How to Integrate with SAP
There are many ways to integrate your application with SAP. Here i will share some on ways i which i have worked on.
- Manual XML Document creation
- IDoc by shared folder
- Fully automatic by PI server
Lets go through each one by one.
Manual XML Document
It is one the most cost efficient method for integration with SAP, but it involves lot of manual intervention(in case name doesn’t gave away).
What you basically do is create create XML document through you application, & end users downloads that XML document then upload it into SAP where it will be processed accordingly.
If you want to share data from SAP to your system/application, then user has to again download XML document from SAP then he will upload it into your application
You have discuss the XML format/design with SAP consultant.
IDoc by shared folder
Concept is identical to above method, Only difference is that end user don’t have to perform downloading/uploading operation. Instead a shared folder created to which both SAP& your application has access to read & write.
Then for each trigger point/change point SAP will dump an XML document into this folder, and then your application will pick this document & will process it accordingly. reverse operation will be performed when you have to share data with SAP.
Downside being you have to continuously monitor that shared folder and of course security(as any one can paste file into those folder if they have access to system).
PI Server
It basically acts as middle man between SAP and your application, which gives you an API(Application Programming Interface) to interact with SAP. It can also share data to your API once configured.
Security is also provided by configuring credential into it which is known by your application only(Its optional but you must use it).
Only downside of PI server is it being too costly for small projects & involves lots of component(becomes hard to maintain in small project or team).
These are some of ways i have integrated with SAP.
Thanks for reading….
