Integrating Applications, Business Partners, and Services

SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (SAP NetWeaver PI) supports the message-based integration of applications, business partners, and services. The integration of the components involved is addressed by the Integration Broker. The Integration Broker — data hub for cross-component communication — provides basic services for the reliable exchange of messages and possibilities for routing and mapping. In addition, the Integration Broker uses concepts that are required for business-to-business communication (BSB communication) in cross-component business processes.

The Integration Server and Advanced Adapter Engine are available as Integration Brokers.

Using SAP NetWeaver PI you can also expose old applications as services (service-enabling) and connect them to other process components using an Integration Broker.

SAP NetWeaver PI provides a wide range of adapters with which you can connect a multitude of applications and protocols with each other using the Integration Server or Advanced Adapter Engine. To integrate business-to-business scenarios (B2B scenarios) there are also special industry-standard adapters and content provided in the Enterprise Services Repository.

SAP NetWeaver PI supports you in all phases of an integration project:

With the Enterprise Services Repository you have an integrated development environment for modeling and designing cross-component business processes and services. From the graphical display of a business process, you can specify the interfaces, data types, and mappings required (top-down approach). Or you could start with an existing old application and expose it as a service using the definition of your own metadata in the ES Repository.
The Integration Directory is provided as the central tool for configuring the process. In the Integration Directory you can map business processes on to your actual system landscape that you had modelled, for example, in the ES Repository. A multitude of adapters makes it possible to integrate a further spectrum of applications, protocols, and standards. Extensive concepts for security when transferring data at message or transport level is provided specifically for B2B scenarios.
Further tools are provided for monitoring business processes at runtime.

Note Note

You can also allow applications to communicate with each other directly without an Integration Broker being required. If you would like to implement such scenarios, read the chapter Providing, Discovering, and Consuming Services.

End of the note.

The following figure represents the general use case discussed here.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text.

For more information on concepts, see Concepts.

Procedure

You can find the basic procedure for integrating applications, business partners, and services on the basis ofSAP NetWeaver PI under Tasks.