Message Splitting Design Problem

[Former Member]

Hi guys,

I am an XI newbie so please bear with me.

I have to build an XI interface to update existing service orders in CRM. The data is coming from a file, which contains change requests for multiple orders (and possibly multiple requests for the same order). The sequence in which the requests are processed is important. The XI system is on version 3.0 SP14, and the CRM system is on WAS 7.00.

I can think of two approaches to follow:

1. Push all the requests through to CRM via an ABAP proxy call (one single call). Inside the proxy, process the requests sequentially. This approach is simple to implement, but problems arise when some of the requests succeed but others fail. There is no option to reprocess just the failed requests, because there is just one XI message.

2. Split up the requests and send them to CRM, queuing the requests by service order number. This means performing message-splitting in XI (with or without BPM) and using the EOIO quality-of-service. The endpoint would still be an ABAP proxy.

I would like to use the second option, but I've got some concerns:

a) If I use mapping-based message splits (bulk messages), can I still use ABAP proxies? I cannot see the XI adapter listed in the relevant SAP help page:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw2004s/helpdata/en/43/ce79623ef30cd5e10000000a1553f7/frameset.htm

b) If I use BPM to do the splitting, might I run into performance problems? I do not have precise numbers, but I think we might process up to 50,000 requests daily.

c) Should I consider using other adapters that support bulk messages, e.g. SOAP adapter. Or use IDOC bundling as described in this blog?

/people/michal.krawczyk2/blog/2005/12/04/xi-idoc-bundling--the-trick-with-the-occurance-change

d) Can someone suggest better approaches?

Thanks,

Terry Choy

[Shabarish_Nair · Accepted solution]

a) If I use mapping-based message splits (bulk messages), can I still use ABAP proxies? I cannot see the XI adapter listed in the relevant SAP help page:

>>>

Yes you can use ABAP proxies.

b) If I use BPM to do the splitting, might I run into performance problems? I do not have precise numbers, but I think we might process up to 50,000 requests daily.

>>>

Avoid BPM - ref: /people/jin.shin/blog/2006/02/07/multi-mapping-without-bpm--yes-it146s-possible

c) Should I consider using other adapters that support bulk messages, e.g. SOAP adapter. Or use IDOC bundling as described in this blog?

>>>

since it is orders and you have standard IDOCs you can utilize their capabilities too ...

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

a) I tried bulk messages using ABAP proxies, but got an error in the technical routing step. The error was in the MMF_ENGINETYPE code area, and the message was "A system error occurred in the outbound binding" (not very informative). I didn't get the problem when I used the file adapter. Can someone please confirm that bulk messages with ABAP proxies is OK?

c) The standard IDOC is not enough, because there is some extra business logic that needs to be performed. I would need to create a custom IDOC. Is that worth the effort, and would I be losing anything by using IDOC's rather than proxies?

[Shabarish_Nair · Accepted solution]

c) The standard IDOC is not enough, because there is some extra business logic that needs to be performed. I would need to create a custom IDOC. Is that worth the effort, and would I be losing anything by using IDOC's rather than proxies?

>>>>

if the message voluem is too high try to avoid IDocs. (you have to decide on the amount of work that will go in in case u make a custom idoc or a proxy)

a) I tried bulk messages using ABAP proxies, but got an error in the technical routing step. The error was in the MMF_ENGINETYPE code area, and the message was "A system error occurred in the outbound binding" (not very informative). I didn't get the problem when I used the file adapter. Can someone please confirm that bulk messages with ABAP proxies is OK?

>>> i dont think it sud be a problem with ABAP proxy but then you can try using EOIO in the proxy code. ref: /people/arulraja.ma/blog/2006/08/18/xi-reliable-messaging-150-eoio-in-abap-proxies