Varad
Senior SAP OData Solution Architect-EHSM at Blessey Marine, provided assistance. There once was a King who resided in a kingdom far, far away in the past.Oh! I apologize; this is a blog on OData for SAP.
Let’s set that aside, return to reality, and begin anew.
There once was a Functional Consultant who lived in a far-off nation in the distant past.His client used a somewhat unusual sales order procedure.As challenging as it may sound, his responsibility was to set up the SAP sales order transaction so that it matched the client’s workflow.Unfortunately, whatever he did, whatever switches he activated, whichever IMG node he examined, whatever table item he modified,
After applying all of his expertise, the ABAPer wrote some enhancement code that ultimately tamed the dragon in a matter of weeks, including development, testing, etc. Now, the sales order transaction functioned just as the client had requested.
Does the tale above seem similar to you?
If you have a technical background and are from the SAP world, you should be extremely familiar with situations like this. Nothing unusual in this instance. Correct? Not many grandiose Hollywood effects.
This narrative discusses the widely used term “gap analysis.”
A GAP occurs when some SAP functional requirements cannot be satisfied with a minimal configuration.There are several approaches to use custom development to close these GAPS.
What has changed, and where is OData now?
The story isn’t quite over, though. There is still more to say than “then they live happily ever after.”So let’s carry on with the narrative.
The customer was relieved once the dragon was slain, and the consultants received accolades, until the client one day let loose another dragon on the consultant.
Much more powerful than the last time was this one. It had the name dotNet (.NET).You did really hear correctly!
The customer desired to create sales orders using their own native.NET application that they had developed internally.Remember that SAP and.NET are not the best of friends. Microsoft makes.NET, and SAP, well, that’s all SAP.
I won’t ask you why the client requested.NET support.?
It’s possible that some of its users were content with the.NET screen capabilities, desired an improved entry screen over SAP GUI, or were simply employing an experienced in-house.NET development team. We’re not sure. However, we won’t try to figure it out right now. Rather, we shall examine the subsequent events in the narrative.
Thus, the ABAPer was clueless this time. His proficiency lay in ABAP, but not in.NET. He so went to the gods of.NET, and they together planned and determined to summon the all-powerful SAP BAPI (Application Programming Interface) to the planet.
However, the tale does not finish here. Of course, how could that be, given that OData hasn’t been released yet?
Days later, both of the dragons had been tamed and were providing excellent service to the client.However, the happiness was short-lived, as the customer was purchased by a different business who intended to integrate its Java application with SAP.
Because he was more skilled this time, the ABAPer began with an enhancement, but it was unsuccessful.
Java and SAP don’t communicate with each other at all. He then considered employing the BAPI technique, but that method also proved to be unsatisfactory, so he tried a different approach. He did a great deal of reading and investigation.
Three case studies were given, as the narrative above makes clear. The client desired three methods of access to the SAP database:
i. Via ABAP directly within SAP
ii. Using RFC with.NET from SAP iii. Using JCo Connection with Java from SAP
A situation like this frequently occurs in software development. Initially, a straightforward demand gradually develops into an intricate web of software components, which results in the creation of what are known as point-to-point solutions.
See Also: Your Very First ABAP HANA Program
The picture below illustrates how the number of data consumers increases with system complexity in a typical SAP overall IT landscape.SAP Data is now saved across numerous storage sources, which is another difference from prior times.Data may be stored in the SAP BW system, the corporation may purchase a HANA database, and the customer may use SRM, CRM, and other systems.
Therefore, creating systems for data connection between each and every data consumer and data provider results in Point-2-Point systems, which present a number of difficulties like adaptability, upgrade problems, and maintenance concerns.
Consider upgrading the SAP system that underpins your organization. Then, you would need to make sure that none of the communication lines fail in a standard Point to Point system. This also entails making certain that the original users of the SAP system can still comprehend and use it. It is actually a risky supposition to make.
SAP therefore saw a pressing need to make its data available to external data consumers in a form that is:
i. Consistent across all systems, software, and customers
ii. Is traceable, trackable, and monitorable iii. Doesn’t interfere with regular business operations or daily production activities
Stated otherwise, if SAP develops a solution, it ought to guarantee that the solution functions uniformly across all platforms. We must seek for similarities between each of these systems and develop a method that takes advantage of these commonalities in order to examine consistency across systems.
It is reasonable to presume that every data consumer you look at uses the internet for their profession. Additionally, as the internet operates on the HTTP protocol, if they are all employed online, they must all be familiar with it.Therefore, if we create a technology for data communication using the HTTP protocol, then all systems and users will be able to access the data in a consistent manner.Therefore, neither the data creator nor the user would need to adopt a special development process. Everything would function exactly as it always does.
In light of this, SAP started investigating the “How to solve the data exposure” conundrum online.Alright, the solution.
Yes, as the open systems community had previously identified this problem and was investigating and experimenting with numerous potential solutions.Businesses like Adobe, Microsoft, and many more are working together on this concept. And it’s from this concept that OData has taken on its current shape.Unfortunately! The OData Entry.
You should now be able to see why SAP included OData in its development framework.
To merely address its data exposure issue, such as facilitating clients’ usage of various third-party development tools and platforms so they may access its internal SAP database in a standardized, regulated, and
It is useful to note that integration is a middleware’s main priority. It is what allows systems to communicate with one another; nevertheless, point-2-point systems are created by middlewares, which are typically quite particular in their approach. Object Request Brokers (ORBs), Java Database Connectivity (ODBC), and C++ are examples of middleware ideas with particular implementations. However, each one of them has a distinct purpose and does not fulfill the general need of establishing an internet connection to the database.
Thus, the question of how OData actually addresses this difficulty must be asked.
We must keep in mind that OData is fundamentally just an improved version of the HTTP protocol in order to comprehend this.The fundamental application of REST principles is actually found in the HTTP protocol.The acronym for Representational State Transfer is REST.
One method of enabling interoperability among computer systems on the Internet is through RESTful Web Services.
Other service types exist as well, such as WSDL and SOAP, each with advantages and disadvantages of their own.
In his PhD dissertation, Roy Fielding introduced and defined the term representational state transfer in 2000.
To put it simply, REST offers a set of guidelines that any channel of communication must adhere to in order to be deemed RESTful. These tenets are:
1. Client-server
2. Stateless
3. Cacheable
4. Layered System
5. Code on Demand
6. Uniform Interface.
REST principles are commonly implemented using HTTP.It is feasible to access resources (websites and web pages) using HTTP as we frequently do because HTTP is built on REST and uses URIs. For instance, when you enter www.google.com into your browser internally, Google’s server is contacted via the http -> get method, and your browser returns Google’s home page as the result.
In addition, if the webserver is capable of supporting these actions, HTTP gives us tools to work with the backend data.
OData, on the other hand, elevates HTTP to a new level by giving application and backend server developers explicit implementation shells to create real implementations for each service, also referred to as an OData service.OData can be utilized in this fashion.
A fundamental principle of REST is that any implementation of REST should be able to communicate with the backend database server using the following four verbs: POST, PUT, GET, and DELETE.
Consequently, we may communicate with the backend data using the POST, PUT, GET, and DELETE methods provided by the HTTP protocol.
Every time you complete an online order form on a website, such as Yahoo.com or Amazon, the system internally sends out a POST request to update the database. Nevertheless, there were inconsistent lapses in this communication or in the POST techniques’ application. Put otherwise, the application designer had the final say over how the procedure was implemented. This made maintenance and standardization challenging.
OData eliminated this uncertainty by giving programmers an appropriate channel to program these HTTP methods. OData has shell techniques that allow users to access
Alternative Terms for HTTP In order to provide appropriate implementations for the HTTP POST, GET, PUT, and DELETE methods, respectively, OData provides us with the CREATE, READ, UPDATE, and DELETE methods.
I wanted to explain why SAP must use OData in this blog post. I hope you have a decent idea of the same. I am currently writing a series on the same topic for my site, beginners-sap.com. Please feel free to visit the website to learn about the real implementation of this protocol, how to utilize SAP Netweaver Gateway, a new software component that supports OData in SAP, and examples of real-world OData implementation.
I truly appreciate your time!
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