Usage Scenarios for the RFC Adapter and Restrictions

The RFC adapter maps the following RFC calls to XML messages and the other way around:

  • Synchronous RFC calls (sRFCs) in messages with quality of service Best Effort (BE)
  • Transactional RFC calls (tRFCs) in messages with quality of service Exactly Once (EO)
  • The receiver RFC adapter can also process messages with quality of service Exactly Once In Order (EOIO). They are mapped to transactional RFC calls (tRFC).

See: Quality of Service

Usage Scenarios

The following three scenarios are possible when using the RFC adapter and the Integration Engine:

SAP System to SAP NetWeaver Application Server

  • Register the RFC server program of the RFC adapter at the gateway of the SAP system.
  • Change the RFC destination in the SAP system to reference the registered RFC adapter.
  • Provide mappings for request and response messages.
  • Establish logical and technical routing.

SAP NetWeaver Application Server to SAP System

  • Provide mappings for request and response messages.
  • Establish logical and technical routing.

SAP System to SAP System

  • Register the RFC server program of the RFC adapter at the gateway of the SAP system.
  • Change the RFC destination in the SAP system to reference the registered RFC adapter.
  • Provide mappings for request and response messages.
  • Establish logical and technical routing.

Restrictions

Note the following constraints:

  • There is no transactional context for more than one RFC call for each LUW (Logical Unit of Work).
  • SAPGUI, callbacks, and qRFC are not available.
  • Receiver adapters only support external RFC servers that register themselves with an Gateway.

    You cannot start external RFC servers.

  • The context in the called system is not kept open over multiple calls (calls are stateless; there is no session).
  • Only the payload of a received message is evaluated. Additional attachments are ignored and not forwarded.
  • The receiver adapter can only process valid RFC XML documents, for example, those generated by the sender adapter or by the SAP JCo.
  • You cannot use additional XML elements such as XML namespaces (xmlns).
  • The sender adapter only supports function modules with at least one parameter (import, export, changing, or tables).
  • Unicode and non-Unicode systems are supported. MDMP systems are not supported.
  • The RFC metadata repository must be compatible with the sender and receivers systems with respect to Unicode. A Unicode sender or receiver system must have a Unicode RFC metadata repository. A non-Unicode sender or receiver system must have a non-Unicode RFC metadata repository.