SAP R/3 vs XI Batch Processing

[Former Member]

We are planning to move some of our existing interfaces between legacy systems & R/3 to be processed through XI. We would like to do this in such a manner that the business doesn't get impacted much and also keeping the project costs to minimum.

Current interfaces use batch processing in R/3 with 1000's of records sitting in a file ftp'd from legacy system and a pre-edit ABAP program will validate the data and posts transactions in R/3 using BDC sessions. Errors will be reported through some custom application built in ABAP. Users will process the BDC session and correct the errors to post the documents. In some cases we use BAPI's but when the BAPI errors out a BDC session is created for processing the errors.

We are on XI3.0 SP12 & R/3 4.6B

Can XI do all the stuff that R/3 does today in terms of batch processing and error correction by business user etc. What are the limitations and are there any workarounds to overcome them.

[Former Member]

Proxies require WAS, We are on 4.6B. I hope we cannot use proxies. Am I right?

[Former Member]

Yes, you cannot use proxy on 4.6B...

Regards

Anand

[Former Member]

The work around for not going through the Proxy is

Writing a Wrapper BAPI for the ABAP Program and call into xi

[Former Member]

You are right.

Proxies can be used only from SAPBASIS 620 and this requires an Add-On to be installed, where as SAPBASIS 640 does not require this add on because XI is also on SAPBASIS 640.

SAPBASIS 620 is from SAP R/3 4.7 version only.

regards

Shravan

[Former Member]

I would like to know what other XI clients are doing for BAPI error corrections within XI if a BAPI fails and the sender side interface is async.

[Former Member]

XI is not meant for that and cannot do that. XI is an integration engine and does not replace R/3 work.

What it means: XI can receive data and modify the data in mapping and deliver it to another system and invoke a process in case of R/3.

XI has 3 adapters for other SAP systems.

1. IDoc

2. RFC

3. XI Proxy

4. File Adapter (I dont think you want to create a file again, but one of my previous client used this option)

I guess you know about the first 2.

The third one is, when you receive the data from source system, modify it according to the requirements and pass it to an ABAP Class where you can write your own code.

Let me simplify this for your process.

When a file is received, XI can pick up the file and send it to R/3 System using XI proxy (in internal tables or structures) which will be executing a class. Within that class you can code to pass that data to your ABAP program with SUBMIT PROGRAM. This is just an example.

This cannot replace your BDC process, but can make it to do the same.

regards

Shravan