Architecture Question & Reccomendations?

[Former Member]

We have a need for a Java web based application that calls into BAPIs and custom SAP function modules.

We would like to deploy the Java app on a standalone WAS 6.4 server running only the J2EE engine. Can we deploy in this way and have it make calls to our SAP ABAP applications environment running on a separate WAS 6.2 platform?

Will this work and/or can anyone suggest better alternatives? Web services eposed on the 6.2 side perhaps?

Thanks for any help or ideas.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Scott,

You can use Web Dynpro for creating the user interface and connect to the BAPIs using the RFC model that Web Dynpro provides.

Exposing web services eposed on the 6.2 is also a good alternative.

NetWeaver Developer Studion provides tools for both RFC model and Web Services model that makes the development easier.

Both of the alternatives will work, however if you have option, I would suggest use the RFC model instead of web services model as the Web Services access will be a bit slower compared to RFC access.

Regards,

Manish

[Former Member]

Thanks Manish. Definitely some good thoughts. From a tools perspective there is actually a preference to not use Web DynPro, but a more standard J2EE given experience levels.

From a deployment perspective we are assuming we can have a standalone WAS 6.4 J2EE Engine running the Java application and that it can make calls via JCO, web services or other options to a WAS 6.4 ABAP environment which has our custom functions.

Is this something you would recommend or any issues that could prevent it from working?

I think this is similar to "Fred"'s question on the forum, although we are not confined to web services per se.

Message was edited by: Scott Campbell

[Vlado]

Hi Scott,

I think you're on the right way. IMHO using JCo is the most common and convenient way to connect from Java to ABAP. You could use the Servlet/JSP technologies for your user interface and delegate to Enterprise JavaBeans to call your BAPIs. Thus you have it all in a single application and it's pure J2EE!

Don't know if you've seen it but you might want to have a look at the documentation about <a href="http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2004/helpdata/en/35/42e13d82fcfb34e10000000a114084/frameset.htm">JCo Client Programming</a> and <a href="http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2004/helpdata/en/a9/1ee23d44d48e5be10000000a114084/frameset.htm">JCo Application Scenarios</a>.

Best regards and have a nice weekend,

Vladimir

[Former Member]

Hi Scott,

my two cents.

Your assumption is correct, there is no problem connecting from a standalone WAS 6.4 J2EE to another SAP system as long as you are using RFC. Web service option sounds more exciting if you can keep number of services under control. I am a big fan of SOA because it gives you so much flexibility, openness and re-use.

I have tried to answer Fred's question. Please see my reply to his post. Your situation is different because you have WAS 6.40 ABAP which holds the business logic, you can simply expose these functions as web service and use them in your J2EE application without even worrying about JCO.

Regards,

Sanjeev