Is SAP PI/PO now considered a true ESB? I've read various sources claiming it was not quite there 4-5 years ago.
And what if you have a very SAP-centric environment, would it be very strongly suggested to use PI/PO instead of the more standard integration platforms such as Mule ESB, Jboss Fuse, BizTalk and Oracle ESB?
If you primarily have expertise with the platform agnostic ESB's mentioned, would it still be worth integrating with SAP Pi? What are the advantages of PI?
I see they all have some option to integrate with SAP, but unbiased information seems hard to come by in the SAP-scene.
If your entire landscape consists of SAP modules then probably better to use PI.
If however you want to connect to other systems in the cloud, internally or externally then I would not choose PI.
PI is not an integration platform (better to use this phrase an an ESB). In this case it is better than have something fronting your SAP backend such as Biztalk, Fuse, Mule or other. They are more flexible and have more functionality when it comes to communicating with other systems and protocol. They are probably far easier to use as well.
Most of these integration platforms have commercial adapters that can connect to SAP. IBM's Integration Bus has SAP adapters, so does Fuse and others.
Like I said, it depends on your landscape and your integration requirements.
Today, as SAP NetWeaver 7.5 released, SAP PO is common ESB.
It is based entirely on Java8 and JEE5 standards, with optional old-fashioned ABAP usage.
Someone could implement integration scenarios with many tools (simple mappings, SOJO or EJB, or even your own JCA-adapter). Now SAP PO is really fast and reliable.
Related
I am trying to find a good place to start for a potentially SAP related project.
Suppose I wanted to develop stand-alone software that could connect with an SAP ERP (S4/HANA) system and analyze material management and accounting data. What resources would I need to accomplish that? Where could I get an SDK/the proper training for this? How would I get a system to experiment on? I've tried Googling this question but there doesn't seem to be clear authoritative information on this and what I find also seems to be mostly about SAP Business One, which is a different product.
Insights would be much appreciated!
Thank you in advance,
Joshua
You must use REST/OData to connect to ECC and Hana S/4.
Currently, SAP has around 800+ REST APIs for SD/MM/PP/FICO, and almost every quarter, new APIs are added to Hana S/4.
You can check all the available APIs # https://api.sap.com/package/SAPS4HANACloud/all
You can check out the demo below if you want to view an application that provides similar functionalities.
https://demo.inoerp.com:8090
Select Hana SandBox. This is a single app that provides similar functionalities for Oracle, SAP, Dynamics etc.
If you need an API that is not yet published. You can also create your own APIs using ABAP
Regarding technology - You can use anything Java(Springboot/ADF), C# .net, node.js. You will be fine as long as you stay away from the SAP technology stack (i.e., ABAP and UI5 :-))
I need to integrate an API created with .NET with SAP FI/CO.
Researching online I found out there used to be something called IDES that would provide access to an SAP server free of charge, just for testing purposes, but that's no longer available.
The Consolut solution seems to have been a viable solution while it was active:
https://www.outsystems.com/forums/discussion/6598/sap-server-test-account/
Anyway, my question is: Is there any way for an independent developer to test an SAP integration without spending money to access that server? Are there any options out there that would allow me to access an SAP instance for testing purposes?
Here you can find the official list of developer trials that you might access without having any kind of relationship with SAP:
https://www.sap.com/developer/trials-downloads.html.
If you have an SAP S-user, you might have access to more stuff from the SAP Marketplace. From my knowledge, IDES was / is only accessible through the SAP Marketplace (or external sources which use the marketplace themselves).
FI/CO runs on Netweaver AS ABAP (or an older alternative, e.g. R/3), so you could download it here: https://tools.eu1.hana.ondemand.com/#abap. But it will not have FI/CO in it. Based on the discussion here https://archive.sap.com/discussions/thread/2039981 I would say that it is not really possible to get FI/CO up and running on your local Netweaver.
This is a general strategy of SAP. They provide the possibility of trying out their technological platforms (HCP, HANA, NW, etc) but they don't really offer access to their business solutions for free.
If you don't find any other way of getting access to a FI/CO system (e.g. from a third party or customer) then maybe the best thing would be to use the local Netweaver and mock the FI/CO specific RFCs that you are using (assuming that you use NCo for the integration). At least this way, you would know that the integration works at a pure technical level (at some point though, you will need a real system).
Can anyone elaborately explain about ESB ? I am new to it. Apart from integrating applications, I need to know where does ESB runs ? what types of services it can be integrated. Thanks in advance.
An enterprise service bus (ESB) is a software architecture concept that enables communication among various applications. Instead of having to make each of your applications communicate directly with each other in all their various formats, each application simply communicates with the ESB, which handles transforming and routing the messages to their appropriate destinations.
An ESB provides its fundamental services through an event-driven and standards-based messaging engine (the bus). Thanks to ESB, integration architects can exploit the value of messaging without writing code. Developers typically implement an ESB using technologies found in a category of middleware infrastructure products, usually based on recognized standards. As with a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), an ESB is essentially a collection of enterprise architecture design patterns that is now implemented directly by many enterprise software products.
Moreover, WSO2 ESB is a fast, light-weight, and versatile enterprise service bus. It is 100% open source and released under the Apache License v2.0. Using WSO2 ESB you can perform a variety of enterprise integration patterns, including filtering, transforming, and routing SOAP, binary, plain XML, and text messages that pass through your business systems by HTTP, HTTPS, JMS, mail, etc.
Resources: http://soatutorials.blogspot.com/2013/08/10-minute-tutorial-for-extending-wso2.html
what is difference between JBPM and BPEL(and ESB)?
Would you please explain them?
RGDS
I am not much familiar with JBPM. But it seems to be a Business work flow which can work with java services or basically java based process. Not only with web services.
BPEL is a standard to write work follows with web services. Always BPEL language used to integrate the web services and define processes based on that. Here is an sample I have written for that[1].
ESB is primarily used for mediation and transform messages. When you integrate different types of systems, the message flow between them may vary. So people can use ESB as a mediator. And also some ESBs provides service integration as well. WSO2 ESB[2] is such an ESB you can use.
[1] http://wso2.org/library/articles/2011/05/integrate-business-rules-bpel
[2] http://wso2.org/library/esb
Exactly, ESB + BPEL is a technical solution for an integration problem. If you want to use jBPM5 just to do integrations thats fine and you probably will use jBPM5 with an ESB for all your mediation and transformation of your messages. The power of BPMN2, a standard notation to describe business processes will help you to describe more high level/business oriented scenarios than just simple system integrations. The concept of human interaction is heavily embedded in the language and in the jBPM5 infrastructure. Think about the fact that your models (business processes) can be shared and understood by business/non technical people and they will be able to validate, improve and change those definitions when the business reality changes.
Hope it helps!
jBPM is BPMN based. This is a java based solution to your workflow problem.
BPEL is also solves the workflow problem, but the approach is entirely different. It is web service based.
BPEL from a syntax perspective is more complex than BPMN but is considered more extensive.
The right comparison should actually be between BPMN and BPEL I guess.
Similarity
>Both can be used for orchestration
difference in terms of technology.
JBPM has BPMN2.0 Notation for Workflow designer and workflow XML it generate is BPM2.0 compliance(which means you can import it in any BPMN2.0 tool) .It is assumed to be Product Analyst friendly whereas BPEL has its own specifications and its considered more developer oriented
BPM should only be used where there is a human task otherwise ESB fulfills everything from orchestration to transformation to Rules to CEP
Simple question, I want to know is Java free (especially for web development). Later on if I've build a large website, will the servers, databases cost me much like in .net for example?
Cheers.
Java is free. Check licences of frameworks you're using, but you shouldn't worry about that since most of them are free.
Servers (physical) will, of course, cost you.
There are free application servers like Glassfish and JBoss.
There are free databases like mySQL and PostgreSQL.
So, you can get away with everything being free except hardware and, possibly, hosting of your web app.
Yes and no - depending on how big your site gets, you may be required to invest more money into better servers/databases.
It's not really something that can just be answered, without looking into the future.
Update, as of 2021
Be sure to read the document prepared by pillars of the Java community, Java is Still Free. This document provides a short overview as well as a longer section with all the gory details.
Understand that Java is a set of specifications, not a product.
Java Language and Virtual Machine Specifications
JEPs and JSRs
Many vendors provide binaries or installers for an implementation of Java. Nowadays, all of those implementations are based largely or entirely on the OpenJDK project. Participants including Oracle, IBM, SAP, Apple, Azul Systems, and more have banded together to pool their best technologies for implementing Java as open-source free-of-cost.
The OpenJDK project provides only source-code. Various vendors build that source code to provide binaries or installers for you and me to conveniently put Java on our computers. Some of their distributions of Java are available free-of-cost, and some are commercial with paid support. Some are general-purpose JVMs, and some are special-purpose. Some are a basic JDK and some have bundled extras.
Here is a diagram I made to help you in choosing a vendor for a Java implementation.
And some considerations to think about when choosing a vendor.