PI/XI: Eclipse based integration flows - how to configure them with PI 7.31

[MichalKrawczyk]

It turnes out that many SAP PI customers had problems with creating Integration Directory object in the Java Swing client (ID) and wanted to be able to do it in a more simplified way. PI product management was also mentioning enabling more PI development options for the Eclipse (NWDS) and maybe that's why they also decided to combine those two things by creating an alternative for ID object creation within the Eclipse. The new object is called an Integration Flow and it allows creating of Integration Directory objects on one view from the Eclipse. 

Prerequisites

- you need to have either Eclipse IDE or NWDS installed on your computer 

- in order to be able to work with PI configuration withing Eclipse you need to install an Eclipse plugin 

- if you want to work with integration flows you need to have a single stack (Java) PI system 

How to create a simple integration flow? 

Below you will find most steps on how to create and deploy a simple integration flow. 

Step 1 

You need to start with creating of a new integration flow where you can put the name and select an integration pattern. Integration patterns are pre-configured models for different message flows. In our case we will select "Point to point" as we want to create a simple message flow from one sender to one receiver. There are a few more available and SAP has promissed to develop even more so all simple cases are covered. 

Step 2 

Once the integration flow is generated you will see a graphical representation of it. 

Step 3 

In the next step you can either create a new business component of assign an existing one by selecting the sender component's box. 

Step 4

In the next step you can assign a new interface just as you've used to do in the sender agreement.

Step 5 

Selecting the channel line gives us the possibility to create a new sender communication channel. 

Step 6 

During communication channel creation all standard PI channel parametes are available. 

Step 7 

Selecting the line in between the two systems allows us to assign a new mapping (so just like in the interface determination step in ID). 

Step 8 

Then you need to do the same steps (from 1 to 6) for the receiver system.

Step 9 

After the integration flow is completed you can check it's consistency with F7 and then you can try activating it.

Step 10 

Once the integration flow is active you need to deploy it so it will start working in the PI runtime. 

 

Step 11 

There is also a nice feature to go directly from the integration flow to the sender communication channel monitor. 

Step 12  

Once you create the integration flow you can check that it was generated in the ID under the Integration flow node. 

Further info:

1. Integration flows create ICO objects in the background. 

2. Integration flows need to be transported with the use of XML files.