The R/3 integration technology allows you to integrate any OLE-compatible desktop application such as Microsoft Office, Lotus SmartSuite, CorelOffice, or Visio into the R/3 System.
Communication and data transfer work as follows:
Communication between the SAPgui (presentation server) and the R/3 application server was extended in Release 4.0. This made it possible to include ActiveX controls in SAPgui (
Control Framework).Desktop Office Integration uses this interface for special controls (SAP Document Container Control and SAP Data Provider) that are the communication channel between the R/3 System and the Desktop Office Application.
The SAP Document Container Control uses methods and attributes to communicate with a desktop application using the OLE2 interface.
The SAP Data Provider is a container and converter for data in different formats. Data that you import into an application is converted into a readable format based on the Internet standard MIME. The SAP Data Provider buffers document data that is administered in the R/3 System. It also buffers R/3 data, which can be inserted into documents using R/3 links.
Both controls have an interface to the R/3 System. The interface to the SAP Data Provider is implemented using function modules. ABAP classes and interfaces for Desktop Office Integration provide the interface to the SAP Document Container Control.