SAP PI - SAP Lookup from SQL Server

[Former Member]

Hi Everyone,

I'm starting out in PI and have a required to provide a master data lookup. The data needs to be accessed from a 3rd party SQL server based application. I have seen there are methods within SQL server to connect directly to SAP ERP but in this case I need to route via SAP PI. 

I'm just looking for advice on the best approach for this ?  Is the only way to provide a web service to the 3rd party for them to integrate into their environment or are their other approaches to consider to read this data from SAP via SAP PI ?

I have searched around but cannot pinpoint an example considering the best approach.

Your time and effort is very much appreciated.

Thanks

JE

[iaki_vila · Accepted solution]

Hi Joel,

You can use a RFC or JDBC lookup as well.

Check this document to evaluate the pros and cons of each method

Regards.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Inaki,

Thanks for taking the time. Whichever approach that I take in terms of mapping I still need to provide the 3rd party with a WSDL for them to call the mapping externally ?  Is this correct or am I missing a point ? Otherwise how does the 3rd party call the lookup without this ?

Thanks for your help.

Regards

JE

[iaki_vila · Accepted solution]

Hi Joel,

May be i misunderstood your problem. Which system needs to do the lookup?

If the answer is PI, you can use of course the SOAP lookup, but you have another options, all depends the connectivity available in the system with you require to get the data via lookup.

If the answer is a third system that needs the PI to do a lookup, you can offer them a SOAP interface that they will call to get the data. Your scenario will be SOAP - (RFC or Proxy or JDBC whenever you get the data).

Hope this helps.

Regards.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Inaki,

Yes SOAP access is the piece I was missing from my understanding to provide the third system with access to the look up. This will be the approach I adopt.

Thanks for your help and understanding.  Very appreciated.

Thanks

JE

[Former Member]

Hi Joel,

Requirements aren't completely clear, but your interface could be JDBC Sender to synchronous RFC Receiver back to JDBC. Synchronous SOAP is great also. You must decide if PI is adding value as middleware.

Another approach your developers might consider is the .NET connector which can make direct calls to remote enabled SAP functions. In our company we determine this on a case-by-case basis (e.g. is PI monitoring worth the extra traffic / latency / configuration / extra point of failure)

[Former Member]

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for your helpful input. Apologies for the unclear scenario. Basically the requirement is an SQL Server based system will be pulling master data from SAP tables.

The company has PI and want to use it so I've been looking into it. I've seen direct ways to connect to SAP ERP directly that could be more beneficial and I will consider these also. I just needed to know the approach if I am told to proceed with PI.  Thanks for the information on the .NET connector. I didn't know about this. I will examine this approach also.

So as I understand it to allow a 3rd party system to pull data via SAP PI the scenario will be SOAP->RFC (or JDBC)->SAP ERP.

Thanks again for your help.

Regards

JE

[Former Member]

By the way, if you are just sending batches of data on some interval, you could control the impact on SAP and treat it as a push to MSSQL. In this case you can use simpler asynchronous setup with RFC Sender to JDBC receiver.

SAPTechnical.COM - A Step-by-Step Guide on Asynchronous RFC - to – JDBC Scenario Using SAP PI 7.0

Along these same lines you can also use the newer method of SOAP -> JDBC

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/e0ac1a33-debf-2c10-45bf-fb19f6e15...

Good luck!

[Former Member]

That's great. Thanks alot Aaron and for being so generous with your time. It's been a great help today.

Thanks

JE