In this lesson, we will cover the following topics:
- Cloud Integration
- Integration Content
- The Phases of an Integration Project
What is SAP Cloud Integration?
Watch this video to gain a deeper understanding of SAP Cloud Integration.
How does it work?
At its core, Cloud Integration follows key integration patterns. A typical scenario includes:
- A sender system dispatching a message to Cloud Integration.
- Cloud Integration processing the message.
- Forwarding the message to one or more receiver systems.
An Integration Flow has a 0–1 sender adapter. The message is delivered via an endpoint if an adapter is configured. Various sender adapters are available on the sender side. (No. 1) After receipt of the message, the process is started via a start-up event Start. This is followed by predefined processing steps. (No. 2) There is a wide range of integration capabilities that define different ways that messages can be processed on the integration platform. Ultimately, receiver adapters can be configured to complete the business process. Message processing can be carried out synchronously or asynchronously. With this concept, a lot of well-known enterprise integration patterns can be mapped.
Connectivity
The sender and receiver adapters are different. You are able to build your own adapter. To do this, you can use the provided Software Development Kit.
To determine which adapters are available depending on your license, you can display the adapters after creating an empty project template, as described in the following exercise. Perform the following steps:
- Start with an editable empty project template:
- Draw a line from the channel to the Start event. The available adapters are displayed:
- Proceed with the same procedure on the recipient's side:
Integration Capabilities
All integration capabilities are categorized. Among them are the predefined processing steps. An Integration Flow now combines the individual capabilities to, for example, map a technical process. There are almost no limits to the possibilities of combination. To examine all available integration capabilities with the assigned individual steps, you can again start with the empty process template. You will find the tool palette on top of your screen. Every icon describes a functionality in the cloud integration user interface.
In the following case, this becomes visible at the transformation capability.
Predefined Integration Content
As previously indicated, the art of combining the integration capabilities in such a way is that it becomes a professional process. The Integration Flows can be complex. SAP offers over 400 predefined Integration Flows that can be consumed.
There are two ways to investigate the predefined integration content. A path directly via the Integration Suite is shown at the end of the course. The other variant is described in the following paragraph.
Explore Predefined Integration Content in SAP Business Accelerator Hub
All available predefined integration content is listed in the SAP Business Accelerator Hub, depending on the products to be integrated.
Procedure
The following steps must be carried out in order:
- Open the SAP Business Accelerator Hub at: API.SAP.com
- Navigate to the Discover Integrations tab.
- Choose the first product.
- Choose the second product which will be integrated with the first one.
- Find all available predefined integration content as an integration package, based on your selection.
- Navigate deeper into an integration package and find all available Integration Flows.
- Navigate deeper into an Integration Flow to find out the complete configuration.
Further details about the steps:
- Discover the Integrations tab.
- Choose the first product, for example, SAP S/4HANA.
- Choose the second product, for example, SAP SuccessFactors.
- Navigate to an integration package, for example, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Integration with SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA, Employee Data.
- There is only one Integration Flow available. Navigate to this Integration Flow.
Here, you can find all the information to understand this Integration Flow:
- The configurations of all steps
- The business documentations
- And more
To consume this integration package or Integration Flow, you have to use the Discover menu within the Integration Suite. This is shown by the example of the Examples at the end of the exercises.
Sources
Read more:
- About key features:
- A complete overview of the Enterprise Integration Patterns can be found here: https://www.enterpriseintegrationpatterns.com/
- Home - Apache Camel
- About connectivity:
- A complete overview of the currently available adapters can be found here: Connectivity (Adapters)
- More information can be found here: Developing Custom Adapters
- About integration capabilities: The complete overview can be found here: Integration Capabilities
Summary
Individual Integration Flows are compiled via predefined functional steps. They are divided into categories such as mapping, routing, and others, and provided as a palette. The process is started via exactly one incoming message. The contents of this message can then be manipulated in various ways in the process itself. The connectivity and flexibility comes from many sender and receiver adapters. In addition to creating the individual Integration Flow, SAP offers over 400 predefined Integration Flows, as they are often needed in the SAP environment.