Elements of an Integration Flow

An integration flow in SAP Cloud Integration allows you to specify how a message is processed on a tenant. It defines the sender system and one or multiple receiver systems. The actual integration flow that processes the message is located between them and can consist of multiple steps. A step could be for example a conversion like json to xml or vice versa, a message mapping, an XSLT mapping, a content modifier.

The figure shows a simple iFlow that "translates" an incoming IDoc from SAP ERP to a SOAP Web Service message for SAP Sales and Service Cloud. The actual "translation" takes place in the Mapping step that contains a message mapping. You can open the message mapping by selecting the Mapping step and choosing the link under the Processing—tab.

The message mapping editor shows the source message structure on the left-hand side and the target message structure on the right-hand side. After selecting a mapped field, you can see how it is mapped at the bottom of the screen in the Mapping Expression window. The field mapping can contain functions to transform the content of the field. If you enter the message mapping editor while the iFlow editor is in Edit mode, the Functions toolbar will be displayed on the left-hand side and you can adapt the mapping. You can also create custom functions that use JavaScript or Groovy Script. Furthermore, you can also change the message structure by uploading a new WSDL file. This is necessary when the message structure has changed, for example because new fields were added. This will be discussed in a later lesson.

An iFlow usually contains certain parameters that will change from environment to environment, for example the endpoint of the target system and corresponding credentials. These parameters can be maintained within the iFlow Configuration.

The configuration of an integration flow does not modify it, therefore it stays an SAP integration flow and can still be updated.

When viewing an integration package in the Design view there are different Actions next to each iFlow. Choose Configure to do the basic configuration of each iFlow. Remember the direction of the message. E.g. "Replicate Material from SAP Business Suite" sends products from SAP S4/HANA to SAP Sales and Service Cloud. That means the "Sender" system is the SAP S4/HANA and the "Receiver" is the SAP Sales and Service Cloud.

When selecting multiple iFlows by marking the check box at the beginning of each row you can click the Actions button on top of the table to Mass Configure those iFlows. This helps to keep track when multiple iFlows need to be configured at the same time because they are displayed in a new window where you can quickly enter all relevant details without leaving the Configure dialog.