New to SAP XI

[Former Member]

Hello Everyone,

This question may look quite basic but I am new to SAP XI and planning to use the same.

I had experience of Messaging technologies like MQSeries,MQSI and SAP Business Connector. Just wanted to make clear whether XI is same kind of technology like WebMethods Integration Server where Integration Server is like WebMethods Integration Server and can we develop similar kinds of flow service and Java services as we used to develop in Business Connector. What additional benefits XI provides over Business Connector?

Thanks And Regards

Rajeev Patkie

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Rajeev,

XI is the replacement for Business Connector. In SAP BC you dont have any architecture to display the messages sent, unless you use additional tools like MQSeries. XI is indeed an EAI tool.

XI you develop functions and not services. Mapping is more complex than Business connector. You need to do mapping in XSL or java in XI. Instead of java services, functions can be created in XI.

XI has the following benefits.

- a predefined architecture to handle messages

- unlike BC, XI can be used to map legacy to legacy

- support by SAP will be provided for XI and not

BC very soon.

Regards

Amit

[Former Member]

Is there a Sap XI primer or getting started?

I am also in the Websphere arena and need to move to SAP XI, any help or ideas?

[Former Member]

Hi Emile,

You have a few options:

Recordings:

If you go to the homepage of the SDN - Exchange Infrastructure, you will find that there is an eLearning link on your right. You can start there since there are some recordings and introductions which you can listen to.

Powerpoints:

Look at the Popular Documents section for "SAP Exchange Infrastructure - Process Centric Collaboration". It's in a PDF format of course.

Word Document:

I find reading a document on a subject is more helpful than looking at a Power Point presentation first or else I will have to guess what the slide is trying to communicate. There is a Technical Solutions Guide which I would consider a primer that that could be on SDN. If not, I will have to upload this.

Enjoy,

John Ta

[Former Member]

Hi John,

It would be really helpful if you could upload the technical solutions guide...'cos I am lost searching for it in SDN..

-Admin

[Former Member]

Hi Emile et al.,

I just posted a SAP XI Technical Solution 2.0 guide for you or anyone else to read as a primer to start understanding the SAP Exchange Infrastructure. You can download it from the first page when you click "Exchange Infrastructure" under the Developer Areas (right hand side) if this link doesn't work:

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.km.cm.docs/documents/a1-8-4/sap exchange infrastructure - process centric collaboration

Enjoy!

John Ta

[Former Member]

Rajeev,

SAP XI is more like webMethods Enterprise or MQSI, than SAP Business Connector.

Anything you did in SAP BC you can do in SAP XI.

SAP XI has inbuilt queuing that SAP BC did not have. They both have adapters for SAP, JDBC, JMS. The SAP XI File adapter can use either FTP or OS to write/read files.

The BPM component of XI is very powerful. You can collect messages on payload dependency, time dependency or on message dependency. For Example, you could collect all Material Master for one day into one message.

You can split messages. For example, you could split each line item of a purchase order into a new message per line item.

You can central manage all your interfaces in SAP XI.

You can configure the various adapters centrally.

You can reuse many components in SAP XI again, and again, making development quicker.

You can also map data using SAP XI, Java, XSLT and ABAP languages.

Regards,

Simon

[Former Member]

Simon,

Thanks for the reply. Indeed this will help me to jump start with XI.But as u said XI has inbuilt capabilities of queueing, in which APIs can we write code to built messages etc.(just like in IBM MQSeries we have MQSeries Client for Java,COM client etc).

What is the good place to find documentation about the same?

[Former Member]

Rajeev,

I use http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/14/80243b4a66ae0ce10000000a11402f/frameset.htm

Regards,

Simon