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Simple Sample: Writing an entry to SAP Netweaver Gateway using JSON

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Skill Level: Beginner

Time Needed: 20 minutes

 

I recently assisted someone on the forums when they were having trouble creating records in their SAP ECC instance while using Gateway. I thought I would share some very simple code showing what it takes to write an entry into a service via JSON from iOS (Objective C). The reason the title of the document is "Simple Sample" - there are no frills. Whenever I develop a new app, I start small, get the basic functionality working, and proof out the process before getting too creative.

 

*** If you do not have your own gateway server, you might be able to connect this to the SAP Gateway System which can be found here. Create an account and utilize this service *** DISCLAIMER: Untested as the signup form does not work

 

The small application sample below uses this document as a starting point. It describes setting up CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) operations for the Bank account list in your back-end, based on the Bank BAPI. For our example, we will be using the Read and Create functionality of the service. Our example will use a open source repository called AFNetworking. The download can be found here, is ARC compatible and is very easy to add and reference in your project. I will skip the basics of creating a iOS project and adding the reference to AFNetworking (but for reference I am using a "Single View" app template in XCode).

 

Read Operation from your iOS App

 

Reading from a OData service using JSON can be done in as little as 7 lines of code in objective C (When using the AFNetworking classes). Here is my example code which can be used to read from your service. In my case, I am returning a list of Banks. Below is the code and the output.

 

Screen Shot 2013-05-10 at 8.20.25 AM.png

 

Screen Shot 2013-05-10 at 8.23.55 AM.png

 

 

 

Create Operation from your iOS App

 

Creating a new record adds a small requirement, in that a CSRF (Cross Site Request Forgery) Token needs to be added to the POST request header. If you notice above, I have added this "fetch" header to my GET request, thus returning the key we need along with our data. (2 birds, 1 stone). Here is the create request. Pending it is successful, it will return the record which have been added to your back-end system. Below is the code and output.

 

Screen Shot 2013-05-10 at 8.19.28 AM.png

 

 

Screen Shot 2013-05-10 at 8.25.14 AM.png

 

 

 

Here is a link to the GitHub project to avoid you writing all of this out. Once again - download and follow this useful guide from Gateway team to create the Bank service in your Gateway system, download the project from GitHub, update your gateway server name and details and this will be a useful starting point for creating your next enterprise app.

 

Disclaimer: Keep in mind the code purposely simplifies the code needed. If you feeling more adventurous:

 

  1. Ensure your gateway server is using HTTPS.
  2. Instead of using a NSString *dataset, use NSDictionary object/Class to the Request using JSONRepresentation
  3. Add your username and password to the header request, Base64 encoding them.
  4. Instead of writing the JSON response out to a UITextView, add some UITextBoxes and parse the values out.

 

Can anyone spot the field I forgot to post?


SAPPHIRE Orlando Here We Come!

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SAPPHIRE Orland is now just around the corner and we want to reveal some plans and highlights there for NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise team in the format of Q&A.

 

 

Q: Who will be onsite to represent SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise?

A: I talked to some of the onsite team members and ask each of them to share their missions with you.

  • Adi Kavaler: representing the chief solution owner aspect for Duet and Gateway. He will meet several customer there 1:1 and might still able to squeeze some last minute request in.
  • Mustafa (solution manager): has a great blog about his plan at SAPPHIRE
  • Ella Morgulis(solution manager): she just posted a blog about her plan which includes a ASUG presentation session ID 2514 together with CalPortland.
  • Himanshu Pande (Evangelist, Platform Integration and Orchestration): you will see him at several Duet presentations, roundtable and customer meetings.

 

 

 

Both Ella and Himanshu will be panelists at this ASUG interview session with Bill Newman (ASUG Volunteer of Newport Consulting)

INTERVIEW: 5/14 2PM

TOPIC: SAP, Microsoft and Duet Enterprise

 

 

 

Q: Where is the best place to find someone from the Gateway/Duet team?

A: Will be the D&T campus at Pod DT625 Create Engaging Customer Experiences: Portals, Gateways, and Beyond, expert table.

 

 

Q: What is new and exciting at our demo Pod this year?

A: One really innovative new demo is called “Voice over HANA” with voice enabled user interface and empowered by NetWeaver Gateway and newly released CRM on HANA. Here is a glimpse into the architecture. Definitely stop by and check it out.

 

VoiceOverHANAArchitecture.jpg

figure: Voice over Hana demo architecture

voiceOverHanademoscreen1.png

figure: fully voice enabled app UI

Q: What is new and what is the future of NetWeaver Gateway?

 

A: My colleague Martin Bachman talked about that in his 2 recent blogs:

 

Martin Bachmann 

Blog 1: New Gateway Tool - SAP NetWeaver Gateway productivity accelerator

Blog 2: SAP NetWeaver Gateway - some thoughts on the future

 

Closing comments:

 

Starting the SAPPHIRE week you will see a very active online program at the following Duet and Gateway social media channels.

SAP NetWeaver GatewayTwitter| LinkedIn  |Youtube |
Duet Enterprise FacebooklTwitter| LinkedIn  |Youtube|

 

For a more complete session list please check the blog:

Overview of SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise Activities at SAPPHIRE NOW

 

Wish everyone a successful and fun SAPPHIRE event in Orlando!

 

 

 

Solution Management Team NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise

Introducing Virtual Fair for SAP NetWeaver Gateway Customers

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Since the introduction of SAP NetWeaver Gateway to the market in October 2011, the product had drawn popularity among our customers as well as partners. So far more than 2500 of our customers used the product to implement innovative solutions to improve their business process. At the same time, our partner ecosystem nurtured a community of partners to develop many SAP NetWeaver Gateway content for different line of businesses and industries.

 

 

Virtual Fair for SAP NetWeaver Gateway Customers

 

In order for our customers to better utilize their investment on SAP NetWeaver Gateway, the Product Management of SAP NetWeaver Gateway will host a Virtual Fair for SAP NetWeaver Gateway Customers to achieve that.

 

This new initiative offers our partners from our ecosystem to showcase their solutions that harness the power of SAP NetWeaver Gateway.

 

Discover. Connect. Collaborate

 

The 3 main goals for this event are:

 

Discover– Our partners can showcase their solutions to customers who already invested on SAP NetWeaver Gateway.

 

Connect – Partners connect with our customers to understand their business needs.

 

Collaborate– Partners can generate leads and customers can understand more about the partner solutions that built on SAP NetWeaver Gateway.

 

We hope this event can provide a meeting ground not only for the partners to generate leads but also our customers to springboard their investment to business reality. 

 

What’s next?

 

We are planning to offer the first installment of this Virtual Fair in late Q2 this year. Stay tuned for more information coming up.

Day 1 at SAPPHIRE - Our NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise Busy Bees!

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The busy schedule for our SAPPHIRE onsite team started already last night with the MSFT pre-SAPPHIRE dinner. Thanks to Duet Enterprise - our joint product with MSFT our team was invited to this fun event.

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photo: MSFT pre event dinner

This Morning before the show floor even opened up, our demo Pod was already getting visitors. Definately stop by to talk to our experts at the Pod. Believe or not, you can even talk to our new demo app too! (D&T campus Pod DT625 Create Engaging Customer Experiences: Portals, Gateways, and Beyond)

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photo: Our demo Pod DT625

Our Solution Manager Himanshu co-presented at the “Duet Enterprise for Operational Impact” Microforum together with MSFT and Cap Gemini. It was such an engaging session.

CapSession.JPG

photo: Engaging Microforum with Cap and MSFT

Our Duet roundtable by invitation only with Dr. Pepper was a full house session. Dr Pepper Snapple Group is a  leading producer of flavored beverages in North America and the Caribbean. Over the past 3-5 years Dr Pepper Snapple Group has invested heavily  in their SAP transactional business systems. In order to deliver a solution  that has a familiar Microsoft style user interface Dr. Pepper Snapple Group implemented a new mobile purchase requisition approval process utilizing Duet  Enterprise. With that Dr Pepper Snapple Group has been able to increase adoption, speed in the process, increase accuracy of purchase orders, and increase productivity.

RoundTableDrPepper.JPG

photo: Duet Round Table with Dr. Pepper

One more fun event today for the onsite team was the ASUG TV Studio interview about "SAP, Microsoft and Duet Enterprise". Our GW and Duet solution management colleagues Himanshu and Ella were interviewed together with Bill Newman (ASUG Volunteer of Newport Consulting). Some highlights of the discussion are:

  • Duet Enterprise is not the old Duet product, do not mix them up
  • For today’s business users user experience is the key
  • SAP and MSFT are better together for join product like Duet Enterprise so companies already invested in both technologies and skillset can leverage their existing software and resources

SAPTVSession.JPG

    photo: ASUG TV studio

 

 

Upcoming Sessions:

We have many more exciting ASUG and SAPPHIRE sessions lined up for Wed and Thu:

 

ASUG or SAPPHIRE Category Speaker Session ID Title Description Day Time    Room
ASUG Presentation Paul Ashmann 3906From Start to Finish - Developing an iPad app using SAP Netweaver Gateway Gateway WED 12:30 pm - 01:30 pm S320A
ASUG Presentation Coca Cola 1606SAP Solution Manager Goes Mobile at the Coca-Cola Company Gateway WED 12:30 pm - 01:30 pm S220G
SAPPHIRE MSFT Theater Presentation MSFT  & Baker Hughes 87124Extend Your SAP Applications with Duet Enterprise and Windows 8 Duet WED12:00 pm -12:40 pm Forum A Theater
SAPPHIREMicroforumDr. Pepper64603Extend the Reach of Your Applications to More UsersDuet & GWTHU11:00 am - 11:45 amDatabase and Technology Microforum 2 / DT629
ASUG PresentationSAP & CalPortland 2514 Transform complex processes in SAP into simplified workflows on mobile devices using SAP NetWeaver Gateway – customer success story/ case study with CalPortland GatewayTHU4:15 pm - 05:15 pmS320H

 

Social Media Program for live report:

If you cannot travel to Orlando, do not get disappointed. You can still get a good amount of updates through our social media program. Be sure to follow us on those channels and we love to see your input there as well.

SAPPHIRE Facebook album has the complete photos from our team at the event.

SAP NetWeaver GatewayTwitter| LinkedIn  |Youtube |

Duet EnterpriseFacebooklTwitter| LinkedIn  |Youtube|

Ning-Jing Gao on behalf of NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise Solution Management team

 

 

 

Feedbacks and Further Supports for SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise Partners

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In early 2013, we had the honor to host a North America partner focus group event in SAP Palo Alto office for SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise. There are 8 partners from the NA region joining the one-day event. During the event, we shared with our partners product updates and the progress of successful customer adoption of SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise. We also took this opportunity to capture thoughts and feedbacks on how we could further improve support for our partners on both business development and technical enablement. Some of the feedbacks resonated with the result of partner survey we conducted at the end of 2012.

 

Below are the top 5 feedbacks that we collected from our partners during the event.

  1. Strengthen marketing support for SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise on both partner services and solutions.
  2. Increase transparency of SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise pricing model
  3. Simplify route to market for partner solutions and guide partner navigating SAP sales channel
  4. Continue to educate partner on positioning of SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise especially when compared to other SAP offerings
  5. Provide delta functional and technical enablement sessions with the new release of SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise.

As our answers to those feedbacks, we are now putting together actions to further improve support for our partners in the below areas.  

 

  1. Continue to increase adoption of partner solutions. A Partner-built Solutions Campaign for 2013 was launched in April. Benefits of the campaign include technical enablement, solution certification, and support of partner solutions go-to-market. This year's campaign continues to target existing SAP SIs, VARs as well as independent software vendors (ISVs). If you missed the webinar sessions, you can find them here
  2. Leverage existing offerings for partners from SAP eco system and channel team. For example Mobile Application Partner Program (MAPP) is a SAP partner program which would help listing partner solutions in SAP store based on SAP NetWeaver Gateway or Duet Enterprise. Enablement sessions for SAP NetWeaver Gateway are provided as part of the MAPP.
  3. Continue to execute social media marketing efforts for SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise products and partner solutions. Follow both the product channels in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, and SCN.
  4. Establish Virtual Fair for SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise Customers. Virtual Fair is a new type of event we are organizing to increase exposure of partner certified solutions and generate more leads for those solutions. The goal of the virtual fair is to create a platform connecting customers and partners by their common interest – SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise solutions, from a seller (partner) and buyer (customer) perspectives. The first Virtual Fair is planned for the end of Q2 2013. Detail of Virtual Fair can be found here.
  5. Establish a Partner Enablement Kit to provide:
    • Updated value proposition of SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise based on new releases
    • Updated positioning of SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise vs. Other SAP technologies
    • Marketing assets for partners – e.g. guidance on how to participate existing SAP marketing events and navigate SAP sales channel such as inside sales
    • Guidance for  partner on SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise pricing model
    • Guidance on partner-built solutions campaign and its included benefits as technical enablement, solution certification, and support of partner solutions go-to-market
  6. Increase awareness and participation of SAP Partner-led RDS program. SAP Partner-led RDS program is now an open program for qualified partners and solutions. Partner will leverage SAP’s rapid-deployment solution framework, differentiate their solution offerings, and increase customer adoptions of their solutions by making use of the SAP Rapid-deployment solution momentum to drive their sales. Follow the link to find more information on SAP Partner-Led Rapid-Deployment Solutions.

 

Many of these proposed improvements are now in full steam progressing while I am writing this blog. For example, SAP NetWeaver Gateway pricing is now available in SAP store and will become part of the pricing guidance included in Partner Enablement Kit. To view the SAP NetWeaver Gateway pricing, go to SAP Store and search for SAP NetWeaver Gateway User License. Scheduling of the Virtual Fair is also getting closed to be released. So stay tuned for the coming.

Day 2 at SAPPHIRE - NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise team in full speed!

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SAPPHIRE Orlando is in full swing!

 

On Day 2, our team began with the executive breakfast held in Hilton Orlando hosted by SAP-Microsoft Unite Parter Connection. During the breakfast session, two awards were handed out to partners - Fujitsu and Capgemini - who developed amazing solutions to address our customers' toughest challenges and demands. Fujitsu is the winner of the Innovation Award (Press release) and Capgemini is the winner of the Customer Impact and Value Award.

 

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Photo: Rustum Broacha of Ecosystem & Channels team of SAP spoke during the executive breakfast

 

 

Himanshu (below) engaged in presentation and demo on how SAP NetWeaver Gateway can improve the overall user satisfaction, productivity and experience.

 

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Photo: Himanshu presenting in the demo theatre.

 

 

One highlight of our theatre presentation was "Extend Your SAP Applications with Duet Enterprise and Windows 8" - presented by Vivek Malhorta from Microsoft and a representative of our customer, Dr. Pepper. This session showed how the interoperability of Windows 8 apps and Duet Enterprise software for SharePoint and SAP solutions can enable enterprises to extend information and processes to the user community. Vivek presented innovative solutions that consume SAP software data through user-friendly Microsoft interfaces, products, and devices.

Pic07_20130515.JPG

Photo: Vivek of Microsoft presented with representative from customer Dr. Pepper

 

#ICYMI - In Case You Missed It!

 

SAP Fiori - It's here! During SAPPHIRE NOW, announcement was made on the launch of SAP Fiori. SAP Fiori, leveraging the power of SAP NetWeaver Gateway and SAP UI5,  is a collection of apps that are simple, easy-to-use and provide an intuitive user experience for broadly and frequently used SAP software functions. These apps run across a variety of devices — desktop, tablet, smartphone — to help easily get the job done. Since its launch, SAP Fiori has been generated a lot of buzz on the social media (#Fiori). Experience SAP Fiori now.

 

Partner Testimonies - During the day, we had 2 partners  - Red Hat and Autodesk - shared how SAP NetWeaver Gateway is vital to their business and improve their development effort of their solutions. Thank you to Syed Rashid of Red Hat and Jim Quanci of Autodesk taking the time to speak to us.

 

Check out their testimonies - Autodesk | Red Hat

  

 

After a long day of activities, Ella, Mustafa and Himanshu had a fun and great dinner time with the customers and partners in the Mircosoft party.

 

Pic09_20130515.JPGPic12_20130515.JPG

 

More to come....

 

One more day to go; and we still have some more ASUG and SAPPHIRE sessions on Thursday:


SAPPHIRE - Microforum

Session ID: 64603
Title: Extend the Reach of Your Applications to More Users
Description: This discussion reveals how you can offer people new ways to work by linking them to SAP applications from various user environments. Learn how Duet Enterprise and SAP NetWeaverGateway tehcnology can benefit your business, IT department, end users, and extended network.

Time: (THU) 11:00 am - 11:45 am
Venue: Database and Technology Microforum 2 / DT629

 

ASUG - Presentation
Session ID: 2514
Title: Transform complex processes in SAP into simplified workflows on mobile devices using SAP NetWeaver Gateway - Customer success story/ case study with CalPortland
Time: (THU) 4:15 pm - 05:15 pm
Venue: S320H

 

Come back tomorrow and check out our Thursday activities!

 

Or you can follow us on the social media for live report:

 

SAP NetWeaver GatewayTwitter| LinkedIn  |Youtube |

Duet EnterpriseFacebooklTwitter| LinkedIn  |Youtube|

 

Peter Ng on behalf of the Solution Managment team of SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise

Configuring SSL Connection to SAP Systems in SAP NetWeaver Gateway Productivity Accelerator

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Hi,

 

Following the release of the SAP NetWeaver Gateway Productivity Accelerator and the blog post by Martin Bachmann, more and more people keep asking me how to configure their Gateway system within the GWPA tool, in HTTPS protocol. So I figured it might be worthwhile to post a short explanation that hopefully clarify what needs to be done in order to add a SAP NW Gateway secured connection.

 

Follow these 3 steps:
• Export the server certificate (that is the root certificate of the Gateway server)
• Import the server certificate to the list of trusted CAs (Certificate Authorities) in your JRE
• Add the connection in SAP NetWeaver Gateway Productivity Accelerator in Eclipse

 

Step 1: Exporting the certificatelock2.png

Easiest way I've found to export the certificate is to go to your browser and just export it from there: enter some URL of a service on the SAP NW Gateway system you would like to configure. Click on the lock icon on the address bar and then on View certificates (if using Chrome, after clicking the lock icon go to the Connections tab and then Certificate information). Select the Certification Path tab and click on the root certificate before clicking on View Certificate. Then, go to the Details tab and click on Copy to File…

Follow the wizard (select the Base-64 encoded X.509 (.CER) format, and choose the file system location to export to).

 

cert.png

 

Step 2: Importing the certificate to the CA list

This is a rather simple step, but a bit tricky as you need to make sure you import the certificate into the correct JRE installation in case you have multiple JREs on your machine. To check which JRE installation is used by your Eclipse instance, go to Eclipse Preferences (Java > Installed JREs). I used the Portecle tool which is a user friendly GUI application for creating, managing and examining keystores, keys, certificates, certificate requests, certificate revocation lists and more. You can get it from:http://portecle.sourceforge.net/

Open the Portecle tool and Open the Keystore File of your JRE (cacerts) should be located in <JRE installation path> ..\jre\lib\security.

Enter the password to the keystore: changeit

Then go to Tools > Import Trusted Certificate, and select the exported certificate from where you have saved it. Save and close the tool.

 

Step 3: Add the connection in SAP NetWeaver Gateway Productivity Accelerator in Eclipse

After installing the Productivity Accelerator, in Eclipse Preferences, add the system connection using HTTPS and SSL port.

Day 3 – More engagements with customers and partners before the closing bell

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Time flies, SAPPHIRE reaches its final and 3rd day of the event. Lots of traffic circled around the DT625. Ella, Mustafa and Himanshu made sure they did not miss any customers to explain and pitch on how SAP NetWeaver Gateway can help their businesses.

 

Pic04_20130516.JPG

Photo: Ella  (left) explaining the demo to an attendee in the demo pod

Pic07_20130516.JPG

Photo: Mustafa (right) chatting with another attendee

 

During the final Micro Forum session, we had customer Dr. Pepper to present with Himanshu. The interactive discussion drew a lot of attendees. The session revealed how businesses can offer people new ways to work by linking them to SAP applications from various user environments using Duet Enterprise and SAP NetWeaver Gateway technology which can benefit your business, IT department, end users, and extended network.

 

Pic01_20130516.JPG

Photo: Himanshu speaking in the micro forum session

Pic02_20130516.JPG

Photo: Himanshu (left) is co-presenting with Satish (right) from Dr. Pepper in the session

 

  In the other ASUG session, Ella presented with Mike Bowen from customer CalPortland to share the success story using SAP NetWeaver Gateway.

 

Pic08_20130516.JPG

Photo: Ella is presenting with CalPorland

Pic10_20130516.JPG

Photo: Mike Bowen from CalPortland is sharing their success story with SAP NetWeaver Gateway   

 

Let’s celebrate….

 

After the 3-day long event, everyone enjoyed the final celebration with a concert event at night. Thanks to Ella for sharing the pictures. This year, we all enjoyed a night of country music with singers – Alan Jackson, Bonnie Raitt and Martina McBride.

 

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Photo: Alan Jackson

Pic13_20130516.JPG

Photo: Bonnie Raitt

 

 

Thanks…

 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our on-site team - Ella, Mustafa and Himanshu from the Solution Management team of SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise - to contribute all the event pictures for our social media coverage in the midst of their main duties to do presentations
and attend meeting with customers and partners throughout the event.

 

 

Stay Connected…

 

 

Follow us to keep connection with us on the social media. Share with us your thoughts on our channels.

 

SAP NetWeaver GatewayTwitter| LinkedIn  |Youtube |

Duet EnterpriseFacebooklTwitter| LinkedIn  |Youtube|

 

Check out our SAPPHIRE photo album on Facebook to see more pictures of our team during the event.

 

To review our SAPPHIRE activities in the past days, please check out our recap blogs - Day 1 | Day 2


Announcing SAP NetWeaver Gateway Virtual Trainings

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The wait is over. As we are approaching to the sign-up deadline for our 2013 campaign - SAP NetWeaver Gateway Partner-built Solutions Drive, we are happy to announce two virtual training sessions on SAP NetWeaver Gateway that will be delivered in June.

 

The sessions will cover both provisioning of OData services and consuming them on various platforms. Best of all, the trainings will also cover recently announced SAP NetWeaver Gateway Productivity Accelerators. While you will learn from our experts, you will also have the opportunity to ask them questions.

 

We suggest that you register for our trainings even if you won't be able to attend them live. Because, shortly after the sessions, we will make them available online and share the links with those who registered.

 

So don't delay and reserve your seat now! Register for our training sessions.

 

Best,

Mustafa.

SAP NetWeaver Gateway deployment options in a nutshell

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Updates:

- added pro's and con's to the deployment options

 

 

In the past I have been frequently asked which deployment option I would recommend for SAP NetWeaver Gateway. The official documentation can be found here in SAP Online Help.

 

Root cause for this discussion was that basic Gateway functionalities if running on releases prior to 7.40 are contained in different AddOns that have to be
deployed separately.

 

While in releases prior to 7.40 the Gateway server or hub functionalities require that the software components GW_CORE and IW_FND are deployed on the server system, the Gateway backend enablement functionalities required that software component IW_BEP had to be deployed.

 

As of SAP NetWeaver 7.40 and higher you don’t have to decide where to put the Gateway core components since SAP has taken the decision for you .

 

This is because the component SAP_GWFND is installed as part of the 7.40 standard and includes the functional scope of IW_BEP, GW_CORE, IW_FND and in addition IW_HDB.

 

SAP NetWeaver Gateway server functionalitiesSAP NetWeaver Gateway backend enablement
7.31
and earlier
GW_CORE,
IW_FND
IW_BEP
as of 7.40SAP_GWFNDSAP_GWFND

 

So instead of discussing where to deploy which AddOn the discussion will be around whether you will go for a hub architecture or whether you will activate the Gateway service on the SAP Business Suite system itself (also called “Embedded Deployment”).

 

Since the Gateway core components will be part of each system running on top of NetWeaver 7.40 in the future you still have basically three options how to run SAP NetWeaver Gateway services in a system landscape.

 

In contrast to the description in the online documentation I am differentiating between two types of hub deployment. One where the service deployed in the backend and one where the service is deployed on the hub.

 

Option 1 (hub architecture)

 

In this case the Gateway server functionalities are only used on one dedicated server, the hub system. The services are deployed on the backend systems and are registered on the server. The Gateway service is thus deployed in the Gateway backend systems where either IW_BEP is deployed systems or that are running on top of 7.40 leveraging the core component SAP_GWFND.

 

Pro's:

+ Routing and composition of multiple systems is supported

+ Single point of access to backend systems

+ Hub System can be based on a newer release (7.31 or 7.40)  that supports additional authentication options (Kerberos, SAML Browser protocol)

+ Hub System can be based on a newer release (7.31 or 7.40)  that supports SAPUI5

+ Enhanced security because of no direct access to the backend system

+ Direct local access to metadata (DDIC) and business data, meaning easy reuse of data

 

Con's:

- Additional server needed for Gateway

 

option 1 hub deployment development in the backend.PNG

 

Option 2 (Hub architecture with development on the server)

 

In this case the Gateway server functionalities are only used on one dedicated server, the hub system. In contrast to option 1 also the service deployment takes place on the hub system. This option is used if either no development must be performed on the backend system or in case of releases prior to 7.40 if it is not allowed to deploy the AddOn IW_BEP in the backend. In this case the developer is limited to the interfaces that are accessible via RFC in the backend.

 

Pro's: (in addition to the ones mentioned in option 1):

+ no need to install (and upgrade) Gateway AddOn’s in the backend

+ services developed by partners do not need any deployment on the backend systems

 

Con's (in addition to the ones mentioned in option 1):

- access is limited to remote enabled interfaces (RFC function modules, BAPI’s, BW Easy Queries, SPI Objects)

- remote enabled interfaces might not be optimal suited (e.g. they might not offer appropriate filter options)

- GENIL objects cannot be accessed remotely

- Additional server needed for Gateway

- NO direct local access to metadata (DDIC) and business data, meaning reuse of data is limited to remote access as mentioned above

 

 

option 2 hub deployment development in the server.PNG

 

Option 3 (Embedded architecture)

 

In this case the service is deployed on the same system where it is registered.

 

Pro's:

+ Less runtime overhead as one remote call is reduced

 

Con's:

- If multiple SAP Business Suite systems are used Gateway would have to be configured multiple times

- Routing and composition cannot be used

- Upgrade of AddOn’s in a backend system in larger companies is usually only possible once or twice a year

 

option 3 embedded deployment.PNG

SAP CodeJam about SAP NetWeaver Gateway - Where to go next ?

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Setting the scene

 

Last week I attended the SAP CodeJam event in Eindhoven that was all about SAP NetWeaver Gateway. Nearly 75% percent of people that had registered also showed up so we had a packed room full of developers as you can see on this picture.

 

First of all I have to thank Ciber Nederland for hosting this event in their location and Craig Cmehil, who created the SAP CodeJam event concept to make this happen. In our session we were able to leverage a cloud based system landscape that consists out of an ERP with a SAP NetWeaver Gateway server deployed on it and a CRM backend that were accessible via the internet. Here my thank you goes to my colleagues that have been busy to create this system landscape.

WP_20130524_007[1].jpg

 

I started to provide a short introduction to SAP NetWeaver Gateway to the participants (here I had to use Powerpoint because not everybody knew about SAP NetWeaver Gateway) and showed how to develop a service in 5 minutes (actually it took a little bit longer because I had to talk as well ).

 

After this introduction it was time to code and to ask questions for the participants and to do networking.

 

Participating partners were encouraged to sign up for our 2013 campaign - SAP NetWeaver Gateway Partner-built Solutions Drive.

 

What are the lessions learned ?

 

It worked !

 

Since we used a cloud based system landscape that was accessible via the internet all participants were able to use it without a problem.

 

Some How To Guides need to be updated

 

It turned out that some How-To-Guides that can be found on SCN are unfortunately out of date. This is no wonder since we have developed lots of new features in the last 2 years. We started to set up a Wiki for SAP NetWeaver Gateway - Self pace learning where you will find the most up to date content.

We will do it again !

 

The SAP NetWeaver Gateway team will support additional SAP CodeJam events about SAP NetWeaver Gateway with speakers from our team if you want to have them.

 

So if you are interested that a SAP CodeJam event about SAP NetWeaver Gateway will be hosted near you or at your location, please let me know and we can work on hosting a SAP CodeJam event as described in the following document.

 

Best Regards,

André

NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise post SAPPHIRE Orlando Digest

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Our SAPPHIRE Orlando onsite team came back pretty exhausted. Between delivering sessions, covering the demo station, meeting customers, attending networking sessions there was nearly no breathing room.

There was a BIG interest for NetWeaver Gateway as well as Duet Enterprise. Our Duet Enterprise round table with Dr. Pepper was simply packed. Our demo pod was a hit too.

PodBusyDuringPrepTime.JPG

A huge interest on Gateway was generated by SAP Fiori which is a collection of apps with a simple and easy to use experience for broadly and frequently used SAP software functions that work seamlessly across devices – desktop, tablet, or smartphone. Those apps are built on NetWeaver Gateway and HTML5.

FioriArchitecture.png

The first release of SAP Fiori includes 25 apps for the most common business functions, such as workflow approvals, information lookups, and self-service tasks.More details about Fiori are under http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-41598

Our solution managers Himanshu and Ella were on ASUG TV session as panelists. Click here to watch the interesting discussion about SAP and Microsoft's partnership.

 

ASUG TV abstract: Duet Enterprise is the result of SAP and Microsoft's 20-year partnership. Panelists Bill Newman, from Newport Consulting, and SAP's Himanshu Pande and Ella Morgulis look at what is it, how it benefits customers and why customers aren't flocking to it.

 

We also conducted a series of customer and partner interviews to get their impression working with our Gateway or Duet products. Want to know what they think about the products, definitely check out the videos:

 

 

 

 

To find out more about what happend at SAPPHIRE in Orlando, we have a great collection of blogs for you:

Collection of blogs of SAP NetWeaver Gateway presence in SAPPHIRE NOW 2013

 

Until we meet next time at the event please follow us on our social media channels as well as share your product improvement ideas with us.

 

Have an idea?    https://ideas.sap.com/netweavergateway

SAP NetWeaver GatewayTwitter| LinkedIn  |Youtube |
Duet Enterprise FacebooklTwitter| LinkedIn  |Youtube|

All About System Alias and Routing of Requests in SAP NetWeaver Gateway

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Recently I have been answering queries around the system alias configuration in SAP NetWeaver Gateway, I thought I will share information on the same in this blog.

 

Prerequisite:

You just have to know the basics of developing OData services using SAP NetWeaver Gateway.

This blog does not cover web service part of the System alias.

 

System Alias is the wrapper around the RFC_Destination + the information related to routing of requests which is created using transaction code SPRO in Gateway HUB system (IWFND). Here is the navigation path:

 

SPRO -> SAP Reference IMG -> SAP Netweaver -> Gateway -> OData Channel -> Configuration -> Connection Settings

-> SAP NetWeaver Gateway to SAP System -> Manage SAP System Alias

 

snagsystemalis.png

 

SAP NetWeaver Gateway System Alias has the following properties:

 

SAP System Alias: Name

 

Description: <Enter the description>

 

Local GW: N/A

 

Local App: Check box that specifies the deployment of component IWBEP .

 

RFC Destination: RFC destination you created using the transaction code SM59

Software Version: Default/which ever applicable

SystemID: Not Required

Client: Not Required

WS provider Sytem: Not Required

 

Deployment Examples and its System alias configurations:

 

localapp2.jpg

Example 1: Local APP

 

In this case (Example 1: Local APP), System alias configuration should have Local App flag set as IWFND and IWBEP are together and RFC destination should point to SAP back-end. RFC destination will be used by BEP data provider to call the RFC from SAP Backend.

 

Now how do you get the RFC destination in your Data provider?

 

Follow the code below

 

DATA lo_destination_finder TYPE REF TO /iwbep/if_destin_finder.

DATA lo_dp_facade TYPE REF TO /iwbep/if_mgw_dp_int_facade.

DATA lv_destination TYPE rfcdest.

 

 

* Get RFC destination

lo_dp_facade         ?= /iwbep/if_mgw_conv_srv_runtime~get_dp_facade( ).

lo_destination_finder = lo_dp_facade->get_destination_finder( ).

lv_destination        = lo_destination_finder->get_rfc_destination_via_rout( ).

 

 

 

Remoteapp2.jpg

Example 2:Remote APP  

 

In this case (Example  2: Remote App), System alias configuration should not have Local App flag set, as IWFND and IWBEP are in different SAP systems and RFC destination should point to back-end where IWBEP is present which is used by IWFND to route the calls.

Here IWBEP data provider and metadata provider classes can use the local RFC Function Modules as well.

 

 

 

SAPBS2.jpg

Example 3: Local App ,all the components in SAP Business Suite/Backend


In this case (Example 3: Local APP), system alias configuration should have Local App flag set as IWFND and IWBEP are together and RFC destination can be empty as all the components are in the SAP back-end.

 

System Alias in Service Builder:


There is another system alias which is used by Service Builder'sservice maintenance node which is used only in design time for registering and maintaining  the service in the Gateway HUB from IWBEP(Service Builder) system .

 

 

snaggsm2.png

 

System alias in this case should be created/configured in the system where IWBEP is installed i.e using transaction code SPRO. Navigation path below:

 

SAP Reference IMG -> SAP Netweaver -> Gateway Service Enablement -> Connection Settings to SAP Netweaver Gateway -> SAP NetWeaver Gateway Settings

snaggservicemaintance.png

 

System Alias here points to the HUB system.

 

It has the following properties

 

Destination System: Destination system name

Client

System alias name

RFC Destination

 

 

RFC Destination here is used to navigate from IWBEP(Service Builder) system to Gateway HUB System(IWFND) when the Register or Maintain or Error Log Button is clicked in the Service Maintenance node of Service Builder

 

 

SM03.png

 

Once the Maintain button is clicked,control goes to the corresponding IWFND system's /iwfnd/maint_service

screen

 

 

SM02.png

 

And that is all!! Feel free to contact me if you have any queries:)

 

Thanks and Best Regards,

Goutham

Making way through Gate, Finding some REST !

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I guess you might be puzzled with the title of my blog. Let me help to clear the puzzle. This blog is all about SAP NetWeaver Gateway!

There will be few questions in your mind about this stuff from SAP.

 

You may have some of below questions in your mind like,

1)   What is SAP NetWeaver Gateway? And what is the importance of it?

2)   How is it different from SAP PI?

3)   What skills are required to learn it?

4)   Learning sources?

 

This blog is just an attempt to answer above questions from the Research I did so far on this new stuff.

To answer 1st question,

In very simple terms, SAP NW Gateway can be viewed as one of the OData producers.

OData producers are services that expose their data using the OData protocol. You can find other OData producer list at http://www.OData .org/ecosystem


You may ask what OData is then.

Well, OData is Open Data Protocol!

You can refer below definition.

The Open Data Protocol (OData) is a Web protocol for querying and updating data that provides a way to unlock your data and free it from silos that exist in applications today. OData does this by applying and building upon Web technologies such as HTTP, Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub) and JSON to provide access to information from a variety of applications, services, and stores.  OData is being used to expose and access information from a variety of sources including, but not limited to, relational databases, file systems, content management systems and traditional Web sites.

OData protocol is used for creating Representational State Transfer (REST)-based [REST] data services, which enable resources, identified using Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) and defined in an abstract data model, to be published and edited by web clients within corporate networks and across the Internet using simple Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) messages.

[Reference -  http://www.OData .org/ ]

If this technical definition is too much then in simple terms, OData is used for creating REST based data (Web?) services.

And then you will ask, what is REST?

Representational State Transfer (REST) is kind of architecture/protocol something similar to SOAP protocol but with more advantages over SOAP.

A RESTful web service (also called a RESTful web API) is a web service implemented using HTTP and the principles of REST.

The world of web is now divided between REST and SOAP and nowadays most of the applications are using REST.

Refer http://geeknizer.com/rest-vs-soap-using-http-choosing-the-right-webservice-protocol/ to know more on REST vs. SOAP

I hope, by now, you might be familiar with OData, REST terminology and importance of REST over SOAP.

Now coming back to SAP Gateway,

SAP NetWeaver Gateway is a development framework, which is available as an SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP (AS ABAP) add-on, which you can install on top of your existing SAP Business Suite or application platform.

SAP NetWeaver Gateway offers development and generation tools to create OData services to a variety of client development tools. Put simply, it establishes a connection between SAP Business Suite data and target clients, platforms, and programming framework.

[Reference -  http://help.sap.com/saphelp_gateway20sp06/helpdata/en/71/376ab03f824ea5bfd0a0e3a307205b/frameset.htm ]

Also note that SAP NetWeaver Gateway only provisions RESTful services.  It cannot be used for consumption of services.

As most of us know that we can create web services on top of RFC which are SOAP based, there was no way to expose SAP data to outside world in the form of RESTful protocol and for that reason, SAP NW GW comes into picture. It simply helps us to expose this data in the form of REST based OData.

This light weight REST based data then can be easily consumed by tablets, mobile devices or web applications.

One question may pop up in your mind is how REST based web services can be light weight compared to SOAP and for that you need to know about JSON !

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a text-based open standard designed for human-readable data interchange. It is derived from the JavaScript scripting language for representing simple data structures and associative arrays, called objects. Despite its relationship to JavaScript, it is language-independent, with parsers available for many languages.

The JSON format is often used for serializing and transmitting structured data over a network connection. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, serving as an alternative to XML.

In simple terms, it is an alternative to XML but with few more advantages over XML.

Let’s see the difference between JSON vs. XML at http://www.json.org/xml.html

JSON with REST do have lot more advantages over XML with SOAP. Refer, http://blog.feedly.com/2009/03/03/jsonrest-vs-xmlsoap/

With all this information, it is clear that SAP want to leverage the capability of REST based services to outside world for consumption due to advantages of REST based OData.

Data exposed by GW service, is light weight, can be easily consumed by application and devices. One of the important consumers is SAPUI5 based applications. With SAPUI5, we can easily build web application or mobile application on top of GW service.

I hope this answers the second part of first question.

Back to 2nd question, how is it different from SAP PI?

Refer this link http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-25547

Before going through this document, I thought SAP NetWeaver Gateway as some sort of middleware and thought why SAP did not provided this capability with PI.

If we look back into SOAP based web service generation on top of RFC then it make sense to have this kind of facility in ABAP stack to be able to create REST based service on top of RFC and for this very purpose ABAP developer can use his/her all time favorite SE80 for GW Data Model and GW Consumption Model

Gateway tools in SE80.jpg

 

As ABAP Developer may know more about which BAPI, RFCs, BOL(in CRM) to be used, what fields to be selected for various REST based operation (GET, POST, DELETE and UPDATE – in HTTP verbose), he/she will be best suitable person to develop GW services.

In future, REST based adaptor may be provided with PI but still it makes more sense to have SAP NW GW to develop GW REST based services.

We may not be surprised to see that GW services again consumed in PI for monitoring, governance purpose. This is something similar to have PI for SOAP based web service despite of the fact that SOAP based Web service can be directly consumed without PI by external applications.

This all stuff makes it very clear that both PI and GW have their own purpose!

Now coming back to third question, what skills are required to learn it?

With all above discussion and knowing the fact that SAP NW GW is on ABAP stack, embedded with SE80, ABAP development skills will be the best suited to learn SAP NW GW.

[P. S. - Eclipse based tools can be used for GW modeling etc. With ABAP on eclipse, this will be again simpler for ABAP developers]

 

Finally, the last and important question, learning sources?

 

As we are more familiar with RFC, you can first start with How to Guide at http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-5010

This shows how one can develop Gateway service on top of RFC.

Some business objects, such as Sales Orders or Purchase Orders, consist of header and line item data. Thus, when creating such business objects, it makes sense to use hierarchical or nested data in the creation request. SAP NetWeaver Gateway can be used to create and expose a service that allows for the creation of these business objects.

In SAP NetWeaver Gateway, the OData  Channel provides deep insert functionality to accommodate the creation of an entity along with its associated entities in one request. The deep insert functionality is provided in ABAP interface /IWBEP/IF_MGW_APPL_SRV_RUNTIME, method CREATE_DEEP_ENTITY.

Refer this link on this scenario, http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-22305

Finally you may be interested to develop web application based on GW service and how about using SAPUI5 for User interface which will consume GW OData service!

Refer these step-by-step document on it - http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-33792 and http://scn.sap.com/community/developer-center/front-end/blog/2013/05/31/how-to-create-sapui5-application-consuming-gateway-service-with-the-help-of-sap-nw-gateway-plugin

                                                                              

Some of you may get one question whether it is possible to develop REST based services without Gateway? For those, this link will be helpful http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/blog/2013/01/24/developing-a-rest-api-in-abap

 

We explored lot and tried to open gates of new world based on Open Data. Now be relaxed and take some REST!

 

Gateway Productivity Accelerator 1.0 Launched

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Last September I published my blog introducing Gateway Service Builder which simplifies the development and generation of OData services on top of the SAP NetWeaver ABAP stack and SAP Business Suite. At that time we knew already that having strong developer support for SAP NetWeaver Gateway on on-premise ABAP systems is important but not sufficient. We will also need to do more to cater for OData service development on upcoming platforms like SAP HANA Cloud and Gateway as a Service. Customers will run on-premise systems in hybrid landscapes together with on-demand systems, consuming data from both. Thereforewe will need a set of tools that span across different platforms and provide an easy and efficient development experience around OData. This is why we decided to build Gateway Productivity Accelerator as the next major building block for the development of user-centric applications on SAP.

 

We have now completed and published Gateway Productivity Accelerator 1.0 (GWPA). GWPA is a set of developer tools in Eclipse which greatly improves the productivity of developers around the consumption and the provisioning of OData:

 

  • A graphical modeler to paint the entity relationship model and to declaratively define all elements of an OData model, currently along the OData V3 specification. We spent much effort on usability and intuitive handling. For instance, there are several autolayout modes for newly imported models which come without layout information. A miniature view helps navigating in larger models and speed-buttons support fast editing.
  • The modeler offers comprehensive validations for the data model while you are defining or enhancing it.
  • You can import existing data models from a file or from an already running OData service.
  • Of course you also can export data models (currently V2 and V3) for handover to a service implementation, for instance in Gateway Service Builder on ABAP.
  • GWPA 1.0 already supports references to OData vocabularies, a powerful new concept that was introduced with OData V3.
  • GWPA integrates the Gateway Consumption Tools for iOS, Android, HTML5, UI5, Java SE and PHP, which were already published on SAP Service Marketplace and which allow the easy generation of service proxies or even full-blown starter applications for the most common client technologies.

 

GWPA.png

 

We believe, that GWPA is a significant shipment also beyond its functional capabilities. Let me explain why.

 

First (and only) OData Modeler in Eclipse

So far the only (setting the Gateway Service Builder on SAP NetWeaver ABAP aside) relevant OData Modeler was part of Microsoft Visual Studio. Non-Microsoft developers were restricted to modeling their OData data models in a plain XML editor. Now any Eclipse developer can freely download and use GWPA to define the OData data model that he needs.

 

GWPA is platform agnostic

At SAP we now have more than one platform and are serving more and more client technologies. When OData is the agreed standard protocol for user-centric consumption, GWPA can become a commonly used developer tool to model and consume OData services on the most common clients on top of any SAP platform. This will simplify the development process and reduce the TCD for SAP based development.

 

GWPA is designed to be re-used by other Eclipse tools

This is important if you want to generate code for either service implementations or for client-side code. GWPA uses an OData domain model built on Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF). From there, other Eclipse tools can extract information of the data model for a number of purposes like data-binding or code generation.

 

The GWPA OData Modeler becomes Eclipse Project "Ogee"

To drive the overall adoption of OData and the extension of the tool into other technologies SAP has initiated the contribution of the OData modeler under the Project Eclipse "Ogee". There the Eclipse community can extend the tool in many ways together with the committers from SAP.

 

GWPA shipped jointly with other key Eclipse tools from SAP

At the same time as GWPA, we published several other SAP development tools for Eclipse for ABAP, HANA Cloud and SAPUI5 on the same public update site. Now anybody can download SAP developer tools for Eclipse from one public location and install them in one instance of the two most recent Eclipse releases. And last, but not least, the NetWeaver 2013 End-2-End Developer Scenarios were published on SCN with both GWPA and Gateway Service Builder taking important roles in there. Both publications are important steps towards a more harmonized developer experience for SAP customers and partners.

 

So, I hope you are curious by now and will try out our new Gateway Productivity Accelerator. GWPA 1.0 can be downloaded from SAP's public Eclipse update site on SAP HANA Cloud. Let us know, what you think of it.


Announcing Virtual Fair for SAP NetWeaver Gateway Customers

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In my last month's blog, I introduced this new initiative offered by SAP NetWeaver Gateway Product Management team.

 

I am pleased to inform you about the first ever Virtual Fair for SAP NetWeaver Gateway Customers will be held on June 19. This webinar will allow you to interact with our partners and learn more about their solutions that are leveraging SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise. You can take this opportunity to consider our certified partners' solutions to springboard your investment of SAP NetWeaver Gateway to business reality.

 

The details of this online event are as follows:

 

Date: June 19, 2013 (Wednesday)

Time: 8 AM (PST) / 11 AM (EST) / 5 PM (CET)

Duration: 90 minutes

 

In this webinar, you can expect to:

 

  • Discover a selection of SAP-certified partner solutions to fit your business needs
  • Connect and engage with each selected partner in an interactive session to learn more about of their solutions
  • Receive contact information to follow up in a future discussion

 

In this inaugural session, we are excited to have the following partners presented in this event:

 

 

Register early and save your seat for the event! Please note that registration is required to attend this event.

 

signup_now.jpg

Announcing SAP Partner-led Rapid-Deployment Solutions (RDS) Info Sessions

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As I mentioned in my other blog - Feedbacks and Further Supports for SAP NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise Partners, we are suggesting our partners to take full advantage of the newly available SAP Partner-led Rapid-Deoployment Solutions (RDS) program.

 

 

After the initial launch last year limited for invited partners, SAP Partner-led RDS program is now an open program for qualified partners and solutions. With SAP Partner-led RDS, partners will leverage SAP’s Rapid-Deployment Solution framework, differentiate their solution offerings, and increase customer adoptions of their solutions by making use of the SAP Rapid-Deployment Solutions momentum. For SAP customers, they could now take full advantage of SAP and SAP partner's game-changing innovations, in a low-cost and predictable approach. So this is truely a win-win for the three parties - SAP customers, SAP partners, and SAP. You can find more detail here for SAP Partner-led Rapid-Deployment Solutions.

 

Just to give some highlights, below are in a nutshell the benefits of SAP Partner-led RDS offerings for our partners.RDS.jpg

To further increase awareness of the program, SAP NetWeaver Gateway solution management team and SAP Partner-led RDS team will jointly offer two repeated info sessions for our NetWeaver Gateway and Duet Enterprise global partner community in June 25th, 2013. There will be one session for APJ region and one session for EMEA/AME region. Each session will be one hour long to cover topics as program overview, benefits, and steps to participate the program and get qualified. There will also be a Q&A session at the end of each webinar.

 

 

Registration of the sessions are now opened. So please don't delay and reserve your seat now by signing up here.

 

 

Best regards,

Edward

How to create Android Application consuming OData Service with help of Gateway Productivity Accelerator (GWPA)

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It was my dream to build at least one android application which will display SAP data on mobile/tablet devices. As I am not very much skilled in developing android application, I was struggling on how to start with this. And then I came across GWPA and started exploring it. I explored it; I liked it and now I'm loving it!

It is very simple to create android application consuming OData with the help of Gateway Productivity Accelerator (GWPA) plug in installed on Eclipse IDE.

Let’s get into the details,


Introduction -


In this technical blog, I will focus on how we can build simple Android application consuming OData service with the help of SAP NetWeaver Gateway Productivity Accelerator (GWPA).


To know more about GWPA, please refer http://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver-gateway/blog/2013/06/03/gateway-productivity-accelerator-10-launched


It can be downloaded from https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/#gateway

 

Prerequisites –


We need to follow steps as mentioned below [Reference - https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/#gateway ]

Installation Instructions

To start using SAP NetWeaver Gateway Productivity Accelerator (GWPA), proceed as follows:

  1. Download and install Java SE6 .
  2. Download and install the Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers from Eclipse .
  3. Install the SAP NetWeaver Gateway Productivity Accelerator (GWPA) feature(s).

From the Eclipse menu, choose Help> Install New Software...
Add the URL
https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/juno.
Select the feature(s) you want to install and follow the steps of the installation wizard.
For information about the individual features, see the documentation.

 

To Develop Android application using GWPA, we need to install Android SDK tools on Eclipse IDE and then install GWPA features.

  • Toolkit for Android (GWPA)
    The Android Toolkit consists of an environment, a pattern and templates, suitable for developing SAP solutions for use in the Android environment.
    Prerequisite for installation of this feature is to install the
    Android SDK Tools.


Once you install Android SDK tools, it will look as below under Window --> preferences.

android_gw1.jpg

After doing all these steps, I faced issue with android application regarding getting error, “R cannot be resolved to a variable” and hence after searching lot on it, I resolved it by installing Android SDK Build-tools and hence your Android SDK Manager image should look as below.

android_gw2.jpg

After this step, you can start installing Toolkit for Android (GWPA) as mentioned below. You need to select checkbox for Toolkit for Android (GWPA).

android_gw3.jpg

Once installed successfully, you can open Windows --> Preferences and check under SAP NetWeaver Gateway.

android_gw4.jpg

Please note: we do not require separate installation for SAP OData Mobile Client SDK.

With all above required steps, you are now ready to develop Android application!

 

Procedure -

Create new project. Under OData Development, select Starter Application Project.

android_gw5.jpg

Give appropriate project name, select Build Target and package name and press Next.

android_gw6.jpg

We can create 3 types of application using below templates. Here, we will select List/Details Application.

android_gw7.jpg

Now, we need to select service URL from Remote location. Click on Catalog.

android_gw8.jpg

Click on Manage Connection if no connection is maintained earlier.

android_gw9.jpg

As displayed below, provide required details and click OK.

android_gw10.jpg

P.S. - If you do not have access to SAP NetWeaver Gateway system then you can access demo system from SAP at http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-31221?rid=/webcontent/uuid/1051f6d9-e87a-2e10-d188-e2786c7878b1 and accordingly configure connections and access OData services. Please refer my blog http://scn.sap.com/community/developer-center/front-end/blog/2013/05/31/how-to-create-sapui5-application-consuming-gateway-service-with-the-help-of-sap-nw-gateway-plugin and see section Additional Details for more information.


If the connection is made, you will be able to see services. For this demo, we will select service RMTSAMPLEFLIGHT and click OK.

android_gw11.jpg

Provide Activity title, select Activity type and add fields.

android_gw12.jpg

Add 2nd Activity of type Details.

android_gw13.jpg

We selected Flights as List activity and FlightBooking as Details Activity. Our final project structure will look something like below screen.

android_gw14.jpg

As displayed below, SAP Gateway system service details will be found under res/raw folder.

android_gw15.jpg

Also the auto-generated code provides commented code to handle Sybase Unwired Platform (SUP) server mode. This is really nice feature as when we have SUP, we need not to modify much logic.

android_gw16.jpg

Now we are ready with Android application and want to test it. To test android application, you can use Real device or Android Emulator http://developer.android.com/tools/help/emulator.html


We need to manage device using AVD. Please refer http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/index.html


An Android Virtual Device (AVD) is an emulator configuration that lets you model an actual device by defining hardware and software options to be emulated by the Android Emulator.


As displayed below, AVD can be added.

android_gw17.jpg

That’s it!!!


Now we are absolutely ready to test our application on emulator. We need to test as mentioned below,

android_gw18.jpg

Under Console screen, you will be able to see the log of AVD launch etc...

android_gw19.jpg

Please note: Android emulator sometime is very slow and hence you need to be patience and can take break for Coffee.


 

AVD will launch emulator device as displayed below,

android_gw20.jpg

Here sometime you need to press F2 or keyboard commands as per your AVD settings. Refer Keyboard commands at http://developer.android.com/tools/help/emulator.html


You may see screen as below. Here you can see all your Android based application. In this case, you can see MyFlightAndroidApp. Double click on app icon.

android_gw21.jpg

It will launch login screen. Provide credentials that you used while connecting to your gateway SAP system.

android_gw22.jpg

Under LogCat window, you will see the log of application being executed.

android_gw23.jpg

After successful launching, you will see the Flights list view.

android_gw24.jpg

Selecting any item will open details screen for FlightBooking as below

android_gw25.jpg

You can search for different flight id and it will be displayed accordingly.

android_gw26.jpg

Note that under LogCat window, all these events will be logged which can be very useful for troubleshooting purpose.

android_gw27.jpg

 

Closing Remarks –


With the help of SAP NetWeaver Gateway Productivity Accelerator (GWPA), we can create Android application with very minimum efforts.

This step-by-step blog is written to explain how we can,


  1. Install Android SDK tools, GWPA etc. in Eclipse IDE.
  2. Configure SAP NetWeaver Gateway system and search for OData services
  3. Create simple Android application
  4. Configure and Launch Android application on ADV
  5. Use Console and LogCat for troubleshoot purpose

 

 

GWPA is extremely helpful tool from SAP to leverage OData capability and it will certainly helpful for all developer community who want to develop simple android application based on SAP business suite data in the form of OData.


It is generating starter application which we can modify as per our business/organizational requirement

How to create Android application based on SAP Workflow with help of Gateway Productivity Accelerator (GWPA)

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In my earlier blog, I explained how we can create Android application consuming OData with GWPA. In this blog, I will explain about creating Android application based on SAP Workflow!


Basically we will use demoformabs (Demo Absence Notification workflow) having workflow ID WS70000704.


We will use steps 000087 Create notification of absence and 000048 Approve notification of absence as highlighted below.

android_wf1.jpg

And workflow service WFSERVICE shipped with gateway.

android_wf2.jpg

You can follow detailed steps mentioned in How-to guide athttp://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-29199


Now it’s time to develop android application!


Create new project and provide details.

android_wf3.jpg

Select Workflow Application.

android_wf4.jpg

Assuming you configured the connection for backend SAP NetWeaver Gateway system, you will be able to see all services available. Now search with WF and you will find available workflow services in your system. Select workflow service WFSERVICE.

 

android_wf5.jpg

Click on OK and Finish.

 

Finally, application structure will look as below.

android_wf6.jpg

Now it is time to test our application.

 

Select Run As --> Android Application. It will launch Android emulator where you will be able to see your application. Provide credentials which you used to configure backend SAP NetWeaver Gateway system.

android_wf7.jpg

It will display workflow items available in your work list. Here, I have below 3 tasks in my work list.

android_wf8.jpg

Click on any single task which will open details of that task.

android_wf9.jpg

On clicking Decision button, it will give 2 options as displayed below.

android_wf10.jpg

You can then put comments and process it.

android_wf11.jpg

After processing task, it will disappear from your inbox.

android_wf12.jpg

You can see workflow items in transaction SBWP (SAP Business Workplace)

android_wf13.jpg

If you again process items in Android application, accordingly it will be removed from you inbox. Now I processed one more item and hence my inbox will display single task.

android_wf14.jpg

We can verify again by going back to SAP Business Workplace. And as per below screen, it contains single work item.

android_wf15.jpg

 

It is very easy to develop workflow based android application with the help of SAP NetWeaver Gateway Productivity Accelerator (GWPA). we can develop nice android application just within few minutes!

 


SAP Fiori LL03 - Apply all SAP Notes before implementation

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SAP Fiori Lessons Learned 03.

Apply all SAP Notes before implementation.

 

Background:

SAP Notes are listed in the installation guide. http://help.sap.com/fiori

Responsibility is not clear for applying SAP Notes.

Bug fix notes are available in the SAP Service Marketplace.

 

Lessons Learned:

If you did not apply SAP Notes, you have to spend 2-3 weeks for troubleshooting.

Searching, Checking, Applying SAP Notes may takes full 2 days but it saves your 2-3 weeks troubleshooting time.

 

1. Define clear responsibility for applying SAP Notes. Is it a job for system admin or application consultants?

2. Double chekc that all SAP Notes listed in the install guide have been applied.

3. Search bug fix notes in the SAP Service Marketplace. http://service.sap.com/notes

     For example:

    Search term: fiori

    Search term: SAPK-60001INSRA004

                            The oData add-on component name for "My Travel Requests" is "SRA004". The naming convention is "SAPK-" + base version "600" + support package "01" + "IN" + technical components "SRA004" => SAPK-60001INSRA004

     Search term: SAPK-10001INUISRA004

                            The UI add-on component name for "My Travel Requests" is "UISRA004". The naming convention is "SAPK-" + base version "100" + support package "01" + "IN" + technical components "UISRA004" => SAPK-10001INUISRA004


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