Structure of an .SDA File 

What is an SDA?  

The software deployment archive (SDA) is the delivery format for SAP applications in programming languages other than  ABAP, for example applications of the Java EE Engine. It is an archive format that is compatible with ZIP and that can be used as a container for other archives.

The SDA contains the manifest information, that is package-related data of the contained archive (such as .jar, war) and an SAPmanifest containing additional information about the software logistics.

File Structure of an SDA

In SAP NetWeaver Mobile, an SDA contains mainly two archives: an outer archive and an inner archive.

Outer Archive

The outer archive is the archive deployed in the mobile container of Java EE engine. The outer archive conforms to the standard SDA format.

It is possible to deploy the outer archive on the Software Deployment Manager (SDM) component of the Java EE stack. The mobile archive deployment service implements the standard SDM deployment interface. The outer archives thus contain specific information so that SDM passes their contents to the mobile archive deployment service.

Inner Archive

This is also called the deployable archive because it is this archive that is downloaded and deployed on the mobile client. The inner archive is recognized only by the mobile client, the DOE does not process the inner archive.

Examples of the inner archive are the mobile applications (such as Web Dynpro, JSP and AWT based applications), the mobile client framework, and so on.      

The mobile container of the Java EE engine is the placeholder for all inner archives. The mobile container has a property sheet that describes the inner archive. The property sheet is generated by the mobile archive deployment service. The service extracts the contents of the mobile component descriptor file (MCD.xml) and generates the required property sheets.

Thus structure of the outer archive captures information about the mobile components. The outer archive or the SDA consist of the following files:

·        Inner archive, also called the mobile component deployable archive, is the file that is downloaded to the mobile client and installed on the device. These xml files are used to deploy the archive in mobile container of the Java EE engine.

Example MAM25.war application file; CrEme.cab, MI_JSP.zip.

·        META-INF folder

This contains the following files:

Files of the META-INF folder

File name	Description
Application-j2ee-engine.xml	application-j2ee-engine.xml contains additional entries specific to the J2EE Engine A Java EE-specific deployment descriptor, which contains the references to external libraries and services, specifies the application failover, and so on. More information: Example: META_INF Files
Application.xml	Deployment descriptor for the Enterprise Application Archive (inner archive). They have some additional deployment properties, these properties are specified in the standard application.xml. More information: Example: META_INF Files
MANIFEST.MF	Contains package-related data (such as package version and vendor details) of the contained archive. More information: Example: META_INF Files
SAP_MANIFEST.MF	Additional information about the software logistics such as component specifications and so on. More information: Example: META_INF Files
SDM-dd.xml	Contains the deployment descriptions for the Software Deployment Manager More information: Example: META_INF Files

·        The MCD.xml file is the mobile component descriptor file containing information about the mobile component name, type of the mobile component and the dependencies. Examples of component types are framework, application, add-on, JVM, database and agents.

Structure of an .sda file