Configuring Consumer Applications

SAP NetWeaver Administrator allows you to browse and configure consumer applications built by different toolsets in a central location. When you configure consumer applications, you specify the runtime settings that apply to these applications.

When you create a consumer application during design time, you also create a Service Group and a service reference. The Service Group and the service references contain information about the consumed Web services and the provider system on which they run.

You configure a consumer application at runtime by assigning a connection to a provider system to its Service Groups. The framework creates configuration entities for the consumer application called logical ports. The logical port contains the exact policies and settings, and enable the application to consume the Web service.

Prerequisites

You have deployed consumer applications on your client system.
You have configured connections to provider systems on which the Web services are running.

More information: Creating Connections to Provider Systems
You have configured user accounts for all Web services that you want to consume.

More information:

Creating User Accounts
If you want to use automatic configuration provided by the framework, the following prerequisites apply:
- The provider system on which the Web services are running is published in the Services Registry.
- You have a configured connection to the Services Registry.
  
  More information:
  
  Configuring the Services Registry

Procedure

Log on to the SAP NetWeaver Administrator.
Choose SOA Management Application and Scenario Communication Application Communication

Alternatively, you can use the quick link /appcomunication as follows:

http://host:port/nwa/appcomunication

The Application Communication screen opens.
Choose an application from the table.

The table shows all applications deployed on your client system that either consume or provide Web services.
Choose Edit.
On the Service Groups tab, proceed as follows:

In a table on the Service Groups tab, the system displays additional information about the Service Groups and the service references in the consumer application, the connectivity type that is used, and the provider system that is assigned. You can open this additional information by choosing a Service Group and then the button that displays a magnifier glass on the top right corner of the Service Groups table.
- Assign a provider system.
  
  To select multiple entries from the lists, on your keyboard, press, and hold the SHIFT or CTRL keys and then choose the relevant Service Groups.
  1. Choose a Service Group from the table, and then choose Assign Provider System.
  2. On the Assign Provider System window, choose a provider system, and then choose OK.
  Note
  
  Alternatively, you can choose Auto Assign. The framework automatically connects to the Services Registry and discovers a provider system that has the necessary Web services.
  
  End of the note.
- Unassign a provider system
  1. Choose a Service Group from the table, and then choose Unassign Provider System.
  2. To confirm, choose Yes.
Choose Save.

Result

After you save the consumer application, the system performs a background process. During the background process, the framework examines the connections to the provider systems, which you assigned to the Service Groups, and creates configuration entities for the consumer proxies – logical ports.

The table below shows the allowed authentication methods for each authentication profile.

Allowed Authentication Methods
Authentication Profile	Authentication Methods
Business or Technical User	If user account has credentials for basic authentication over the HTTP protocol, then allowed authentication methods are: User Name/Password (Basic) User Name/Password Doc.Auth. SAP Logon Ticket None If the user account has credentials for secure SSL communication over the HTTPS protocol, then allowed authentication methods are: X.509 Client Certificate SAP Logon Ticket None If the user account has credentials for authentication over the Web Service Security protocol, then allowed authentication methods are: SAML Assertion X.509 Certificate Doc.Auth. SAP Logon Ticket None If there isn't user account, then allowed authentication methods are SAP Logon Ticket and None.
Business User	SAP Logon Ticket
Technical User	If user account has credentials for basic authentication over the HTTP protocol, then allowed authentication method is User Name/Password (Basic). If the user account has credentials for secure SSL communication over the HTTPS protocol, then allowed authentication method is X.509 Client Certificate. If the user account has credentials for authentication over the Web Service Security protocol, then allowed authentication methods are SAML Assertion and X.509 Certificate Doc.Auth..
No Authentication	If user account has credentials for basic authentication over the HTTP protocol, then allowed authentication methods are: User Name/Password (Basic) None If the user account has credentials for secure SSL communication over the HTTPS protocol, then allowed authentication methods are: X.509 Client Certificate None If the user account has credentials for authentication over the Web Service Security protocol, then allowed authentication methods are: SAML Assertion User Name/Password Doc.Auth. X.509 Certificate Doc.Auth. None If there isn't user account, then allowed authentication method is only None.

The allowed authentication methods have to be set to the communication profile.

The Processing State column of the Service Group table shows the state of the configuration. You can display more information about the processing state in the Log Viewer application.

More information

Log Viewer

Note Note

In Single Service Administration, you can browse the created logical ports only for Java EE consumers and Composite Application Framework (CAF) applications that consume Web services. You cannot browse configuration entities of the following consumer proxies:

Callable objects created with Guided Procedures framework
Automated activities and events created with Galaxy framework
Adaptive Web service models created with Web Dynpro framework
Web service operations created with Visual Composer framework

End of the note.