Intrexx 9 - Connector for SAP Business Suite - Developer's Manual part 4 - Integration scenario: Web services
1. Call Intrexx web services
In Intrexx,
web services can be generated from existing portal applications.
SAP external data groups
are also supported here. This makes scenarios conceivable where SAP systems with
older versions provide data from SAP via the Intrexx web services.
The data is retrieved in real-time by the portal server. From the perspective of
SAP, Intrexx provides a web service that is sufficiently described by
WDSL file.
The SAP System only needs to know the URL under which the required service can
be reached. There is known problem that SAP does not currently support
authorization in Intrexx. Intrexx expects a login with a username and password
and then assigns a GUID that all subsequent calls are authorized with.
This GUID is specified in the header of a web service call. The generated SAP
proxy objects currently do not allow you to write this GUID to the header.
Therefore, the only alternative is to allow access to released Intrexx web
services for the "Anonymous" user.
2. Call SAP web services
If the SAP can provide web services from a technical perspective, the required
WDSL description file is also made available to external callers.
Because the generation can be vary different between releases and service packs,
detailed descriptions will be forgone.
Intrexx can consume
a web service by providing it with a corresponding URL.
A known problem with SAP web services is that the WDSL files generated by the
SAP system are defective. This can either mean that Intrexx cannot find
a web service under the specified URL or that no available methods will be displayed.
This problem could usually be fixed by generating the WDSL as a file
with alternative SAP tools and then made available via the
Tomcat Server provided with Intrexx. As the WDSL file also contains
information about the actual terminal, meaning the actual SAP system URL,
this method can be successful. The WDSL file is stored in the
portal directory
"external\htmlroot" and can be accessed via the URL
"http://<portalserver>:<port>/<portalname>/<wdslfile>".
Another problem effects the use of SAP web services that require an
authorization. Just as SAP does not support the authorization to Intrexx,
the login of a web service to the SAP system is also currently not standard
in Intrexx. A call would return the error message
"Transport Error: 401 Error: Unauthorized". On an interim basis, this is
remedied by configuring the web service properties in the
utilizing Intrexx application. In the properties dialog of the button, which is
configured with the action
Web service request,
the login information can be added.