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Tutorial 4: Migrating an SAP Receive IDOC BizTalk Project

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The previous version of the SAP adapter that shipped with Microsoft BizTalk Server differs from the WCF-based SAP adapter in many aspects, including:

  • The design-time experience of creating a BizTalk project.

  • The metadata retrieval experience.

  • Schema file name and namespace.

  • Data type mappings.

  • The operations that can be performed using the adapter.

  • Physical port configuration in the BizTalk Server Administration console.

    However, you can make changes to the BizTalk project created using the previous version of the adapter and make it work with the WCF-based SAP adapter.

    This tutorial provides instructions on the changes you should make to the existing BizTalk project created using the previous version of the adapter.

Note

In this tutorial, for the sake of brevity, the previous version of the SAP adapter will be referred to as vPrev SAP adapter. Similarly, a BizTalk project that uses the vPrev SAP adapter will be referred to as vPrev BizTalk project.

Sample Used for the Tutorial

This tutorial is based upon a sample (ReceiveIDOC_Migration) that demonstrates how to migrate a vPrev BizTalk project that receives a flat-file IDOC from an SAP system. The sample is provided with the BizTalk Adapter Pack. For more information, see Adapter Samples.

Prerequisites

Understanding a BizTalk Project Created Using the Previous Version of the Adapter

The key constituents of a vPrev BizTalk project to receive an IDOC are:

  • BizTalk orchestration. This is a simple orchestration that consists of an SAP receive port that receives a flat-file IDOC from an SAP system. The BizTalk project contains a flat-file disassembler to convert the flat-file IDOC to an XML, so that it can be used in an orchestration. Before the XML IDOC is copied to a file location through a file port, it is converted back into a flat-file IDOC using a flat-file assembler.

  • Schema for the IDOC you want to send to the SAP system. This tutorial involves a BizTalk project that receives ORDERS03 IDOC from the SAP system. The schema generated for the IDOC is ORDERS03.xsd. This schema is generated using the vPrev SAP adapter.

How to Migrate a BizTalk Project Created Using the Previous Version of the Adapter

The goal of this migration tutorial is to enable you to receive a flat-file IDOC from an SAP system using a WCF-Custom send port instead of the send port for the vPrev SAP adapter. Before understanding what settings are required for the WCF-Custom send port, you must first understand what physical ports are required for the vPrev send IDOC orchestration.

  • A vPrev SAP receive port that receives a flat-file IDOC from an SAP system. The port also converts this to an XML IDOC using a flat-file disassembler, which is available as part of the vPrev BizTalk application. The XML IDOC conforms to the schema (ORDERS03.xsd) that you generated using the vPrev SAP adapter.

  • A file send port which copies the IDOC to folder. This port also uses the flat-file assembler pipeline, available in the BizTalk application, to convert the XML IDOC to a flat-file IDOC.

    To migrate your existing vPrev BizTalk project, you do not need to change the file send port that copies the flat-file IDOC to a folder. You only need to configure a new WCF-Custom receive port with the right configuration settings. This tutorial demonstrates how to configure the WCF-Custom receive port to receive IDOCs from an SAP system using the WCF-based SAP adapter.

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See Also

SAP Adapter Tutorials