Using Existing Connectors
Whether they come with the installation of SAPEnterprise Portal or are developed separately and installed for portal users, the connectors to back-end systems are deployed on the J2EE application server level. This offers distinct advantages for connector consumers in a managed environment, which is typically the case for NetWeaver users. Among the primary advantages are:
· JNDI lookup
Instead of having to create a connection factory instance, the content developer need only implement the connector gateway service of the portal. This is exemplified by the samples in the section about the JDBC Connector.
· Connection pooling
The application server manages connections, reusing already open ones for new requests, instead of the performance-reducing opening and closing of connections for each request for an EIS connection.
The main task of the developer of portal content, such as iViews that retrieve information from a back-end system (EIS), is to open a connection to that system.
The SAP NetWeaver portal comes with the following ready-to-use connectors. See the samples for help with using them:
· a JDBC Connector for universal database connectivity
· an SAP System connector for connectivity to back-end SAP systems
· a Web Service connector for interacting with any Web service
Prerequisites
Following are the prerequisites for using connectors that are deployed in the portal.
File/Environment |
Description |
Source |
GenericConnector.jar |
Required to test the application |
Comes with SAP Enterprise Portal |
ExtendedConnector.jar |
Adds functionality to generic connector |
Comes with J2EE application server. |
Connector.jar |
Contains the JCA 1.0 API |
Comes with J2EE application server |
JAAS.jar (Java Authentication and Authorization Service) |
Required by the connector framework. |
Comes with J2EE application server |
JTA.jar (Java Transaction API) |
Required by the Connector Framework. |
Comes with J2EE application server |
EIS (Enterprise Information System) |
Required to test the application. |
Has to be installed separately |
Java Application Server |
Any J2EE JCA 1.0-compliant WAS to work with servlets without the SAP Enterprise Portal. Recommendation: SAP Web AS 6.40 Java |
Has to be installed separately |
PRT (Portal Run Time) |
Required to test the application in the SAP Enterprise Portal environment |
Comes with SAP Enterprise Portal |
Portal Wizard Framework |
The portal wizard framework is an effective tool to create a portal application that uses a connector. |
Comes with SAP Enterprise Portal |
Connector Web Service |
Necessary to communicate between application and connector as Web service, using http calls and SOAP. |
Comes with SAP Enterprise Portal |