Service Provisioning, Discovery and Consumption
Use
At design time, all objects that are the foundation for Web services are specified and defined in the Enterprise Services Repository (outside-in mode).
In inside-out mode it is also possible to make service provider functions available as Web services. In an AS ABAP service provider system, you can publish independent function modules that were implemented as RFC-enabled function modules, functions groups, or BAPIs as Web services. All self-contained, modularized functions implemented as Enterprise Java Bean (session bean) or as a Java class can be exposed as a Web service in an AS Java service provider.
The provider proxy is generated and implemented in the service provider system and the service definition is configured. An ABAP service provider is generated and implemented in the ABAP Workbench. Java services are generated and implemented in the IDE. ABAP Web services are configured in SOA Manager (transaction SOAMANAGER), Java Web services are confgured in the SAP NetWeaver Administrator.
The Web service is then classified and published in the Services Registry .
The service consumer discovers the Web service in the Services Registry and generates and implements the consumer proxy in the service consumer system.
At runtime the communication between the service consumer and service provider is either direct from one system to the other (point-to-point), or mediated (mediated communication). In the case of mediated communication, you can use Process Integration (Integration Server) as the intermediary between the service consumer and service provider. Process Integration provides more integration functions, such as mapping, routing or multiple connectivity options.
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Point-to-Point Services-Based Communication
To execute a service of another system, the application calls a proxy in the application system directly. The result of the call is that the application system sends a request message to the service provider. The application system replies with a response message.
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Mediated Services-Based Communication
You use the Integration Server as an intermediary between the service provider and the service consumer. You can, for example, integrate systems that you cannot communicate with by using the Web services runtime. You can also perform a mapping between the inbound and outbound messages. Additionally, you can also use Process Integration to configure point-to-point communication between service provider and service consumer.