Using MQ / JMS adapter with legacy system to talk to SAP

[Former Member]

Hello,

We are using XI to integrate our Mainframe system with SAP. At a basic level we know we could FTP data around as nothing is required to be synchronous. We would rather use a delivery mechanism like MQ to transfer the data in and out of our Mainframe for reliability.

We have a test scenario set up that can get MQ data through in both directions using JMS. However, this adapter doesn't appear to offer any parameters to parse the message contents into XML such as the File Adapter does. From MQ we just get raw data which doesn't translate to our XI Data Types, and our Legacy system won't be generating the data in XML format.

Is there a way to chain together the File Adapter with the JMS adapter to accomplish the translation from fixed character layout into XML that XI understands? Or is there another route that is better such as loading a custom Java Module into the JMS adapter process? If so, do you know of any samples?

I'm really looking for ideas or advice from anyone who has worked with a similar scenario.

Many thanks for your help,

Aaron

[Former Member]

I'm getting the impression from some research that there is an SAP document titled "How to Use the Content Conversion Module in JMS Adapter" which sounds like what I'm looking for. However, I cannot find this document on SDN.

Does anyone know where I can find this or any other helpful information on using the Content Conversion Module to transform the MQ message contents in/out of XML?

Regards,

Aaron

[Former Member]

The MessageTransformBean module is exactly what I needed. It has many parameters similar to the File Conversion adapter and can convert our MQ/JMS messages into XML.

[http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/Helpdata/EN/24/4cad3baabd4737bab64d0201bc0c6c/content.htm|http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/Helpdata/EN/24/4cad3baabd4737bab64d0201bc0c6c/content.htm]

In our configuration the path was simply "AF_Modules/MessageTransformBean" rather than with "localejbs\" at the front.

Hope this helps someone!

[former_member17289]

Hi Aaron - I think I have a comparable scenario to this. We currently use IBM R3Link to pass the data from backend SAP to mq and legacy. We are setting up PI (to replace R3Link) and plan to use JMS (for WebSphere MQ) in my Receiver Agreement to send data to mq & legacy. In order to not change how the IMS transaction (on mainframe) works, i.e. the program that is triggered when a mq message arrives in its queue, I want to send the mq message 'structured' as before. In my PI testing, the mq message is in xml - when I view the mq queue on legacy, the message is all in xml. I would need to change the IMS transaction to read xml, but would rather not.

Do you think this is comparable to what you are saying, and if so, can you offer more detail as to what exactly you did?

Any help appreciated.

Keith

[Former Member]

Hi Keith,

It looks as if you are in the same situation.

We have this working very nicely now and I'm happy to share. In fact I was just granted wiki permissions so I can add the information there along with screen shots.

Informaiton on this configuration is very scattered but I imagine many people would find it useful for integrating with Mainframes without adding any complexity to the legacy environment. Let me come back to you with some more inormation, but for now you can get started with this:

Insert a module as the 3rd line in your Module Processing Sequence to use AF_Modules/MessageTransformBean and give it a key in order to associate with the parameters you will need to type in below. These parameters are very similar to normal XI File adapter parameters.

SAP Note 793922 has more info on the parameters... not the greatest reference I know.

Also this has some info...

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/Helpdata/EN/57/0b2c4142aef623e10000000a155106/content.htm

I'll try and get some screen shots up on the Wiki.

[former_member17289]

Hi Aaron - thanks very much for this. I appreciate your reply. The closest doc I found was at http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/XI/HowTo...ContentconversionmodulewithJ2EEJMS+adapter from Oct 2008. The doc/page is not formatted and thus when it gets to the point in the examples (Receiver channel example, simple structure) of showing specific values for the Module Configuration, its a bit hard to to follow. I'm trying to piece this together.

This looks very promising though. Let me know when the screen shots are available on the wiki.

Regards,

Keith

[Former Member]

That page is a good generic start to JMS. I don't know who the author is (says guest). I've fixed up the formatting a bit but there is more to go.

I'll add to this example with more info and some screen shots as promised.

-Aaron