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AnetteAsmus
Advisor
Advisor


The SAP HANA Cloud Integration (SAP HCI) product is constantly being evolved to support the latest trends and requirements in the integration space.

The shipment of new features happens in fact on a monthly basis!

Our new quarterly webinar series will highlight the key SAP HCI enhancements in a focused manner and wants to spread the word within our customer and partner community.

 

 

Did you miss our Webinar on March 10th on the Q1/2016 product innovations for SAP HANA Cloud Integration?

 

 

 

 

The webinar was structured around the three application lifecycle phases of the SAP HANA Cloud Integration solution:

 

Discover : Pre-packaged integration content provided by SAP and our partner network can help customers to jump-start their integration projects.

We had a closer look at some of the integration packages that were recently added to our Integration Content Catalog.

 

For licensed customers the SAP HCI reference content is visible on the web tenants and can be customized according to the customers’ requirements. In the first live demo we took an HR integration example, based on the SuccessFactors Employee Central to SAP ERP integration scenario.

The following integration packages where recently published for the 1602 SucccessFactors release and are part of the Employee Central integration scenario:

 

 

Next we had a look at a cloud to cloud demo integration scenario based on two 3rd-party adapters that were recently developed by our partner Advantco with the help of the SAP HCI Adapter Development Kit: also see Advantco's SCN blog on this subject.

 

General Information on the Adapter Development Kitand its usage can be found in our SAP HANA Cloud Integration Help Documentation.

 

Furthermore we also had a look at how customers can switch to newer versions of the reference content from our Integration Content Catalog while preserving the endpoint modifications that were done in the customer’s workspace.

 

Please note: This content update mechanism is currently only designed for such cases where the endpoint modifications is done via the ‘Configure’ feature in the SAP HCI Web environment. Any modifications that are done via the integration flow designer (be it in the Web or Eclipse) will not receive any content update notifications.

 

1) Access the 'Configure' feature via the integration flow action button:



2) Adjust your landscape-specific endpoints on the 'Configure' screen:



Once a new version of the integration package/integration flows is released you will see a notification in your customer workspace.

 

 

Design:  SAP HANA Cloud Integration offers a broad range of pipeline steps that help to massage the messages exchanged, in case your scenario requires such modifications. The most flexible of these is probably the script step where we support e.g. Java Script and Groovy scripting language.

Also see Sujit Hemachandra’s blog on Scripting in Integration Flows.

 

One of the use cases we examined in some more detail is how to write attachments to the Message Processing Log (Monitoring section of the application).

Per default the Message Processing Log only contains structured information on the processing of a message, the payload as such is not visible in the monitoring. However there might be certain use cases that require the payload to be viewed or downloaded at a certain step of the integration flow (e.g. before and after mapping).

With the help of the script step it is possible to create an attachment to the Message Processing Log. This attachment can be viewed by users with authorization AuthGroup.BusinessExpert assigned.

 

For detailed information, further use cases and code samples for the script step see our SAP HCI Standard Documentation.

 

Furthermore we covered the topics of how to simulate mappings and how to make use of Mapping Custom Functions. A detailed description on how to create Mapping Custom Functions can be found here.

 

Monitor: In our third and last application lifecycle phase ‘Monitoring’ a number of usability and feature enhancements were added over the past months. The web-based monitoring start page is now grouped in three dedicated sections for Monitoring Message Processing, Managing Integration Content, Managing Security Material, it allows for flexible handling and comes with a fresh look & feel.

 

 

Thanks everyone for your interest in this topic!

 

Our second webinar session is now scheduled for 23 June 2016, please follow this link to regiser.

 

 

___________________________________________________________________

 

Questions that where posted by the participants:

 

Q:I had requested for a SAP HCI trial account in the past and now it has already expired. SAP HCI offering looks very attractive and I want to explore more on this. My customer is not yet ready for this.  Is there any way that trial can be extended for next 1 month or renewed?

A: Please contact hci.trial@sap.com to evaluate your case. In general we can recommend partners to consider our new product offering, the Test & Demo license. SAP Partners can order the Cloud Test & Demo license for HANA Cloud Integration at this Partner Edge site.

 

Q:How to create the known_hosts file that is to be deployed on the SAP HCI tenant?

A: Typically keystores and SSH known host are maintained by SAP Cloud Operations team. Also see Sunita Sudarshan's blog on the SAP HCI Security FAQs.

 

Q: Is there a guide how to activate a SAP HCI tenant and how to get user and access?

A: In case you want to do your first steps with our solution and explore the capabilities of SAP HCI we offer a 30-day trial program. Detailed information and how you can request a trial access is described in this blog.

Licensed Customers and Partners will get a welcome mail containing the access details for their customer tenants. Further Information on how to connect your systems with SAP HCI is also provided e.g. in our Onboarding Guide.

 

Q: Is the presentation for SAP HANA Cloud Integration Data Services or Process Integration?

A: The SAP HCI product comprises both Data Services and Process Integration capabilities. This presentation is focused on the innovations for the Process Integration part of our solution.

 

Q: I understand that the demo on the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central to SAP ERP integration is not based on the latest 1602 release template?

A: Right, this is a simplified sample flow we used for this demonstration purpose. As also mentioned during the webinar kindly check out the following reference packages on the public content catalog or within your own SAP HCI environment:

 

 

Q: How about integrations between SFSF Employee Central and EC Payroll/SAP Payroll?

A: For Employee Central to SAP Payroll integration we provide prepackaged integration content on SAP HCI. Please find the detailed use cases and documentation here.

Please note that the Employee Central to EC-Payroll integration is a P2P integration that does not require any middleware.

 

Q: Can SAP HCI read and update EC-Payroll?


A: From a technical perspective, yes. On the different integration use cases please see question above.


 

Q: In case of using prebuilt scenarios without modifications, who is responsible for operating the integration scenarios in production? Who is responsible for reprocessing error messages? SAP or customers?

A: Customers are asked to do a first analysis of the error, e. g. to make sure that all configuration changes done by the customer, such as endpoint and certificate configuration are OK and do not cause the error. If the customer is sure after error analysis, that the error is not based on the configuration changes, then customers can open a support ticket under the component "LOD-HCI" providing the details, such as tenant URL, integration flow, error message, and request the support fromSAP in order to resolve the error.

 

Q: How is the SAP HCI offering from SAP different than PI/PO offering? I would be interested in understanding if these two can be used in conjunction with each other?

A: Please have a look at Piyush Gakhars blog post that gives you a comparsim of the two solutions.

 

Q: Does customizations (like mapping enhancements) will be kept intact when I update to a new version?

A: Only if the endpoint modifications where done via the ‘Configure’ feature (see further details in the webinar summary) the update mechanism will work and your endpoint configuration will be preserved. If customizations where done within the integration flow editor, these artifacts will be disconnected from the update process and you will not receive any update notification for this integration flow.

 

Q: Could we have template for migrating the mapping when we deploy new version of iFlows?


A: Unfortunately this is currently not supported. Only integration flows without customization of the integration flow logic qualify for the content update. (Also see question above).


 

Q: Do we have any option to roll-back the content update?

A: Yes, via the version history of a single integration flow it is possible to revert back to an earlier version. But after you reverted back to an earlier version you will be out of the content update path.

 

Q: Does it keep prior versions of deployments?

A: For run-time (deployed) artifacts we do not keep previous versions. For design time artifacts it is possible to revert back to previously saved versions. (Also see question above).

 

Q: Will we be able to load all SAP HCI content into SAP PO 7.5? Also adapter developed with SAP HCI ADK?

A: Kindly check our SCN blog here, specifically the last section 'Running Cloud  integration content on SAP Process Orchestration' which explains about the content re-use between SAP HCI and SAP PI/PO 7.5.

Please note that the re-use of adapters developed via the Adapter Development Kit is currently not possible.

 

Q: When I have SAP PI/PO 7.5 in the customer landscape do we really need SAP HCI for integration? Can we do custom development of integration flows and deploy them in SAP PI/PO 7.5?

A: Right, SAP HCI is the preferred solution for customers who have a cloud integration strategy.

With release 7.5 you can now deploy and run the cloud integration content also on SAP Process Orchestration benefiting from the investment and knowledge that has gone into the SAP HCI reference content. (also see question above).

Depending on the use case custom development of integration flows from scratch on SAP PI/PO 7.5 should be possible, but would typically come with a higher upfront effort on your side.

 

Q: Is it possible to deploy SAP HCI on premise?

A: SAP HCI is not available on-premise. However you can use the pre-packaged SAP HCI reference content in combination with SAP Process Orchestration (on-premise installation) as of release SAP PI/PO 7.5 (Also see answer above).

 

Q: Will you make the SDK available that is used for Groovy scripting (the com.sap.* classes) so that we can properly execute/test/debug the Groovy scripts from within the Eclipse environment?

A: For detailed information, further use cases and code samples on how to use the script step please refer to our SAP HCI Standard Documentation.

Please note that the demo example of how to write attachments to the Message Processing Log with the help of a script step is intended for our Web UI. For Eclipse we recommend to work with the 'View Trace' feature which is the preferred way to view payloads here.

 

Q: Is the groovy scripting is supported in PO 7.5?

A; Yes, for cases where you use the SAP Cloud Integration Content via the Web interface as described in this SCN blog(see section 'Running Cloud integration content on SAP Process Orchestration’).

For cases where you using the standard PI pipeline/Runtime it is not supported.

 

Q: Where is SAP HCI hosted?

A: Please have a look at the list of our SAP Data Center Locations.

 

Q: Are these new features and enhancements available in the SAP HCI plugins for Eclipse?

A: In general we strive for feature parity between Web and Eclipse. However please note that the Web environment is  the preferred environment for any features related to the handling of reference content (including the content update notification mechanism). Also further features that we demoed, like e.g.mappings simulations are only available in the Web environment.

 

Q: Do we still need the Eclipse environment for SAP HANA Cloud Integration?

A: Yes, for specific features like e.g. the Adapter Development Kit and extensive java mappings it is still required.

 

Q: If standard mapping function does not support our requirement, do we have any User Defined Functions facility in SAP HCI?

A: Yes, please refer to the detailed documentation on How to Create Mapping Custom Functions.

 

Q: I have seen that the AS2 adapter supported, do you provide standard kit on EDI XML conversion, too?

A: Please note that the AS2 adapter is part of our stack, but only externally released for the Financial Services Network solution. Both the support of the AS2 adapter as well as the EDI XML converter is on our SAP HANA Cloud integration roadmap

 

Q: What will happen to the Integration Advisor Web-Platform?

A:  The Integration Advisor service in it’s current form is part of the SAP HANA Cloud Integration Professional Edition.

 

Q: Can you please tell about licensing costs?

A: Please check out the information on the subscription fee for the SAP HCI Developer Edition here. For all other SAP HCI product edtions please get in contact with SAP's local sales team or your SAP Account Manager.

 

Q: Are the partner adapters in-built with SAP HCI, or do we have to buy them as we do for PI?

A: Right, the licensing model would be defined by the partner similar as it done for PI.

 

Q: Where does SAP think Partners can help SAP and customers in SAP HCI?

A: Typical cases for partner-developed content or adapters would e.g. be integration content specifically tailored for country-specifc HR regulations or areas where SAP is bound for legal reasons.

 

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