Flat File Interfaces in Integration Analysis of SAP Readiness Check

We are happy to announce the availability of the flat file interfaces analysis as part of the integration analysis in SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA and SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades.

File-based integration provides the ability to exchange files with third-party or legacy systems that do not support messaging. A flat file interface (FFI) is a definition (or mapping) of a file to be processed. It identifies the data fields within the file. This powerful interface type enables application developers to access data from a file as they would handle a message or a page buffer. Flat file interfaces are part of many customers’ business processes, as they are easy to implement and allow the processing of huge amounts of data.

Key Features:

• Gain an overview of active flat file interfaces within the system
• Receive a list of customer-specific interfaces
• Get a list of flat file interfaces impacted by the conversion or upgrade
• Learn more about the simplification items impacting flat file interfaces

Figure 1: Integration Dashboard Card with Flat File Interface Type

The setup of the flat file interface analysis view is aligned with the other interface types in the SAP Readiness Check integration view.

Detailed View

Figure 2: Flat file interface view

The detailed view for Flat File Interfaces shows the total number of flat file interfaces, and the trace runtime.

There are four filter options available to adjust the result list items in the view:

• Object Type: describes the direction and distinguishes between inbound and outbound interfaces.
• Category: allows the user to display the results based on the attributes SAP, customer or partner interfaces
• Application Component: the user can filter the results based on the application component (e.g. FI, CO, SD etc.)
• Development Class: possibility to filter based on the development package

The Impact Analysis chart and table subsection provide an overview of discovered interfaces and the results of the impact analysis performed by SAP Readiness Check. The analysis focuses on the most critical impact types that require immediate action during a system conversion.

Understand how flat file interface discovery works

Flat file interfaces are not centrally managed in an SAP system in contrast to other interface types, for example, IDocs or OData services. Therefore, a special method is needed to identify file interfaces of an analyzed system:

• Flat file interfaces use the OPEN DATASET ABAP command to access the underlying file system. Therefore, the usage of the OPEN DATASET command in ABAP development objects can be used to identify flat file activities.
• When called, the OPEN DATASET command performs an implicit authorization check (S_DATASET), which can be recorded in the aggregated authorization trace (transaction code: STUSOBTRACE). The authorization trace provides not only information about the calling program but also about the call stack entry point, the activity type (read, write, or delete), and the file path.
• The data for the flat file interface analysis is collected with the file interface discovery tool. The tool reads the data from the authorization trace, aggregates it, and enhances it with additional information, like the corresponding development class or the related application component. Additionally, the data collector provides filter capabilities to exclude system files, such as SAP-transport-management-related file accesses.

Figure 3: Overview of the data collection process for the flat file interface analysis

To keep the data volume as low as possible, SAP standard interfaces (e.g., transport system interfaces) are filtered out and not displayed in the results list. However, these interfaces can be reviewed within the flat file interface tool.

To activate the aggregated authorization trace and start the file interface discovery tool, follow the steps described in SAP Note 3322944 – File interface discovery for SAP Readiness Check

When to perform the analysis

The flat file interface discovery is decoupled from the rest of the SAP Readiness Check analysis. The data collection phase for the flat file interfaces does not interfere with or extend the execution runtime of other SAP Readiness Check data collectors. The data collection can be performed either before or after running the other SAP Readiness Check data collectors. The analysis interval of the authorization trace defines the precision of the analysis results. The recommendation is to run the trace for at least one week, or better for a month.

Figure 4: Overview of how to perform SAP Readiness Check with the flat file interface analysis

The flat file interface analysis data can be added to an already existing analysis within the SAP Readiness Check cloud application and it can be refreshed periodically by downloading a new export and uploading it again to the same analysis.

For information about the other interface types in the Integration analysis in SAP Readiness Check, refer to this blog series:

• Extended Integration Analysis in SAP Readiness Check Is Now Live – Provides a short summary of the extended functionality; areas of improvement, supported interfaces, and an overview of the results.
• Extended Integration Analysis in SAP Readiness Check – Prerequisites and Data Collection – What you need to install and why; what data is collected and transmitted to perform the analysis; and what option you have if you prefer to limit the data submitted for analysis.
• Extended Integration Analysis in SAP Readiness Check – Impact Analysis in Detail – How the new Integration check analyzes your system; which data sources are considered; how impact types are defined, and what they mean from a practical perspective.
• Extended Integration Analysis in SAP Readiness Check – Findings, Next Steps, and Examples – How to interpret and address the findings; we will walk through the next steps proposed by SAP Readiness Check using real examples.