Gateway Java (GWJ) [Integration Gateway] – A Bird’s eye view
In this previous blog, I had mentioned about a new component called Gateway Java that we will see coming with the SMP 3.0 Platform. In this blog, I will make an attempt to summarize my learning around Gateway Java.
[Update: 09-Dec-2013] Note: Gateway Java is rebranded as Integration Gateway. So please use that term for future references.
1. What is Gateway Java?
We could call this the sibling of Netweaver Gateway. While, Netweaver Gateway is an ABAP component and is used to expose SAP functionality as OData services, GWJ is a java based component that will be used to expose non SAP back-end data as OData services.
PS: GWJ has been built by the Process Integration team at SAP. So you would find a lot of its functionality, GUI etc similar to PI.
2. When is this available?
GWJ will be available with the SMP 3.0 platform. In other TechEd sessions, I saw references of future plans to have GWJ, part of HANA Cloud Integration (HCI) and SAP Process Orchestration.
3. What does this mean for Netweaver Gateway (NWG)?
Doesn’t mean anything really. NWG will continue to be used for SAP application OData enablement.
Note: I think it would be fair to assume that once NWG comes ported onto SAP PO, then ABAP functionality of NWG could be also added to GWJ to have a single integration platform for OData needs.
4. Gateway and Avatar
While Gateway itself will be used to provide the service definition and configuration, Avatar (how cool is that!) will be the component that would provide the messaging transport protocol to the interfaces in the backend.
5. What kind of data sources can the Avatar connect to?
As of SMP 3.0, JDBC, JPA, SOAP is planned to be supported.
6. How robust is the mapping tool?
Since this is akin to PI, most of the PI mapping functionality is made available for message transformation.
7. What was that Avatar thing again?
Avatar is a flavor of Apache Camel, which uses;
a. Blueprint XML to define beans and specify routes
b. Runs in the Lean Java Server OSGI container
c. Contains custom SAP components which marshal and transport OData requests and responses to and from SMP 3
More on Apache Camel here.
Hope this info helps. Will update this blog with more info as days progress.
Additional Info:
SAP Help Around Integration Gateway – Click here
got to know something new about "avatar" !!!
nice summary about GWJ.
Rgrds,
Jitendra
For those who do want to expose their data from different sources (and combine them, btw), there is also a JBoss tool available:
TEIID. Data can be exposed as oData too.
http://www.jboss.org/teiid
http://www.jboss.org/teiiddesigner
Thanks for Sharing about GWJ and Avatar.
Thanks once again Shabarish Vijayakumar!
Been hearing about GWJ and was wondering what it is all about.
So the OSGI Container that SMP3 is based upon is nothing but GWJ right? Does that mean that there would be Java Connectors/Adapters available for different kinds of data sources?
NWG will be the provider of all the connectors.
Hi Shabarish,
Thank you so much for updating new technology and new contents.
Its very useful while learning SMP
I appreciate.
Have a nice day!
Regards,
Hari Suseelan
Hi Shabarish,
Is Avatar similar to say OData adapter on SAP PO.
Regards,
Pranav
yes. it will be fair to do such a comparison.
Hi Shabarish,
Thanks for sharing.
And I am not very clear about it, Sorry for that.
Is Avatar in backend or in smp server ?
Thanks.
As far as I know, GWJ is part of the SMP stack
Hi Shabz 🙂
Nice to read this... but late to read this 🙁 .
May be if you would like to add blog link on SAP PO 7.31 SP13 added GWJ to this one.
Also I am wondering what benefit it will give if GWJ is now part of SAP PO, I can see that now instead of exposing SAP services as Odata services on backend, this can be done on SAP PO, and it will make SAP PO as single consolidated tool for exposing web services(including Odata ones).
If any app(say android one) want to consume Odata, so it can go thru SAP PO now? If yes then which adapter will support....
Sorry my question might be basic one, but I am just wondering what new design options will be available due to this availability of GWJ on SAP PO.
Exposing Gateway Services from SAP Process Orchestration
Gateway Java on SAP PO at this point gives you only one feature - Proxy (consume) an existing OData service in backend Gateway (ABAP) via PO 🙂
In the future, I see this growing more and become a tool to consume and provision OData services for both SAP and Non SAP systems. Thus you can have a central tool i.e PO for all your integration needs.
Right now, instead of OData if you want to just use REST, then the SAP REST adapter or Advantco REST adapter is more than enough