When processing application events, the ALE Module receives events that the SAP application pushes to the connector. When processing requests, the ALE Module receives business object requests from the integration broker and sends them to the SAP application.
The init() method opens an RFC connection to the SAP R/3 application through the SAP Gateway. If the connector fails to initialize, it terminates the connection using the terminate() method. The connector terminates by disconnecting from the SAP Gateway.
When processing application events or business object requests, the connector's initialization process performs the following tasks:
Because the connector supports multi-threading, when the ALE Module processes requests from the integration broker, it uses SAP's Java Connector (SAPJCo) connection pool of such handles.
The ALE Module's processing of WebSphere business objects for SAP is initiated either through event processing or request processing.
When business object data is returned from SAP's Java Connector (SAPJCo) API, the ALE Module receives values for DATS and TIMS fields in the following formats: YYYY-MM-DD (the hyphens are included) for the DATS data element, and HH:mm:ss (the colons are included) for the TIMS data element. The capitalized HH denotes 24-hour time, and not 12-hour time. When processing events, the ALE Module changes these formats to fit the 8-character and 6-character maximum size of their corresponding business object attributes. The connector shortens the length of the value by removing the hyphens from the date data and the colons from the time data.
Two RFC-enabled functions in an SAP application initiate all event processing for the ALE Module. The ALE's business object handler for event processing supports the functions idoc_inbound_asynchronous and inbound_idoc_process.
When processing events, this business object handler persistently stores business objects in an MQSeries queue. The connector maintains the Transaction IDs (TIDs) associated with the RFC call to guarantee that each piece of data is delivered once and only once.
Figure 18 illustrates how the ALE Module processes the MQSeries queue.
Figure 18. Business object event processing
Business-object event processing for the ALE Module executes in the following manner:
Each JMS-MQ message represents a single RFC call. Each RFC call can represent one or more business objects associated with a single TID. The connector stores the TID in the message's CorrelationID property, sets the TidStatus to CREATED, and sets the IDocProcessStatus to unknown. The connector uses the message body to store IDoc data.
If the AleUpdateStatus configuration property evaluates to true, the connector updates the status of the IDoc in SAP. If it retrieves a packet of IDocs, it updates the status of all IDocs in the packet. For more information, see Updating the IDoc status in SAP.
The ALE module uses FIFO (First In, First Out) to maintain the processing order when reading the messages from the Event queue.
Table 21 describes the structure of the message that the connector
sends to the Event and Archive queues.
Table 21. Structure of JMS-MQ message for event and archive processing
JMS Message Header Property | Description |
---|---|
CorrelationId | The connector sets the value of this property from the Transaction ID (TID) sent by SAP. |
TidStatus | Maintains the status of the TID. |
IDocProcessStatus | Maintains the status of the IDoc object during event processing. |
BOProcessingStatus | Maintains the status of all IDocs in the message using the format, <CID> :: <IDoc sequence number><Status symbol>. Possible status symbols are S for Success, F for fail and U for unsubscribed. For example "<CID> :: 0S, 1F, 2U" means the first IDoc was successful, second failed, and third was unsubscribed for CorrelationId = <CID>. |
Table 22 describes the possible values for the IDocProcessStatus
property after an event is moved to the Archive queue.
Table 22. Archive queue values for the IDocProcessStatus message property
IDocProcessStatus property value | Event status | Description |
---|---|---|
success | Success | All business objects in the message have been posted with no errors. |
partial | Partial success | One or more but not all business objects in the message have been posted with an error. If the integration broker is WebSphere Interchange Server, one or more but not all business objects in the message have been posted with an error or are unsubscribed. |
unsubscribed | Unsubscribed | If the integration broker is WebSphere Interchange Server, all business objects in the message are unsubscribed. |
fail | Fail | All business objects in the message have been posted with an error. |
When the message is moved from the Event queue to the Archive queue, the IDocProcessingStatus and BOProcessingStatus are updated. The message body remains unchanged.
For example, assume the connector processes an event message with four
IDocs, each of which it transforms or attempts to transform into a business
object, with the results illustrated in Table 23:
Table 23. Archive message creation
Status of IDoc or business object | Resulting archive message |
---|---|
Successfully transforms the first IDoc, and posts the business object to the integration broker | The IDocProcessStatus is updated to success and the BOProcessingStatus is <CID> :: 0S |
Fails to transform the second IDoc into a business object | The IDocProcessStatus is updated to partial and the BOProcessingStatus is <CID> :: 0S, 1F |
Successfully transforms the third IDoc, and posts the business object to the integration broker | The IDocProcessStatus is set to partial and the BOProcessingStatus is <CID> :: 0S, 1F, 2S |
Successfully transforms the fourth IDoc, but the business object created is not subscribed in the integration broker |
|
To cause the connector to update a standard SAP status code after the ALE Module has retrieved an IDoc for event processing, you must:
If AleUpdateStatus evaluates to true, the connector sends the ALEAUD IDoc to SAP with status code information and descriptive text. The ALEAUD IDoc calls the IDOC_INPUT_ALEAUD function module. The connector supports sending the following status codes to this function module:
The AleSuccessCode connector-specific configuration property can have a value of 52 or 53. SAP converts this value to 41.
The AleFailureCode connector-specific configuration property can have a value of 68. SAP converts this value to 40.
In both of the cases above, the business integration system does not send further status codes that would indicate further processing.
For information on setting the connector-specific configuration properties that are required to return IDoc status, see:
For information on setting the connector-specific configuration properties that are optional to return IDoc status, see:
Use this command-line utility for maintenance of MQ queues used by the WebSphere Business Integration adapter for mySAP.com's (v. 5.3.2) ALE module. The utility resubmits event messages, dumps event messages to a file system for viewing, and archives messages to a file system.
An IDoc is processed in a unit of work called a transaction. An SAP transaction containing more than one IDoc is called a transaction packet. The adapter processes transactions and transaction packets by using an MQ message to hold the IDoc or IDocs. The adapter converts the IDoc into its corresponding business object. The ALE module handles processing of IDocs in a two-step process: SAP to the adapter, then the adapter to the broker. Exceptions are handled differently for each step.
For more information about MQ messages, see the WebSphere Business Integration Library: http://www.ibm.com/software/integration/wmq/library/.
If the adapter detects unsubcribed or unsupported business objects or raises any exceptions during IDoc transmission, the adapter will fail the SAP transaction. Failed transactions can be viewed and resubmitted from SAP transaction SM58. Before resubmitting the transaction, address the exception:
Once this step executes successfully, the transaction with SAP is complete.
If an MQ message contains a single business object and is unsubscribed, the MQ message will be moved to the unsubscribed queue. Each unsubscribed business object within a transaction packet will persist as its own MQ message on the unsubscribed queue. The original MQ message remains intact and contains the processing status of the individual IDocs. Once the transaction packet for the MQ message is completely processed, it is moved to the archive queue.
Before resubmitting the transaction, address the exception:
After you complete the correction, use the command utility AleEventUtil to move the MQ message back to the event queue, resubmitting the event.
When an IDoc contains malformed data or contains 'nodata', the IDoc is moved to the Error Queue as its own message.
The ALE Module Queue utility is packaged with the SAP adapter. When installed, it has the following directory structure:
\Connectors\SAP\Utilities\BIA_AleEventUtil.jar
\Connectors\SAP\Utilities\BIA_AleEventUtil.bat
\Connectors\SAP\Utilities\BIA_AleEventUtil_readme.txt
Modify the start script file, BIA_AleEventUtil.bat, to
capture the following parameters. To access local queue managers, you
need only configure MQQueueManager.
Variable | Description | Comments |
---|---|---|
MQQueueManager | Name of the Queue Manager | Required parameter. |
MQChannel | Server connection channel name | Required for accessing remote queue manager. |
MQPort | Port on which the channel is listening | Required for accessing remote queue manager. |
MQHost | Host name or IP address on which the Queue Manager is running | Required for accessing remote queue manager. |
MQUser | Valid username on MQHost | Required for accessing remote queue manager. |
MQPassword | User password | Required for accessing remote queue manager. Value not encrypted. |
After installing and configuring the utility, navigate to the directory where the ALE Module Queue Management Utility is installed. Valid commands for the utility are:
-c <choice> (valid options are [move, archive, dump, replicate])
-i <inputq>
-o <outputq>
-f <outputfile>
-d <date>
-u <unique message ID>
-n <replication count>
To dump the contents of a message to a file, from a command prompt change to the directory where the utility is installed and run the following command:
BIA_AleEventUtil -cdump -i<QueueName> -f<OutputFileName>
To move messages from one queue to another, run the following command. This command will move all the messages in the queue:
BIA_AleEventUtil -cmove -i<FromQueue> -o<ToQueue>
To move a single message, use the additional paramater of MessageIdByte corresponding to the message ID of the desired message:
BIA_AleEventUtil -cmove -i<FromQueue> -o<ToQueue> -u<MessageIdByte>
To move all the messages equal to or earlier than a specified date, add the Date parameter:
BIA_AleEventUtil -cmove -i<FromQueue> -o<ToQueue> -d<date(YYYYMMDD)>
To archive messages from a queue to a file, removing all messages equal to or earlier than a specified date, use this command:
BIA_AleEventUtil -carchive -i<QueueName> -f<ArchiveFileName> -d<date(YYYYMMDD)>
BIA_AleEventUtil -creplicate -i<QueueName> -n<Replication_count> -u<messageID> -t<Testing>
The vision connector framework uses the value of the verb AppSpecificInfo property of the top-level business object to instantiate the ALE request-processing business object handler. The doVerbFor() method in the request-processing business object handler initiates all business object requests.
The business object handler converts the business object data into two tables that represent the IDoc format and its metadata component, the control record. Once the data is in IDoc format, the business object handler makes an RFC call to the appropriate SAP function module: either idoc_inbound_asynchronous or inbound_idoc_process. Because ALE is asynchronous, the connector does not wait for a return response.
If the TransactionID attribute does not have a value, the ALE Module sends the request directly to SAP. If the TransactionID attribute has a value, the ALE Module does the following:
After successfully processing a service call request, the corresponding entry in the table of the JMS-MQ message in the SAPtid_Queue is removed and archived to a directory. A file is created in the \ale\request subdirectory for WINNT or /ale/request for Unix systems. The ale subdirectory is located in the directory where the adapter is started. The entry that has been removed from the table will be used to create the new file. The file name will have the following format: <ObjectID>_<TID>)_<timestamp>.executed where ObjectID is the value from the TransactionId attribute, TID is the transaction ID from SAP, and timestamp is the time stamp of when the file was created.
The adapter itself manages the deletion of these archive files using the connector configuration property ArchiveDays. The value in the connector configuration property, ArchiveDays, determines the amount of days these archived files will persist in the ale\request sub-directory. Any files older than the number of days specified in ArchiveDays will be deleted. If this property is not configured, the default value for ArchiveDays is seven days. These archive files can also managed manually by deleting the files yourself.
For all failed requests indicated by the integration broker, check whether an archive file has been created for the request. If the archive file exists for the Object ID in the request then do not resubmit the request from the integration broker. Resubmit the request if there is no archive file for that ObjectID. Ensure the ArchiveDays connector configuration property is set to a value that will allow for verification of resubmitted requests.
Table 24 describes the columns of the JMS-MQSeries message that the
connector gets from the SAPtid_Queue:
Table 24. Columns of JMS-MQ message for request processing
Column name | Description |
---|---|
ObjectID | The value that is in the TransactionID attribute of the requested business object. This value is used as the key for the table |
TID | The transaction ID obtained from SAP |
TidStatus | Status of the transaction |