How to load data from a WebService to a BI7 DataSource

[marco_simon2]

Hi experts,

as much as I understood it is possible to use a webservice as source for BW-data.

Let's say there's a webservice http://example.com/latestStockPrices which provides the latest stock prices.

And I would like to consume that service and load the data to a PSA-table.

I had some trouble do find matching ressources - or I had problems to understand them.

In most of them it seemed as if they were about publishing BW-data using a webservice (so the BW-system would be the server).

But I'm looking for a way to let the BW-system act as a client (which consumes the external webservice and saves the collected data to the psa-table).

Kind regards,

Marco

[marco_simon2]

In the meanwhile I realized that WebService-Datasources are obviously designed as a push-service.

So in opposite to all the other datasource-types in this case it is not the BW-system that requests that data, but the external Datasource that pushes the Data (infrequently?!) to the BW-system. A WebSerive-Datasource allows you to publish a WebService on the BW-System which waits for incomming data-deliveries.

So this whould not be the way I'm looking for since I'd like to pull data from an external webservice to the BW-system (triggered by the last one).

Are there other ways to pick-up the data from the external webservice and push them to the PSA?

I could imagine that there's some kind of module that consumes the external webservice and pushes it to the local webservice.

I found the expression "proxy" in that context repeatedly - but did not manage to fill that with life so far.

Could you please gimme some hints/ideas/comments about that topic?

[Former Member]

Just check if the below link helps. http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/71/421640033ae569e10000000a155106/content.htm

[marco_simon2]

Hi Bindu,

unfortunately this link does not help me any further since it only describes the same "push-way" that I already mentioned above.

There's no information about "how to consume data from an external webservice and forward it to the BW" in this ressource.

Kind regards,

Marco

[Former Member]

Hi Marco,

Here is how to consume WebService in ABAP.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/EN/bf/d005244e9d1d4d92b2fe7935556b4c/frameset.htm

According to this help document, you can call external WebService in forms of Method in ABAP program.

I think your idea can be achived by 2 steps.

Step1. Call external WebService, sending a request message and recieving some data.

Step2. Call BW Datasource WebService, sending data to be stored in BW as a request message.

Regards,

Kazuhisa Kobayashi

[Former Member]

got your point, but i have no clue. Can you try any way to dump XML file from the web service, convert XML to Flatfile and load via flat file data source?

[marco_simon2]

That is exactly what I'm looking for! Greate hint. Tank you a lot!

Now I've to figure out how that is effectively done.

Do you know any tutorials, how-tos or articles about that?

That might save me some try&error-time.

[marco_simon2]

That would mean that I'd have to parse the XML-document and convert it to a flat file.

If nothing else works that might be an option - but it does not sound very efficient to use the business-default-interface "WebService" and the business-default-protocol XML in order to breake them down to a flat file. One should think that there're already some more clever mechanisms.

[Former Member]

Hi Marco,

I'm sorry but I don't have any experience to use WebService in ABAP program. I don't have any documents but SAP online help.

Does anyone else know something about this?

Regarding BW datasource WebService, I have created before according to online help. Yes, it's also online help only.

Regards,

Kazuhisa Kobayashi

[federico_blarasin]

I remember this blog

never done anything similar, but I'd be curious to know if it works on the BW side.

Give us some feedback if you manage to communicate with BW via webservice

[marco_simon2]

Hi Federico,

thanks so a lot for this hint! That does at least half the way of my job!

Even if I did not understand in detail the idea behind this port-definition, but it is the solution for the first part of my task:

Step1. Call external WebService, sending a request message and recieving some data.

So I managed to consume the external WebSerive.

I'm a little bit in a lack of time, hence the step

Step2. Call BW Datasource WebService, sending data to be stored in BW as a request message

is still missing at the very moment. But I'll find the solution for that within the next few hours (or days).

I'll post further information as soon as I evaluated them.

Once again: Thanks for your support!

[Former Member]

Hi Marco,

I have same requirements. Can you please provide the steps in detail?

Thanks & Regards

Bhasin Naik

[bhaskar_pasupuleti]

Hi Marco,

I have a situation where we need to get data from Workday(Non-SAP) to SAP BI DataSource using WebService.

Could you please share steps in building the flow with details.

Thanks & Regards

Bhaskar

[marco_simon2]

I'm sorry to tell you that I didn't finish the above described idea anymore since the the request to collect external data via webservice was dropped. Hence I've no more information than the ressources in this thread.

Best regards,

  Marco