RFC with External Systems  

Use

In the SAP system, the ability to call remote functions is provided by the Remote Function Call (RFC) interface. This interface enables remote calls between two SAP systems, or between an SAP system and a non-SAP system.

The present section describes how to write RFC partner programs that run in non-SAP systems.

If you are writing RFC programs in an SAP system, see RFC-Programming in ABAP.

Client and Server Programs

There are two kinds of RFC programs: RFC client and RFC server programs.
The RFC client is the instance that calls up the RFC to execute the function which is provided by an RFC server.

In the following, the functions that can be executed remotely will be called RFC functions, and the functions provided by the RFC API will be called RFC calls.

How to implement external RFC programs

●      Write your own RFC partner program.

You can write an RFC partner that makes (or receives) the remote call directly. This program can call up any SAP function module or be called by any ABAP program. You must write the program in C using the RFC API.

What is the RFC API?

The SAP system provides the RFC API (Remote Function Call Application Programming Interface) that you install on non-SAP systems to help you implement RFC partner programs. The RFC API is a set of C-language routines that perform certain communication tasks for you.

The RFC API supports the following external systems:

●      Microsoft Windows platforms (Windows 2000 and Windows XP)

●      Unix platforms (HP-UIX, Linux, Sun and others)

These platforms use the RFC functionality between an SAP system and a C program. The remote function can be provided by an SAP system and by a C program as well.

For each supported platform, SAP offers a special RFC SDK including the RFC library specific for each of these platforms, SAP RFC header files and some sample RFC programs.