NovellÒ

exteNd Composer

 
 
 SAP Connect

 


            

 

January 2004

Welcome to Novell® exteNd ComposerTM SAP Connect Version 5.0.  These release notes include the following sections:

What is new

Enhancements in SAP Connect v5.0

Installation notes

Important information about enabling exteNd Composer SAP Connect

Software and hardware requirements

Software and hardware needed to run exteNd Composer SAP Connect

Features

 

Features in this release of exteNd Composer SAP Connect

Known issues

Known issues with this release of exteNd Composer SAP Connect

What is New

exteNd Composer SAP Connect 5.0 has been enhanced to work with the new Novell exteNd Composer 5.0 and to take advantage of the new and enhanced Actions.

SAP Server Support:  This enhancement provides the ability to support bi-directional communications with an SAP application via the SAP Gateway.

Installation notes

Installing SAP Java Connector (JCo)

exteNd Composer SAP Connect is designed specifically to integrate with the SAP environment through the SAP JCo (Java Connector) libraries.  Specifically, Composer SAP Connect 5.0 has been tested with SAP Java Connector 2.0.9. 

Registered SAP users may download SAP JCo libraries from the following SAP site: http://service.sap.com.  A valid SAP Service Marketplace user ID and password is required to access this SAP site.

Note: SAP Java Connector 1.1 requires an RFC runtime library of version 6.10 or higher to be installed on the system on which you want to run JCo.

Error Messages

Note: To install exteNd Composer SAP Connect, you must have SAP Java Connector installed.

 

If you do not have SAP Java Connector installed (as described below) prior to installing Composer SAP Connect, the following dialog will be displayed.

 

Also, the log will have the following message:

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/sap/mw/jco/JCO$PoolChangedListener

 

exteNd Composer SAP Connect Developer

For exteNd Composer SAP Connect Developer, follow the SAP instructions for installing JCO on Windows NT, Windows 2000.

1.      From the SAP site, download jco-ntintel-1.1.04.zip into an arbitrary directory {jco-install-path}.

2.      Unzip the file jco-ntintel-1.1.04.zip into an arbitrary directory {jco-install-path}.

3.      Add the DLLs to the Composer\Designer\bin directory.

4.      Add jCO.jar to the Composer\Designer\lib directory.

5.      Add a <JAR> entry for jCO.jar to the SAP section of xConfig. For example:

<JAR>..\lib\jCO.jar</JAR>)

exteNd Composer SAP Connect Server on Windows NT, Windows 2000

For exteNd Composer SAP Connect Server, follow the SAP instructions for installing JCO on Windows NT, Windows 2000

1.      From the SAP site, download jco-ntintel-1.1.04.zip into an arbitrary directory {jco-install-path}.

2.      Unzip the file jco-ntintel-1.1.04.zip into an arbitrary directory {jco-install-path}.

3.      Add the DLLs to a location within the application server directory tree that is in the path so that they can be found at runtime.  For example, the application server bin directory.

4.      Add jCO.jar to the Composer\lib directory of the Server.

5.      Add [PATH]\Composer\lib\jCO.jar to the CLASSPATH of the application server

exteNd Composer SAP Connect Server on Solaris

For exteNd Composer SAP Connect Server, follow the SAP instructions for installing JCO on Solaris.

1.      From the SAP site, download jco-sun-1.1.04.tgz or jco-sun-1.1.04.tar.z into an arbitrary directory {jco-install-path}.

2.      Expand the jco-sun-1.1.04.tgz or jco-sun-1.1.04.tar.z into an arbitrary directory {jco-install-path}.

3.      Add The SOs to a location with the application server directory tree that is in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH so that they can be found at runtime.

4.      Add jCO.jar to the Composer\lib directory of the Server.

5.      Add [PATH]\Composer\lib\jCO.jar to your CLASSPATH environment variable.

exteNd Composer SAP Connect Server on AIX

For exteNd Composer SAP Connect Server, follow the SAP instructions for installing JCO on AIX.

1.      From the SAP site, download jco-rs6000-1.1.04.tgz or jco-rs6000-1.1.04.tar.z into an arbitrary directory {jco-install-path}.

2.      Expand the jco-rs6000-1.1.04.tgz or jco-rs6000-1.1.04.tar.z into an arbitrary directory {jco-install-path}.

3.      Add The SOs to a location with the application server directory tree that is in the LIBPATH so that they can be found at runtime.

4.      Add jCO.jar to the Composer\lib directory of the Server.

5.      Add [PATH]\Composer\lib\jCO.jar to your CLASSPATH environment variable.

exteNd Composer SAP Connect Server on HP-UX

For exteNd Composer SAP Connect Server, follow the SAP instructions for installing JCO on HP-UX.

1.      From the SAP site, download jco-hp_32-1.1.04.tgz or jco-hp_32-1.1.04.tar.z into an arbitrary directory {jco-install-path}.

2.      Expand the jco-hp_32-1.1.04.tgz or jco-hp_32-1.1.04.tar.z into an arbitrary directory {jco-install-path}.

3.      Add The SLs to a location with the application server directory tree that is in the SHLIB_PATH so that they can be found at runtime.

4.      Add jCO.jar to the Composer\lib directory of the Server.

5.      Add [PATH]\Composer\lib\jCO.jar to your CLASSPATH environment variable.

 

Enabling SAP Connect

As of extend 5 Composer Enterprise Edition 5.0, the Composer Connectors are no longer installed separately.  To make installation easier, the Composer Connectors are automatically installed when extend 5 Composer Enterprise Edition 5.0 is installed. 

Evaluation licenses are provided for each of the Composer solutions.  The evaluation licenses expire 90 days after installation.

Within the Composer designer, you can enable any of the Composer solutions using the Systems Information dialog’s Licenses tab.  Navigate to the System Information dialog from the Help / About exteNd Composer menu item.  Press the System button and click the Licenses tab.

To enable a Composer solution, simply click its associated ‘Enabled’ checkbox and press OK.

Note: When enabling a Composer Connector, you need to enable each of the Connector’s components.  For example, if you want to enable SAP Connect, you need to click the Enabled checkbox associated with SAP and SAPService and press OK.

When you purchase a full license for a solution, you may edit the solution’s license by clicking the Edit… button and entering the full license.

The same is true on the server side and a console dialog is provided for enabling Composer solutions and editing license keys.

 

If you experience problems with the installation of SAP Connect, contact Novell technical support for manual installation steps.

Software and hardware minimum requirements

There is no additional hardware or 3rd party software requirement to install or use any Connector within exteNd Composer.  Please see the hardware and software requirements included with both exteNd Composer Enterprise Server and Developer.

Connectors are engineered to work in conjunction with your exteNd Composer core products and are compatible with the same major version of the core products.

Tutorial

There is no tutorial sent with the SAP Connect.  Since every environment is unique, the process for setting up the connections may vary.    You can deploy the SAP components in the same manner that you do XML Map and JDBC components.  Refer to the exteNd Composer tutorial.

Features in exteNd Composer SAP Connect

The following is a brief description of the feature set provided by Novell exteNd Composer SAP Connect.  For a more detailed look at the features and functionality please read the exteNd Composer SAP Connect User Guide provided with the software and on the CD-ROM.

 

SAP Connect is a separately installable product that integrates directly with your existing exteNd Composer installation and provides you with the ability to integrate your business applications using exteNd Composer SAP Connect.

 

In addition to the features listed below the SAP Connect inherits all the functionality of the exteNd Composer XML Mapping Component Editor.  Please see the exteNd Composer Users Guide for more information.

 

Connectivity - Composer SAP Connect allows the user to create a connection to an SAP system using the SAP Java Connector Object (JCO).

o        Composer SAP Connect provides integration to the BAPI level interface to access information stored in SAP.

o        Composer SAP Connect supports both inbound and outbound calls to SAP BAPIs or other RFC-enabled Function Modules (RFMs).

Visual Integration – Composer SAP Connect provides a visual interface in which the user creates, tests and edits SAP Components.

 

o        When creating a Composer SAP component, the Create a New SAP Component Wizard presents the standard set of panels to the user.  The Name/Description panel is followed by the Input/Output/Temp Message panel, and finally the Connection panel.

 

o        The Native Environment Panel (NEP) is displayed in the upper right corner.  Within the Composer Native Environment Panel, users will be able to select from a list of existing BAPI functions, and then drag and drop to the inputs and outputs of the BAPI.

 

o        Animating or executing an SAP component will connect to the SAP system, execute the action tree, and then disconnect from the SAP system.

 

o        Composer SAP Connect introduces one new Composer Action, SAP Function Action.   Creating or editing an SAP Function action will display the SAP Function Action dialog.  The SAP Function dialog displays three tabs: the SAP Function Tab, the SAP Request tab and the SAP Response tab.

 

o        Within the SAP Function Action dialog, the SAP Function tab allows a user to search for a BAPI or RFM by specifying a search string.  After entering a search string and pressing the Search button, a list of functions matching the search criteria from a SAP repository is displayed.  The wild card character “*” can be used to replace any part of a literal string.

 

o        After a successful search the user can select a function from the Functions list by double clicking on a function name or by highlighting a function name and pressing enter or the spacebar.  Selecting the function causes the dialog to build the model selection trees on the SAP Request and SAP Response tabs.  BAPI/RFMs may have no Request or Response, only Request, only Response, or both Request and Response options.  The SAP Request and SAP Response tabs are enabled/disabled accordingly. 

 

o        The SAP Request tab allows the user to specify options for setting data into a function prior to execution. 

 

o        The SAP Response tab allows the user to specify options for getting data from a function after execution. 

Known issues

This release has the following known issues (workarounds are specified if known):

Console on WebSphere

o        If you deploy exteNd Composer service components to more than one WebSphere application server you will need to copy the exteNd Composer consoles for 3270 Connect, 5250 Connect, Telnet Connect and SAP Connect to each application server.  This will allow you to monitor the various exteNd Composer Connector connection pools for the specific application servers. 

Instructions which describe how to copy these exteNd Composer Consoles are available for from the exteNd Composer Product Download section on http://www.novell.com/.  Also included in this download is a new file called exteNdComposerConsoles.ear, which is required.

Connection Pool

o        It is possible for two different deployed projects to have the same connection name (pooled) specified, in which case one component in one project may call into the connection pool of the other project.  For an SAP Component, if Component A in Project 1 tries to access a connection of the same name in a pool created by Project 2, Component A will detect this and reinitialize the pool.  This will cause performance degradation.

Workaround: To avoid this problem be sure to uniquely name all connections.

Animation

o        The STOP button does not work during run to the end animation.  When running to a break point, first press Pause to stop the animator then press STOP.

Copyright © 2004 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved.