Accessing EIS data using WPAI SDO

The WebSphere Portal Application Integration (WPAI) tools allow users to participate in the process of creating and managing Enterprise Information System (EIS) data objects in a portlet, without requiring extensive programming knowledge.

 

Supported Data Access Methods

Rational Application Developer 6.0 provides a set of tools to insert data objects from either an SAP or Siebel EIS into a Faces portlet.

Interaction with an EIS is based on commands. In SAP there are two ways in which a command is organized: either as a Method in a Business Object (BAPI) or as a Remote Function Call enabled Module (RFM) with no containing Business Object. A Method is roughly equivalent to an RFM. To use the SAP BAPI interface, choose a Business Object and then select a Method (BAPI). To use the SAP RFM interface, choose the method directly or through a group name. In Siebel, interaction with the Siebel EIS is through commands that create, retrieve update and delete business component instances. You can create commands by choosing a Business Object and Business Components that belong to the Business Object.

A command is also referred to as a mediator instance. For more information on mediators, refer to Programming model overview.

 

Limitations

• WPAI SDO must use the WebSphere Portal 5.1 runtime.

• Rational Developer does not support Faces Client Framework controls with WPAI SDO.

 

Limitations in accessing SAP

• In the SAP BAPI and RFM wizards: If you pick a different main function, the wizard pages will not function properly. To get the correct mappings, restart the wizard and select them again.

• When performing "Configure" on an existing SAP SDO object in page data view, the pre/post mapping and helpvalue selection criteria is not retrieved from the existing model. You will need to enter them again.

• Mediators to retrieve help values cannot be created independently. WPAI tools in Rational Developer only support creating the help value mediators in association with creating the mediators for the main business function.

• When configuring the SAP help value's selection criteria in the BAPI and RFM wizards, you will not be able to specify default values for the parameters. Create either JSF input forms and bind them to the SDO data object representing the help value's parameters, or edit the page code to assign default values.

 

Limitations in accessing Siebel

• If the development machine's network connection goes down, the Siebel connection manager stops creating new connections, even after you restore the network connection. To reset the Siebel connection manager, you will have to restart Rational Developer.

• Do not create or update primary keys. Although WPAI tools in Rational Developer allow you to create Input JSF controls for primary key fields when the SDO mediator's action is set to "Create" or "Update", this will cause runtime errors from your Siebel server.

• If the Siebel server's business object schema changes, you will need to restart Rational Developer to see the changes reflected in the UI. This is because the business objects discovered by Rational Developer are cached for performance purposes.

• When performing "Configure" on an existing Siebel SDO object in page data view, the filter criteria and sort specification are not retrieved from the existing model. You will need to enter them again.

• You cannot create mediators to retrieve picklist values independently, WPAI tools in Rational Developer only support creating the picklist mediators in association with creating the mediators for the main business component.

 

Related concepts

Programming model overview
SAP data access
Siebel data access

 

Related tasks

Setting up SAP development environments
Adding SAP service data objects
Adding Siebel service data objects