Identifiers

Use

Definition

Identifiers are used to identify objects uniquely.

An identifier comprises the following:

  • Agency

    Defines the identification scheme and issues names for the objects to be identified.

  • Identification Scheme (or 'scheme' for short)

    Constitutes the reference framework within which objects are uniquely identified by names.

  • Name/Value

    A name or value that identifies the object within the given identification scheme.

An object can only be uniquely identified when all three have been specified.

A person can be identified in many different ways, for example, by their customer number at a mail order company, or their name or employee number at their place of work. To able to identify a person uniquely, it is not sufficient to just know the customer number, for example, you must know that this number is a customer number. Only once the frame of reference (the identification scheme Customer Number ) is also known can a person be identified uniquely (by using the number).

In the example, the agency Mail Order Company manages the identification scheme Customer Number . Different customers are issued unique names (customer numbers) within this scheme.

Use

Identifiers play a role in the following areas of SAP Process Integration:

  • To identify communication parties

  • In value mappings.

  • When setting a receiver in the proxy runtime.

Identifying Communication Parties

Multiple globally-recognized identifiers are supported for identifying companies involved in cross-company processes (for example, D&B D-U-N-S-Number ). You can specify multiple alternative identifiers for one communication party. Alternative identifiers are then used to identify this party.

An identifier for a communication party comprises the agency , scheme , and name of the party. Internally, a communication party is identified uniquely by its name (in the Integration Directory).

In a particular collaboration step, two parties must agree on a particular identifier. You define this in the collaboration agreement (in the assigned communication channel).

Value Mapping

In a value mapping, you can use identifiers to form different representations of objects.

Integration

An agency can represent an organizational unit or a technical unit (a system).

Attribute

Meaning

Example

Organization

Manages an identification scheme to identify companies uniquely across the world and issues the values.

The organization Dun & Bradstreet manages the identification schema D&B D-U-N-S-Number .

Technical Unit

Contains an object, which, together with a namespace, forms an identification scheme.

The business system BS_1 (agency) contains the object ' Customer '. In this case, an identification scheme is given by the object type Customer and a namespace. Within this identification schema, a customer (an instance of the Customer object) can be uniquely identified by a name ( 00001 ).