SAP PI 7.

1 Tips and Tricks

SAP - Middleware :
SAP Process Integration (PI) is SAPs Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) tool. It is
used to facilitate the exchange of information among a companys internal
software/systems and those of external parties. SAP PI proides seamless end to end
integration !etween SAP and "on#SAP applications inside and outside the corporate
!oundary.

SAP SAP Interface:
$he approach to !e used for integrating two SAP systems would !e as shown in the
!elow decision tree diagram.

SAP PI (Middleware) :
In case if no standard con%guration is aaila!le to integrate two SAP systems& then
SAP PI should !e used to create the interfaces !etween the two systems. 'arious
integration techni(ues are aaila!le in SAP PI to integrate two systems.

Standard IDoc Interation:
SAP has integrated systems and applications that support I)oc format& using SAPs
Application *in+ Ena!ling (A*E) functionality. A*E is SAP proprietary technology that
ena!les data communications !etween two or more SAP systems and/or !etween
SAP systems with non#SAP systems. SAP has created a lot of di,erent I)ocs for
transferring di,erent data !etween the systems. In case of interfaces& this will !e a
preferred way of data transfer as it is a proen and sta!le technology and re(uires
minimum deelopment e,ort.

SAP A!AP Pro"ies: In cases where there is no standard I)oc aaila!le to cater to
the re(uirement& SAP Proxies should !e used as a preferred way of integration
with the SAP system. $he adantages of SAP Proxies are-
A.AP proxies proide high performance throughput. Exchanging high olume data
generally is not an issue
/ith this 0outside#in1 approach& A.AP proxies are easy to design and proide a
way of decoupling data transfer and handling application logic
Proxy framewor+ supports !oth PI communication as well as we! serices. $his
proides an added adantage of interchangea!ility !etween we! serices or PI for
point to point interfaces
SAP A.AP Proxy supports !oth synchronous and asynchronous communication
with out#of#the !ox logging and monitoring tools
In case if there is any standard .API aaila!le which caters to the re(uirement of the
interface& then that .API should !e ino+ed through a proxy call rather than
directly calling it ia 234.

T#e followin tec#ni$%es can &e %sed:
SAP in&o%nd interation tec#ni$%es:
!D' (!atc# Data 'o((%nication): custom only !ac+ground process of on#line
transaction
ID)' (Inter(ediate Doc%(ent): standard or custom metadata structure for
processing transactions
!API*+,' (!%siness Application Prora((in Interface): standard or custom
!usiness program for processing standard transactions
A!AP pro"-: E44 function that connects with PI directly
'%sto( A!AP prora(: custom !usiness program for processing %les and posting
data to E44 transactions/functions/I)54s
SAP o%t&o%nd interation tec#ni$%es:
ID)': standard or custom metadata structure for processing standard transactions
!API * +,': standard or custom !usiness program for processing standard
transactions
A!AP pro"-: E44 function that connects with PI directly
'%sto( A!AP prora(: custom !usiness program for processing %les and posting
data to E44 transactions/functions/I)54s
Mappin and ro%tin perfor(ed in (iddleware PI:
3ew examples of *egacy/6iddleware integration techni(ues (in!ound and out!ound)
,lat ,ile %xed length and %le delimited
.MS*/M0 76* with schema de%nition
Data&ase S8* executed from 9).4 connection
1e&ser2ices :$$P/S5AP re(uests

'o(ponent 3ersions and 4a(espaces:
)e%ne a separate software component for each component inoled
)e%ne a separate software component for the mappings
)o not enhance SAP deliered o!;ects in its original namespace
Mappin T-pes :
6apping messages from one format/structure to another is a fundamental feature for
any middleware application in A<A and .<. scenarios.
SAP "et/eaer Process Integration o,ers a wide ariety of mapping program types-
6essage 6apping (=raphical 6apping $ool)
9aa 6apping
7S*$ 6apping (9aa Engine)
A.AP 6apping
7S*$ 6apping (A.AP Engine)
Data 0ook%p:
3al%e Mappin
Integration )irectory >I- Allows for direct manual input using the user interface of the
Integration )irectory 'alue 6apping 2eplication for 6ass )ata- If the alue mapping
data is stored in external ta!les& this data can !e replicated to the runtime cache (on
the Integration Serer) !y using special serice interfaces Integration )irectory API-
we! serices containing all the necessary operations to create and edit con%guration
o!;ects
Mappin 0ookps
.y using a mapping loo+up& mapping programs can call functions from other
application systems while a mapping program on the Integration Serer is !eing
executed e.g. $o read from application system data in the mapping program
$he mapping runtime has a loo+up API for calls to application systems. It supports
access using the 234& 9).4& and S5AP adapters
T#e followin data criteria s#o%ld &e taken into acco%nt w#en de5nin t#e
data look%p strate-:
Amount of )ata- Is there a small or large amount of data to maintain?
3re(uency of 4hange- Is the data static or dynamic?
*ocation of )ata- Is the data externally maintained?
Input / 5utput 'alue 2atio- Is the input/output alue ratio @/@?
Aaila!ility of 'alue 6apping 3unction- )oes the alue mapping function already exist
in the !ac+end or can it !e easily implemented?
.ac+end Application $ype- Is the !ac+end an SAP System& a ).& an Application that
can proide /e! Serices?
Data 0ook%p s#o%ld &e %sed in t#e followin cases:
)ataset is large& dynamic and externally maintained
Input / 5utput 'alue 2atio is n/n.
A 'alue 6apping function is aaila!le in the !ac+ end or can easily !e implemented
.ac+end is an SAP system (234)& data!ase system (9).4) or we! serice proider
(S5AP)
'ollection of Messaes :
$ry to aoid using cc.P6 to collect messages from one system for 6ass
processing
$ry to aoid cc.P6 4ollect Pattern for high olume interfaces

Split of Messaes :
$ry to aoid cc.P6& !ut use IS pipeline A AE functions for mapping !ased
message split A interface determination.




S-nc#rono%s 2ers%s As-nc#rono%s Scenarios :
/ith asynchronous messages (E5 or E5I5) processing& the messages can !e sent
to IS een if the receiing system is down and PI will ta+e care of the E5/E5I5
processing
/ith asynchronous mode one message can !e sent to multiple receiers
)ue to additional persistence layers more system resources are re(uiredthan
compara!le synchronous interfaces
/ith async messages you can control parallel processing
Integration Engine ((ueues)
4ote: E5 stands for Exactly 5nce& while E5I5 stands for Exactly 5nce in 5rder

Seriali6ation:

$ry to aoid E5I5 for mass data interfaces.


Perfor(ance T%nin :

T#e t%nin of PI can lead to :

A decrease of the oerall message processing time or/and
An increase of the message throughput& i.e. the num!er of messages
processed within a speci%c time frame
>se reasona!le message siBes to improe performance& to aoid memory
oerCows and to increase oerall system sta!ility.
At design time& consider that the message throughput is much higher for
larger messages due to the necessary processing oerhead for a single message. 5n
the other side& the memory consumption is higher for processing larger messages.
$he !est practice is to +eep the aerage message siBe in the range of 1 M!
to 7 M!.

Messae Packin :

!- processin (%ltiple (essaes in packaes instead of indi2id%all-8 t#e
o2erall o2er#ead can &e red%ced leadin to less #ardware reso%rces
cons%(ption and an increased (essae t#ro%#p%t:

$he respectie programs re(uired for message processing are only loaded
once into main memory for each pac+age
6ultiple messages are processed in one dialog wor+ process
5nly one ). commit is carried out for the complete pac+age
5nly one logon is re(uired when switching from A.AP stac+ to 9aa stac+ or
ice ersa
9se (essae Packain in t#e Interation Ser2er in t#e followin cases:
Small asynchronous messages
.est results when using proxies
*eads to throughput improements
Seriali6ation :

SerialiBation is a techni(ue that is used to ensure that the interface records are
processed in the target system& in the same order that they were generated in the
source system. Interface records can get processed in a di,erent order due to-
networ+ or system delays
parallel processing
intermittent errors etc.
!ased on %pdate (ade to t#e &%siness o&:ect and content8 t#e appropriate
seriali6ation tec#ni$%e s#o%ld &e %sed:
;rror #andlin:

'ital error information should !e captured for e,ectie error reporting. E,ectie error
reporting can help pro;ect management to focus on priorities and support team
to resole the errors faster.

Errors should !e reported with all message data (class& num!er& text&
parameters) and important record data li+e +ey& organiBation& amounts etc. Seeral
reporting techni(ues can !e used-
6onitoring- interface log (across the technology landscape) proiding
tracea!ility into the releant functional and technical details of each interface
"oti%cation- noti%cations to speci%c resources are triggered !ased on de%ned
attri!utes of interfaces proiding interface details
o Interface errors should !e categoriBed !ased on point of !rea+
o $he right course of resolution should !e determined !y category