Connect R/3 from Java web application

[Former Member]

Hello,

I need to access R/3 from an external Java web application. Can anyone tell me the way this is usually accomplished? Can anyone recommend me the best way to do it?

As far as I know there are three ways to implement the connection, but please let me know if I am missing something:

1. JCO, which is a low level solution, not platform-independent and not J2EE Connector Architecture compliant.

2. JRA, which relies on JCO (not platform independent) but is JCA 1.0 compliant. I'm not sure if I can use this in my web application the same way as JCO. Help library for Netwaver states that only outbound (ABAP to JAVA) communication is allowed, and it is installed with Web Application Server for Java. I have not found any library with JRA in the downloads page of service.sap.

3. Web Services, I have not researched this option but it seems to comply standards.

At this moment the project is in its inception stage and I don't know the details and scope, but I think I will use the connection in the typical way, by fetching data to be displayed and sending requests to perform actions in R/3. I guess BAPIs will be mostly used.

I will appreciate if you can provide me with some hints.

Thanks in advance.

Antonio Sánchez.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Are you not using SAP's j2ee engine? If you are not then JCO

and webservices are best options. Webservices are only available for BAPIS in R/3 ba version 4.7 or higher.

[Former Member]

Hi Antonio,

I will prefer Web services, R3 supports web services from version 4.7 onwards. All BAPI's and RFC FM are exposed as web services.

-Sanjeev

[Former Member]

If you are concerned about performance / volume use the JCO

Otherwise use WebServices

The JRA I found out is propietary and will only work on SAP WAS....It it JCA 1.0 compliant but not an implementation of JCA 1.0...

Enjoy