Coming Soon: SAP .NET Connector (NCo) 3.0
SAP is announcing a new version of SAP Connector for Microsoft .NET 3.0 (now called “NCo 3.0″). A beta program for selected customers and partners is currently underway (Q3, 2010) with the general release of the software coming soon thereafter. I will highlight some of the major differences between the SAP Connector for Microsoft .NET 2.0 and NCo 3.0 (besides the obvious, and much-needed name-shortening).
Build an SAP RFC Server using the SAP .Net Connector
This blog post describes step-by-step how to use the SAP .Net Connector and Microsoft C# to create an SAP RFC Server. This allows an SAP process to call your custom C# code, which can accept parameters and return values.
The SAP .Net Connector simplifies creating C# programs that can interoperate with an SAP host. The SAP .Net Connector is available from the SAP Service Marketplace. You must have access to the SAP Service Marketplace to be able to download the SAP .Net Connector. The SAP .Net Connector must be installed on your development machine before we begin.
RFC is a Remote Function Call. In this case, the SAP process is a ‘client’ that is making an RFC call to our custom ‘server’ code. Our code uses the SAP .Net Connector to register on an SAP Application Gateway.
The TLA system we have been creating exists solely to demonstrate certain programming techniques involving the SAP .Net Connector and C#. We will cover three separate parts of the solution: defining the function to SAP, creating a proxy object used to access SAP, and creating our C# code to perform the RFC function.
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Build an SAP IDOC Receiver Using the SAP .Net Connector
Overview
This blog post describes how to receive an IDOC from an SAP system, using the SAP .Net Connector and Microsoft C#.
Introduction
The SAP .Net Connector simplifies creating C# programs that can interoperate with an SAP host. The SAP .Net Connector is available from the SAP Service Marketplace. You must have access to the SAP Service Marketplace to be able to download the SAP .Net Connector. The SAP .Net Connector must be installed on your development machine before we begin.
An IDOC is an Interface Document that is used to send or receive information to or from an SAP host. An IDOC will consist of a header record and as many detail records as necessary. The header records follow the format of the EDI_DC40 table, and the detail records follow the format of the EDI_DD40 table. The exact format of the payload in the detail records depends on the type of IDOC being transmitted.
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Using the SAP .Net Connector in Visual Studio 2008
Overview
This blog post describes how to use an SAP .Net Connector proxy, created in a VS 2003 project, in a Visual Studio 2008 C# solution.
[Editor's Note] This blog is third in a multi-part series describing how to use the SAP .NET Connector:
- Introduction to the SAP .Net Connector
- Building an SAP .NET Connector Proxy
- Using the SAP .Net Connector in Visual Studio 2008
Introduction
Our previous post described how to use Visual Studio 2003 and the SAP .Net Connector to create a Dynamic Link Library containing the desired SAP functionality. The DLL contains proxies for each SAP function that we want to utilize.
We will reference that DLL in a Visual Studio 2008, and use it to retrieve system information from an SAP host.
As a demonstration, we are creating the TLA System, which exists solely to demonstrate certain SAP .Net Connector programming techniques.
Building an SAP .Net Connector Proxy
Overview
The SAP .Net Connector is an SAP-supplied control that works only with Visual Studio 2003. This blog post describes how to create a VS 2003 project that will allow you to use the SAP .Net Connector in later versions of Visual Studio.
[Editor's Note] This blog is the second of a multi-part series describing how to use the SAP .NET Connector:
- Introduction to the SAP .Net Connector
- Building an SAP .NET Connector Proxy
- Using the SAP .Net Connector in Visual Studio 2008
Introduction
We will use Visual Studio 2003 and create a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) that encapsulates the desired SAP .Net Connector functionality. We can use the DLL that we create in a Visual Studio 2008 project.
To illustrate the process, we will build up, over the course of several blog posts, a system that is capable of receiving an IDOC from an SAP host. This system will be known as the Three Letter Acronym system, or TLA.
Introduction to the SAP .Net Connector
Overview
DataXstream’s XstreamConnector provides a robust, high performance tool to receive SAP IDOCS. These IDOCs are then persisted to an SQL database that can be used for any other application
This article describes one of the SAP components used by the DataXstream XstreamConnector to facilitate this process.
[Editor's Note] This blog is first of a multi-part series describing how to use the SAP .NET Connector:
- Introduction to the SAP .Net Connector
- Building an SAP .NET Connector Proxy
- Using the SAP .Net Connector in Visual Studio 2008
Introduction
The SAP .Net Connector is a software component supplied by SAP that makes it possible to communicate between an SAP host and a .Net program. Any .Net language can be used with the SAP .Net Connector.
Where to Find It
You can download the SAP .Net Connector from http://service.sap.com/connectors. You will have to provide your SAP Marketplace user ID and password.
What it Does
The SAP .Net Connector gives a .Net program access to an SAP host. The .Net program can logon to an SAP host and issue SAP Remote Function Calls. Parameters can be passed in to an RFC, and results data can be passed back to the .Net program.
A .Net program can also establish a connection to an SAP IDOC Gateway. The .Net program uses the SAP .Net Connector to send and receive IDOCs. There is full support for transactional integrity for IDOCS moving back and forth between the SAP host and the .Net program.
With this functionality, a Microsoft .Net program has all that it needs to query SAP metadata, call ABAP functions, or send and receive IDOCs.
What it Doesn’t Do
While the SAP .Net Connector takes care of most of the heavy lifting in communicating with an SAP host, there is still considerable work to be done before you can get something useful from it.
In particular, there is no functionality built-in to the SAP .Net Connector for parsing the various data fields from an IDOC. It is up to the receiving program to know what the format of the IDOC is, and how to extract the data from the IDOC.
One other issue to deal with is that the SAP .Net Connector is built for Visual Studio 2003. There is a work around that is easy to use that enables you to use the SAP .Net Connector with newer versions of Visual Studio. Next week we will demonstrate that work around.
