ERP Interfaces

PiLog / SAP Interface Architecture

The two methods used to interface to SAP ERP are through or Xi. The preferred method selected in most cases is the JCo route, as this allows for a tightly coupled solution i.e. real-time.

The standard interfaces include, create and update of either new material or service master. The flag for delete and undelete is also part of the standard interfaces but only on a header (corporate) level. i.e. not on plant level.

The interface supports connection pooling (handle’s large number of requests) and data is passed from PiLog via the Interface to PiLog SAP RFC’s (remote function calls) that invoke standard SAP API’s created by SAP AG.

A Java class is created on the PiLog application defining the parameters i.e. consisting parameters, files or structures and subsequently calls the relevant BAPI. A RFC enabled BAPI is created in SAP to accept the parameters, as agreed upon, and processes the data through calling the standard applicable API.

The handshaking is also done through the BAPI by returning either a ‘successful’ message on an error code with relevant error message.

A login properties file, in PiLog, contains the relevant login details used by the JCo.

PiLog / SAP OCI (Open Catalogue Interface) Architecture

The Open Catalog Interface (OCI) incorporates external product catalogs into SRM Server applications. This way, data that is required in order to create shopping cart items in the SRM Server can be transferred directly from the external catalog (PiLog) to the SRM Server application. The interface uses the transfer mechanisms of Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

The user works within an SRM Server application, which displays the available catalog(s). The user calls up one of these, selects the required product(s), and then transfers the product data back to the SRM Server application.

An HTML form is used to transfer the selected product data to the SRM Server. This form is part of an HTML page that is created by the catalog. This page (the last page that is displayed by the catalog) is sent to the user’s browser. The user can now send the form from this page to the SRM Server application that then takes over the form data.

The OCI can also process an XML file. Here the same architecture is used as in the pure HTML variant; this means the XML data is embedded in an HTML form for the transfer from the catalog to the SRM Server via the user’s browser.