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Introducing BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE

This topic introduces BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE. It includes the following main sections:

- About BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE

- SAP R/3 Environment Integration Issues

- BEA Enterprise Application Integration Solution

- Architectural Overview

- Integrating Applications with R/3

About BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE (application link enabling technology) is the infrastructure of choice for application integration of the SAP R/3 environment. BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE works with mission-critical, high-performance middleware to enable easy application integration with and real-time access to SAP R/3 transactions, functions and data.

A production-proven solution, eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE provides an enterprise-based approach to integrating SAP R/3 with applications in all industry-leading computer environments.

SAP R/3 Environment Integration Issues

SAP R/3 is a complete information technology solution that provides an integrated suite of financial, distribution, human resources, and manufacturing applications that can be customized to meet customer needs.

Many firms implementing SAP R/3 realize that full integration between SAP R/3 and their own applications is crucial in order to maximize the effectiveness of their entire environment. However, because numerous, heterogeneous computing environments exist across the enterprise, integration has been costly to implement and difficult to maintain.

BEA Enterprise Application Integration Solution

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE assures ready, high-performance and transparent access to mission-critical applications and information across the network with a single, standard programming interface.

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE builds gateways that can be customized for specific customer needs. These gateways enable interoperability between BEA middleware applications and legacy mainframe environments. Utilization of BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE provides distributed access to SAP R/3 data from industry-leading applications and eliminates the need for applications running in the SAP R/3 environment in order to access `bet-the-business' data and functions.

Key Benefits

- Incorporates third-party packages into the SAP R/3 environment

- Empowers non-SAP R/3 applications to execute SAP R/3 applications

- Enables the reduction of application development time

- Allows significant "reutilization" of existing servers

- Provides faster and smoother deployment of SAP R/3

- Accommodates links between non-SAP R/3 GUIs and SAP R/3 or between cooperating servers

Business Applicability and Scalability

In addition to empowering the successful integration of TUXEDO-enabled applications with SAP R/3 in heterogeneous multi-platform environments, eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE makes it possible for companies to access SAP R/3 services, maintain secure business data, and simplify forward migration to new releases of SAP R/3. BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE's integration efficiency has the robustness and high-performance required of a permanent element in the overall business solution.

Licensing Requirements

The eLink adapter for R/3 ALE requires the following two licenses for operation:

- eLink Platform 1.1

- eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE 1.5

Architectural Overview

Figure 1-1 shows the architecture of BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE:

Figure 1-1 Architecture of BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE works with the following components:

- eLink Data Integration manages data transformation: data formats, data content, and rules.

- eLink Business Process manages process flow: state-based business processes consisting of multiple tasks.

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE communicates with R/3 via SAP's Application Link Enabling (ALE) technology. The adapter enables bi-directional communication between R/3 and eLink.

The BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE provides asynchronous communication between eLink and SAP R/3, as shown in the following Figure 1-2. See your SAP documentation for more information about SAP ALE technologies.

Figure 1-2 Communication between BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE and SAP R/3

Integrating Applications with R/3

This section introduces the key concepts involved in integrating TUXEDO-enabled applications with R/3 using BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE. It includes the following topics:

- TUXEDO ATMI

- FML32 Field Definitions

TUXEDO ATMI

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE and TUXEDO-enabled applications communicate by exchanging TUXEDO FML32 buffers. Client applications that need access to the data and functionality of R/3 use the TUXEDO application to transaction monitor interface (ATMI) to send request messages to the BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE and receive the response messages. The messages exchanged are FML32 buffers. Server applications that allow R/3 access to their data and functionality will use the TUXEDO ATMI to receive request messages from BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE and send response messages.

For more information on the features of TUXEDO, programming with the TUXEDO ATMI, and encoding and decoding FML buffers, see the TUXEDO Programmer's Guide and the BEA TUXEDO Reference Manual (Section 3C).

FML32 Field Definitions

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE comes with an FML field table (cr3_ale.fml file) that defines the fields used in FML32 buffers. This file resides in the following directory:

>     your eLink installation path/elink/adapters/sapr3_ale/config

The cr3_ale.fml file contents are as follows:

Listing 1-1 FML Field Table (cr3_ale.fml file)

>     # BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE - FML fields

>     # name				number	type		flags	comments

>     CR3 RFC TID				100	string		-	-

>     CR3 IDOC CONTROL				101	string		-	-

>     CR3 IDOC DATA				102	string		-	-

>     CR3 IDOC				103	string		-	-

>     CR3 TARGET ID				104	string		-	-

>     CR3 ERROR TEXT				105	string		-	-

>     # Data Integration (Mercator) FML fields

>     # eLink error FML fields

>     # name				number	type		flags	comments

>     ELINK ADAPTER ERROR CODE				200	string		-	-

>     ELINK ADAPTER ERROR				201	string		-	-

>     ELINK APP ERR				202	string		-	-

Note: The field numbers are default values only. You can change these values if they are already in use by another application.

Table 1-1 describes these FML fields:

####

Table 1-1 FML Field Definitions in the cr3_ale.fml File

#### Field Name | #### Description
--- | ---
CR3_RFC_TID | Field that specifies the transaction ID. See Transaction IDs (TIDs) in Integrating with ALE.
CR3_IDOC_CONTROL | Contains one or more control records for the IDOC packet.
CR3_IDOC_DATA | Contains one or more data records for the IDOC packet.
CR3_IDOC | Field that contains IDOC packet data. See Integrating with ALE.
CR3_TARGET_ID | Data Dependent Routing value. See Integrating with ALE.
CR3_ERROR_TEXT | Error text.
ELINK_ADAPTER_ERR_CODE | eLink error category.
ELINK_ADAPTER_ERR | BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE error code and text.

Note: BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 ALE imposes no restriction on the length of string values sent and received using TUXEDO. The size is determined by the target application. For example, the length of an import parameter is specified by R/3. Note that the maximum size of a TUXEDO message is 2GB.

See your TUXEDO documentation for more information about FML32 buffers and field definition tables.

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