KM on CE using Repository Framework WS

[Former Member]

Introduction

I felt there is a need to write this paper as I have seen many discussions on SDN and other SAP sites where customers wanted to use Knowledge Management in Composition Environments. Unfortunately, Knowledge Management is not available on Composition Environments as CE is primarily a platform that enables building and running applications based on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles. It offers a set of capabilities for integrating new and existing services – both by SAP and proprietary, into business-specific solutions. However as of SAP NetWeaver 7.3, SAP NetWeaver CE has become part of the overall NetWeaver platform.

Business Case

Customers who are running applications in CE environment are facing huge problems because they are unable to use SAP KM features on it. Business user(s) may want to add or store documents that relate to a specific business process are unable to do so in SAP Composition Environment.

One of the typical cases would be a finance user who wants to attach finance related document(s) to a business process that requires multiple levels of approvals. For approvals these finance documents may be mandatory for the approvers to take appropriate action.

Proposed Solution

We can overcome these limitations by using Repository Framework Web Service of SAP KM. The Repository Framework is a framework that manages and provides access to repositories. A repository is either a store holding resources or an adapter making resources from other stores available. Resource is a term used for data in general, e.g. documents in a document store. The framework allows different stores to be handled uniquely by a general client API - this Web Service exposes this API.

The functionality is split into aspects - each focusing on certain areas of functionality. Each aspect consists of different methods which are all visible at the Web Service, complex types which are used in the signatures of the methods and exceptions thrown by these methods. Methods have input and output parameters. Complex types have fields and methods, which again have input and output parameters. Exceptions carry data. The methods offer a procedural API, the complex types are used as value objects/data transport objects whenever primitive data types were not sufficient and the exceptions encapsulate more valuable information than plain SOAP faults.

The WSDL for this Web Service would be:

http://<SAP Portal hostname>:5<instance no>00/RepositoryFrameworkWS/Config1?wsdl

To use the Repository Framework WS, we need to configure CE Server.

This configuration is done in NWA (Netweaver Administrator).

NWA is accessed using the URL:

http://<CE Server hostname>:5<instance no>00/nwa

We use Service Groups to configure the Web Service. Service Group is used to configure all services that run in a business process.

Provider System is SAP Netweaver Portal System where the RF Web Service is hosted.

Conclusion

Using Repository Framework WS, we now have the ability to attach documents on CE environment.