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Build an SAP IDOC Receiver Using the SAP .Net Connector

December 16, 2009 By 2 Comments

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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Filed Under: Blog, SAP Interface Blog, SAP Technical Tagged With: , , , , ,

Using the SAP .Net Connector in Visual Studio 2008

August 27, 2009 By 9 Comments

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:

  1. Introduction to the SAP .Net Connector
  2. Building an SAP .NET Connector Proxy
  3. 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.

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Filed Under: Blog, SAP Interface Blog, SAP Technical Tagged With: , , , , ,

Building an SAP .Net Connector Proxy

July 20, 2009 By 6 Comments

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:

  1. Introduction to the SAP .Net Connector
  2. Building an SAP .NET Connector Proxy
  3. 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.

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Filed Under: Blog, SAP Interface Blog, SAP Technical Tagged With: , , , ,

Introduction to the SAP .Net Connector

July 10, 2009 By 4 Comments

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:

  1. Introduction to the SAP .Net Connector
  2. Building an SAP .NET Connector Proxy
  3. 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.

Filed Under: Blog, SAP Interface Blog Tagged With: , , , ,
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