Replicating business objects from one system to another not only requires technical communication settings for message exchange, but also meeting functional dependencies. The best way to understand these dependencies might be to examine a sample message.
The following graphic displays an excerpt of a business partner XML/SOAP message from SAP S/4HANA to SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2. The highlighted elements indicate dependencies of technical or functional configuration settings.
Important elements of a message:
- Business Object - Communication Configuration
The outer XML elements of the message BusinessPartnerSUITEReplicateRequestMessage and BusinessPartner depend on the business object being sent, which is reflected in the Communication Configuration.
- System IDs - Communication System
The SenderBusinessSystemID and RecipientBusinessSystemID elements in the message header hold the system IDs of the sending and receiving systems. These IDs are reflected in the Communication System entries for SAP S/4HANA and the default entry for the cloud CRM itself.
- Object IDs – External ID Mapping
The replicated business partner includes its own ID in the sending system (InternalID) and, in this case, also in the receiving system (ReceiverInternalID), as well as references to other business objects, such as the SalesOrganisationID. As the example illustrates, objects can have different IDs in various systems and need to be "translated" at some point. This process is handled by the cloud CRM’s External ID Mapping.
- Code List Values – Value Mapping
Code Lists are typically used for fields where users select values from a predefined list instead of entering free text or numbers. It is crucial that these lists are defined consistently in both the sending and receiving systems. For entries that cannot be maintained equally in both systems, a translation of the value is necessary, which is handled by the cloud CRM’s Value Mapping.
While the Communication System and Communication Configuration are technical configuration elements discussed in the previous unit, this unit focuses on their functional dependencies and related configuration settings.
While they will be explained in the upcoming lessons, you should remember that
- Objects are complex data structures that have IDs. The "translation" of object IDs relates to the External ID Mapping.
- Code Lists are typically simple lists where each entry includes a code value and a language-dependent description. They are often shown in the user interface as drop-down menus. The "translation" of code values relates to the Value Mapping.
The following graphic displays a list of Accounts on the left and the Payment Terms code list on the right as examples of objects and code lists.
Please note that objects also have interdependencies, which affect the order in which they can be created or loaded. These references between objects are further discussed in the External ID Mapping lesson together with a graphic about the initial load sequence.