• No documentation
• A different means of transport than standard SAP transports (need some training people used to ABAP transports)
• Manual audit accountability (what do you do if you lose an exported PI .tpz file)

To help resolve these issues, SAP released CTS+.  But, what is CTS+ and how can it help?

What is CTS+?

CTS (with out the plus) is stands for SAP’s Change and Transport System.  This is the transport capability of the SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP.   SAP has enhanced CTS with the capability to transport non-ABAP objects–hence CTS+.  Change management on SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP has been a strength of SAP Netweaver for a very long time. In SAP PI, CTS+ leverages this strength by allowing Enterprise Service Registry (ESR) development objects and Integration Directory (ID) objects on the Java stack to be exported and packaged into standard transports that reside on the ABAP stack.

How Can CTS+ Help?

Documentation

With CTS+ you have the ability to document your transport when you create your request. This is amazingly helpful when it’s time to go to production, as you can see what changes were imported and when they were imported. Documentation is also helpful for the Integration Directory (ID) transports, which require activation and input of values.  To get to transport organizer, export what you want to export (namespace, scenario, etc.) using CTS+ (which should be default once it is set up).  Click on create/modification of request and you will see a screen like this:

Here you can put in details of the transport in the description as well as configure various other parameters about the transport.

Additionally, if your project has transport naming standards that require RICEF ID, defect numbers, change request number, trouble ticket number, etc., you can add that information here.

Standardization of Transports

With CTS+ it is possible to configure a standard way of handling transports that is consistent with your ECC environment. This will improve the overall reliability and robustness of environment change management, and will make life a lot easier for the people responsible for handling transports.  Someone accustomed to ABAP transports in ECC but who hasn’t worked with PI can jump in and change management with CTS+ will make sense. CTS+ also allows SAP PI to be compliant with your standard SAP change management governance.

For More Information

CTS+ is available with AS ABAP and AS Java from SAP NetWeaver SPS 12 onwards, although you will have better results with SPS 14 or higher. The following OSS Notes will be helpful:

• 1003674 Enhancement for non-ABAP systems in CTS
• 1145268 CTS+: Changes from NW 7.0 SP12 -> NW 7.0 SP13
• 1146170 CTS+: Changes from NW 7.0 SP13 -> NW 7.0 SP14

In short, CTS+ is a great tool for transport management. It is totally integrated with SAP PI, it is easy to set up, and has huge advantages when it comes to documenting transports and maintaining consistency with ECC standards.

Object Name Prefixes

I have seen a lot of places use prefixes or suffixes before objects such as or dt_ or _mt. I have never really been a fan of these prefixes and suffixes, and apparently neither is the above linked naming convention guide. The reason being is that they are unnecessary. It would be difficult to confuse a message type with a data type in a real interface scenario, even if troubleshooting an unknown broken object. Plus it makes message mapping unnecessarily confusing and long since it’s not clear whether to add the prefix, i.e. MT_one_to_MT_two. Good descriptive names are usually all that you need e.g. DEBMAS_to_Customer. The only possible exception to a no-suffix-or-prefix-policy is the service interface, as sometimes it is useful to know which direction and type a service interface is. An argument for a prefix or a suffix to describe a service interface would be to assist in understanding the flow from an SAP perspective in the event that someone who didn’t develop the interface had to come behind and troubleshoot. A argument against would be the fact that it looks silly if you use it for a web service, because you have a name that doesn’t mean anything to a third party user (note operation mappings are told to omit the prefix of direction and mode in the SAP guide).

One interesting thing that I noticed in my investigation of PI 7.1 EHP1 is that it appears that naming conventions on PI can be validated. If the object names do not conform to a naming convention a message will appear. Ter perform this check in the ESR go to menu Tools>Component Check.

Select “Governance” and “Interface Name Checks”:

If the service interface does not end with (In/Out)(SYNC/ASY) the interface check will show as an error (does not impact interface processing). I created 2 interfaces: one good and one bad to show this error.

My suspicion is that SAP will put more in place to force consistent naming standards depending on the service interface pattern in future releases.

Using a software component and Namespace for each “side” of an interface

All objects of an interface should not be grouped in a single namespace. They should to be split among the Software Component Versions of the systems being interfaced. Otherwise when you go to configure, you will not be able to see your operational mapping (OM) in the dropdown box without having to select all in the dropdown menu. A general rule of thumb is: if it’s not easy to configure, odds are you have probably done something wrong. Another reason why an object might not appear in the dropdown menu (for example for an operations mapping on an interface mapping) would be if the installed checkbox is not clicked on the SLD. When done correctly, most interfaces should be able to be configured quickly and intuitively in the integration directory (ID) without the need to select from all SWCV from dropdown menus on the integration builder.

Whatever naming convention you choose to use for the ESR, the important thing to remember is that adhering to the standard makes production support and troubleshooting faster and easier.

Part One – The Integration Directory (for PI 7.1 or greater)

I decided to start with the Integration Builder because it’s the easier component with which to bring everything into alignment (versus the ESR). Most of the time there are only two things to name: the scenario and the communication channel.  Unfortunately, it is still incredibly easy for objects to become disorganized.

Configuration Scenarios

The whole purpose of a configuration scenario is for organization. An interface will run whether it is in a scenario or not, however troubleshooting is much more difficult when objects are not properly organized. It is important to use a naming convention that addresses the business purpose of the interface and is specific to the flow of the interface (to help with troubleshooting issues and make flows easily traceable).  To accomplish all of these requirements, DataXstream recommends a naming convention that includes the specification number which originated the development request and a route number. The route number is used in interface diagrams and documentation and assists production support with identifying objects in the event that a business scenario involves multiple destinations.  We also recommend including a statement to describe the flow for the route, as well as the description of what the interface does. Some examples of a naming convention we might use would be:

0001.001_ECC_to_Partner1_TransactionalDataDistribution 0001.002_ECC_to_Partner2_TransacationalDataDistribution 0002.001_Partner3_to_ECC_SomeInboundInterface 0003.001_Partner4_to_Partner5_SomeNonSAPInterface

The other thing of note is that all objects should exist in a scenario, even if in a test_DONOTTRANSPORTTOPRODUCTION_prototype_interfacedescription scenario. Proper organization makes it a lot easier to identify, modify, turn on and off, and troubleshoot interfaces. Fully configured interfaces running in objects view take more time to understand and are more time consuming to fix.

Communication Channels

Communication channels should describe the purpose, type, and direction of communication. However a lot of people include unnecessary components in the communication channel. For example, since there are usually only two objects with names in the IB, it is not necessary to prefix a communication channel with cc_ as it is unlikely to ever be confused for a scenario. A lot of people also include the communication component in the name of the communication channel, but that also seems redundant, since only communication channels exist under communication components. Some things that are valuable in looking at communication channel naming convention are knowing a brief description of the process it involves, a direction of the communication channel, and the type of adapter being used. Some examples of naming conventions we might use are:

Logistics Company

• PO_file_sender

Database System

• materialSqlXml_jdbc_receiver

ECC system

• IDoc_receiver

As you can see, it is possible to keep the name descriptive and helpful without making the name overly verbose when it comes to communication channels.

The order in which the naming components are ordered depend as much on personal preference as anything else.  For example, let’s examine a sender file channel that pertains to purchase order data.  Some of the naming convention options are:

• Sender_File_PO: groups all sender and receiver channels together, then groups by adapter type
• File_Sender_PO: groups communication channels by adapter type, then by sender and receiver
• PO_File_Sender: groups by logical interface payload, then adapter type

Other Things To Watch Out For

• Configure the unnecessary- We all know that no sender agreement or channel is needed for certain communication methods like iDoc or SOAP to the IE, but if you can, add them to the scenario anyways. It makes it easier for a new developer (think of someone new to production support) to understand what’s happening with an interface, when they can see a consistent flow of the interface sender agreement to receiver agreement on all interfaces in a landscape. I know from working with working with soap, it’s kind of nice being able to grab the wsdl from the sender agreement, even though that component is technically optional.

• Don’t force an interface to work- If you are configuring a determination or agreement and are not seeing what you expect from the drop down menu, it may be because you haven’t properly defined the SLD or IR. Don’t be lazy and select the interface from all namespaces or SWCVs just to make the interface work; go back and figure out why its not dropping down on the drop down box and correct it.

Establishing and adhering to a well thought-out and consistent naming convention can save you a lot of time during the support of your SAP PI interfaces.  In Part II of this blog, I will discuss naming conventions in SAP PI’s Enterprise Service Repository (ESR).

Please note that I was unable to find the wizard for setting it the Services registry in PI 7.1 EPH1, which means I did it manually.

Make sure everything is correct in the Services Registry Management

Go to the NWA (http://host:port/nwa).

Go to SOA Management> Technical Configuration>Services Registry Management. In theory, there is nothing to do here, however I did specify the discovery URL api parameter as the hostname of the server (no port). If you have changed some settings, on the maintenance tab you can click reinitialize, which should reset any changes you have made back to the initial state.

Configure the ServicesRegistrySiPort

Go to SOA Management> Application and Scenario Communication> Single Service Administration

Click the Consumer Proxies tab.

Search for “ServicesRegistrySi”.

Click on the result and click the Configuration Tab and click on ServicesRegistrySiPort.

The service endpoint name should be ServicesRegistrySiPort.  Don’t change it.

Click security.

You have to give it an http authentication. If you don’t give the authentication, you will eventually have problems like not being able to publish to the SR, even though you may be able to access the registry.

Click on the user ID/ password, click details, and input your http authentication parameters.

Configure the third party UDDI (Only if not using SAP’s UDDI)

If you are using a non-sap UDDI, you will need to go to NWA>Destination Template Management and create a UDDI_DESTINATION and a CLASSIFICATION_DESTINATION to point to the respective urls of your uddi. Don’t forget to click security and select User ID/Password Authentication for both destinations. Otherwise, you will get a 401 not authorized error when you try to access the services registry–similar to if you mistyped your password at ServicesRegistrySiPort.

Security

Make sure that your user has  UDDI_TierN and SERVICES_REGISTRY_READ_WRITE authorizations or you will get a 401 not authorized error.  Of course. in your system you should use a technical user instead of your userid as which I did for the purposes of this blog.

Please note, I did run into an issue where it suddenly stopped working a day everything was configured. All I can say is Gremlins. I switched the user to a technical user with the authorization listed above on the ServicesRegistrySiPort as well as on the destination templates and I haven’t had a problem since.