PI 7.30 added JMS topics support to the JMS adapter. Topics provide true pub/sub support. In this blog, we will look at the configurations for JMS topics using IBM MQSeries 7 as an exmaple.

Background Info:

JMS topic provides a true pub/sub architecture. This means that consumers can subscribe to a topic, and whenever a message is published to that topic, the consumer will receive the message. PI 7.30's JMS adapter can be a subscriber of a topic. The JMS adapter can also publish to a topic. When publishing to a topic, whoever subscribes to that topic will receive the message. This means that receivers (or subscribers) can be added to the integration scenario without us having to make any changes in PI.

In the blog, we will use IBM MQSeries 7 as an example. On the MQ server, topics will have to be created. For more information on the creation and configuration of topics, please reference the following link:
Publish/Subscribe Messaging Can Be Simple with WebSphere MQ

The configuration is quite simple. We basically only need the TopicConnectionFactory java class and the Topic Java Class. For MQ:
TopicConnectionFactory Java Class: com.ibm.mq.jms.MQTopicConnectionFactory
Topic Java Class: com.ibm.mq.jms.MQTopic

It is assumed that the com.sap.aii.adapter.lib.sda has already been deployed with the MQ7 drivers.

JMS Sender Communication Channel:

JMS Receiver Communication Channel:

SAP NW BPM provides modeling, execution and monitoring of business processes that can span multiple systems. It not only orchestrates information between systems, but can also involve users. For example, many companies are using BPM along with MDM during the authorization process before any master data can be entered into MDM.

In the near future, BPM can optionally be installed with SAP NW PI in the same instance, increasing the usability and integration of the two products. BPM is targeted as the eventual replacement for PI’s ccBPM.

In the future, BPM will also be used to provide real-time end-to-end BAM and on-demand (cloud) execution environment.

As we use BPM today and anticipating its usage in the future, whether with MDM, PI, BAM, SAP Business Suites or whatever, we may find that there are some really nice features and also features needing improvements or missing features that can help us.

Through the idea place, we can now provide feedbacks and suggestions that can potential affect the product’s features and directions. You never know, maybe one of our ideas will become part of the product.

The idea place can be accessed at:
Idea Place for BPM
https://cw.sdn.sap.com/cw/community/ideas/sap_netweaver/sap_netweaver_process_orchestration_business_process_management

Idea Place for PI
https://cw.sdn.sap.com/cw/community/ideas/sap_netweaver/sap_netweaver_process_orchestration_process_integration

At PI 7.11 and before, the HTTP adapter is an ABAP adapter. PI 7.3 introduces a new HTTP adapter (HTTP_AAE) based on the java stack, using the java Adapter Framework.

In this blog, we will take a look at a couple of test tools that we can use to test the HTTP_AAE adapter.

Introduction

In PI 7.3, in addition to the exiting HTTP adapter in ABAP, a java adapter (HTTP_AAE) has also been added. This new java adapter uses a java service to send the payload to the AAE of PI 7.3. The java adapter also provides two different methods of sending the payload, GET and POST, therefore, the need for 2 different test tools.

One of the benefits of using the HTTP_AAE adapter is to bypass the ABAP stack during message processing, which can increase the performance by as much as 10X. In addition, this adapter is a must-use when we install a java-only PI system without ABAP.

HTTP_AAE Adapter Overview

The URL to send the payload will be generated by the test tool with the following information. This is also the URL used for POST.

http://server:port/HttpAdapter/HttpMessageServlet?interfaceNamespace=sender-interface-namespace&interface=sender-interface-name&senderService=sender-business-component-name&qos=quality-of-service

    sender-business-component-name               

          Business Component name or Business System name used in the Integrated Configuration

    quality-of-service

          must be either BE or EO

With GET, the following URL is generated by the test tool. It is identical to the *POST* URL, except for the last parameter:

http://server:port/HttpAdapter/HttpMessageServlet?interfaceNamespace=sender-interface-namespace&interface=sender-interface-name&senderService=sender-business-component-name&qos=quality-of-service&Main-Payload-Parameter-Name=the-pay-load

    Main-Payload-Parameter-Name

          the Main Payload Parameter Name used in the HTTP_AAE communication channel configuration

    the pay load

          must be URL encoded so that special characters, e.g. "<" and ">" can be sent without problem.

• POST

Sample input screen:

Sample result screen, with response:

HTML code which can be copy-n-pasted to a file with a file extension of .html, e.g. http_aae_Test_730_post.html.

<html>

<script type="text/javascript">;
<!--
function button1_onclick() {
  var result = "";
  var payload = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" ?>";
  var senderNamespace = escape(document.MessageParameters.SenderNamespace.value);

  var reqString = "http://"
  reqString = reqString + document.MessageParameters.Server.value+":";
  reqString = reqString + document.MessageParameters.Port.value + "/HttpAdapter/HttpMessageServlet?";
  reqString = reqString + "interfaceNamespace=" + senderNamespace;
  reqString = reqString + "&interface=" + document.MessageParameters.SenderInterface.value;
  reqString = reqString + "&senderService=" + document.MessageParameters.SenderService.value;
  reqString = reqString + "&qos=" + document.MessageParameters.Qos.value;

  var xhttp = new ActiveXObject("msxml2.xmlhttp");
  xhttp.open ("POST", reqString, false);
  document.MessageParameters.URL.value=reqString;

  if (document.MessageParameters.Source[0].checked == true) {
    payload = document.MessageParameters.xmlData.value;
   xhttp.send (payload);
  }
  else{
    var xmlDoc = new ActiveXObject("microsoft.xmldom");
   xmlDoc.async=false;
   xmlDoc.load (document.MessageParameters.xmlFile.value);
   xhttp.send (xmlDoc);
  }
  result = xhttp.responseText;
  xhttp.close;
  document.MessageParameters.response.value=result;
}

function getFile() {
  var mypath = document.MessageParameters.xmlFile.value;
var ForReading  = 1;
objFSO          = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
objTextFile     = objFSO.OpenTextFile(mypath, ForReading);

var filearray   = "";

for(var n=0;!objTextFile.AtEndOfStream;n++) {
  sRead = objTextFile.ReadLine();
  filearray += sRead + "\n";
}
objTextFile.Close();

document.MessageParameters.xmlData.value = filearray;
}

//-->
</script>
<head></head>

<body>

<h3>Client HTTP_AAE Adapter Test - Post </h3>
<form name="MessageParameters">
<p>
  <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%">
   <h4>Header</h4>
    <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td width="10%"><label>ServerHost</label> </td>
      <td width="22%"><input type="text" id="host" name="Server" value="" size="20" /> </td>
      <td width="10%"><label>ServerPort</label> </td>
      <td width="22%"><input type="text" id="port" name="Port" value="" size="10" /> </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td width="10%"><label>SenderService</label> </td>
      <td width="22%">
      <input type="text" id="senderService" name="SenderService" value="" size="40" /> </td>
      <td width="10%">QOS</td>
      <td width="22%">
  <select id="qos" name="Qos">
  <option value="BE" selected>Best Effort</option>
  <option value="EO" >Exactly Once</option>
  </select>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td width="10%"><label>SenderInterface</label> </td>
      <td width="22%">
      <input type="text" id="senderInterface" name="SenderInterface" value="" size="40" /> </td>
      <td width="10%"><label>SenderNamespace</label> </td>
      <td width="22%">
      <input type="text" id="senderNamespace" name="SenderNamespace" value="" size="40" /></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
  </table>
  <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%">
   <br>
   <h4>Payload</h4>
    <tbody>
    <tr>
      <fieldset style="padding: 2">
       <td width="50%"><input type="radio" name="Source" value="Textarea" checked="checked" />Type in XML</td>
       <td width="50%"><input type="radio" name="Source" value="File" />Upload File</td>
      </fieldset>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td width="50%"><textarea name="xmlData" rows="10" cols="60"><a>test</a></textarea></td>
      <td width="50%"><input type="file" name="xmlFile" size="40"  onChange="return getFile()" /> </td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
  </table>
  <p>
  <input type="button" value="Send" id="button1" name="button1" LANGUAGE="javascript" onclick="button1_onclick()" />
  </p>
  <hr />
  <h4 align="left">Result</h4>
  <p align="left">URL: <textarea rows="2" name="URL" cols="104"></textarea></p>
  Response Text:
  <textarea name="response" rows="5" cols="100"></textarea>
</form>

</body>

</html>

• GET

Sample input screen:

Sample result screen, with response:

HTML code which can be copy-n-pasted to a file with a file extension of .html, e.g. http_aae_Test_730_get.html.

 

<html>

<script type="text/javascript">;
<!--
function button1_onclick() {
  var result = "";
  var payload = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" ?>";
  var senderNamespace = escape(document.MessageParameters.SenderNamespace.value);

  var reqString = "http://"
  reqString = reqString + document.MessageParameters.Server.value+":";
  reqString = reqString + document.MessageParameters.Port.value + "/HttpAdapter/HttpMessageServlet?";
  reqString = reqString + "interfaceNamespace=" + senderNamespace;
  reqString = reqString + "&interface=" + document.MessageParameters.SenderInterface.value;
  reqString = reqString + "&senderService=" + document.MessageParameters.SenderService.value;
  reqString = reqString + "&qos=" + document.MessageParameters.Qos.value;
  reqString = reqString + "&" + document.MessageParameters.MainPayload.value + "=";
  reqString = reqString + encodeURIComponent(document.MessageParameters.xmlData.value);

  var xhttp = new ActiveXObject("msxml2.xmlhttp");
  xhttp.open ("GET", reqString, false);
  document.MessageParameters.URL.value=reqString;

  if (document.MessageParameters.Source[0].checked == true) {
    payload = document.MessageParameters.xmlData.value;
   xhttp.send (payload);
  }
  else{
    var xmlDoc = new ActiveXObject("microsoft.xmldom");
   xmlDoc.async=false;
   xmlDoc.load (document.MessageParameters.xmlFile.value);
   xhttp.send (xmlDoc);
  }
  result = xhttp.responseText;
  xhttp.close;
  document.MessageParameters.response.value=result;
}

function getFile() {
  var mypath = document.MessageParameters.xmlFile.value;
var ForReading  = 1;
objFSO          = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
objTextFile     = objFSO.OpenTextFile(mypath, ForReading);

var filearray   = "";

for(var n=0;!objTextFile.AtEndOfStream;n++) {
  sRead = objTextFile.ReadLine();
  filearray += sRead + "\n";
}
objTextFile.Close();

document.MessageParameters.xmlData.value = filearray;
}

//-->
</script>
<head></head>

<body>

<h3>Client HTTP_AAE Adapter Test - Get </h3>
<form name="MessageParameters">
<p>
  <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%">
   <h4>Header</h4>
    <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td width="10%"><label>ServerHost</label> </td>
      <td width="22%"><input type="text" id="host" name="Server" value="" size="20" /> </td>
      <td width="10%"><label>ServerPort</label> </td>
      <td width="22%"><input type="text" id="port" name="Port" value="" size="10" /> </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td width="10%"><label>SenderService</label> </td>
      <td width="22%">
      <input type="text" id="senderService" name="SenderService" value="" size="40" /> </td>
      <td width="10%">QOS</td>
      <td width="22%">
  <select id="qos" name="Qos">
  <option value="BE" selected>Best Effort</option>
  <option value="EO" >Exactly Once</option>
  </select>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td width="10%"><label>SenderInterface</label> </td>
      <td width="22%">
      <input type="text" id="senderInterface" name="SenderInterface" value="" size="40" /> </td>
      <td width="10%"><label>SenderNamespace</label> </td>
      <td width="22%">
      <input type="text" id="senderNamespace" name="SenderNamespace" value="" size="40" /></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
  </table>
  <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="100%">
   <br>
   <h4>Payload</h4>
   <label>Main Payload Parameter Name:</label>
   <input type="text" id="mainPayload" name="MainPayload" value="" size="40" />
   <P>
    <tbody>
    <tr>
      <fieldset style="padding: 2">
       <td width="50%"><input type="radio" name="Source" value="Textarea" checked="checked" />Type in XML</td>
       <td width="50%"><input type="radio" name="Source" value="File" />Upload File</td>
      </fieldset>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td width="50%"><textarea name="xmlData" rows="10" cols="60"><a>test</a></textarea></td>
      <td width="50%"><input type="file" name="xmlFile" size="40"  onChange="return getFile()" /> </td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
  </table>
  <p>
  <input type="button" value="Send" id="button1" name="button1" LANGUAGE="javascript" onclick="button1_onclick()" />
  </p>
  <hr />
  <h4 align="left">Result</h4>
  <p align="left">URL: <textarea rows="6" name="URL" cols="104"></textarea></p>
  Response Text:
  <textarea name="response" rows="5" cols="100"></textarea>
</form>

</body>

</html>

There will be 2 sessions (SS22 and SS23) at TechEd 2010 Las Vegas, each is 2 hours long. The schedules are Wednsday and Thursday, both from 8AM to 10AM.

In these 2 sessions, we will provide a brief overview of the upcoming release of PI 7.3 and give an outlook to the roadmap - how the next generation of SAP NetWeaver PI will evolve. In addition, we are very much interested in your integration needs as input to our future planning for SOA and enterprise service bus. This is a unique opportunity for participants to drive the future of SAP's integration products from governance, development/configuration, runtime, operations and administration perspectives.

To sign up for the session, on the TechEd website, go to the following link:

Participation in the customer feedback and strategy roundtables provides a unique opportunity to influence the direction of the development of SAP software and the SAP NetWeaver technology platform. Through the sessions, you can give SAP greater visibility into your current and emerging business requirements. Customer feedback and strategy sessions bring small groups of SAP customers with expertise in a particular area together with the appropriate SAP product owners. This enables the groups to discuss strategy, business challenges, the product road map, and solution needs. These discussions provide firsthand insight into product enhancements, help you lower implementation risk factors, and strengthen your ties with SAP and fellow customers.

Advance sign-up is required for reserved seating. Each fully paid Full Conference registrant may sign up for a maximum of two customer feedback and strategy roundtables, available on a first-come, first-served basis.

But, when SAP is the provider of such an application, there seems to be no way to get around this requirement; we always have to provide some kind of authentication such as userid and password.

In this blog, we will explore a new feature in ESR 7.1.1 that does allows us to configure such a scenario.

Note: For this blog, you should at least be familiar with the creation of service interfaces in the ESR, generating ABAP proxy with SPROXY, and used SOAMANAGER to create WS services.

What are the steps:

1. Create the service interface in the ESR, indicating no security.
2. Generate the ABAP proxy and provide the application code.
3. Use SOAMANAGER to create the endpoint and binding for the proxy.
4. Test the WS application.

In this blog, we use a simple request-response example, a "Hello World" application. I will send a request and the response will come back with a text message containing the request message.

Steps in detail:

1. Create the service interface in the ESR, indicating no security.
   There is a new dropdown, Security Profile. Select No. Everything else in the design process remain the same. Save and activate the service interface.

   

2. Use ABAP transaction SPROXY on the service provider system, generate the ABAP proxy and provide the application code.

   
   Please note, in the configuration tab, the authentication should indicate None. This value cannot be selected, it is carried over from the ESR.

   The application code is quite simple (the response is just saying Hello...):

   

3. Use SOAMANAGER to create the endpoint and binding for the proxy. As this is probably not a common task, I will provide a little more details here.
   1. Execute ABAP transaction SOAMANAGER on the service provider system, which will take you to a browser application. Select the tab and click on the link as indicated.
   2. Create the WS endpoint for the proxy.
      
      For #2, the external service name can be gotten from the proxy name in SPROXY. It is the same as the service interface name created in the ESR.
   3. A new window will appear. After verifying the entries, click "Apply Settings". You can change the binding name if you wish, as I have done here. The binding name should be unique and be identifiable with the proxy.
      
   4. Scroll down the browser screen, you will see the following:
      
      Unless the "Security Profile" is set to "No" in the ESR, the "No Authentication" option will not be selectable; it will be greyed out.
   5. Select the "No Authentication" option. The "ABAP Service User" entry will appear. This is the user which will be used to logon to the the system, so that no logon information will be needed to be entered by the client or consumer application.
   6. Scroll up the browser page and save the configuration.
      
      The service is now ready to be tested.
4. Test the WS application.
   To test the service, I am using a generic WS/SOAP test program, soapUI, which can be downloaded for free from http://www.soapui.org. I will not go into the details of using soapUI; it should be self-explanatory and the download comes with documentations.
   1. Import the WSDL of the service. The WSDL URL can be obtained from the SOAMANAGER screen:
      
      In soapUI:
      
      Copy-n-paste the WSDL URL and click "OK". You will be asked to enter userid and password to access the WSDL metadata.
      
   2. Expand the soapUI project to see the imported service.
      
      On the right side is where we can enter the test data.
   3. Enter anything as test data and click "Run":
      
   4. In soapUI, we normall have to enter runtime authentication information in the propeties section. But, as you can see, the username and password entries are left blank, indicating no authentication is needed.
      

In this blog, we will take a look at some of the compatibility issues between the different releases of MQ when integrating with PI.

Background Info:

When using the PI technical adapters to integrate with 3rd party data sources, e.g. database and messaging systems, we must include the drivers, or libraries, of those systems in either aii_af_jmsproviderlib.sda for PI 7.0/XI 3.0 or com.sap.aii.adapter.lib.sda for PI 7.1+.

Most of the drivers for these systems are backward compatible. This means that when using the lastest driver version, we should also be able to access all previous versions of the same database or messaging system.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for IBM MQ.

Here, we have examined 3 different driver versions of MQ: 5.3, 6.0 and 7.0. Using the drivers of these different versions to access MQ server 5.3 and 7.0.

Required Drivers:

For the different releases of the MQ, different sets of drivers (client libraries or jar files) are required:

1. 5.3:
   com.ibm.mq.jar
   com.ibm.mqjms.jar
2. 6.0:
   com.ibm.mq.jar
   com.ibm.mqjms.jar
   connector.jar
   dhbcore.jar
   rmm.jar
3. 7.0:
   CL3Export.jar
   CL3Nonexport.jar
   dhbcore.jar
   rmm.jar
   connector.jar
   fscontext.jar
   providerutil.jar
   com.ibm.mqjms.jar
   com.ibm.mq.headers.jar
   com.ibm.mq.jar
   com.ibm.mq.jmqi.jar
   com.ibm.mq.pcf.jar
   (It is possible a few of the above jar files may not be needed. We did verify which ones.)

Below are our finding when testing the different sets of drivers on a PI 7.1 system, accessing MQ 5.3 and MQ 7.0 servers. I do not believe the PI version will make any different for this test.

MQ Server Version	MQ Driver Version			Comments
	5.3	6.0	7.0
5.3			1	1Problem with JMS receiver comm chan
7.0	2			2Problem with JMS sender comm chan

Recommendation:

MQ6 drivers or client libraries are most suitable when multiple versions of MQ servers are used in the landscape.

If only a single version of MQ server is used, then that version's driver or client libraries should be used.

This hands-on session will provide three exercises, each relating to a different feature:

1. Integrated Configuration in the Advanced Adapter Engine (AAE).
   • Message processing without invoking the Integration Engine in ABAP
   • Reduces resource consumption
   • Increases performances up to a factor of 10X
2. Message Packaging in the Integration Server during Message Processing.
   • Several messages are processed in a single service call
   • No effect on logging and monitoring
   • Increases performance up to a factor of 3X
3. Direct Connection using webservice runtime in ABAP proxies.
   • Centralized design and configuration of point-to-point connection
   • Reduces resource consumption without going through a middleware
   • Automatic backend configuration

As you upgrade from XI 3.0/PI 7.0 to PI 7.1x, these features can be evaluated to provide additional message throughput and increase the use and life of existing hardware resources.

Session number of this hands-on session will be provided at a later date.