What is XI and How it can be useful

[Former Member]

Hi,

I am new to XI i saw many information about xi in blogs and every thing.. but i need to know simply what is XI and how is it useful for business. what is the backgroud required. how oppertunities for xi in future. Most of the companies requires that one or its optional or mandatory. I femiliar with java i want to move to XI is it good suggition i need any other technologies to update..Is it useful for me..

Thanks,

Kishore

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

XI is the integration platform , a part of the Netweaver Stack that enables you to implement cross-system processes. It enables you to connect systems from different vendors (non-SAP and SAP) in different versions and implemented in different programming languages (Java, ABAP, and so on) to each other.

SAP Exchange Infrastructure is based on an open architecture, uses open standards (in particular those from the XML and Java environments).

The best way to learn XI would

be to use the Wealth of material available in XI from its forums, weblogs, presentations ,etc.

Also, I would suggest this link on SAP help for any info that you want on XI,

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/14/80243b4a66ae0ce10000000a11402f/frameset.htm

Further, this thread deals with everything that is needed for a starter on XI. Do check it out,

/message/527697#527697 [original link is broken]

As for development and administration, well there are a few tasks in XI, that need BASIS info and knowledge while the rest are mostly a developers task.

Note: reward points if solution found helpfull

Regards

Chandrakanth.k

Look for this thread in the forum. This may help you.

To an extent your ABAP skills will also come to picture,

because you have option of ABAP mapping in XI. Apart from it when you deal with R/3,IDOCs and RFCs will definitely come to picture. The key thing is how we use it in XI's

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/14/80243b4a66

ae0ce10000000a11402f/frameset.htm

[Former Member]

Hey kishore,

That's really a gud idea..your JAVA knowlede will be an advantange.

You can check the below link.

/thread/863642 [original link is broken]

Thanks,

Vijaya.

[Former Member]

Hey Kishore,

Please gothrough these links

/people/sravya.talanki2/blog/2006/12/25/aspirant-to-learn-sap-xiyou-won-the-jackpot-if-you-read-this-part-i

U should have JAVA/ABAP Background for this.

There are lot of apportinuties outside as you are java background then gohead

Thanks

Vikranth Khimavath

[Former Member]

HI

SAP XI – An Introduction

SAP XI focuses on cross-system process integration – the exchange of messages between applications.

SAP XI runs on the Web Application Server (WAS).

It is a component of SAP Netweaver with an open architecture that enables us to integrate a wide range of SAP and non-SAP systems within and outside our company’s boundaries.

A goal of the Exchange Infrastructure is to provide a single point of integration for all systems, SAP and non-SAP, inside and outside the corporate boundary.

SAP XI is an integration technology and platform …

•For SAP and non-SAP applications

•For A2A and B2B scenarios

•For asynchronous and synchronous communication

•For cross-component and Business Process Management

The focus of SAP Netweaver’04 is the integration of people, information and process in one solution. XI represents the process integration layer of the NetWeaver Stack, and is a crucial element of the Enterprise Service Architecture.

The overall key concept of the SAP Exchange Infrastructure is to drive integrated and business processes across heterogeneous and highly dynamic IT landscape in a more manageable and cost effective way.

With the SAP Exchange Infrastructure and collaborative business, SAP approaches the integration challenge from a different angle. The basic idea is to provide a runtime infrastructure which allows heterogeneous systems to be tied together with fewer connections and at the same time, in order to connect those applications and let message flow from one application to the other, have a centralized storage of the integration knowledge.

Evolution

•Allow easy and non-disruptive addition of new services and processes.

•Integration of existing and new SAP components.

•Integration of existing and 3rd party components.

Advantages

XI is open and flexible; it uses web standards such as Web Services Description Language (WSDL), XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) and SOAP messaging for describing objects and communicating with other systems. Generally, it use open, XML based standards for integration.

Benefits

•Leverage existing investments

•Arrive at new integration landscape in an evolutionary manner.

•Allow easy and non-disruptive addition of new services and processes.

•SAP XI mainly drives to reduce the TCO by reducing the integration and maintenance cost of the system

•SAP XI provides a central repository for all the interfaces.

SAP Applications Using XI

The following applications now use XI:

•xApps (Such as xRPM, Resource and Program Management)

•MDM (SAP Master Data Management)

•SRM (SAP Supplier Relationship Management)

•CRM (SAP Customer Relationship Management)

•BI (SAP Business Intelligence)

•R/3 Enterprise (for Industry Standard Support)

YES, it will be good either if u have knowledge in ABAP or JAVA. As u r familiar with JAVA it will be good for u to learn XI.

cheers

reward points if found useful

[former_member556603]

Hello Kishore,

SAP Exchange Infrastructure (SAP XI) is SAP's enterprise application integration (EAI) software, a component of the NetWeaver product group used to facilitate the exchange of information among a company's internal software and systems and those of external parties. Like other NetWeaver components, SAP XI is compatible with software products of other companies.

SAP calls XI an integration broker because it mediates between entities with varying requirements in terms of connectivity, format, and protocols. According to SAP, XI reduces integration costs by providing a common repository for interfaces. The central component of SAP XI is the SAP Integration Server, which facilitates interaction between diverse operating systems and applications across internal and external networked computer systems.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/14/80243b4a66ae0ce10000000a11402f/frameset.htm

SAP Exchange Infrastructure (SAP XI) component, a powerful integration broker that works well within an IT landscape and with its various connectivity, format, and protocol requirements. A component of the SAP NetWeaver platform, SAP XI runs on the SAP Web Application Server (SAP Web AS) component. SAP XI reduces integration and maintenance costs of IT systems by providing a common, central repository for interfaces.

what is the backgroud required. how oppertunities for xi in future?

Ya u alredy told you are in the java platform that is more enough & as well as you better to learn ABAP/4 Concepts..

SAP XI market is good.

SAP XI Help LInk..

Go through this..

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/14/80243b4a66ae0ce10000000a11402f/frameset.htm

Refer all the below links for starter:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/e1/8e51341a06084de10000009b38f83b/frameset.htm

/thread/143337 [original link is broken]

Satya..

Edited by: SATYA KUMAR AKKARABOYANA on May 16, 2008 12:51 PM

[Former Member]

Hi,

It is a middle ware tool.

Sender and Receiver systems are different(means one is R/3 other is non R/3) then they may not understand the data because the formats are different, so to avoid this by using XI we can take the sender data and mapped to the receiver data(this data can understandable by receiver system), if we need we do the some changes in XI also.

suppose we got the P.O from customer(customer is not using the SAP) he sends data from other format like file or EDI or some thing, if we send directly to that data to R/3 it can't understand so in the middle(XI) we map the sender fields(file format or edi format) to the corresponding IDoc fields and send to the R/3 system then SAP can understand.

If you know the core java then it is useful to XI, why java means XI has some predefined functions, that may not suite to our requirements some times at that time we write some user defined functions(UDF) by using java we can write.

If you learn little knowledge on ABAP then its very helpful to you.

[Former Member]

Hi,

Why do we need XI

1. right now you are using point to pont connection which is not the best way.

2. XI is a middleware tool (you can send message to many apdaters:

SOAP, mail, file/ftp ) by XML messages .

3. Error handling and Sloving the error easrier.

4.Integrate with SAP and Non SAP applications..........

5.XI has it's own Monitoring to track the incoming and outgoing messages

6.Synchronous and Asynchronous communication

7. Reusable components

8.Reducing cost of development work in future

9.End to End montoring the messages in SAP XI is great

10.Maintance is easeir .

11.The biggest Advantage of XI is that it supports web services.

12.It has the feature of business process management(BPM) which enables us to impliment tough

business logic.

Regards

Seshagiri

[Former Member]

Hi,

I am new to XI i saw many information about xi in blogs and everything.. But i need to know simply what is XI and how is it useful for business

Xi is an integration tool form SAP. Its acts as a middleware for different sender and receiver systems.

Most probably one of sender or receiver system should be SAP systems (BW,CRM etc) and other systems may be third party systems, data bases, legacy systems.

We will use different adapters to configure these sender and receiver systems.

As this tool is release by SAP and one of sender or receiver system should be SAP system and most of business run through IDOCS or RFCS we can easily configure IDOCS or RFC in SAP XI rather than other middleware’s.

what is the background required

ABAP or JAVA back ground is advantages.

I familiar with java i want to move to XI is it good suggestions i need any other technologies to update..Is it useful for me..

Yes YOU can move to XI

Most of ESOA concepts will cover in PI 7.1 version. it’s better to have conceptual knowledge on SOA(service oriented architecture).

NOTE: don’t forget to reward points if it is helpful.

Regards,

Pradeep A.

[Former Member]

HI Kishore,

XI is an EAI tool that means If you want to integrate two Applications or two Business systems that are developed in different environments(different OS/Databases/Languages)

share the information. Now a days all business required this.

So EAI come into picture.

XI is one of EAI tool best suited if one application is SAPfamily.

It also used for other applications also but its more expensive.

Now a day there is good market for EAI tools.

Thanks,

RamuV

[Former Member]

Hi Kishore,

Purpose

SAP Exchange Infrastructure (SAP XI) enables you to implement cross-system processes. It enables you to connect systems from different vendors (non-SAP and SAP) in different versions and implemented in different programming languages (Java, ABAP, and so on) to each other. SAP Exchange Infrastructure is based on an open architecture, uses open standards (in particular those from the XML and Java environments) and offers those services that are essential in a heterogeneous and complex system landscape:

● Modeling and design of messages, transformations, and cross-component integration processes

● Configuration options for managing collaborative processes and message flow

● Runtime for message and process management

● Adapter Engine for integrating heterogeneous system components

● Central monitoring for monitoring message flow and processes

SAP XI supports internal company scenarios and cross-company scenarios.

Features

SAP XI is based on general standards so as to enable external systems to be integrated. At the center of the infrastructure is an XML-based communication that uses HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). The application-specific contents are transferred in messages in user-defined XML (eXtensible Markup Language) schema from the sender to the receiver using the Integration Server.

In the above graphic, Integration Broker is an SAP NetWeaver capability (that is, the features for a technological area of SAP NetWeaver) that is supported by SAP XI. The Integration Server, on the other hand, is an XI runtime component.

Senders and receivers that exchange messages using the Integration Server are separated from one another. This separation makes it easier to connect systems that are technologically different. Every system that can exchange messages with the Integration Server can also exchange messages with all other systems that are connected to the Integration Server. SAP XI supports the following methods of communication with the Integration Server:

● Direct communication using proxies, which you generate in the application systems using a description in WSDL (Web Service Description Language).

● Communication using adapters. In this case, you create interfaces for message exchange in the application system, or use existing interfaces.

Simple message processing on the Integration Server is stateless. This means that the Integration Server does not know of any connections between various messages. Cross-component integration processes, on the other hand, describe related processes, which can use the knowledge about messages that have already been processed to further control the process (for example, waiting for the corresponding response for a message in order to start further actions). You can use SAP XI to model, change, and manage these cross-component integration processes centrally. These processes are executed on the Integration Server and are included in message processing by configuration.

As with cross-component integration processes, you save the entire integration knowledge of a collaborative process centrally in SAP XI: Objects at design time in the Integration Repository and objects at configuration time in the Integration Directory. In this way, SAP Exchange Infrastructure follows the principle of shared collaboration knowledge: You no longer need to search for information about a collaborative process in each of the systems involved, but can call this information centrally instead. This procedure considerably reduces the costs for the development and maintenance of the shared applications.

[Former Member]

Hi,

I will give keep it simple.

XI is a middleware which connects two or more systems.

ABAP and Java are helpful in XI.

Regards

Arpil

Reward points for usefule answers

[Former Member]

What is XI?

XI nowadays called PI (Process Integration). As it takes the responsibility of process of integrating different SAP and nonSAP systems in the Heterogeneous Landscape (network of different computers). Exchange Infrastructure can be used as a Middleware Engine to communicate in a distributed environment. The heart of XI is Integration Engine that is used for integrating different technologies using Standard Messaging techniques, e.g XML. Different mapping tools are available for mapping the distributed system which can be mapped without having any expertise of Technical Details. As a real world example, XI can be helpful in integrating different banks with SAP R/3. XI Engine also support previous releases of SAP R/3 like 4.6C and have many more adapters to communicate with legacy systems.

SAP XI is an integration technology and platform for

1. SAP and Non-SAP systems,

2. A2A and B2B scenarios,

3. Synchronous and Asynchronous communication,

4. Cross component Business Process management and it include built-in engine for designing and executing integration process (Business process).

5. The goal of SAP XI is to provide single point of integration of all systems inside and outside the corporate boundary across technologies and organizational boundaries.

6. The important feature of XI is openness, flexible and transparency to the integration process. It is based on ESA and SOA.

7. The overall key concept of SAP XI is to drive integrated business process across heterogeneous and highly dynamic landscapes in a more manageable cost effective way.

8. The basic idea is to provide runtime infrastructure which allows heterogeneous systems to be tied together with fewer connections and at the same time, in order to connect those applications and let messages flow from one application to other, have a centralized storage of integration knowledge.

XI Advantages over other Middleware Tools

• Pre-Delivered integration content

(Def:-SAP solutions bring their integration Meta data like CRM, SRM,SCM, xRPM, etc.) As delivered with the integration repository of XI

Benefit:-

A) Out-of-the-box of integration solution

B) Simplified upgrade of SAP solutions

C) Versioning and modification management of integration of Meta data.

• Openness and interoperability

(Def:-Connect to existing integration solutions) like

Through JMS messaging (e.g MQ series) and SOAP.

Use open, XML standards for integration

Incorporate existing functionality in to new process (Adapters (JCA), web services (WSDL)).

(as you are saying that u know java u can now move to xi , no problem, get light knowledge on abap as an advantage)

Note: reward points if solution found helpfull

Regards

Chandrakanth.k

[Former Member]

Hi,

this blog (part I-III) is helpful:

/people/sravya.talanki2/blog/2006/12/25/aspirant-to-learn-sap-xiyou-won-the-jackpot-if-you-read-this-part-i

/people/sravya.talanki2/blog/2006/12/26/aspirant-to-learn-sap-xiyou-won-the-jackpot-if-you-read-this-part-ii

/people/sravya.talanki2/blog/2006/12/27/aspirant-to-learn-sap-xiyou-won-the-jackpot-if-you-read-this-part-iii

Regards

Patrick