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SAP Connect User's Guide
CHAPTER 1
Welcome to the Novell Integration Manager SAP Connect Guide. This Guide is a companion to the Integration Manager User's Guide, which details how to use all the features of Integration Manager, except the Connect Component Editors. So, if you haven't looked at the User's Guide yet, please familiarize yourself with it before using this Guide.
Integration Manager provides separate Component Editors for each Connector, such as SAP Connect. The special features of each component editor are described in separate Guides like this one.
If you have been using Integration Manager, and are familiar with the core component editor, the XML Map Component Editor, then this Guide should get you started with the SAP Component Editor.
Before you can begin working with SAP Connect, you must have installed it into your existing Integration Manager. Likewise, before you can run any Services built with this Connector in the Integration Manager Enterprise Server environment, you must have already installed the Server side software for this Connector into Integration Manager Enterprise Server.
NOTE: To be successful with this Component Editor, you must be familiar with the SAP environment and the applications that you want to XML-enable.
Integration Manager is built upon a simple hub and spoke architecture. The hub is a robust XML transformation engine that accepts requests via XML documents, performs transformation processes on those documents and interfaces with XML-enabled applications, and returns an XML response document. The spokes, or Connectors, are plug-in modules that "XML-enable" sources of data that are not XML aware, bringing their data into the hub for processing as XML. These data sources can be anything from legacy COBOL/VSAM managed information to Message Queues to HTML pages. Integration Manager Connectors can be categorized by the integration strategy each one employs to XML-enable an information source. The integration strategies are a reflection of the major divisions used in modern systems designs for Internet- based computing architectures. Depending on your eBusiness needs and the architecture of your legacy applications, Integration Manager can integrate your business systems at the User Interface, Program Logic, or Data levels.
SAP provides enterprise resource software for core business processes via a series of integrated modules . Examples of these core business processes include inventory, order entry, accounts receivable, accounts payable, production scheduling and payroll.
The Remote Function Call (RFC) protocol is the center for all communication between SAP and external components.
ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) is the SAP programming language. ABAP Function Modules can only be called from an external client if they are RFC-enabled. SAP R/3 contains thousands of RFC-enabled Function Modules (RFMs).
Included in these RFMs are BAPIs (Business Application Programming Interface). A BAPI is an RFM that follows additional rules (see the SAP BAPI Programming Guide) and is defined in the BOR (Business Object Repository) as a method of an object type.
A Business Object Type is an object-oriented structure upon which the SAP system is based. A single business object (e.g. Sales Order) represents a single business detail and encompassses the functions and data of this detail. A business object is one instance of a business object type.
All SAP business object types are defined and described within the SAP R/3 BOR. The BOR is the central access point for external applications (e.g., Integration Manager integration applications) to access SAP Business object types.
BAPIs allow SAP business objects to be called from external applications. The SAP Java Connector (JCo) is a Java API which provides access to BAPIs.
The following model illustrates this architecture:
SAP Connect allows both inbound and outbound calls to SAP BAPIs and other RFC-enabled Function Modules (RFMs). Integration Manager SAP Connect was designed specifically to integrate with the SAP environment through the SAP JCo (Java Connector). The SAP Connect component communicates with SAP programs using the SAP JCo libraries to call SAP RFMs. Integration Manager SAP Connect XML-enables SAP R/3 applications using the Program Logic integration strategy. 
Using SAP Connect, you can make SAP applications and their business logic available to internet, extranet, or intranet processes. The SAP Function action allows you to search for and select an SAP Function which you want to execute. Once you find and select the desired function, you can select the SAP Request fields to which you want to map data and you can select the SAP Response fields from which you want to map data. These SAP Request and Response fields are then displayed in the Native Environment Pane (NEP) on the SAP Request and SAP Response tabs, respectively.
With the selected SAP function's request data fields displayed in the NEP's SAP Request tab, you may map data from XML request documents to the SAP Request fields. This data is mapped prior to executing the SAP function.
Similarly, with the SAP function's response data fields displayed in the NEP's SAP Response tab, you may map data from SAP Response fields to the XML request document. This data is mapped after executing the SAP function.
SAP Connect creates SAP Components which can be incorporated into Integration Manager Services. Much like the XML Map component, the SAP component is designed to map, transform, and transfer data between two different XML templates (i.e., request and response XML documents). It is specialized to allow both inbound and outbound calls to SAP BAPIs or other RFC-enabled function modules (RFMs).
Like any data-exchange operation, the SAP Component relies on a Connection Resource. The Connection Resource specifies important information regarding Host or IP Address, SAP System Number, SAP Client Number, SAP Language, as well as the User ID, Password and Pooling Options of the Connection. Once you've set up an SAP Connection Resource, you can use it to set up an SAP Component that calls an SAP function which processes request data and returns response data.
An SAP Component can perform simple data manipulations, such as mapping and transferring data from an XML document into an SAP application, and putting the data into an XML document. It can also perform sophisticated operations, such as mapping. The SAP Component has all the functionality of the XML Map component and can process XSL, send mail, and post and receive XML documents using the HTTP protocol.
The following illustration shows how an SAP component uses a connection to interact with data on the mainframe.
The SAP Component Editor allows you to extend any XML integration you are building to include your SAP applications (See Integration Manager User's Guide for more information.) For example, you may have an application that retrieve a product's description, picture, price, and inventory from regularly updated databases and displays it on a Web browser. By using the SAP Component Editor, you can now get the current product information from the operational systems and the static information (e.g., the picture) from the database and merge the information from these separate information sources before displaying it to a user. This provides the same current information to both your internal and external users.
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