Advantages of Netweaver Gateway Service over BSP services?

[Former Member]

Hi!

What are the advantages of using the Netweaver Gateway Service over BSP Services?

I think that BSP services are better than services of the Netweaver Gateway Services.

If I create my own BSP service, I can return JSON-Code from it. The advantages, if I use a BSP service is that I can return whatever I want. I for example can return multiple tables, one table and a parameter, many different structures, tables inside of tables and whatever I want. I don´t need to create domains for everything, what I return.

If I create services with the Netweaver Gateway Service, I for example cannot return tables inside of tables. And if I want to return a table and an additional parameter, I have to make two connections to the service. Not every SAP-Environment does have the Netweaver Gateway Service installed, but I think in every SAP-Environment, I can use BSP services. And usually for every app you create your own Netweaver Gateway Service Project. So if you filled the functions in the class which is created by the Netweaver Gateway Service, and you program the next app which uses similar data and at some points the same data, you have to copy the specific class-functions to the Gateway Service Project of the new app. If you use BSP Services, you can just access this path from your new app. For me, it feels like the Netweaver Gateway Service is just a big tool with no additional functionality.

So why does SAP recommend to use the Netweaver Gateway Service??

Greetings, Martin

[kammaje_cis]

Martin,

When you say a BSP service, I think you mean a generic service created in Tcode SICF.

So with such a SICF service, you do not have any rules on the request body or request URL, or request methods. But OData puts constraints on each of these and more. So OData is a standardisation layer. Any standardisation comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

I would suggest reading here. Power of Standards: Why OData Shines in Time Cockpit - Time Cockpit

Regards

Krishna

[former_member184867]

I would not directly compare BSP with OData.

Both of them are addressing different area.

As the name suggest BSP is a server side "Paging" technology. Being a paging technology it can share scripts that are embedded in HTML and processed on the server before the page is sent to the client's web browser. It is a feature with that comes with the paging technology and widely available in ASP,JSP etc.These come under the umbrella of Server Side Scripting.

one table and a parameter, many different structures, tables inside of tables and whatever I want

OData is not aimed for a particular consumption  technology. Android, UI5 or even BSPs can consume OData. This comes with use of standardization. That means one can only define data available within the OData grammar rules. So there may not be ways to represent a table within a table but you can achieve similar functionality with $expand feature.

 Not every SAP-Environment does have the Netweaver Gateway Service installed, but I think in every SAP-Environment, I can use BSP services.

SAP Gateway is available with Netweaver Stack. Previously it used to be an addon component, but now with NW 740/onwards it is already available in the system.

If I create my own BSP service, I can return JSON-Code from it. 

If you go by the Pure JSON way it may suffice your requirement in short term. The json format may be very intricate and may only be apprehended by your application.  So in future if there is a need to  access the data by some other technology ( lets say Android for example ) it may not be understandable by the new app just because is it closely coupled with the Previous application and it is not based on generic standards. 

And usually for every app you create your own Netweaver Gateway Service Project. So if you filled the functions in the class which is created by the Netweaver Gateway Service, and you program the next app which uses similar data and at some points the same data, you have to copy the specific class-functions to the Gateway Service Project of the new app.

If the OData service designed for an app meets the requirement for another app  , it can certainly be used.