SAP - XI - JBoss/Tomcat

[Former Member]

In the system I'll implement, RFC for enquiries & Idoc for reporting will both be applied accordingly. The system contains a simple java web-app as the front-end deployed on 3rd party J2EE web App server (eg: Tomcat/JBoss) that will connect to SAP-XI then to client's SAP system.

I've been studying on RFC, Idoc & some XI-related overviews lately. I come to realize that what being suggested is deploying java app on SAP J2EE Engine. Since we will be using Tomcat/Apache AS, the mentioned architecture cannot be applied.

So, I hope you can give me a lead on re-designing the whole architecture if required.

1) May I know the suggested system hardware setup for this design? Does J2EE web server & SAP XI reside on the same machine or advisably to be separated?

2) I shifted this post from SAP-XI forum prior to forummer's suggestion. I will develop this system in Eclipse environment as I know SAP provides certain plugins for the integration. May I know what plugins are required?

Note: Now, I still find it hard to compose the whole big picture. My background is fresh Java Programmer with no experience in SAP.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Nothing should prevent you connecting your web app on tomcat to XI , whatever the direction of message flow be i.e. outbound / inbound.

1. XI has a combination of Java stack as well as ABAP stack as its base. The java stack essentially being the J2EE engine. It resides on the same host as that of XI, at least almost all the XI installations I've seen

Assume that your Web app wants to send as well as recieve data from XI, let us consider case by case :

1. Send data to XI : You need to make your application do a HTTP post into XI pipeline, you do not need any XI adapter to be configured as SENDER XI HTTP adapter is not required.

2. Recieve data from XI : Prerequisite being your web app works on HTTP post , you can configure a reciever HTTP adapter on XI which will send data to your webapp and might / might not recivee response.

For all this development you can use NetWeaver developer studio.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Really thanks for the confirmation. I've been asking around, however most people suggested for SAP WEB AS solution which was not what I was seeking for.

Hence, the connection between 3rd party deployed web-app and XI will be HTTP based while XI - R/3 will be Idoc/RFC based. I hope my assumption is correct. So, in this case, Java proxies are not really necessary to be implemented as HTTP connection will be sufficient?

Thanks alot.

With your clarification, it will be easier for me to study specifically on each issue from now on.

P/S: I've allocated marks.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Proxies would have been a ideal solution if any of the standard xi adapters dont suffice the requirement.

One point you should note is :

1. For sending data to XI , you can refer to the sample html code available on SDN. your web application would need to create a HTTP request may be using the java.net classes and send to XI pipeline.

2. couple of blogs regarding call to a web application from XI are also available..may be you can refer to those.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Since NWDS is based on Eclipse 2.1, can I use Eclipse 3.1/2 straight away? What would Eclipse be lack of? Any possible plugins I can install? Since, I will only get a hold of NWDS in a few weeks time, I'm thinking of trying on development in Eclipse first.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

If you plan to develop things which are specific to SAP WebAS, you might need NDS, that is why I specified you CAN use NDS as it is again eclipse based. Using Eclipse 3 may not be advisable if you plan to use NDS in future as NDS latest versions even are not using Eclipse 3.0.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Amol,

May I know if you have any resources/blogs that will explain the usage of HTTP Adapter Receiver/Sender between SAP Web AS - SAP XI? And hopefully for 3rd party Web AS as well?

I've read ->

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/0d/5ab43b274a960de10000000a114084/frameset.htm

But, it didn't mention details on applying it in SAP WebAS.

I would like to make a comparison between HTTP Adapter and Java Proxy before making my decision.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

If you have access to the TBIT courses on XI at the Service marketplace, you get some detailed docs on adapters there, apart from the help link you specified I could see some more docs /ppts in the TBIT courses. The how to guides on Java proxies would also be helpful.