SUP or not?

[js2]

What benefits are to be gained by accessing SAP with your mobile device via SUP? If you're doing native app development could you not just go via the netweaver gateway?

[dbthi · Accepted solution]

Hi JS,

That is a good question. Here are some benefits to using SUP:

- easy creation of data model based on pre-existing ones using the MBO generation tool.

You can easily create MBOs from BAPIS, SAP ES.

- decoupling of business objects to the middleware so you expose only what you need

- integrated workspace based on eclipse and client code generation tool for iOS

- security at various granular level (device, application, package, domain) and more importantly, SSO is supported.

- also, I would add that Afaria is one of the best device management tool out there (extremely convenient for a corporate landscape)

There are more but the ones I listed here are presented from the point of view of integrating to SAP. Also, the biggest benefit would be that as of now, it gives you access to the SAP Store once you're app is certified as a mobile application.

https://www.sappartnermobileapps.com/

Yes, you can go the Gateway route. SUP integrates with Gateway as of version 2.1. With Gateway, you don't develop business logic on middleware (SUP) but your backend SAP system. SUP is just a pass-through but it is still recommended for things like user onboarding.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

David

[js2 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your post David.

What you have mentioned above using the Gateway sounds like you have to have SUP as well? What do you mean by "SUP is still recommended for things like onboarding" ? what sort of on-boarding would you be doing through a mobile device?

I would have though we could have written native code for our device which communicated via REST with Gateway to directly access the backend SAP system.

Is there a licence fee with SUP? How is it charged? That needs to way into the equation as well. Maybe if you need full device management you can use Afaria (not sure if it can be used on its own or if you need SUP).

[knittedman007 · Accepted solution]

hi

Couple of points about using SUP with Gateway:

1) SUP supports push with Gateway. If you use 'pure' gateway (HTTP/S access) it is hard with true mobile devices to get notifications delivered. SUP supports push in two ways:

- with iOS we have APNS integration. This means you get notifications delivered to the device and the app is 'badged' to indicate content is available.

- regardless of OS, SUP can asynchronously deliver pushed content. So if the iOS app is running it can receive any pushed content and the receipt is handled via call backs you can build into the app

2) SUP uses encrypted e2e message content

3) SUP works with Relay Server - a commonly used bridge across the enterprise firewall

4) SUP supports x509 certificate handling with easy-to-use APIs

5) SUP supports various on-boarding processes (e.g whitelisting devices, using SSO2 tokens, or X509 certificate based auto-onboarding)

If you don't use SUP, you have a lot of work to do to achieve these capabilities

- chris

[dbthi · Accepted solution]

Hi JS,

Your welcome. Here is the rest...

Q: What you have mentioned above using the Gateway sounds like you have to have SUP as well?

A: You do not have to use SUP if you use Gateway. GW services can be consumed by mobile devices "directly" as they are based on OData protocol as you know.

Q:What do you mean by "SUP is still recommended for things like onboarding" ? what sort of on-boarding would you be doing through a mobile device?

A: Basically any task that enables your user to access the services. For example, device registration and system access can be configured more conveniently using SUP.

Q: I would have though we could have written native code for our device which communicated via REST with Gateway to directly access the backend SAP system.

A:Yes, that is absolutely correct. But how would you manage access security and authentication then?

Q:Is there a licence fee with SUP? How is it charged? That needs to way into the equation as well. Maybe if you need full device management you can use Afaria (not sure if it can be used on its own or if you need SUP).

A: Definitely part of the equation:) This is something you will have to check directly with Sybase. I can confirm there is a licensing fee (surprised?) but the details are still murky. Yes, Afaria is a standalone product.

Hope this helps, good luck:)

David