Creating Aliases

If, when you create a service, you want to create an alias for a service, you must differentiate between internal and external aliases. (For more detailed information, see the sections Internal Aliases and External Aliases.)

 

Internal Aliases

If you select Reference to an Existing Service when creating a service, you create an alias. Instead of using an HTTP request handler, use the tab Alias Target to determine where the alias should point to in the HTTP service tree. If the string of the internal alias is found in the URL of the inbound request, then the service assigned to this alias is called. In the URL, the alias is simply replaced by the path of the service to which the alias points.

The logon procedure can be one reason for creating an alias: you may want to call an existing service with different logon data or a different logon procedure.

For details on logging on to the SAP System, see the following sections:

Logging On to the SAP Web Application Server

Anonymous Logon Data

 

External Aliases

External aliases are used to make it possible to call services using any appropriate non-technical name.

You can create external aliases that link to a service (choose External Aliases). These external aliases can be used to provide clearer path names that can be mapped to any services in the ICF service hierarchy.

If the string of the internal alias is found in the URL of the incoming request, the service assigned to this alias, that is, the HTTP request handler defined in this service, is called. The service data of the external alias overrides that of the target service.

 

An incoming URL is first checked against the external aliases, then against the internal aliases.

 

You can now read about the client side: Administration: HTTP Communication Using the SAP System as a Client