USER MANUALS

BAPI Sources

Virtual DataPort can invoke SAP BAPIs (Business Application Programming Interfaces) to obtain data stored in SAP ERP and other SAP applications.

The first time you create a BAPI data source, do this first: follow the steps of the page Installing the SAP Java Connector and then, the steps of the section Grant Privileges in SAP for BAPI Data Sources of that same page. You do not need to reinstall the SAP JcO connector if you already did it; if you have a multidimensional data source, you already installed this connector.

To create a new BAPI data source, right-click on the Server Explorer and click New > Data source > BAPI.

The Tool will display the dialog to create a new BAPI data source.

Creating a new BAPI data source

Creating a new BAPI data source

In the tab Connection, enter the following details:

  • Name. Name of the new data source.

  • System Name. The SAP system ID of SAP ERP.

  • Client ID. Identifier of the client.

  • SAP router (optional). An SAP route string describes the stations of a connection required between two hosts. This string has the syntax

    (/H/host/S/service/W/pass)*

    That is, any number of substrings in the form /H/host/S/service/W/pass.

    This route has a substring for each SAP router and for the target server. Each substring contains the information required by each SAProuter to set up a connection in the route: the host name, the port name, and the password, if one was given.

    • /H/ indicates the host name

    • /S/ (optional) indicates the service (port). Default value: 3299.

    • /W/ (optional) indicates the password for the connection between the predecessor and successor on the route. Default value: “” (no password).

  • Language (optional). Language of the connection established with the SAP server.

  • Connection type:

    • If the connection type is Direct, provide:

      1. Host. Host where SAP is running.

      2. System Number. Two-digit number that differentiates the SAP instances running on the same host.

    • If the connection type is Logon load balanced, enter:

      1. Message Host. Host of the SAP server that provides the data for choosing an appropriate application server.

      2. Message Service (optional). Port where the “SAP Message server” listens to connections.

      3. SID. System ID of the SAP system.

      4. Logon group (optional). Name of the group of SAP application servers.

  • Authentication. The options are:

    • Use login and password. The data source will connect to SAP using the login and password you enter.

    • Use Kerberos. The data source will connect to SAP using a “SAP Logon ticket” that the data source will retrieve by logging into the SAP Web server using Kerberos authentication.

    • Use Pass-through session credentials. If selected, when a client queries a view that uses this data source, Virtual DataPort will use the credentials of the user to execute the BAPI. The behavior changes depending on the authentication method selected:

      • If an application connects to Virtual DataPort using Kerberos authentication, the data source will request a Kerberos ticket to connect to SAP Web server on behalf of this user and retrieve a SAP Logon ticket, which will be used to connect to SAP.

      • If an application connects to Virtual DataPort using login and password, the data source will use this login and password to connect to SAP. To force Kerberos authentication for this scenario, select This data source requires Kerberos authentication and the data source will use the login and password to obtain a Kerberos ticket to connect to the SAP Web server and retrieve the SAP Logon ticket that will be used to connect to SAP.

      If you created the data source with Use Pass-through session credentials, but you want to query a view of this data source with other credentials than the ones used to connect to the Server, add the parameters USERNAME and USERPASSWORD to the CONTEXT of the query. These two parameters are only taken into account when the data source has been created with the option Pass-through session credentials enabled.

      For example, if view1 has been created over a BAPI data source with this option enabled and you execute

      SELECT *
FROM view1
CONTEXT(USERNAME = 'admin', PASSWORD = 'd4GvpKA5BiwoGUFrnH92DNq5TTNKWw58I86PVH2tQIs/q1RH9CkCoJj57NnQUlmvgvvVnBvlaH8NFSDM0x5fWCJiAvyia70oxiUWbToKkHl3ztgH1hZLcQiqkpXT/oYd' ENCRYPTED)

      the data source will connect to SAP with the username “admin” and the password “password”, ignoring the credentials that you used to connect to the Server.

      It is mandatory to add the token ENCRYPTED and enter the password encrypted. To encrypt the password, use the statement ENCRYPT_PASSWORD. For example:

      ENCRYPT_PASSWORD 'my_secret_password';

      When the data source is created with this option, the Server creates a pool of connections for each pair user/password. Initially, these pools only have one connection to prevent the creation of many connections. The maximum number of connections for each one of these pools is the value of the field “Max number of active connections” of the connection pool.

      Warning

      Be careful when enabling the cache on views that involve data sources with pass-through credentials enabled. The appendix Considerations When Configuring Data Sources with Pass-Through Credentials explains the issues that may arise.

  • Connection pool. Click this to open the “Connections Pool Configuration” dialog and configure the pool of connections pool that Virtual DataPort uses to optimize access to the SAP ERP:

    • Maximum number of active connections: maximum number of active connections in the pool.

    • Maximum number of idle connections: maximum number of idle connections in the pool.

    • Maximum waiting time (milliseconds): maximum time a thread will wait to obtain a connection from the pool. When a query reaches this limit, the query that is requesting the connection will fail.

    • Minimum time between evictions (milliseconds): minimum amount of time that a connection sits idle in the pool before it is eligible to be closed and removed from the pool.

    • Minimum time before eviction (milliseconds): the Server examines periodically the idle connections of the pool to close them. This parameter indicates the minimum interval between these examinations.

In the Advanced tab, you can enable Secure Network Communications (SNC) between the Virtual DataPort server and SAP. SNC provides stronger authentication and encryption mechanisms than the default security options of SAP.

  1. Select Enable SNC.

  2. Enter the path to the SAP Cryptographic Library. That is, the path to the file sapcrypto.dll (if the Server runs on Windows) or to the path to libsapcrypto.so (if the Server runs on Linux). You can download this library from the SAP website.

  3. Enter the Partner name. That is, the distinguished name of the SAP server.

  4. Select the Security level: SAP offers three levels of configuration and in addition, you have these options:

    1. Use the value from snc/data_protection/use: uses the default security level set by the SAP server.

    2. Use the value from snc/data_protection/max: uses the maximum level of security offered by the SAP server.

In the Metadata tab, set the folder where the data source will be stored and provide a description.

When editing the data source, you can also change its owner by clicking the button image1.

Click Save to create the data source.

After creating the data source, click Create base view to begin creating the base view.

Creating a BAPI base view

Creating a BAPI base view

In this dialog, enter the name of the BAPI and click Ok. If this BAPI inserts/modifies/deletes data from SAP, select the check box Commit after BAPI execution. By doing this, when this base view is queried, Virtual DataPort will run the BAPI BAPI_TRANSACTION_COMMIT after running the BAPI of this base view.

If running the BAPI of the base view does not modify the data, do not select this check box. That way, every time this base view is queried, Virtual DataPort will execute one BAPI instead of two, thus putting less overhead over SAP.

After clicking Ok, the Tool will display the schema of the result of the BAPI invocation. You can change the name of the new view and its fields and after that, click Save (image3) to create the view.

To change the “Commit after BAPI execution” option of a base view that has already been created, open the view, click Edit and then, Source refresh. Design Studio will display the same dialog as when you create a new SAP base view.

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