When I started working with XI, I was always told that there is something called PCK, which is provided to the smaller customers to exchange data with the major player/ Large Business Partner. Off late, I could see how a PCK homepage looks like :-). I feel that most of us wouldn’t haven’t seen how the PCK homepage looks like :sad: .So the weblog series on PCK is a virtual tour for all those who haven’t worked on PCK, but just had an opportunity to hear about PCK.
Fig.4 PCK: Objects of Configuration Time
There is no concept of activating a changelist. The Objects have to saved to make them active.
Following are the Parties, Services and channels to be created to Commmunciate with SAP-XI
Fig.5 PCK: Parties, Services, Channels to be created
Fig.7 PCK: XI Receiver Communication Channel
Fig.8 PCK: Sender agreement
Fig.9 PCK: Receiver Agreement
Fig.10 XI: Design Time Objects-Message Mapping
Fig.11 XI: Design Time Objects-Interface Mapping
Fig.12 XI: Configuration Objects
Fig.13 PCK Adapter Monitor
U can use the message monitoring feature of PCK to monitor whether the message has been successfully picked up by the File adapter and sent to XI or not.
Fig.14 PCK Message Monitor
Once the message reaches XI, the message can be seen in the message monitoring.
Fig.15 XI Monitoring
Hence, you should be able to communicate to XI using PCK.
The next weblog of this series discusses XI-PCK Integration and also the mapping capabilities provided in PCK.
Part1 gives you an introduction to PCK, talks about PCK-XI integration and monitoring features in it. Part2 talks about XI-PCK Integration and the mapping capabilities of it.
Introduction
Partner Connectivity kit (PCK), is used by small business partners/ companies to exchange XML documents with the large business partner’s SAP-XI. It is capable of picking up data from various sources like file, DB, Messaging software’s using the adapters (provide in PCK) like File, JDBC, JMS etc.. And forward them to the Integration server for further Processing. When defining the flow of messages that are processed by the PCK, one of the end points is always SAP Exchange Infrastructure.
Fig.4 PCK: Objects of Configuration Time
Scenario
A small business partner (ABC) is connected to large Enterprise’s Business System and both of them exchange messages using their File systems (VBU_Retail_FS and FileService respectively). The Large business has SAP-XI to integrate various systems within its landscape. The small partner uses PCK to have a reliable exchange of XML messages with SAP-XI. The messages in SAP-XI are routed to the target business system depending upon routing conditions.
Sequence of Steps
In PCK
There is no concept of activating a changelist. The Objects have to saved to make them active.
Following are the Parties, Services and channels to be created to Commmunciate with SAP-XI
Fig.5 PCK: Parties, Services, Channels to be created
- Create a Party corresponding to the Sender Business partner (ABC_Party), then a Service (VBU_Retail)
- Create a Sender Communication Channel (Name: Retail_FileSender, Type:File) under the above created Service(VBU_Retail).
Fig.7 PCK: XI Receiver Communication Channel
- Create a sender agreement for ABC_Party and YXI_Party. Manually enter the Interface name and the namespace that XI-Server is expecting to receive from ABC_Party and also specify the sender communication channel that has been created in step2.
Fig.8 PCK: Sender agreement
- Create a Receiver Determination for ABC_Party and YXI_Party and specify the Receiver Communication Channel (Name: To_YXI_XIReceiver, Type: XI) that has been created in Step4.
Fig.9 PCK: Receiver Agreement
In XI
Design Time
- Create DataTypes, MessageTypes, MessageInterfaces, Message Mapping and Interface mapping.
Fig.10 XI: Design Time Objects-Message Mapping
Fig.11 XI: Design Time Objects-Interface Mapping
Configuration Time
- Create an Party for the Small business partner as mentioned in PCK and also a service for that.(ABC_Party, VBU_Retail_FS)
- Make an entry for the target system to which the messages are being sent. (FileService in this case)
- As the PCK directly communicates with the Integration server (by sending the message directly to Integration Server pipeline URL, no sender agreement is required> in this case.
- Create other required Configuration Time objects like receiver determination, Interface determination, Receiver agreements b/n the small business Partner and the Target System (ABC_Party & FileService)
Fig.12 XI: Configuration Objects
Testing
Place the source file in VBU_Retail_FS system. PCK will pick up the file using Fileadapter and sends it to the Integration Server. Based on the routing conditions the file is delivered to the Target System.
Monitoring
As mentioned already, PCK is built on Adapter framework. So the monitoring features provided by Adapter Framework are also available in PCK. Message monitoring & Adapter monitoring are the two features available for monitoring purposes.
Adapter monitoring shows the status of all the communication channels that have been configured and Message Monitoring show the Inbound ad Outbound flow of messges in PCK.
Fig.13 PCK Adapter Monitor
U can use the message monitoring feature of PCK to monitor whether the message has been successfully picked up by the File adapter and sent to XI or not.
Fig.14 PCK Message Monitor
Once the message reaches XI, the message can be seen in the message monitoring.
Fig.15 XI Monitoring
Hence, you should be able to communicate to XI using PCK.
The next weblog of this series discusses XI-PCK Integration and also the mapping capabilities provided in PCK.
