[Newbie] various general questions about XI

[Former Member]

Hi,

I'm trying to dive into XI at the moment and read the SAP Help for XI but many things are not clear to me.

<b>1. Pipelines</b>

I learned that Pipelines consist of several elements. These elements are using the Pipeline Services. What I didn't understand is whether there are only 3 Pipeline Services (logical and technical routing and mapping)? Is it possible to include own services? Which programming languages are supported for that?

Also I wonder if one can compare Pipelines to the Message-Flows within Websphere BI Message Broker (formerly MQ Integrator Broker)? Can Pipelines adapt such complex scenarios as Message-Flows can (e.g. output of messages to more than one receiver, compose output-messages out of several input-messages or database-entries)? Or is that the purpose of the business processes (handled by the bp-engine)? And if so how does the bp-engine use Pipelines? (and more general, what is the difference of bp-engine and integration engine - Especially about the bp-engine I found only rare information in the online help)

<b>2. Proxies</b>

Proxies are generated out of message-interface-descriptions in the integration server. They transform proprietary message-formats to the XI-Message-format. They communicate with the proxy-runtime. But what's the task of the proxy runtime (is it just like an API)? Is the proxy-runtime a part of the integration engine?

Do I need a WAS 6.40 to use the proxies of XI 3.0 or is it enough to have any SAP WAS?

<b>3. Tools</b>

Development, configuration and administration is done with the integration builder and monitoring with the runtime workbench?

<b>4. Pricing</b>

I can't find any piece of information about the price of XI 3.0 + WAS 6.40

<b>5. JMS-Adapter</b>

I read that the JMS-Message must already be formatted in XML? So the JMS-Adapter does no transformation? Does that mean I can not integrate existing applications which for example send plain text to MQ Series - do I have to make the transformation of that plain text within my application?

Thanks for you time.

Torsten Thuemmler

[Former Member]

Torsten,

1. Pipelines

As far as I know, the idea is not to change the pipelines in any way. XI is a hub-and-spoke message broker with a pre-configured number of steps.

There are 2 types of pipelines: integration server (the real message broker) and the integration engine in support of the proxies.

In the future XI 3.0, the process engine allows more complex types of processing. The current XI 2.0 does not have a bp engine.

2. Proxies

A simple sending-only Java proxy can run with a simple Java runtime and doesn't require a J2EE engine. The receiving Java proxy (server) needs the Java J2EE engine.

3. Tools

Correct. The Integration Builder cannot be used for monitoring the runtime system. It is also not possible to run something in debug mode within the Integration Builder.

5. JMS adapter

The JMS adapter supports also text and binary messages. The message is not required to be a XML message.

Regards, Guy Crets

[Former Member]

Guy,

thanks for your answers. Regarding the JMS-Adapter I found the following in the online-help of xi 3.0 (chapter: SAP XI - Overview - Connectivity - Communication Using Adapter Runtime - Integrating BS by using the JMS Adapter)

<snip>

An external or legacy system is connected to the Integration Engine by means of a JMS provider (for example, SonicMQ), and the JMS adapter. The JMS adapter exchanges JMS messages with the JMS messaging system. The JMS adapter receives a message from the JMS provider and forwards it to the Integration Engine to be processed further. It is assumed that the JMS message is already in XML format

<snap>

The last sentence is confusing to me regarding your answer. How does the SAP-people does mean this sentence? Maybe I'm fussy but that fact is very important to the scenario I'm involved to.

Perhaps you have an link or document in which the functionality/capabilities of the jms-adapter is described better.

Hopefully you or anyone else answers before weekend.

Anyway have a nice weekend.

Torsten