Components of connector for SAP XI

Figure 1 illustrates the connector for SAP XI, including its protocol handler and listener frameworks.

Figure 1. The connector for SAP XI


The following components interact to enable data exchanges across the Internet:

Connector for SAP XI

During request processing, the connector responds to collaboration service calls by converting business objects to request messages and conveying them to specified destinations. Optionally (for synchronous request processing) the connector converts response messages to response business objects and returns these to the collaboration.

During event processing, the connector processes request messages from clients by converting them into request business objects and passing them on to collaborations for processing. The connector optionally receives response business objects from the collaboration, which are converted to response messages and then returned to clients.

For further information, see SAP XI connector

Note:
In this document, any mention of a connector is a reference to the SAP XI connector, unless specified otherwise.

Protocol listeners and handlers

The connector includes the following protocol listeners and handler:

Protocol listeners detect events from SAP XI clients in HTTP, or HTTPS formats. They notify the connector of events that require processing by a collaboration. Protocol listeners then read the business-object-level and attribute-level ASI, connector properties, and transformation rules embedded in protocol configuration objects to determine the collaboration, data handler, processing mode (synchronous/asynchronous) and transport-specific aspects of the transaction. For a detailed account of protocol listener processing, see Protocol listeners.

Protocol handlers invoke SAP XI services in HTTP or HTTPS formats on behalf of a collaboration. The HTTP(S) protocol handler reads TLO ASI and transformation rules embedded in protocol configuration objects to determine how to process the request (synchronously or asynchronously), which data handler to use to convert messages to business objects and vice versa, and to determine the destination (from the Destination attribute of the request business object Protocol Config MO). For synchronous transactions, the protocol handler processes response messages, converting them into response business objects and passing them back to the collaboration.

For further information on protocol handlers, see Protocol handling.

SOAP data handler

The SOAP data handler converts SOAP business objects to SOAP messages and vice versa. For further information on the SOAP data handler, see SOAP data handler.

For further details, see SOAP data handler.

Configuration tools

You can deploy the SAP XI adatper with collaborations that invoke SAP XI, or are exposed as destinations for SAP XI.

When you enable a collaboration for request processing, you use the BIA_XIWSDLUtil transformer utility and he SAP XI Object Discovery Agent (ODA) to generate TLOs. For further information on request processing and the SAP XI ODA, see Enabling collaborations for request processing.

When you expose a collaboration as a web service, you use the WSDL Configuration Wizard, which helps you generate a WSDL document for the collaboration that you then publish, for example, via a UDDI registry. The connector provides no tools for publishing this information. For information on exposing collaborations as targers for SAP XI messages, see Exposing collaborations as web services.

Deploying the connector

The SAP XI connector does not include a gateway or front-end for managing incoming or outgoing messages from or to external clients. You must configure and deploy your own gateway. The connector must be deployed within the enterprise only, not in the DMZ or outside of the firewall.

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