue ensures the order in which the functions are sent.
If you select assured once-only delivery, the adapter uses a data source to persist the event data received from the SAP server. Event recovery is provided to track and recover events in case a problem occurs when the adapter attempts to deliver the event to the endpoint.
You can use the qRFC interface to receive the IDocs from a queue on the SAP server, which ensures the order in which the IDocs are received.
If you select assured once-only delivery, the adapter uses a data source to persist the event data, and event recovery is provided to track and recover events in case a problem occurs when the adapter attempts to deliver the event to the endpoint.
The adapter uses the SAP Java™ Connector (SAP JCo) API to communicate with SAP applications. An application sends a request to the adapter, which uses the SAP JCo API to convert the request into a BAPI function call. The SAP system processes the request and sends the results to the adapter. The adapter sends the results in a response message to the calling application.