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author's profile photo Former Member
Former Member

SAP Beginner info needed

Posted on Mar 30, 2004 at 04:02 PM 19 Views

I hope this is the right place for this post.

I am an experienced java programmer who is beginning to learn about sap. Currently, my project is to rewrite a large web application that previously was plugged on Oracle and an IBM mainframe and to plug it into sap R/3.

We are using WebSphere(probably 5 or 6), thus JDK 1.4 or higher. WebSPhere runs on solaris 5.8. Locally, we use wsad 5.1.1. (This architecture cannot change)

Being in the exploratory phase, I would appreciate some guidance, here are some questions:

1) Which connectors should we use ? XI, JCA, JCO, SOAP, etc...

2) Does SAP offer a JCA implementation which I may use in WebSphere ?

3) Where may I find more information about controlling transactions ?

Please feel free to offer any other advice also

Thanks in advance !

SAP NetWeaver Application Server for Java SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform SAP Crystal Server
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1 Answer

  • author's profile photo Benny Schaich-Lebek
    Benny Schaich-Lebek
    Posted on Mar 31, 2004 at 02:32 PM

    > We are using WebSphere(probably 5 or 6), thus JDK 1.4

    > or higher. WebSPhere runs on solaris 5.8. Locally, we

    > use wsad 5.1.1. (This architecture cannot change)

    >

    The point here is that your SAP systems soon will run Java servers too and that would make your live much easier as you won't even leave the system to access the SAP stuff.

    > Being in the exploratory phase, I would appreciate

    > some guidance, here are some questions:

    >

    > 1) Which connectors should we use ? XI, JCA, JCO,

    > SOAP, etc...

    XI is generally the way to go for what you want. Inside this you will find a JCA Connector, that keeps itself JCo inside. So, more or less you're talking about the same thing on different levels.

    > 2) Does SAP offer a JCA implementation which I may

    > use in WebSphere ?

    There is a Websphere Connection for NetWeaver (the whole technology stack) but I don't know if it is a JCA connector.

    > 3) Where may I find more information about

    > controlling transactions ?

    Watch out for BAPI and RFC and description on how you will access them.

    >

    > Please feel free to offer any other advice also

    Port the stuff to SAP NetWeaver as soon as it's available.

    You asked for it

    Regards,

    Benny

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    • Benny Schaich-Lebek Former Member
      Apr 05, 2004 at 07:36 PM

      > >

      > Sorry, maybe I didn't explain properly here. As

      > As far as java libraries connecting to sap, I have

      > found 98% examples using Jco, and almost none using

      > JRA...and this puzzles me.

      OK, that was a misunderstanding: I thought you were talking about JCA in general. As somebody else stated already SAP JRA is in beta state at the moment and therefore there are no examples. To be honest we are not even showing EJB access via JRA, because most of our applications are only using Web Dynpro as front end and do the business logic in ABAP. This has different reasons, most of them have to do with Java abd it's way.

      >According to my

      > understanding, JRA (impl of J2EE spec JCA), is more

      > flexible in the long run, because:

      > 1) It plugs into the J2EE/EJB security model.

      > 2) It uses the J2EE/EJB transaction model,

      > eliminating the task of managing commits/rollbacks in

      > clients. This encourages a finer granularity when

      > creating interfaces for accessing sap.

      > 3) Since JCA is just a set of interfaces, clients are

      > 'typed' only to the definition of the API, not the

      > implementation.

      > 4) By using JCA, you can replace Jco at the flip of a

      > switch.

      > 5) In a purist sense, replacing Jco eventually seems

      > to be a good idea because it uses JNI (which is

      > discouraged by the J2EE spec). For instance, some

      > application container vendors refuse to support

      > clients that use JNI in their containers.

      This is absolutely on the way.

      >

      > I am currently creating some, if anyone would like

      > ke to see examples of making basic calls to sap using

      > JCA, I would be glad to share....just let me know.

      Absolutely! You can contribute your examples by uploading files to SDN. I'll look after them and will be happy to promote such.

      Regards,

      Benny