Integration

Processing External Service Providers
Delivery interface: DESADV, SHPORD, WHSORD, CARNOT, SHPCON, SHPMNT
Sales interfaces: REQOTE, ORDERS, ORDCHG, DELORD, DELINS, DELJIT, GSVERF, EDLNOT, QUOTES, ORDERSP, INVOIC
ALE Business processes
ALE: Shared Master Data

Technologies for integration

Connectors

File Interface: Without any complex coding and configuration, using FTP/SFTP the file can be transferred from SAP to any third-party system. With the arrival of PI (process integration), the extracted file from SAP is sent first to PI where mapping and conversion happens based on the requirements posed by the third party system and then it is possible to send the file in the desired format, JSON, XML, etc

AL11 (tcode), GUI_UPLOAD, GUI_DOWNLOAD, OPEN DATASET, CLOSE DATASET, CL_GUI_FRONTEND_SERVICES=>GUI_DOWNLOAD, CL_GUI_FRONTEND_SERVICES=>FILE_OPEN_DIALOG, CL_GUI_FRONTEND_SERVICES=>GUI_UPLOAD and CL_GUI_FRONTEND_SERVICES=>DIRECTORY_EXIST

RFC: Under the RFC interface concept, SAP came up with BAPI (Business Application Programming Interface). The idea was to expose the business objects (BO) to the external systems.

A few transaction codes BAPI, SWO1, SE37, SM59, and table SWOTLV are common to use for RFC Interfaces.

IDOC: IDOC Interfaces provide a file format for exchanging the data between systems. The format of the data file consists of structure, fields with position and length and it is further divided into header, data segments, and the status of record segment.

WE20, WE21, WE80, WE81, WE82, BD64, SM59, WE30, WE31, WE02, WE05, WE18, WE19, BD59, SPRO: SAP Web Application Server -> Application Server > IDOC Interface/ALE -> Communication.

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol): SOAP is a messaging protocol that is supported by version 7.0 onward with NetWeaver and it is internet-based technology. To call the functions, HTTP protocol is used and the client receives the details of parameters and functions in the form of WSDL(Web Service Description Language) which can be retrieved through a defined URL. The exchange of communication using SOAP is via XML messages. The mode of processing is generally Asynchronous but it depends on the requirement.

It provides a technique for communication called reliable messaging (RM). This will make sure that the receiver system has received the message for sure.
The transfer of payloads can be configured via bgRFC queue. So if the queue is stuck/blocked for some reason then transfer via replication doesn’t take place until the queue is unblocked or re-started. That is one drawback of using bgRFC queue.
Important: ESR(Enterprise Service Repository), SOAMANAGER, SPROXY( for the Proxy Objects), SBGRFCMON

REST: Like SOAP it also uses HTTP protocol but it generally works as Synchronous.

With the introduction of SAP Gateway, it is now possible to provide the RFC interfaces and ABAP functions in the form of REST API.
REST can transform data into JSON or XML format; REST is faster than SOAP
SE24, SICF, and Postman (as a testing tool for CRUD operations).

OData: OData facilitates the best practices for building and consuming RESTful APIs

Important transaction codes: SEGW and /IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE (to register the service)

CDS and BOPF: So the function is similar to SQL statements but the data provided is semantically rich as it contains readable annotations. It creates a run-time object in the underlying DB and also a DDIC object. Instead of applying inner joins on the DB tables directly, CDS uses the abstraction using a new concept called association.

Using BOPF one can create a transactional app capable to perform CRUD operations without any additional UI5 design.

Web API
Behavior Definition Language (BDL): The purpose of BDL is to add the behavior to the business objects (BO). So how the entity is going to behave, such definitions will be defined along with the header information. Using BDL, CDS entities are created which are managed in ABAP compiler instead of ABAP dictionary. The syntax of BDL is oriented to DDL(Data Dictionary Language).

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