Graversen

I have been reading “The SAP Consultant Handbook” by Jon Reed and Michael Doane on my flight home from San Diego. It is a nice short book about how it is to be a part of the SAP eco system.

It is always nice to be reconfirmed in some of the ideas you have, of what you see the business you are in. The book is old from 1999 and updated in 2004. A lot of things have happened in the SAP field over the last years.

The book goes into details with all the different aspect of how you can approach the SAP marked either as a consultant or as an end user. The premise for those has not changed over the years. So it is the same type of decisions you will have to make today. In that perspective I think it is a killer book for everybody how wants to move into the SAP field.

There is a nice way of balancing what to do in some situations, should you take a higher paying job to work with older systems or getting the job that makes you travel.

One issue I have been seeing is that people may not have the long term for what they want to do in the business. They just have a job and like or don’t like it. The long term vision is important when you are selecting the job and when you have to select if you want to move.

One interesting thing the is

The Catch-22 of SAP: there are not enough trained consultants because those who have training are consulting and none of them are teaching.

It makes it really hard for new people to enter the space and make sure that companies are getting more qualified jobs.

One of the reasons is that it is either a job as a trainer or as an implementer. This means that you do not get the information for people how really do the implementation. It would be nice if it was possible for some of the top implementers/specialists to be able to deliver content they know.

book book, carrier, how to, jonerp, sap

I’m leaving from home in a few hours for SAPPHIRE, and really looking forward to meet all the really cool people there. But you mostly meet people at random, some will help get your objectives. But you have to be lucky.

So I thought that it could be interesting to see how was at the event that could make a difference. The ideal people for me to meet would be people working with SAP Process Integration (PI). It is difficult to find them and you have to meet a lot of people, which is nice though.

I decided to make a video saying how I wanted to meet. It would though probably be nicer if other people did the same. So if you are up for the challenge. Create a youtube video about how you want to meet. The format can be whatever you can make. If it is with your mobile phone it is also great.

Just make a video reply to my movie and tag the video with #sapphire and #sapphiremeet.

Hire is my video.

Company, pi, pi71 sap, sap pi, video, youtube

I would expect that you know what Google Wave is; otherwise you are not viewing this post. If not please look at Starting on Google Wave, to get more information on the future of communication.

For a while I have been working on how to create Google Wave applications and how they can interact with enterprise application. It is an interesting area with a lot of integration work possible and productivity enhancements.

From what I have learned so fair the features of Wave can connect very well with enterprise applications and make an environment where the users can work.

I created a demo on how Google Wave can be used to manage a simple workflow application. The demo features a loan application, with possible collaboration between the customer and the bank. The demo is made without any backend integration, but it is possible to make this integration.

A more detailed description of how this works can be found at the blog.

So it is possible to create simple “workflows”. Hardcore ABAP workflow programmers will laugh of this type of workflow, since they are missing a lot of the functionality they are using. With time and implementation of a workflow framework, creating workflows will be easier. Wave workflows will be have the advantage of being a much better tool for collaborating and contain semi structured data.

With a lot of Enterprise Services on the SAP systems, it is fairly easy to find the services that you need to enable you to implement ERP functionality in third party applications. You browse the ESR to find the webservice, which you want to use. Then you create a proxy for the service and can call this from your application, in this instance Google Wave. And then when the bank employee has approved the loan the SAP system is informed about the change.

I did have some problems with calling the ES from the Google Appengine, where it is only possible run robots currently. On Appengine there are some limitations on what you can call of Java classes, and I did not manage to get Axis working with ES. Therefore I have just used Plain HTTP calls to ES, where I have created the SOAP envelope manually. Then parsing is also done using XML parsers. From an architectural point I’m not real proved of the solution, but for the demo it is ok.

An example of how it is possible to use Google Wave in SAP is showed in the following video. In this video the user enters a command. The robot then responds with a list of orders this customer have.

The integration still has some short comings, which needs to be addressed, before Wave can be used in organizations.

The list of orders is displayed as plain text, so it is not possible to interact with the text. It would be possible to add buttons or check boxes to perform some simple processing of the orders.

There is a need for a more clear communication with the robot. Using a command like the one used in this example, is not useable. Controlling of the robot can performed using a form like in the workflow demo.

When do you get rid of old text data? Using a SAP CE and BPM it is possible to design dashboards which just shows the data a user needs to see. This is not possible in Wave. It is possible to delete Blips (the boxes with text), but it might be difficult to know when the data is not useful anymore. The user can always scroll back with the replay function.

I will be sharing some more of my examples with you as I get further in my research with Google Wave and SAP. You can follow the progress at http://masteringwave.com.

google wave, sap enterprise service, google wave, sap

Apparently it is time for a lot of mergers and acquisitions with VmWare/Springsource and Facebook/friendfeed. Brian Sommer has found the Reuters story about SAP are considering to by Tibco. Apparently they have tried to get hitched before, but without a final conclusion.

If such a fusion happed it could resemble the merger between Oracle and BEA in January 2008. It also was two companies with the same product suite for the middle layer. Oracle then had select which of the products future development should happen on. For the integration part the BEA product was selected, so all consultants had to learn the new product.

SAP did a similarly integration with Business Objects, which from the side as given a lot of new products or rebranded products. For someone who has not worked with BI the integration of two products happened limited problems. From what I have heard it was the frontend from Business Objects and the backend from SAP BI, which was developed as a product, so a new best of breed application was created.

But Tibco has more than just one area of products they have complementary product whole Netweaver suite. For the integration/SOA part I have heard that Tibco should have some better products in some areas and the portal probably does not match how SAP has created the portal. Come to think of the J2ee stack it was also purchased from a company that I have forgotten. But that was on a time when SAP did not have the java stack.

Dennis Howlett says that SAP have to watch Software AG. And that Tibco’s Silver cloud platform could profit SAP.

If the acquisition is approved, then it would be interesting to see what that mean for customers, SAP and partners.

Do you have any Tibco product which you would like to have instead of the equivalent SAP products?

sap netweaver, sap, tibco

Last December I wrote about how to use SFTP SSH from a Unix server, without using a Seeburger Adapter. SAP PI/XI cannot be used to access SSH SFTP sites directly, but this script can help. There have been many requests for a version which also works on windows. I do not have access to a windows server with PI or XI so it is a little difficult to test for me.

I have now written the following script, which works on my Vista labtop. I have not tested it on Windows 2003 or Windows 2008, where most PI systems will run.

I have used Putty for creating the SSH connection. I have used the pscp (an SCP client, i.e. command-line secure file copy). To try something different then using SFTP. SCP makes it easier to get files which should exist in a directory. Pscp should be downloaded and saved in the same directory as the script.     

The script looks like the following.

The script takes the following parameters.

1. The %F which is the name of the file, which the adapter is currently reading.
2. A the location of the file on the server side in the form “user@server:path/[filter*] ie. root@sftp.figaf.com:dir/SKB*. This command logon with the user root on the host sftp.figaf.com. Then looks in the directory dir, relative to the login dir and the selects all files starting with SKB.
3. The users password.

The command in the communication channel should look something like.

C:\scripts\sshftp.bat %F root@sftp.figaf.com:dir/SKB*.

I have only tested with password, but pscp might also work with using ssh keys.

pi pi, sap, security, ssh

Last year I wrote about the SCN search plugin to Ubiquity, which made it easy to search on SCN. Ubiquity is a plugin for Firefox. The problem with writing such utilities is that they need to be updated when the unpublished API changes.

The SCN search has changed to a quite fancy web 2.0 search. It is now possible to filter the results based on type, and then subtype and other parameters. The old search just had the option of choosing between few options, which all were accessible via a GET parameter. The new search uses, as fair as I can see, Google Web Toolkit as javascript framework. It looks quite difficult to interact with this framework, so the new search script just take you to the search page.

Michael Koegel informed me that a new version of Ubiquity has been released. Version 0.5 can be installed here. This new version had some changes in the way scripts was written, so the script had to be changed.

The new script can be installed from Githup.

When the script is install, and the access keys (CTRL + SPACE standard) are pressed the following popup is created. First scn-search is typed and then the query phase is called. When Enter is pressed the query will be performed.

sap, sdn sap, scn, sdn, ubiquity

Creating XML mapping in Java have for me always been difficult, it has been possible but I would prefer other tools. I was looking at scripting languages like Ruby/JRuby or Groovy for creating some web apps. Those languages seem quite hot right now. On the SCN Wiki a group has implemented the Grails (groovy on Rails) on the Netweaver system, as Composition on Grails. With this tool it is possible to applications with a Webdynpro look and feel. Grails is a framework for creating webapps with less coding.

Groovy is a scripting language designed on the basis of Java. Groovy script is compiled into Java classes, and both Java and Groovy can be mixed. This makes the implementation easier, just start writing Java and when you feel like use some of the smarter features of Groovy you can use them.

While I was looking at Grails, I thought that I would be possible to use it in PI. One place could be in java mappings. I’ll describe the steps that I have taken to implement this.

1. Download and install the groovy library
2. Get the Groovy plugin to Eclipse, this make developing much easier.
3. Create a new Eclipse project
4. Insert the aii_map_api.jar in the project, to be able to implement Streamtransformation service.
5. Create a new Groovy file in the source folder, with the name GroovyMapIdoc.groovy, then Eclipse know that it is a groovy file.
6. Create the mapping of your file. I have attached my example code bellow.
7. Compile the Groovy files using the context menu on the GroovyMapIdoc.groovy file.
8. Zip the content of the bin-groovy in the project folder and upload it, as an imported archive in the Integration builder. Alternative use ant build to create the zip files.
9. Upload the two files Groovy-1.6.1.jar and asm-2.2.3.jar as imported archives. They can be found in <GROOVY_HOME>\lib
10. Activate and use the mapping.

I would expect people trying this to have a good knowledge of using XI or PI Java mappings, because it is a requirement for the development of mappings.

One example I always have considered, was my first challenging mapping experience. Posting financial post with more than 1000 lines to the FIDCCP02 idoc. The FIDCCP02 only accepts 999 lines. The posting can be created multiply idocs with 998 lines and the post a balance on each item. This way all documents will balance.

The document is transformed from the left document to the right. I have for this example used a max size of 3 to make testing easier.

The code that I have used for the mapping is.

Behind the scenes the Groovy file is changed in to java classes. Because Java does not support Closures natively different subclasses are created. Try to have a look on them using a decompiler like jad.

Conclusion

Groovy could be a way to improve the how java mappings are created. The XML generation is easier to handle then how it would have been created in Java and it is more powerful than XSLT. It takes some effort to get use to the closures concept of Groovy and the other notation, but it seems to work real well.

I don’t think the performance issue with the mapping is a problem. There is an overhead to load the groovy libraries and the code is probably not as optimized if it was written directly in java. I have not made any measurements for this.

pi, pi71 groovy, java, pi, process integration, sap, scripting, transformation, xml

For the last couple of years the job considering integrating legacy systems with the SAP ERP system has stayed the same. Each system is unique, so integration had to start from scratch. There could be some limited reuse between integrations, but they did not have a large impact.

Many of companies are going to use SaaS (at least that is what many company is betting on). SaaS strategies could be seen as a way to get a best-of-breed application. Some of the SaaS applications are probably going to replace old legacy applications or reduce the number of more legacy applications being created. Integration between SAP and SaaS applications are wherefore going to play a large role in the integration work done with PI.

My experience with integration with a systems, is that it takes an average of 10 days pr system (The development could be completed within 2 days, but support during testing and bug tracking is required). If the complexity is getting larger or requires the use on new services in SAP, the number of days will skyrocket. Large parts of the integration work are concern error handling, when some unexpected data is received. The price for 10 day integration is at least €10.000, but with a high uncertainty. Such start prices will many business cases fail in adopting a SaaS application, because of the initial investment.

One way to lower this price is if the SaaS vendors also use the same Enterprise Services that SAP is exposing. Then integration will just be to connect the two interfaces and will just require testing for the business functionality. From a customer perspective this would be the ideal situation, and lower the cost of integration.

If there are no Enterprise Services to cover the SaaS integration, two things should happen; Either an Enterprise Service is created or a PI integration is created. The two options can be produced by a consulting partner and then shared under some license. Open source could be an option if it was supported by the SaaS provider.

Creating reusable integration parts can be difficult, especially in small markets like Denmark. The Danish government was very keen on electronic invoices(OIOXML), using the UBL standard. That led to a race for consultancies to create templates for integrations. I do not know any company, how got a large enough part of the integrations, to have justified a large upfront investment a shrink wrapped solution.

Reuse is possible for some domains. I have been involved in project, where reuse of BPM functions lead to easy integration with the 2th and 3rd application. In this project the Enterprise Service was implemented as a ccBPM in PI. The later integrations needed some adjustments to support the new functions and integration protocols, but the overall framework proved successful.

We asked the vendors of the third party application, if they had any integration to SAP. They all did have some integrations, but for different versions of SAP and application components. Challenges like this are going to continue because of the flexibility in SAP. In some cases can different modules handle the same functions. I doubt an Enterprise Service should handle the functionality in two different modules.

With SaaS application is the marked larger since it is global and allow for packaged solutions. The packaged solutions can both be PI mappings and BPM’s or Enterprise Services and sold via Ecohub or from the SaaS vendor.

A way a business model for this could be to give a lower rate on the first implementation; then sell this integration to other customers. It will take a few iterations before a shrink wrapped integration can be released.

To have an integration for SAP must be a really interesting for SaaS providers, because it will make it easier for customers to start using their services. If the customer is going to spend a large number of days on integrating the application, it is less likely to happen. Without an integration to the ERP system, some of the benefits are removed from the application.

For consultants will it also be interesting, if you only have to produce something once and then be able to sell it multiply times. The issue is then how the global marked can be supported, but remote consulting via VPN can probably solve most of the issues.

I’m looking forward to see if, this is going to be the business model for future PI consultants.

integration, pi, saas, sap consulting, integration, pi, sap

I released the two services for PI to get documentation of mappings and to compare two mappings to see what have changed. The release to those services can be found in the two
blogs.

After the release people have been asked if it was possible to run the tools at the users own computer instead of the server version. And I have been thinking about releasing the scripts as commercial products to accommodate this request. It is possible to create compiled PHP code, which can be executed at local PC’s. I did decide against it because it would require a product to be more mature then the product is and did not believe the marked was large enough and marketing would be difficult. By releasing the product as open source it might be possible to get other to contribute and create a service, which could help many more.

The product was original designed to run on a server in a controlled environment. But with this version I had to refactor some of the code to support the usage a client perspective. A problem is that script is extracting a lot of files from the XIM files. These files need to be cleaned up and I used the quick solution to use the windows Delete command to do this clean up. There are some other places which have not been cleaned up yet, they will be cleaned up in the next release.

One of the challenges with releasing software as open source is that it exposes ones coding capabilities. I would say that there is a long way to go before I’m able to get a living from coding PHP. The code seems to work, but the refactoring is a little more time consuming.

You can find the code and installation guides at code.google.com.

If you want to help with improving the code, please join the group and help improve the product.

pi open source, pi, pidocumenter, sap

This blog describes some of the thoughts that I have on using versions for different software component versions for development and support tracks.

Why

The use of versions as a way for managing releases has been used for a long time to maintain programs. With the help of a revision control program is it possible to get an overview of what releases are build and which changes have been made. This will make it easier to give a better understanding of what is promoted to production.

On my current PI project we have different phases. We have just gone live with the first part and is currently developing the second part. After each phase a release is tested and moved to production. While the second phase is being developed the first phase must be supported, to ensure corrections can be moved into production before the next release.

PI makes it possible to use different versions of software components, to make it possible to use each version. Like other versioning tools is it a challenge to use it correct. I’ll describe, how we have used it and what we have learned.

How to use versions

The main part of configuring different versions is fairly easy. It just requires the users to create a new software component with a new version identifier. The first release will have version 1.0 and the second version will have version 2.0 and otherwise will be placed in the same products. Remember to add dependencies to the version 2.0 of the interface components, assuming the interface components also are upgrade. The version 2.0 should also be installed on the same systems as the version 1.0 components, otherwise it could cause problems.

Create the namespaces which will be used in version 2.0. Then make a release transfer, where the objects from version 1.0 are copied to version 2.0. The Release Transfer can be found at Tools Menu, and it works much like the export function. Only content from version 1.0 is copied if a similarly namespace is in the version 2.0 component. You have now copied the content to the version 2.0 and can make changes in each component separate.

With the copy all object is copied to version 2.0. Objects will continue use the depended objects from version 1.0. For instance will a Message Mapping still use the Messages from the version 1.0. Unless the Message has been imported via dependent object, then the Mapping will use the Message from version 2.0 of the dependent software component.

With this upgrade maneuver the objects, will still be the same with very little change to them. It is a problem in the beginning but after getting use to it seems like a good idea. When changes are required simply alter the scenario to use a new interface mapping and maybe actions, and then add the functionality and the functionality can be used.

We tried to copy objects which had imported messages from the imported components. We therefore had the message types from version 2.0 in our 2.0 mappings. I do not think that this was a smart move, since I more like the idea of having to select when to upgrade a message type. Therefore this trick only works for abstract mappings, which have to be imported via the imported components. .

Objects and scenarios

I have earlier written about using scenarios for documentation and dialog tool for communicate the process with the business. With the help of scenarios, it is easier to maintain which version will be used.

When scenarios are copied to version 2.0 it will still point to version 1.0 mappings and actions. When changes are made to the version 2.0 object the scenario must be change to reflect that the mapping is changed. It is thereby possible to make configuration on a system, while maintain everything from version 1.0 except the mapping which has to be changed.

Support

The use of two versions can cause problems. When a support issue arrives, it must be correct at version 1.0. But this change is not maintained in version 2.0. It is therefore necessary to somehow maintain both versions. If this is not done the problem will exist again in when version 2.0 is deployed. This can be difficult because it requires the users to implement the changes in version 2.0, and it gets more complicated if the involved object has been altered for version 2.0. If objects have not been altered in version 2.0, release transfer is possible again. If the object has been changed in version 2.0, the release transfer will show that conflicts exist.

To avoid having to develop thing twice and make sure that, we make the same changes to version 2.0, we made some changes to the process.

• First we have decided that some processes will not be changed in face 2. Those object have been change so we use the version 2.0 in production. This will remove the need to maintain those objects in both versions.
• Secondly we have decided on some systems which will be sent into production and maintain in version 1.0. This system shared BPMs with other systems, which will be changed in version 2.0 to support new features.

Namespaces and versioning    

The use of namespaces could make scenes for some areas. Then the version number could be a part of the namespace. It would make it clear if an object contained content from a different version. If this approach was use then it will not be possible to use release transfer, because the namespace differed. I think that this probably makes most sense to use when communicating with third parties and the WSDLs need to be shared and agreed on which versions are used.

Testing

Since we need to be able to support the current running production system and creating we have to have to lines of ERP systems. I believe that this is a common setup for ERP projects. For the PI development it is just to configure the correct scenarios version for the correct ERP and third party systems. It hereby seems possible to perform the support alongside development of phase 2.

Conclusion

The use of versions is pain and requires developers to check what they are doing. I have avoided the use of versions for 4 years now, but have finally agreed to use version. The main argument was, that project had deliverables in two stages. I believe that it is correct to use versions, but it still requires caution since it is easy to break the setup.

pi pi, sap, versions