Message Metadata 

Use

The message metadata represent the structure definition of the XI message payload.

Interface Overview

Characteristic	Value
Name	XI message metadata
Purpose	Structure definition of the XML document of the message payload
Type	WSDL, XSD, DTD, load an XML example file
Technical name	-
Certification	Optional
Syntax	See standards

Integration

The XI message can have different payload types:

●      Application payload

The application payload is usually an XML business document. The XI message interface provides the following methods for this payload:

○       getDocument()

○       setDocument()

The task of the Integration Server is to process these documents in mapping, in the Business Process Engine, and in the modules for content-based routing. To do this, the Integration Server must know the document structure.

You can define the structure definition for a document in the Enterprise Services Repository or load it as WSDL, XSD DTD, or an example XML file.

●      Attachment of an application payload

The attachments of an application payload are not processed by the Integration Server, but are forwarded with the message unchanged.

The attachments should only contain additional information such as pictures.

Use the PayloadSwapBean module to swap an attachment with the application payload.

More information: PayloadSwapBean

Prerequisites

The following restriction currently exists:

• Message XML documents should not contain DOCTYPE tags referencing external definitions. The Integration Server cannot handle such references and reacts with an error message. The adapter must identify and handle any such tags.
• For technical reasons, proxy generation and the respective editors in the Enterprise Services Builder do not support the entire language range of XML schema and WSDL.

For an overview of which language elements are supported, see the Excel spreadsheet on SAP Service Marketplace at service.sap.com/xi → Media Library → Documentation: SAP XI 3.0 (SP11) – Supported XML Schema and WSDL (EN).

Features

●      If your adapter provides defined payloads, you must provide a mechanism to create WSDL, XSD, or DTD files to create message metadata. The loading of example XML documents is supported but should be avoided, as it does not describe all document variants.

●      You can load the generated file to the Enterprise Services Repository.

●      More information: External Definitions

●      You can then process the message metadata in the Integration Server.