webMethods SAP R/3 Adapter
Release Notes
webMethods SAP R/3 Adapter Version 4.6
webMethods is pleased to introduce webMethods SAP R/3 Adapter Version 4.6
(SAP adapter). The SAP adapter allows you to extend your business processes over the Internet and integrate non-SAP
products using open and non-proprietary technology. The SAP adapter allows for bi-directional, real-time, asynchronous communication to
and from the SAP server. SAP adapter 4.6 provides the enhancements and fixes described below.
Improved Performance
Processing of SAP-XML documents in general is now faster. This improvement is most
evident with large documents.
Monitoring
- The SAP adapter now includes a detailed monitor for viewing connections in a client
connection pool and listeners. You can view idle, busy, and locked
connections, and you see the high-water marks. The monitor provides a quick
overview on whether your configuration works well under the current workload.
When problems with a listener occur, the monitor displays an error message.
- Performance statistics for the SAP adapter are now tracked efficiently via
SAP's Java Application Responsetime Measurement (jARM) so you can
identify potential bottlenecks.
- In many scenarios, the SAP adapter now acts as a recipient of IDocs, much like a
classic EDI subsystem. By sending back a customary status document
(SYSTAT01), the SAP adapter helps you monitor the success of the communication
from within the SAP system's IDoc List (WE05), regardless of transport type.
SAP Adapter Services
- The services in the SAP adapter 4.6 package are now organized more
clearly into public and internal services. The public interfaces all come with
a specification and are thoroughly documented so you can build flow
services around them.
- With SAP adapter 4.6, a webMethods Integration Server can distribute SAP inbound and
outbound maps to other Integration Servers. The service itself is transported, and
you can search for the installed maps of a specific SAP server alias and make the maps
visible in the Map list.
- With SAP adapter 4.01, RFC listeners could use the data dictionary
of any SAP system to look up the type and structure definitions of the incoming
message. In SAP adapter 4.6, this functionality has been extended in two directions:
you can now define a different repository server for every inbound map, and you can
associate external RFC server programs with an SAP repository server.
Updates to the RFC Converters
- With SAP adapter 4.6, you can create and send arbitrary XML formats, not
just SAP XML dialects, via XML transport. Conversely, the RFC coder will now directly process
parsed XML documents with content type text/xmlas such as you might receive,
for example, via FTP.
- SAP adapter 4.6 supports all new ABAP datatypes that have been introduced with SAP Web Application
Server 6.20. These datatypes include the ABAP type vector.
- SAP adapter 4.6 supports qRFC both as RFC client and RFC server. As
an RFC client, you can specify the desired queue name.
Requirement for Librfc32.dll Product Version 620
If you are using a Windows NT or 2000 system, SAP adapter 4.6 requires you to install
librfc32.dll Product Version 620. This library is distributed as part of the SAP adapter
package. If your librfc32.dll is not Product Version 620, see the webMethods SAP R/3
Adapter Installation Guide for instructions on installing librfc32.dll Product Version 620.
Bug Fixes
For a list of all the changes and bug fixes since the last release, see the readme.txt file on the download
site or in the directories in which you installed the SAP adapter.
webMethods B2B SAP R/3 Adapter Version 4.01
webMethods is pleased to introduce the newest release of the webMethods B2B SAP R/3 Adapter. SAP adapter
Release 4.01 provides the enhancements and fixes described below.
Support for Internationalization
SAP adapter 4.01 supports operation in non-English language environments.
The release provides support for character encodings and proper formatting, display,
and validation of data (such as number and date formats.
SAP adapter 4.01 changes the default character encoding to the UTF-8 encoding
of Unicode for most HTML templates, DSP pages, and XML files. SAP adapter 4.01
is fully compliant with the requirements of the Unicode
Standard Version 2.1.8 (see http://www.unicode.org).
Support for SAP Java Connector Version 1.1
SAP adapter 4.01 supports SAP Java Connector (JCO) Version 1.1. The newly designed JCO, which replaces
the old RFC communication layer, is a highly optimized and extensible interface for communication among JAVA
applications and the SAP kernel. With JCO Version 1.1, the SAP adapter offers:
- Considerably faster marshaling of data between the SAP adapter and the SAP kernel. This improvement
increases throughput, especially for large documents, by several magnitudes.
- Extended repository function. This improvement allows for a remote lookup of a function
interface, and is particularly useful when a remote application interface is called
from an SAP system and the interface is not defined in the calling SAP system itself.
- Improved logging and tracing of SAP communication. This improvement offers runtime
performance monitoring.
- Changes to the SAP server configuration now take effect immediately; you do not need
to restart the server.
- SAP clients are thread safe even under a high load of many parallel clients.
- The SAP adapter supports the new ABAP data types STRING (variable length string) and
XSTRING (variable length binary data).
- The SAP adapter runs with JDK 1.1.8, JDK 1.2.X, and MS-Jview. IBM's JDK 1.1.8 und
Sun's JDK 1.2.2 are recommended.
Support for BAPI Functionality
SAP adapter 4.01 fully integrates BAPI functionality that was part of a service release to
SAP adapter 3.1.1. The features are as follows:
- BOR Browser for Business Object view on BAPIs.
- Support for bXML, which uses a BizTalk XML-Envelope for BAPIs and RFC-enabled function modules.
One of the advantages of this feature is unified error behavior, which enables your
client applications to deal with application and communication errors in a similar manner.
- BAPI transport allows routing of BAPIs with the Partner Manager. This feature facilitates
transparent use of ALE mechanisms and you do not have to deal with the complexity of IDocs.
Support for All RFC and tRFC Communications Methods
SAP adapter 4.01 fully supports all RFC and tRFC methods for communicating with SAP R/3 systems.
SAP adapter supports the batching of multiple IDOCs of the same type into a single packet of IDOCs
to improve performance.
Improved Logging and Monitoring
SAP adapter 4.01 includes enriched debug information for SAP communication. In addition, you can now
change the SAP log at runtime.
SAP adapter 4.01 supports ALE monitoring. You can route ALE status codes back to the sending SAP system
using ALEAUD IDoc, or you can actively check the ALE status in the receiving SAP system using the IdocTrace
function module. The ALE monitor provides all the information from the receiving SAP system or, if
a transport error occurs, a descriptive error code. In cases in which the final receiver is not a SAP system,
the standard EDI subsystem return code is returned by the SAP adapter.
Clustering
SAP adapter 4.01 supports clustering. Clustering improves scalability and robustness, and all clients
can benefit fom load balancing. For generated cilents, SAP adapter also supports failover mechanisms.
Communication with R/2
SAP adapter 4.01 lets you communicate directly with R/2. For details, see the OSS note in SAP's support
system. You must obtain permission from the SAP R/2 team to use this feature.
Support for Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Linux Platforms
Platforms supported SAP adapter 4.01 are Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Linux.
Requirement for librfc32.dll Product Version 46D
If you are using a Windows NT or 2000 system and the SAP GUI is installed on your machine, SAP adapter 4.01
requires that librfc32.dll Product Version 46D. This routine is distributed as part of the SAP adapter
package. If your librfc32.dll is not Product Version 46D, see the webMethods B2B SAP R/3 Adapter Installation Guide for instructions on installing librfc32.dll Product Version 46D.
Bug Fixes
For a list of all the changes and bug fixes since the last release, see the readme.txt file on the download
site or in the directories in which you installed the SAP adapter.
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