Queries on MI Features

[Former Member]

Hi

following are some of the questions on SAP MI Middleware features

1) Line dropping effect on Synchonization – How does middleware handle if the connection is broken while Synchronization is in progress.

2) Existing column addition – If an existing column which was not there in SyncBO is added to it now, how is it handled

3) Alerts on new data – Does middleware alert the user on the arrival of new data for him

4) Conflict resolution – Does the middleware do First Come First Sync or is it a name based sync

5) Compression of data while synchronization (how much of data compression is acheived)

6) How are concurrent users handled

7) Territory realignment – Automatic data realignment and Data type conversions(like currency changes)

8)Windows Domain Integration

Thanks and Regards

Gopi

[Former Member]

hello gopi,

ill try some.

> 1) Line dropping effect on Synchonization – How does

> middleware handle if the connection is broken while

> Synchronization is in progress.

the protocol between the MW and client is SEND-ACK

mechanism. if the ACK is not received for a certain

container, it will try to send again the container

until the ACK is received.

> 2) Existing column addition – If an existing column

> which was not there in SyncBO is added to it now, how

> is it handled

the application must be updated with the metadata if

the SyncBO definition in the MW changes. MI does not

have a metadata update mechanism as the data is very

specific to the application.

> 3) Alerts on new data – Does middleware alert the

> user on the arrival of new data for him

MI exchanges messages in HTTP. the client will only

be aware of any changes/updates when it synchronizes

with the MW. there's no PUSH mechanism.

> 4) Conflict resolution – Does the middleware do First

> Come First Sync or is it a name based sync

MI has an Error/Conflict Handling support. the update

in the backend from concurrent clients are timestamp

based. the later one to update the same data instance

will get a conflict message. if the Error/Conflict

handling is set to Framework Resolution, the server data

always wins in the client when conflict occurs.

> 5) Compression of data while synchronization (how

> much of data compression is acheived)

this is dependent to your data format. (don't expect much

compression for MP3 e.g.) also, depends on the GZIP lib

i.e. algorithm. (Gzip uses the Lempel-Ziv algorithm)

> 6) How are concurrent users handled

in what context are you asking?

concurrent user synchronization is supported. if ever

conflicts occur, it will be handled by the EACH feature.

> 7) Territory realignment – Automatic data realignment

> and Data type conversions(like currency changes)

currently, there are only 5 data types supported in the

client: C,N,P,D,T. there's no data type to support

currency yet thus the application has to do it.

> 8)Windows Domain Integration

do you mean using the Windows Domain user account for

MI login and synchronization? possible... but im not sure

if it will be made available in the future release.

regards

jo

[Former Member]

Jo,

If 50 mobile users decide to synchronise at exactly the same time, I understand MI can manage this on the MI server through multiple handlers, so it can receive the requests. However, if all 50 are trying to do a read from the Order table in R/3 simultaneously, will the handlers manage the R/3 reads in parallel, or will they be 'queued' via the RFC link, meaning one sorry user will end up waiting 50 x (read time) seconds before sync'ing?

Thanks,

Eamonn.