Ways to Communicate with SAP

The SAP ERP Adapter can communicate with SAP R/3 systems using the following methods:

• Business Application Programming Interface (BAPIs)
• Remote Function Calls (RFCs)
• SAP Tables
• SAP Queries
• IDoc Messages

Terminology

SAP: The term SAP is an umbrella term for all supported SAP editions. This in general indicates SAP ECC version 6+ and SAP S/4 Hana on-premise, but includes other editions that also support the RFC SDK. For the SAP ERP Adapter to work, it requires a connection to an edition of SAP that supports the RFC SDK.

Function Module: A function module is a type of program or function in SAP that can be used to execute almost any operation. These modules can be tested and written in SAP via the SE37 TCode.

RFC: A Remote Function Call (RFC) is a type of function module that has been modeled as an API call that can be executed by external applications. This includes using libraries distributed by SAP that are installed on the SAP server, and may also be downloaded from sap.com. Specific RFCs may or may not be maintained across SAP upgrades. There are standard RFCs supplied by SAP, and thus may have differences or may not exist in older editions. Custom RFCs can (and frequently are) built to support integrations, and must be maintained by the SAP customer. By convention, custom RFCs begin with the letter Z.

BAPI: A Business API (BAPI) is a type of RFC distributed and maintained by SAP to give access to business logic operations. BAPIs have methods that are specific to a type of business object. For example, there are about 60 BAPIs related solely to the Customer object. In practice, only a few are typically used.

SAP Table: An SAP table is a table that stores data in SAP. These are not the same as business objects. For instance, there is no Purchase Order table in SAP. Instead, there are many tables that include purchase order data in them, such as EBAN, EBKN, EINA, EKPO, etc. Custom tables by convention begin with the letter Z.

SAP Queries: An SAP Query is a saved object in SAP that details information to retrieve from one or more tables. These are typically used for reporting purposes.

SAP Editions

Our support for RFC connections means any edition of SAP that supports an RFC connection and the specific RFCs we require for the connection will work. Specifically, we support connections to:

• SAP BW
• SAP ECC
• SAP ERP
• SAP R/3
• SAP S/4 Hana on-premise

Other editions that support RFC connections may also be supported.

Available Content

The following SAP content is accessible from the SAP ERP Adapter:

SAP Tables: SAP Tables are exposed as views automatically via the TableMode connection property. If you know exactly which SAP Tables you want to work with, you can specify them via the Views connection property, which overrides TableMode. Because they contain pieces of the business objects, SAP discourages directly modifying the tables themselves. Instead, it recommends using BAPIs to modify any tablular data. For this reason, our tools do not support direct modification of SAP Tables.

BAPIs and RFCs: BAPIs and RFCs are exposed directly as stored procedures. By default, all RFCs starting with the keyword BAPI are displayed as an available stored procedure. This behavior can be modified by changing the StoredProcedureFilter connection property.

SAP Queries: SAP Queries are also exposed as views, but they are turned off by default. They are less commonly required than SAP Tables and BAPIs. If you want to expose SAP Queries, change the QueryMode connection property.

Raw IDoc and IDoc XML: Intermediate Document (IDoc) files are SAP objects that carry business transaction data from one system to another in the form of an electronic message. IDocs transfer data from SAP to non-SAP systems via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems. When the transfer is between two SAP systems, IDocs employ ALE technology.

For further information, see Provider Schema.