Universal Usability of BAPIs (SAP Library - General Introduction to BAPIs (CA-BFA))

Universal Usability of BAPIs

To allow their use in any scenario, BAPIs must support all forms of communication and be available to all types of participants:

Support of synchronous and asynchronous communication
BAPIs can be used for both the synchronous and for the asynchronous call to an SAP component. If the call is synchronous, the BAPI is called as a remote function call (RFC). For details about how to use the BAPI with the RFC, see the BAPI User Guide in the SAP Library under CA-BFA.
ALE inbound processing is used to enable asynchronous communication with BAPIs. When the BAPI is called in the sender system, an IDoc is generated and dispatched to the receiver system. When the IDoc reaches the receiver, the parameters of the corresponding BAPI are automatically filled with the IDoc data, and the BAPI is called synchronously. For details on the asynchronous use of BAPIs, please refer to Using ALE Services.

Support of machine-to-machine and human-to-machine communication
BAPIs can be used both to integrate application systems and to link up alternative frontends.

The integration of application systems is characterized by machine-to-machine communication. It is implemented by exchanging large volumes of data and requires high system performance. As a result, the BAPIs used for this type of scenario have a lower level of detail.

The integration of alternative frontends allows human-to-machine communication. BAPIs used for this purpose have a higher level of detail. They must be designed to allow more flexible communication that is free of errors.

Developing BAPIs that meet your specific requirements is discussed in BAPI Development.

Communication support for components that are narrowly linked and coupled through the Internet
In addition to the use of BAPIs under communication technologies like CORBA and COM/DCOM, BAPIs can also be accessed via the Internet with the SAP Business Connector. The Business Connector generates an XML document from a BAPI call, or transforms an inbound XML document into a BAPI call. This makes it possible to dispatch BAPI calls as XML documents, enabling communication of components that are linked via the Internet.
All BAPIs are published centrally in the XML-based Interface Repository (IFR) and are stored there as XML schema, which means that they are immediately ready for use with the Business Connector.
For more information, see the documentation about the Interface Repository: http://ifr.sap.com.