The SAP adapter surfaces the RFCs exposed by an SAP system as operations that can be invoked by an adapter client. This section provides instructions on invoking an RFC in an SAP system by using the SAP adapter with Microsoft BizTalk Server. For more information about how the SAP adapter supports invoking an RFC in an SAP system, see Operations on RFCs in SAP. For more information about the structure of SOAP message for invoking an RFC, see Message Schemas for RFC Operations.
How to Invoke an RFC in an SAP system?
Performing an operation on an SAP system using the SAP adapter with BizTalk Server involves procedural tasks described in Building blocks to create SAP applications. To invoke an RFC in an SAP system, these tasks are:
Create a BizTalk project and generate schema for the RFC you want to invoke in the SAP system.
Create messages in the BizTalk project for sending and receiving messages from the SAP system.
Create an orchestration to invoke an RFC in the SAP system.
Build and deploy the BizTalk project.
Configure the BizTalk application by creating physical send and receive ports.
Start the BizTalk application.
This topic provides instructions to perform these tasks.
The schema that you generated earlier describes the "types" required for the messages in the orchestration. A message is typically a variable, the type for which is defined by the corresponding schema. You must link the schema you generated to the messages from the Orchestration view of the BizTalk project.
For this topic, you must create two messages—one to send a request to the SAP system and the other to receive a response.
Perform the following steps to create messages and link them to the schema.
To create messages and link to schema
Open the orchestration view the BizTalk project, if not already open. Click View, point to Other Windows, and click Orchestration View.
In the Orchestration View, right-click Messages, and then click New Message.
Right-click the newly create message and select Properties Window.
In the Properties pane for Message_1, do the following.
Use this
To do this
Identifier
Type Request.
Message Type
From the drop-down list, expand Schemas, and select InvokeRFC.SAPBindingSchema.RFC_CUSTOMER_GET, where InvokeRFC is the name of your BizTalk project. SAPBindingSchema is the schema generated for RFC_CUSTOMER_GET.
Repeat the previous step to create a new message. In the Properties pane for the new message, do the following.
Use this
To do this
Identifier
Type Response.
Message Type
From the drop-down list, expand Schemas, and select InvokeRFC.SAPBindingSchema.RFC_CUSTOMER_GETResponse.
Setting up the Orchestration
You must create a BizTalk orchestration to use BizTalk Server for invoking RFCs in the SAP system. In this orchestration, you drop a request message at a defined receive location. The SAP adapter consumes the message and passes it on to the SAP system. The response from the SAP system is saved to another location. A typical orchestration for invoking RFCs in an SAP system would contain:
Send and Receive shapes to send messages to the SAP system and receive responses.
A one-way receive port to receive request messages to send to the SAP system.
A two-way send port to send request messages to the SAP system and receive responses.
A one-way send port to send the responses from the SAP system to a folder.
A sample orchestration resembles the following:
Adding Message Shapes
Make sure you specify the following properties for each of the message shapes. The names listed in the Shape column are the names of the message shapes as displayed in the preceding orchestration.
Shape
Shape Type
Properties
Receive_Request
Receive
- Set Name to Receive_Request - Set Activate to True
Send_LOB
Send
- Set Name to Send_LOB
Receive_LOB
Receive
- Set Name to Receive_LOB - Set Activate to False
Send_Response
Send
- Set Name to Send_Response
Adding Ports
Specify the following properties for each of the logical ports. The names listed in the Port column are the names of the ports as displayed in the orchestration.
Port
Properties
ReceiveMsgPort
- Set Identifier to ReceiveMsgPort - Set Type to ReceiveMsgPortType - Set Communication Pattern to One-Way - Set Communication Direction to Receive
SendToLOBPort
- Set Identifier to SendToLOBPort - Set Type to SendToLOBPortType - Set Communication Pattern to Request-Response - Set Communication Direction to Send-Receive
SendMsgPort
- Set Identifier to SendMsgPort - Set Type to SendMsgPortType - Set Communication Pattern to One-Way - Set Communication Direction to Send
Specify Messages for Action Shapes and Connect to Ports
The following table specifies the properties and their values to be set to specify messages for action shapes and linking them to the ports. The names listed in the Shape column are the names of the message shapes as displayed in the preceding orchestration.
Shape
Properties
Receive_Request
- Set Message to Request - Set Operation to ReceiveMsgPort.Operation_1.Request
Send_LOB
- Set Message to Request - Set Operation to SendToLOBPort.Operation_1.Request
Receive_LOB
- Set Message to Response - Set Operation to SendToLOBPort.Operation_1.Response
Send_Response
- Set Message to Response - Set Operation to SendMsgPort.Operation_1.Request
After you have specified these properties, the message shapes and ports are connected and your orchestration is complete.
After you have deployed the BizTalk project, the orchestration you created earlier is listed under the Orchestrations pane in the BizTalk Server Administration console. You must use the BizTalk Server Administration console to configure the application. For more information about configuring an application, see How to Configure an Application.
Configuring an application involves:
Selecting a host for the application.
Mapping the ports that you created in your orchestration to physical ports in the BizTalk Server Administration console. For this orchestration you must:
Define a location on the hard disk and a corresponding file port where you will drop a request message. The BizTalk orchestration will consume the request message and send it to the SAP system.
Define a location on the hard disk and a corresponding file port where the BizTalk orchestration will drop the response message containing the response from the SAP system.
Define a physical WCF-Custom or WCF-SAP send port to send messages to the SAP system. You must also specify the action in the send port. For information about how to create ports, see Manually configure a physical port binding to the SAP adapter.
Note
Generating the schema using the Consume Adapter Service BizTalk Project Add-in also creates a binding file containing information about the ports and the actions to be set for those ports. You can import this binding file from the BizTalk Server Administration console to create send ports (for outbound calls) or receive ports (for inbound calls). For more information, see Configure a physical port binding using a port binding file to SAP.
The FILE receive port to receive request messages for the orchestration is running.
The FILE send port to receive the response messages from the orchestration is running.
The WCF-Custom or WCF-SAP send port to send messages to the SAP system is running.
The BizTalk orchestration for the operation is running.
Executing the Operation
After you run the application, you must drop a request message for the orchestration at a predefined location. See Message Schemas for RFC Operations to know about the schema for the request message for invoking an RFC in an SAP system. For example, the request message to invoke RFC_CUSTOMER_GET is:
The orchestration consumes the message and sends it to the SAP system. The response from the SAP system is saved at other file location defined as part of the orchestration. For example, the response from the SAP system for the above request message is:
After you have deployed and configured the BizTalk project, you can export configuration settings to an XML file called the bindings file. Once you generate a bindings file, you can import the configuration settings from the file so that you do not need to create the send ports, receive ports, etc. for the same orchestration. For more information about binding files, see Reuse SAP adapter bindings.