Informatica Cloud and SAP Integration Methods
SAP is an application platform that integrates multiple business applications and solutions, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO), and Bank Analyzer. Developers can add business logic within SAP using Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) or Advanced Business Application Programming-Fourth Generation (ABAP/4 or ABAP), a language proprietary to SAP.
You can use the SAP Table, BAPI/RFC functions, and IDocs integration methods to extract data from or load data to SAP systems.
Use SAP Table for data-level integration, BAPI/RFC functions for object-level integration, and IDocs for message-level integration.
Data Integration using SAP Tables
You can integrate SAP data dictionary objects by creating an SAP Table connection.
You can use SAP Table connection to read data from SAP and write to any target. You can also write data from any source to custom tables in SAP. Contact Global Customer Support for information about using SAP Table connection to write data to SAP systems.
You can access all the objects in the SAP catalog including transparent tables, cluster tables, pool tables, and views. The Secure Agent accesses data through the application layer in SAP using ABAP. Data is streamed to the Secure Agent through HTTP (s) protocol. SAP Table connector supports joins and filters on the source tables.
To optimize performance when the Secure Agent and the SAP system are in different networks, you can enable data compression when you read data from SAP.
When you create a Data Synchronization task, mapping, or Mapping Configuration task, Informatica Cloud generates a dynamic ABAP query to read from SAP tables and write to custom SAP tables.
Data Integration Using BAPI/RFC Functions
Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPI) provide a way for third-party applications to synchronously integrate with SAP at the object-level . You use BAPIs to read, create, change, or delete data in SAP.
BAPIs allow access to the SAP system objects through methods for the business object types. Together with the business object types, BAPIs define and document the interface standard at the business level.
You define BAPIs in the SAP Business Objects Repository. You can call BAPIs as an ABAP program within SAP or from any external application. SAP Connector uses RFC protocol to call BAPI/RFC functions outside of SAP.
You can import a BAPI/RFC function as a mapplet to Informatica Cloud. You can then use the mapplet in a mapping to read, create, change, or delete data in SAP. When you run the mapping or the Mapping Configuration task, Informatica Cloud makes the RFC function calls to SAP to process data synchronously.
You can view and test the BAPI interface definitions in SAP using transaction SE37.
Data Integration Using IDocs
Intermediate Documents (IDocs) electronically exchange data between SAP applications or between SAP applications and external programs. IDoc is a message-based integration interface that processes data asynchronously.
IDoc is a component of Application Link Enabling (ALE) module within SAP that can send and receive Intermediate Documents (IDocs) over RFC protocol.
ALE Layers
The message-based architecture of ALE comprises three layers:
- •Application layer that provides ALE an interface to SAP to send or receive messages from external systems.
- •Distribution layer that filters and converts messages to ensure that they are compatible between different SAP releases.
- •Communications layer that enables ALE to support synchronous and asynchronous communication. You use IDocs for asynchronous communication.
The architecture of ALE provides a way to send IDocs as text files without connecting to a central database. Applications can communicate with each other without converting between formats to accommodate hardware or platform differences.
IDoc Record Types
IDocs contain three record types:
- •Control record, which identifies the message type.
- •Data records that contain the IDoc data in segments.
- •Status records that describe the status of the IDoc. Status record names are the same for each IDoc type.
ALE Components
ALE has the following components:
Component | Description |
|---|
Logical System | All systems that need to communicate using ALE/IDoc must be setup as a Logical System within SAP. An SAP administrator can setup logical systems in transaction BD54. |
Distribution Model | Defines an agreement between two logical systems on the messages that can be exchanged and identifies the sender and the receiver. An SAP administrator can setup distribution models in transaction BD64. |
Partner Profile | Stores the IDoc type and processing logic related to the distribution model. An SAP administrator can setup partner profiles in transaction WE20. |
RFC Destination | Defines the protocol and access to the logical system. An SAP administrator can setup RFC destinations in transaction SM59. |
Message Type | Representation of a business object. |
IDoc Type | Representation of a message type. SAP uses IDoc types to support backward compatibility across various SAP releases. |
IDoc | An instance of an IDoc type that contains business data. |