Implementing APIs, Events, and Token Flows

This lesson explains the core concepts behind extensibility and integration on SAP BTP: systems, registration tokens, consumption bundles, APIs, events, discovery mechanisms, and formations. These concepts determine how BTP "knows" about customer systems, how extensions securely connect to them, and how multiple systems are grouped into a business scenario.

As a consultant, this is the practical foundation for building or supporting extensions across SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SuccessFactors, Marketing Cloud, Ariba, and third-party systems. You’ll learn how to identify system status, register systems properly, preview APIs/events, avoid duplicates, and structure multi-system extension scenarios using formations.

When implementing your extensibility scenario, there are a couple of concepts you need to understand to be able to benefit from the functionality that SAP BTP offers.

A system is a specific instance of an SAP or third-party solution that is manually added or auto discovered and is listed in the System Landscape→Systems page in the SAP BTP cockpit.

When you want to add functionality to your SAP or third-party solution, you start by developing an extension application and deploying it in SAP BTP. Then, to allow the application to access the SAP or third-party solution, you add the system of this solution to the Systems page of the SAP BTP cockpit. If the system is one of the following types, you also have to register it using a registration token:

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud
• SAP Marketing Cloud
• SAP SuccessFactors

The registration process can have the following status values:

Consumption Bundles, group logically, APIs and events intended for communication with the SAP or third-party system. This grouping means that the consumption of the APIs or the events can happen by using the same set of credentials later on. When you register a system, you can also preview the number and the content of consumption bundles that are exposed for communication with the given system.

After you add your third-party systems, you can specify the set of APIs and events in consumption bundles. A consumption bundle organizes a set of related APIs and events into a single group for consumption purposes and expresses information about how the APIs and events that it contains can be accessed. All APIs and events that are part of the same consumption bundle need to be accessible through the same set of credentials. You add the consumption bundles in System Details of the respective third-party system.

You can explore the consumption bundles, the APIs, and the events configured for your system in System Details. To do that, go to the respective tab: Consumption Bundles, APIs, or Events.

URL

You can use the URL as an entry point to the corresponding system. Optionally, you can use it to identify duplicate systems added to the list.

Discovery Mechanisms

There are different ways to add systems to the Systems page in the SAP BTP cockpit: manually or automatically. If a system of your solution is associated with your global account or through a subscription in SAP BTP cockpit associated with a given subaccount, it will appear in the list automatically. Otherwise, you have to add your system manually.

Business Type

When you have an auto-discovered SAP system, you can find information in the respective system details whether this system is used for test or production purposes for example. This information is loaded automatically and is presented in the Business Type field.

Auto-Discovered

An auto-discovered system is a system (associated with the given global account) that has been discovered and added automatically to the list based on information of the existing system landscape. Any SAP system of the supported system types that is associated with the same customer ID, with which your global account in SAP BTP is associated, will be added automatically in the system landscape list.

Subaccount / ﹤my-subaccount﹥

Specifies that the system has been added through a subscription in SAP BTP cockpit associated with a given subaccount. The subscription has been discovered and added automatically through the subaccount.

Manually-Added

Specifies that the system has been added to the list manually by the global account administrator, using the Add System button and completing the wizard. The system has been associated with the global account in SAP BTP.

These are the things you can do with a system:

Adding a system to the list in the Systems page is just the first step of the system registration process. When you have only added a system, the system is not yet registered in the global account in SAP BTP. It appears in the system landscape list as a record with empty (or initialized) status. That is, the required configuration on the system side has not been performed, and therefore, the newly added system cannot exchange or expose its technical details, metadata, APIs, or events. Only when the registration process is complete and the system is registered with SAP BTP, it can exchange the relevant information and enable the extension scenario.

When registering an SAP system of type SAP SuccessFactors, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Marketing Cloud and SAP systems from the SAP Customer Experience portfolio, the required configuration on the system side has been performed, and therefore, the newly added system can exchange or expose its technical details, metadata, APIs, or events. Only when the registration process is complete and the system is registered with SAP BTP, it can exchange the relevant information and enable the extension or integration scenario.

The registration of the newly added systems is based on a registration token. The token is used for the pairing of the system and the corresponding global account. After you add a system, you can get the token in the SAP BTP cockpit. Then, you can use it to configure the integration on the corresponding system side. By using the registration token on the system side and registering the system, the system administrator allows the integration of the system with SAP BTP.

The system gets a Registered status, only when a token is issued and the registration is complete on the corresponding system side. In general, the Registered status means that the communication between the system and SAP BTP has been established. However, depending on the system and its requirements, additional configuration might be needed for the enablement of a fully functional extension scenario. The additional configuration, depending on the system type, is outlined in the corresponding documents listed in the Related Information section. See Adding, Registering and Deregistering Systems.

For system types different than SAP SuccessFactors, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Marketing Cloud and SAP systems from the SAP Customer Experience portfolio, when adding a system in the Systems page, this system is registered directly but no status is displayed.

To ensure you have all your auto-discovered systems listed in the Systems page, choose Refresh. Refreshing the Systems list pulls all the systems and it might take some time.

When you register an SAP S/4HANA Cloud system, you can automate some of the required configuration steps at a later point using communication scenario groups. The communication scenario groups are entities that are part of the registration token that you use to register your SAP S/4HANA Cloud systems and are associated with one or more communication scenarios in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

For example, you can use the Event Mesh communication scenario group when you get the registration token for the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system. This allows the automatic enablement of the communication scenario SAP_COM_0892 after the corresponding system is added to the formation of type Eventing Between SAP Cloud Systems.

You can configure the communication scenario groups when registering an SAP S/4HANA Cloud system in the SAP BTP cockpit, in System LandscapeSystems. See Register an SAP S/4HANA Cloud System in a Global Account in SAP BTP.

You have added your SAP systems manually at a given point in time and you have registered them. Then, you notice that you have the exact same systems in the list in the Systems page only this time they are auto-discovered and are not registered. To avoid duplicates and streamline the list of systems, you can merge the auto-discovered SAP systems with your manually added systems. The logic automatically detects duplicates based on their URL and system type. Note that you can only merge auto-discovered SAP systems without assigned status in a target system that has already been registered. That is, you cannot merge registered auto-discovered systems. See Mergе SAP Systems.

Deregistering a system means that the connectivity between this system and the global account is disabled and extension scenarios cannot be established. You can deregister a system from the Actions column, or from the System Details page that you access when selecting the system from the System list. See Deregister or Removе a System.

Removing a system means that this system is no longer part of the system landscape list. To remove a system from the list, first you have to deregister it. You can remove a system from the Actions column, or from the System Details page that you access when selecting the system from the System list. See Deregister or Removе a System.

You can see the discovery mechanism and access all the actions related to the systems listed in the SAP BTP cockpit, in System Landscape→Systems. See Adding, Registering and Deregistering Systems.

A formation is a logical grouping of SAP or third-party systems that can be extended in a business scenario. Formations allow you to combine SAP or third-party solution systems and a subaccount in SAP BTP to simplify the connectivity setup and to provide a unified view of all components required for the implementation of your extension scenario. To create a fully functional formation, you can use a two-step wizard. At the first step, you specify a custom formation name and assign a subaccount to it. At the second step, you can include an SAP or third-party solution system in the formation. You do this configuration once and you can change it anytime.

Extension business cases often involve extending several SAP or third-party solutions at a time. For example, for a given business case you might need to extend the functionality or the UI as follows:

• An SAP SuccessFactors system, and an SAP S/4HANA Cloud system. First, you need to configure the connectivity of each of these systems to Cloud Foundry, Kyma, or both environments. Extension applications of both solutions are part of the same business need.
• An SAP Commerce Cloud system, and an SAP S/4HANA Cloud system. Again, you first configure the connectivity of each of these systems to the Kyma environment.
• A single system of the supported SAP or third-party solutions.
• SAP or third-party systems that expose event data, which can be shared and exchanged with the systems included in the formation.

When creating a formation in the System Landscape→Formations page in the SAP BTP cockpit, you include the systems of the different SAP or third-party solutions you want to extend. If your business case features more than one system, you can use the corresponding button to include additional systems in the formation. You can start the dialog as many times and add systems to your formation as you want.

You can create and configure formations in the SAP BTP cockpit, in System Landscape→Formations. See Automating Integrations Using Formations.

• iFlow engine orchestrates integration processes on an Apache Camel foundation.
• API Management secures and governs REST and SOAP APIs with policies and OAuth 2.0.
• Event Mesh supports asynchronous, event-driven communication using CloudEvents.
• Destination Fragments standardize API endpoint security and network policies.