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Describes the actions available within the Activate and Maintain Services activity in the IMG.

Use

The transaction for activating and maintaining services is used to maintain all registered services on the SAP Gateway server (hub system), to register and activate services, to delete services, and to simplify the usage in general.

The service maintenance offers the following advantages:

  • Fast overview of all registered services on the SAP Gateway hub system as well as backend systems

  • Detailed display of a service, such as ICF nodes and system alias assignment

  • Easy generation and activation of new services

The service maintenance is part of the Implementation Guide (IMG) in your SAP Gateway system. In the SAP Reference IMG (transaction SPRO) navigate to Start of the navigation path SAP NetWeaver Next navigation step SAP Gateway Next navigation step  OData Channel Next navigation step Administration Next navigation step General Settings Next navigation step Activate and Maintain Services End of the navigation path.

Activate and Maintain Services example

The main screen is divided into an upper and a lower part in which the upper part shows all registered services ( Service Catalog) and the lower part shows the details of the selected service from the Service Catalog. The details are split into ICF Nodes and System Aliases.

   

In the Activate and Maintain Services screen you can access some basic SAP Gateway functions directly:

  • You can quickly access the SAP Gateway Client by choosing Start of the navigation path Goto Next navigation step SAP GW Client End of the navigation path. The SAP Gateway Client provides general testing functions for your OData services.

  • You can quickly access the metadata cache by choosing Start of the navigation path Goto Next navigation step Cleanup of Model Cache End of the navigation path.

Service Catalog

The service catalog lists all services of the current system. You can easily find services from a backend system that have not yet been registered by choosing Add Service in the menu bar.

The list of services that will be added is shown as soon as a system alias is provided. The list can be further limited by entering additional search criteria as filter values.

Example

You can select a service from the list under Add Service via the hotspot of column Technical Service Name, Service Description, or External Service Name.

Details about the selected service are displayed. In this detailed view you always enter a valid package name or, for local objects which should not be transported, you choose Local Object which will automatically assign package $TMP to the service.

Example

In section ICF Node the option Set current client as default client in ICF Node is pre-selected as well as the ICF node to be used. ICF node creation is disabled if the service already has an ICF node. This is because different versions are using the same ICF node / ICF service. If ICF services for both modes (standard as well as compatibility) exist, then both radio buttons would be greyed out. If only one ICF service exists, then only one ICF button will be greyed out. For example, if an ICF node for the compatibility mode already exists, then this option is greyed out and None is set. In this case, you could activate the standard mode.

Note

For new development the standard mode is always used. For more information, see ICF Services.

Service versioning helps an administrator to generate a service with an additional version. In addition, detailed information of each service can be displayed to get a first idea on the different versions. Thus an administrator can easily handle different versions of a service that are provided by the backend system(s).

Apart from activating single services, you can also activate several services at once. This mass activation can be useful for large amounts of services that have to be available quickly. Of course you need several services to start with. To carry out mass activation, proceed as follows:

  1. Choose Add Service.
  2. Enter the relevant system alias. You can use a filter, if needed.
  3. In the list, select those services that you want to activate and choose Add Selected Services.
  4. Enter a prefix for your service and model names, for example Z and enter a valid package and choose Enter.

    A list of all the services that were created is displayed, together with a status indicator (green for successful execution). Now you can close this screen.

The list of selected backend services no longer contains those services that you have activated.

   

For the Service Catalog, the following main functions are available:

Button

Description

Filter

An administrator can use this to search for a service with the technical service name, the service version, the external service name, etc.

Add Service

Used to add a service (see above).

Delete Service

Used to delete the selected service.

Caution

If you want to delete a service completely, all ICF nodes and system alias assignments have to be deleted manually.

With the introduction of version handling, the deletion of services has also been enhanced: As long as more than one version per service exists, the ICF nodes do not have to be deleted.
Service Details

Displays additional information about the corresponding model(s) for a service, such as the model name, the version, the external mapping ID, and the model description.
Reload Service Metadata Reloads the service metadata for the annotation models. See Maintain Annotation Models

Error Log

Calls the Error Log for the selected service.

Refresh Catalog

 Refreshes all the entries in the Service Catalog.

OAuth

 The OAuth 2.0 authorization framework enables a third-party application to obtain limited access to an HTTP service, either on behalf of a resource owner by orchestrating an approval interaction between the resource owner and the HTTP service, or by allowing the third-party application to obtain access on its own behalf. By enabling the service for OAuth the ICF- Handler is changed.

For more information about OAuth, see Enabling OAuth 2.0.

Soft State

Activates or de-activates soft state for a single service.

For more information, see Soft State Support.

ICF Nodes

If the ICF node of your service is being activated the traffic light in front of it switches to green.

For the ICF nodes the following functions are available:

Button

Description

ICF Node

Allows you to carry out functions related to the ICF nodes. You can do the following:

  • Create and/or activate the selected ICF node in the list of ICF nodes.

  • Deactivate a selected active ICF node in the list of ICF nodes. The traffic light switches to yellow.

  • Delete a selected active or inactive ICF node in the list of ICF nodes. The traffic switches to grey (initial).

  • Configure the ICF node. This function calls the general transaction for Internet Communication Framework service maintenance (transaction SICF).

Call Browser

Calls the default browser and shows the selected service.

The browser is called with the segment parameter for versions, for example, .../ServiceDocument;v=0001/....
SAP Gateway Client

Calls the SAP Gateway Client for further analysis.

If you have selected a service, this will take you directly to the relevant information for the current service. From there you can proceed further to service implementation details, for example.

Service Activation Results

Activation of an ICF node yields the following main results:

  • Service repository object

    Every service which is exposed on the SAP Gateway system has a corresponding repository object. This repository object entry is used for the following:

    • Handling authorizations on service level which can be controlled via setting the authorization object S_SERVICE.

    • External name mapping to internal technical definition.

    • Routing to the backend and assignment of system alias.

    • Transportation of an activated service, for example from a development or test system to a productive system.

  • Object group

    Every service repository object is mapped to an object group which is used for the following:

    • System alias assignment to the backend system. As a default the object group is assigned to the system alias from which it has been activated.

  • ICF node

    Every service has a corresponding ICF node which has the following purposes:

    • Fine granular settings of authentication mechanism for each service.

    • Activation/deactivation of a service.

System Aliases

For the system alias assignment, the following functions are available:

Button

Description

Create System Alias Assignment

Calls the standard customizing activity Assigning SAP System Alias to OData Service for the selected service from the service catalog to add another system alias assignment.

When selecting a system alias, all other service information, such as Technical Service Name, will be added automatically.

Delete System Alias Assignment

Deletes the selected SAP system from the list of system aliases.
Customizing Switches to the maintenance of the assignment of SAP system aliases to OData services.

Provider Implementation

This function allows the forward navigation to the backend system where the service is registered. By double-clicking on the data provider class there you arrive at the class implementation directly.

Example

You can find an example of service maintenance in 2.1 Activate the Service.

More Information