Discovering Data Services 

Use

You import the data services required as the sources of information processed in the component. You can create a component that uses data services – including BAPIs, RFCs, Web services, BI data services and SAP enterprise services - from a number of different back-end systems. You drag data services onto the Design board, using the Search task panel.

When searching for enterprise services, you can search for an operation in a specific enterprise service, or you can search through the entire service repository, filtering by classification to locate the required enterprise service.

You can also use other Visual Composer models as reusable components within a component. For more information, see Reusing Components.

Prerequisites

·        The model into which you want to import the data services is open in Storyboard.

·        Visual Composer is correctly configured to access the required data services from the back-end systems. For more information, see Maintaining RFC Destinations.

·        To use Web services and enterprise services as a source of data in your models, make sure that their destinations are correctly defined in NetWeaver Administrator. If you are locating these Web services by querying the Services Registry, you also need to configure a connection to the Services Registry (as well as defining a destination for the Services Registry). For more information, see Creating Web Service Physical Destinations.

Procedure

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       1.      Click the Search button in the task-panel toolbar.

       2.      From the Search in dropdown list, choose the system in which you want to search. You can select Service Registry to search all defined logical destinations in the service registry.

       3.      In the Search for field, enter the name of the data service that you want to locate. You can use an asterisk (*) in the string as a wildcard to search for a partial match.

       4.      From the Type dropdown list, choose the type of data service, for example, Bapi/RFC or WSDL. The available types depend on the system you chose in the previous step.

       5.      If you chose Service Registry in the Search in dropdown list, you can specify additional criteria to fine-tune the search parameters:

¡        In the Search task panel, click the Advanced Search option.

¡        In the Select Classifications dialog box, expand the nodes and select the checkbox next to the classification categories according to which you want to search.

¡        Click OK. The search is performed only within the classifications you selected.

       6.      Click Search. All data services matching the search criteria and residing in the selected system are displayed. Depending on the data service type, a link that displays additional details about the data service may also be displayed.

       7.      From the Results list, locate the data service that you require and drag it onto the Design board. If you performed a search in the Service Registry or WSIL, expand the result nodes to select the operation(s) that you require.

If the data service contains a large number of ports, the Choose Ports dialog box is displayed, listing the ports of the data service. Use this dialog box to display or hide the data service ports as required, and then click OK.

       8.      To import additional data services, repeat this procedure for each data service.

You can test the functionality of a data service by right-clicking its icon and choosing Test Data Service from the context menu. In the Test Data Service dialog box, enter the necessary values in the input fields and click Test to display the results of the query.

Result

The selected data services are added to the Design board and you are ready to model the component logic and flow, by defining the view elements and their connections. For more information, see Composing the Composite View.

If you modify a data service (outside of Visual Composer) and then want to see those changes reflected in models that use the modified data service, you must reimport the data service. For more information, see Redefining Ports.