Universal Data Connector

The universal data connector (UDC) is a framework that allows access to SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII) services through proprietary server applications that you develop.

The OLEDB connector is a UDC that allows access to OLE DB data sources.

The UDC communicates with remote universal data servers (UDS) using TCP/IP sockets. The UDS receives a request from the UDC, including the appropriate parameters such as mode, tags, date intervals, and so on, and the UDS processes the input or output to the underlying data source. The UDS returns status and data to the UDC, and the UDC passes it to the requesting client.

Note Note

You can develop a universal data server (UDS) in any language. SAP provides UDS applications that use the UDC framework. For more information, see the SAP Service Marketplace at service.sap.com.

End of the note.

The UDC allows data access from platforms that do not natively support communications with the underlying data source. For example, it allows a Linux Web server to acquire data from an HMI package running on a Windows 98 PC.

The UDC allows remote data access when the data source does not. Therefore, if the data source API does not support IP requests, you can run the UDS on the same computer as the data source and communicate to the SAP MII Web server through TCP/IP.

The system sends mode requests to the UDS for processing. If the requested mode is not supported, the UDS returns an error.

Structure

The following table describes some UDC server parameters:

Parameter	Data Type	Use
`IP`	String	IP address or machine name where the UDS, not necessarily the data source, is running
`Port`	Integer	Port on which the UDS is listening. We recommend that you use a different port for each UDS instance; the UDS and UDC instance settings must match.
`QueryTimeout`	Integer	Number of seconds the system waits for a response from the UDS. The `QueryTimeout` parameter should be optimized for the UDS and network connection between the UDC and UDS. The default value is 10 seconds.
`Name`	String	Unique name for the server.
`Writable`	Boolean	Allows the UDS to write data to tags. If you enable this function, you should create another server instance with separate access permissions.