Features of the iWay Application Adapter for SAP ERP

Topics:

Considerations for SAP ERP (SAP JCo 3.x)

The iWay Application Adapter for SAP ERPprovides a means to exchange real-time business data between SAP ERP Enterprise Central Component (ECC) 5.0 and 6.0 systems, and other application, database, or external business partner systems. The adapter enables external applications for inbound and outbound processing with SAP ERP.

The adapter uses XML messages to enable non-SAP ERP applications to communicate and exchange transactions with SAP ERP using one of the following two methods.

Service Adapter. Applications use this capability when they must initiate a SAP ERP business event.
Event Adapter. Applications use this capability if they require access to SAP ERP data only when a SAP ERP business event occurs.

The iWay Application Adapter for SAP ERP provides:

Message interactions through the adapter may be of type request and response, event and reply, or event receive.
SAP object repository metadata browser support to build XML schemas and web services to handle adapter requests or event data.
Support for the following interfaces to SAP:
- Remote Function Modules (RFM)
- Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPI)
- Intermediate Documents (IDoc)

Considerations for SAP ERP (SAP JCo 3.x)

SAP has released SAP Java Connector (JCo) Version 3 for Java Versions 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7 support. iWay Software has also released the SAP ERP adapter (using SAP JCo 3.x) to supersede the SAP ERP adapter (using SAP JCo 2.x). iWay Software recommends that all customers migrate to the latest version to take advantage of the speed and stability that is offered by SAP JCo 3.x and the new features that have been added to the SAP ERP adapter. The latest release of the SAP ERP adapter contains all of the fixes made to the previous version of the adapter. In addition, all new feature enhancements are being developed in the SAP ERP adapter (using SAP JCo 3.x).

For specific releases of SAP JCo 3.x, see SAP note 1077727. iWay Software has separately announced the advanced notification of End Of Support (EOS) for the SAP ERP adapter (using SAP JCo 2.x) effective 12/31/2011.

iWay Software released the SAP ERP adapter for SAP JCo version 2.1.x in 2007. The SAP JCo 2.1.x support is limited to Java Version 1.4 support. Note that while SAP has extended the life of JCo 2.x until 2013, iWay Software can only support this connector for SUN JVM Version 1.4 under the terms of SAP note 549268.

If you are running critical applications with the SAP ERP adapter (using SAP JCo 2.x), it is recommended to contact iWay Software Customer Support Services for the migration path to the SAP ERP adapter (using SAP JCo 3.x).