Is SAP R/3 mandatory for MI

[Former Member]

Hi,

MI web Console requires a valid SAP R/3 user account to login (which is basically used to login into ABAP engine).

1. Is it mandatory to use SAP R/3 backend for MI or is it possible to use some other system instead of R/3?

I have Netweaver with J2ee stack but I don't have ABAP stack.

2. Is it possible to make an application where the authentication takes place using some backend other than R/3 for example let's say I have a j2ee application deployed in WebAS j2ee engine and I want to use this for server side processing. Now if my client sends some request to sever then miSyncServlet instead of automatically forwarding it to ABAP engine for further processing, forwards it to my j2ee application. This way I will have more control of my application at the server end as well.

Pls Guide

Ravi Sharma

HCL Technologies

SAP Netweaver COE

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ravi,

Question 1: When you look at the MI system landscape as a three tiered architecture with MI Client on the mobile device (client tier) the SAP Web Application Server 6.40 with MI Server (middleware tier) and a backend system (backend tier) where the business logic resides, you can indeed use any backend system that supports RFC calls or can be connected via the SAP Business Connector. This has not to be a SAP system of course.

But reading your post I assume that you refer to the SAP WAS 6.40 as the "backend" where both MI Server and the business logic reside. Since the MI Server is both a J2EE and ABAP component and the MI architecture is firmly integrated into both stacks (ABAP and JAVA) it is absolutely mandatory to use WAS 6.40 with both stacks. Otherwise you do not even have a mobile infrastructure, since relevant parts of it are built into the ABAP stack.

Question 2: You are right that MI is something like a "black box" server side, with some exceptions (wrapper functions for generic sync can be customly coded, for instance). But this means also that the whole MI framework works the way it works and the user authentication takes place within the MI sync servlet in combination with teh ABAP stack. Of course you can use an LDAP integration for you WAS or another R/3 reference system, so that you don't have to maintain R/3 users directly on your WAS box. But you won't be able to overcome the internals of MI such as data container/SyncBO processing.

If you want to use a custom server side J2EE application I am afraid that you can at best reuse SAP's "mobile" tomcat implementation on the client device and develop your own client application and server application.

Best regards,

Tim

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your detailed answer.

Since we need the ABAP Server component for MI. Can you please tell me what exactly do we need in ABAP. Do we need the complete ABAP Stack or are there some specific function modules or other components that would be sufficient for running an MI application?

For example if I don't have a SAP system as backend then my priority would be to purchase the minimum components required for MI to work. What are those minimum components? It would be very helpful if you can put some light on this.

Ravi Sharma

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Ravi,

the shopping list as far as I know about reads as follows:

+ Complete* SAP Web Application Server
    - 6.20 for Nobile Engine 2.1
    - 6.40 for Mobile Infrastructure 2.5
+ SAP Mobile Engine/Infrastructure J2EE Components
+ SAP Mobile E/I Client
+ MI Developer license

*Complete means that it contains both ABAP and J2EE stack. Of course, No ERP ABAP functionality is necessary, just the application platform.

Hope that helps

Tim