Service Provisioning Approach vs Integration Scenarios

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

Our client is providing us SAP PI 7.1 to be used as integration tool but is not going complete eSOA Model.

In our scenarios client's legacy systems want to use Web Services.

ECC -> PI -> Legacy (Web Service)

Please suggest, shall we go for Service Provisioning or Intergration Scenario approach for creating interfaces?

According to me, we can go with simple Integration Scenarios rather than using Service Provisioning through Process Component Modelling.

Looking for Advice..

Thanks a lot

[Former Member]

Adding to what Avishek said...

You could also do an async web service call using WS-RM directly from ABAP to Legacy Web Service.

For this you would need the Web Service Runtime configured correctly, you can check SAP Note: 1043195 for this.

I'm also not sure from what version this functionality is available.

Regards, Trevor

[avishek_gorai2]

Trevor is right, for async WS_RM can be used, only other thing to check is if the Legacy sytem supports WS-RM.

Regards,

Avishek.

[Former Member]

Guys but as far as i understand the WS-RM feature and other features like Direct Connection can be only used when you are connection to SAP systems...correct me if I am wrong!!!

[avishek_gorai2]

Hi Chanakya,

Direct connection using Web Services is possible between SAP and Non SAP systems, owing to the fact that Web Services is an open standard for interoperability between platforms.

Also WS-RM is a Web Service standard and should only be supported by individual platforms for being operational, as far as I know SAP is supporting this now (not sure from which release). However you have to check if your legacy system supports WS-RM (since this is a kind of handshake mechanism and needs to be enabled for both parties in the communication).

Please do not confuse between P2P connections and P2P connections using Web Services. Web Service if only works withing SAP is not a Web Service it is only a Service , addition of the word Web implies it is accessible over the Web using open standards.

Regards,

Avishek.

[Former Member]

Hi Chanakya,

As Gourav said, you can go that route...

Just be weary of the name changes in PI 7.1, example Message Interface is now called Service Interface. Also bear in mind the client's vision for the future, if the client wants to go the full eSOA route then if you do the PI development like PI 7.0 then it limits you in the future in terms of Service Operations.

If you do it like PI 7.0 then the result will be one Service Interface per operation. You may need many operations per service interface in the future so there will be some re-work required.

Regards, Trevor

[Former Member]

Hi Chanakya,

Please provide more specifics. What do you mean when you say that your client is not going the entire eSOA model? Who is the provider & who is the consumer in your scenario? Is it sync or async communication? Is the Legacy System capable of web service enabling any of it's finctionality?

Regards, Trevor

[Former Member]

Thanks Gourav and Trevor,

Client is providing SAP PI 7.1 system for the purpose of integration. There are around 20 interfaces to be created where all the scenarios will have

ECC -> PI 7.1 -> Legacy

and

Legacy -> PI 7.1 -> ECC

Note: Legacy will stil be up and running after SAP implementation

@Gourav: Unfortunately these all things doen't matter as client has provided SAP PI7.1 without any technical considerations.

Scenarios are mix of Syn and Asyn communications.

Legacy CRM system is web service enabled and the technical team is providing us web services for the scnarios.

Client is implementing SD, HR, MM and FI modules currently and none of the functional teams are even interested in going even for IDOc's forget using eSOA model.

My query is even in the PI 7.1 system can we go ahead with the implementation as we go in PI 7.0 using message interfaces rather than using Serive Interfaces and Modelling of Scenarios.

Regards

[Former Member]

>My query is even in the PI 7.1 system can we go ahead with the implementation as we go in PI 7.0 using message interfaces rather than using Serive Interfaces and Modelling of Scenarios

Yes, ofcourse you can implement interface similar to PI7.0.

Regards,

Gourav

[avishek_gorai2]

Hi Chanaya,

It is no necessary to use Process Component modelling of PI 7.1 for integration using Web Services. You can very well cotinue creating good old Integration Scenarios using SOAP adapter for such communication. Also as Trevor has mentioned Service Interface is what Message Interface was in 7.0 + other features. Hence it is necessary to create a Service Interface.

As per the use of PI for the Integrations you should consider requirements like logging, monitoring performance etc. and design in the following way.

1. Use PI for all communicaiton if logging and monitoring is required.

2. Use PI for only async communication for guarnteed delivery and use ECC's capability to call Web Services direrectly for sync services, to gain some performance.

In both cases you can use the PI 7.0 concepts for communication through PI. For point to point Webservice comunication for sync interfaces create the proxy from se80 and create a logical Port using tx. SOAMANAGER in ECC.

Hope this helps.

Avishek.

[Former Member]

Thanks a lot Trevor and Avishek.

Message Interface has been changed --> Service Interface and Interface Mapping --> Operation Mapping. Isn't it?

I am using ABAP Proxy to communicate from ECC to PI and SOAP Adapter to communicate from PI to Legacy system.

@Avishek:

use ECC's capability to call Web Services direrectly for sync services, to gain some performance.

Can we communicate to Non-SAP legacy system directly using Web Service, w/out getting into PI? I think for P2P Web Service Communication both system needs to be SAP and P2P (Direct Connection) is not feasible to communicate between SAP and NON-SAP systems.

Please throw some light on it.

[avishek_gorai2]

Hi Chanakya,

Web Services by nature are open standards and interoperable, provided the platforms being used for the communiction supports the WS Standards.

SAP has support for Web Services and lot of WS Standards. If your legacy system exposes Web Services and can generate a WSDL for the same, it is possible for SAP (though I'm not sure of the ABAP version from which this support was enabled) sytem to consume (call) the Web Service directly. If you are using ECC 6.0 there is definite support for point to point Web Service calls. However as mentioned earlier please use this only for sync services.

Plese search SDN for documents on how to do this.

Regards,

Avishek.

[Former Member]

Hi,

Decide based on following factors:

- Cost effectiveness Vs value addition.

- How stable interfaces are.

- Do you you foresee high level of reusability in future.

- Is there any IT/Architect principle which mandate any particular approach.

- Available capacity and capability within organization.

Provision any new service if it is really required, else use whatever existing.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Gourav