How the ABAP Extension Module works

Most of the functionality provided by the ABAP Extension Module occurs inside of the SAP application. For most of the virtual functions that every connector must implement, there is a corresponding ABAP function module in the SAP application. However, SAP does not provide ABAP function modules that support the specific requirements of the init(), doVerbFor(), and pollForEvents() methods, so these function modules have been developed and delivered as part of the connector module. While the Java components provide some functionality, the majority of the processing for these methods is done by the ABAP components in the SAP application.

Table 6 shows the virtual Java methods that the connector module implements and their corresponding ABAP components. Keep in mind that this is not a complete list of the ABAP components used by the connector.

Table 6. Java components and their corresponding ABAP components

Java components ABAP components
doVerbFor() /CWLD/RFC_DO_VERB_NEXTGEN
getVersion() No implementation required
getBOHandlerForBO No implementation required
init() /CWLD/RFC_LOGON
pollForEvents() /CWLD/RFC_EVENT_REQUEST /CWLD/RFC_EVENT_RETURN
terminate() No implementation required

Together, these ABAP function modules are the core of the ABAP Extension Module. The following sections describe connector initialization, business object processing, and how the connector handles event notification.

The implemented functions are discussed in the rest of this chapter.

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