webMethods SAP Adapter

Release Notes


webMethods SAP Adapter Version 6.5

webMethods is pleased to introduce webMethods SAP Adapter Version 6.5 (SAP Adapter). The SAP Adapter allows you to extend your business processes over the Internet and integrate non-SAP products using open and non-proprietary technology. The SAP Adapter allows for bi-directional, real-time, synchronous and asynchronous communication to and from SAP systems. SAP Adapter 6.5 leverages the WmART architecture and provides the enhancements described below.

Connectivity to SAP Systems

The SAP Adapter enables you to establish and manage connections from the SAP Adapter to your SAP system and vice versa, including connections that use Secure Network Communication (SNC). SNC connections can use default credentials, or you can provide X.509 certificates to provide connection specific credentials. You configure these connections using an administrator page that you access via the Integration Server Administrator.

The SAP Adapter fully manages all connections, connection pools, and sessions. Through these connections you can create and run your SAP integrations.

Template-Based Integrations

The SAP Adapter provides service templates for interactions with SAP systems. From webMethods Developer, you use these templates to create adapter services. Using the templates makes it easy to develop adapter services to interact with SAP systems.

Adapter service template implementations represent specific SAP operations. For example, you can create adapter services that invoke one dedicated function module at your SAP system. You create adapter services using the templates and invoke them from your integration flows.

The SAP Adapter provides the ability to generate adapter services that synchronously invoke RFCs and tRFCs on the SAP system.

SAP Adapter RFC Listeners and Notifications

The SAP Adapter provides RFC listeners and listener notifications to listen for incoming requests from SAP systems. To handle the request, the adapter notification invokes a specific service that is assigned at design time or publishes the message to the broker. Alternatively, you can determine how to process an incoming request at run time by using routing listeners and notifications. See Routing Listener and Notifications below.

You can configure listener notifications to use multiple threads or to use Secure Network Communication (SNC).

RFC Listeners

You configure RFC listeners using an administrator page that you access via the Integration Server Administrator. A RFC listener receives dedicated requests from the SAP system. When a call is made from the SAP system, the RFC listener passes the message to a listener notification.

Listener Notifications

You configure listener notifications using an administrator page that you access via the Integration Server Administrator. A listener notification works in conjunction with a RFC listener to filter and process requests from the SAP system in the SAP Adapter. You can create listener notifications to:

SAP Adapter Routing Listener and Notifications

Rather than using adapter notifications where you identify at design time a specific service to handle an incoming request, you can have the SAP Adapter determine how to process incoming requests at run time by routing incoming requests via the routing listener.

The SAP Adapter provides a routing listener that manages the routing of incoming requests. The routing listener determines how and where to route an incoming request based on routing notifications that you define. When the SAP Adapter receives the IDoc, RFC, BAPI, or XML document, it matches the sender, the receiver, and the message type associated with the incoming request against the existing routing notifications. When it locates a matching routing notification, the adapter invokes the outbound transport defined in the matching routing notification to process the incoming request.

The outbound transport in a routing notification allows you to process an incoming request using one of the following methods:

Transaction Store

The SAP Adapter provides a transaction manager that allows you to monitor the state of your transactions. You use an administrator page that you access via the Integration Server Administrator to view the transactions in the transaction store.

Document Type Generation for SAP Document Types

When processing documents, you might need to map data from RFCs or IDocs to another format, or vice versa. When you map data, it is helpful to have a document type that defines the structure of an RFC or IDoc. The SAP Adapter allows you to use the webMethods Developer to generate the document types from the following:

Compatibility with Previous webMethods SAP Adapters

The webMethods SAP Adapter 6.5 is compatible at the public API level with SAP Adapter version 4.6 and compatible with most integrations built using the webMethods SAP Adapter 4.6. However, the inbound and outbound maps created with earlier versions of the SAP Adapter, and the WmPartners routing rules used in conjunction with the SAP Adapter, must be migrated for use with the new SAP Adapter 6.5. You cannot use the webMethods SAP Adapter 6.5 to run inbound maps, outbound maps, and routing rules generated for the earlier SAP adapters, and vice versa.

webMethods intends to provide migration utilities to migrate integrations built with the webMethods SAP Adapter 4.6 to the SAP Adapter 6.5.

You also cannot run the webMethods SAP Adapter 6.5 on the same Integration Server together with earlier webMethods SAP R/3 Adapters.

Software and Platform Support

The webMethods SAP Adapter 6.5 supports SAP systems 3.1h and later.

For a complete listing of the versions of SAP and of webMethods Integration Server with which the adapter works, see the webMethods SAP Adapter Installation Guide 6.5.

Other Notable Features

For information about the previous release of webMethods SAP Adapter, see the release notes for that release, below.


webMethods SAP R/3 Adapter Version 4.6

webMethods is pleased to introduce webMethods SAP R/3 Adapter Version 4.6 (SAP Adapter). The SAP Adapter allows you to extend your business processes over the Internet and integrate non-SAP products using open and non-proprietary technology. The SAP Adapter allows for bi-directional, real-time, asynchronous communication to and from the SAP server. SAP Adapter 4.6 provides the enhancements and fixes described below.

Improved Performance

Processing of SAP-XML documents in general is now faster. This improvement is most evident with large documents.

Monitoring

SAP Adapter Services

Updates to the RFC Converters

Requirement for Librfc32.dll Product Version 620

If you are using a Windows NT or 2000 system, SAP Adapter 4.6 requires you to install librfc32.dll Product Version 620. This library is distributed as part of the SAP Adapter package. If your librfc32.dll is not Product Version 620, see the webMethods SAP R/3 Adapter Installation Guide for instructions on installing librfc32.dll Product Version 620.

Bug Fixes

For a list of all the changes and bug fixes since the last release, see the readme.txt file on the download site or in the directories in which you installed the SAP Adapter.


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