Transferring Data Using the SOAP Service SAP Web AS 

Purpose

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a text-based, meta markup language that enables the description, exchange, display, and manipulation of structured data so that it can be used for a multitude of applications. You can send data from external applications in XML format using the Internet transfer protocol http directly to the SOAP Service (Simple Object Access Protocol) of the SAP Web application server, which then integrates the data into SAP BW. In SAP BW, the data is written to the delta queue. You can process the data further with the available staging methods and then update it to the required data targets.

The transfer of XML data into SAP BW is suitable for regularly supplying SAP BW with limited amounts of data for each call; for example, the transfer of document data. Use the file DataSource to supply BW with larger amounts of data that are not transferred into BW using the XML interface.

Process Flow

As the basis for the solution, SAP BW uses the SOAP service provided with the SAP Web application server. You use this service to transfer XML data that is appropriate for the SOAP protocol to RFC-enabled function modules in the ABAP environment. Because it is RFC-enabled, the function module can be addressed automatically using one of the assigned HTTP handlers provided by SAP to support the SOAP log. The SOAP service checks the XML data for syntactical correctness and converts it into ABAP fields. The XML data has to be assigned according to an XML schema definition which is derived from the definition of the file or XML DataSource. The transfer of data into BW is performed by means of a push into the delta queue of the generated DataSource.

To enable data to be pushed using the SOAP service, perform the following steps in SAP BW.

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       1.      Create a DataSource based on a file DataSource. When you generate the DataSource, an RFC-enabled function module is generated for data transfer. For more information, see XML DataSource and Creating XML DataSources.

       2.      Activate the transfer of data to the SAP BW delta queue by initializing the delta process. For more information, see Activating Data Transfer to the Delta Queue.

Result

You can send data to the SOAP service in XML format. From there you can collect data using the usual staging methods for deltas in SAP BW and then update it to the data targets. For more information, see Sending data to the SOAP Service and Further Processing Data from the Delta Queue.

Example