Release Notes for Version 5.5.0 of the IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapter for mySAP.com (for SAP R/3, Version 4.x)

These release notes cover release information for version 5.5.0 of the IBM(R) WebSphere(R) Business Integration Adapter for mySAP.com (SAP R/3 V. 4.x). They contain the following sections:

New in this release Installation, migration, upgrade, and configuration
Product fix history WebSphere Business Integration Adapters API and run time
Backward compatibility Known problems and workarounds
Hardware and software requirements Documentation

Note: Important information about this product may be available in Technical Support Flashes issued after these release notes were published. These can be found on the WebSphere Business Integration support Web site, http://www.ibm.com/websphere/integration/wbiserver/support. Select the component area of interest and search the flashes section.

New in this release

This release includes the following new features and improvements:

Refer to the Adapter for mySAP.com (SAP R/3 V. 4.x) User Guide for detailed information about the adapter and the new features.

Product fix history

Between versions 5.4.0 and 5.5.0, the following CRs, based on customer-reported cases, were fixed.

Tracking
number
Feature Description
23485 ODA The display length of a BCD data type field is now used as the maximum length for the corresponding attribute in a business object. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.1.
23916 ODA Field names are now used as the attribute names when a function has fields with no descriptions. This happens in SAP if the field is not maintained in the English language. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.3.
25810 ODA Duplicate names of objects in the business object repository resulted in some items not being displayed. Now all items in the business object repository tree are displayed correctly. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.3.
25820 ODA BAPI business objects containing new return structures are now supported and will compile successfully. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.3.
23863 ALE Module The message body of an MQ message was not passed correctly from the Work-in-Progress queue to the Event queue, depending on the version of MA88 you used with WebSphere Message Brokers version 5.2.x.A new mandatory property, SAPALE_Error_Queue, was added to define a queue to handle these MQ messages. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.1.
24143 ALE Module A leading space has been removed from the values of the data for the outbound control record object. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.1.
24698 ALE Module Performance remains consistent when the number of events in the SAPALE_Event_Queue grows in size. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.1.
25384 ALE Module ALE error events are sent to a new queue named SAPALE_Error_Queue. Unsubscribed events are sent to a new queue named SAPALE_UnSubscribed_Queue. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.1.
25385 ALE Module A new utility allows event messages to be resubmitted, dumped to a file system for viewing, or archived to a file system. The connector now checks for subscriptions when processing the data from SAP to the connector, resulting in transactions remaining in SAP until the collaboration is started. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.1.
27726 ALE Module The Eventstate.log file is now created in the directory specified in the connector configuration property, AleEventDir. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.3.
30429 ALE Module All malformed IDocs will be sent to the SAPALE_Error_Queue.  Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.4.
24827/24890 BAPI, RFC Server Module BAPI and RFC events process successfully either with or without the DateTimeFormat Attribute included in the configuration properties. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.1.
26043 BAPI The return status descriptor is populated with detailed information. Also all the error information is logged in the connector log and trace files. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.3.
25512 Extension Module The Extension Module now properly handles double byte character set data. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.2.
28984 Extension Module A new button called Maintain Objects was added to the CW Station within SAP. When executed, it displays objects to maintain. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.3.
31465 Extension Module The event priority functionality now works properly.
30200 Hierarchical Dynamic Retrieve Module Objects containing foreign keys are processed successfully. Fixed in Fix Pack 5.4.4.

Backward compatibility

Beginning with adapter version 5.2.3, formatting delimiters were removed from the DATE and TIME field values of objects for the RFC Server and BAPI Modules. This was done so that values accurately conform to the maximum character lengths specified in the business object: eight for DATE and six for TIME; the delimiters inaccurately extended both of these by two.

If you wish to maintain the delimiters (for example, when using existing map or collaboration content that expects this format), set the new configuration property, DateTimeFormat, to Legacy so that DATE and TIME field values retain their formatting delimiters.

Hardware and software requirements

Hardware and software requirements are included in the product documentation. See Installation, migration, upgrade, and configuration information for links to those guides.

Installation, migration, upgrade, and configuration

Whether you are installing the software from the CD or downloading it from the Passport Advantage Web site and installing it from a local directory, refer to the appropriate guide for your integration broker:

These guides also include general migration, upgrade, and configuration information.

For hardware and software requirements and configuration information specific to this adapter, refer to the Adapter for mySAP.com (SAP R/3 V. 4.x) User Guide.

Upgrade notes


WebSphere Business Integration Adapters API and run time

Make sure that you run this version of the adapter with WebSphere Business Integration Adapters run-time version 1.6.0 or later.

The WebSphere Business Integration Adapters API .jar files and the associated scripts (CWConnEnv.bat and CWODAEnv.bat for Windows(R); CWConnEnv.sh and CWODAEnv.sh for UNIX platforms) are installed by the WebSphere Business Integration Adapters API. Before installing the adapter, make sure that the WebSphere Business Integration Adapters run time is installed. If the version is not 1.6.0 or later, you must download the latest WebSphere Business Integration Adapters API. This section provides instructions for verifying the API version, downloading the latest version, and enabling the adapter to run on various versions of WebSphere InterChange Server and Adapter Development Kit (ADK).

Verifying the run-time version

To check the version of the run time, locate the manifest file (ProductDir\lib\WBIA.jar) and open it in a suitable Java JAR editor. Look for the following lines:

Implementation-Title: "CWConnectorAPI"
Implementation-Version: 1.6.0

The line Implementation-version indicates the installed version of the API. If the version is not 1.6.0 or later, you must download the latest run time.

Downloading the run time

To download the latest version of the run time:

  1. Go to http://www.ibm.com.
  2. Click the Support & downloads tab.
  3. Under the Downloads heading, click Downloads & drivers.
  4. In the Enter search terms field, type "wbia api" and click Submit.

After you download and install the run time, you should see the following files:

lib\WBIA.jar
lib\WBIA\3.0.0\WBIA.jar
lib\WBIA\4.0.0\WBIA.jar
lib\WBIA\4.1.1\WBIA.jar
lib\WBIA\4.2.0\WBIA.jar
bin\CWConnEnv.bat (Windows)
bin/CWConnEnv.sh (UNIX)
bin\CWODAEnv.bat (Windows)
bin/CWODAEnv.sh (UNIX)
connectors\messages\CwConnectorAgentMessages.txt

Enabling adapters for earlier versions of Adapter Development Kit and WebSphere InterChange Server

To enable an adapter to work with various versions of ADK or WebSphere InterChange Server, follow the appropriate procedure below:

InterChange Server versions 4.1.x (except 4.1.0), ADK versions 2.1.x
InterChange Server versions 4.2.0 and 4.2.1, ADK versions 2.3.0 and 2.3.1
Running an Object Discovery Agent (ODA) against InterChange Server versions 4.1.x (except 4.1.0), ADK versions 2.1.x
Running an Object Discovery Agent (ODA) against InterChange Server versions 4.2.0 and 4.2.1, ADK versions 2.3.x

Known problems and workarounds

The following problems have been found in this release.

Tracking
number
Description
31502
RestartRetryCount will not successfully restart the connector when fails due to a Fatal Error.

To work around this, stop the connector and restart it manually.

31633 In a UNIX environment, a connector_manager_adapter script is generated by the installer program. The script references adapterEnv.sh, which was introduced with version 2.4.0 of Adapter Framework. If you are running an older version of Adapter Framework, adapterEnv is not available. To run this version of the adapter with an older version of the framework, change the reference from adapterEnv.sh to CWSharedEnv.sh in the connector_manager_adapter script.

Documentation

Product documentation is not included as part of the product package, either by CD or by electronic product distribution. The documentation for this product can be found in the following InfoCenters:

To obtain the product documentation, visit the Web site and download the current documentation set for the release that you are using. Follow the instructions provided on the InfoCenter page to complete the installation.

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