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# Introducing BEA eLink Adapter for R/3

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

- About BEA eLink Adapter for R/3

- Integration Strategies

- Integrating Applications with R/3

## About BEA eLink Adapter for R/3

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 is the infrastructure of choice for application integration of the SAP R/3 environment. BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 enables easy application integration using mission-critical, high-performance middleware to provide real-time access to SAP R/3 transactions, functions or data.

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 is a production-proven solution that distributes access to SAP R/3 applications running in all industry-leading computer environments. BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 is an enterprise-based approach to integrating SAP R/3 with other applications.

### 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.

### The SAP R/3 Environment

Throughout the evolution of enterprise computing, corporations have deployed systems and software in an effort to improve business processes, reduce costs, and increase overall organizational effectiveness. SAP R/3 is now widely used by businesses as a complete information technology solution that provides an integrated suite of financial, distribution, human resources, and manufacturing applications which can be customized to meet customer needs.

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

### Application-to-Application Integration

The need for application-to-application integration has created the opportunity for a BEA middleware solution. BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 is a robust and comprehensive business solution that can be rapidly implemented and easily maintained, does not require custom interface programs, and supports a heterogeneous mix of platforms, architectures, databases, and third party applications.

### BEA Enterprise Application Integration Solution

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 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 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 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.

### BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 Business Applicability

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 empowers the successful integration of applications with SAP R/3 in heterogeneous multi-platform environments and 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's integration efficiency has the robustness and high-performance required of a permanent element in the overall business solution.

## Architectural Overview

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

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

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 includes 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 communicates with R/3 via SAP's Remote Function Call (RFC) protocol.

## Integration Strategies

Figure 1-2 shows the application integration strategies that BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 provides:

> Figure 1-2 Application Integration Strategies for BEA eLink Adapter for R/3

Supported strategies include:

- Remote Function Call (RFC). Acting as clients to R/3, TUXEDO applications can invoke RFC-enabled ABAP/4 functions on a remote R/3 system (RFC Inbound). See Integrating with RFCs for more information.

- Application Link Enabling (ALE). TUXEDO applications can send (ALE Inbound) and receive (ALE Outbound) SAP Intermediate Documents (IDOCs) with R/3. ALE is SAP's technology that supports the design, implementation, and operation of distributed business processes. See Integrating with ALE for more information.

See your SAP documentation for more information about SAP's RFC and ALE technologies.

## Integrating Applications with R/3

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

- TUXEDO ATMI

- FML32 Field Definitions

### TUXEDO ATMI

BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 and TUXEDO applications communicate by exchanging TUXEDO FML32 buffers. Client applications that need access to the data and functionality of R/3 will use the TUXEDO ATMI to send request messages to the BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 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 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 comes with an FML field table (cr3.fml file) that defines the fields used in FML32 buffers. This file resides in the following directory:

>     <your eLink installation path>/elink/adapters/sapr3/config

Listing 1-1 shows the contents of this file:

> Listing 1-1 FML FIeld Table (cr3.fml)

>     # eLink Adapter for R/3 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
>     # name                      number  type       flags comments

>     MERCATOR_FV_IN              150     string     -     -

>     # eLink error FML fields
>     # name                      number  type       flags comments

>     ELINK_ADAPTER_ERR_CODE      200     string     -     -
>     ELINK_ADAPTER_ERR           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.fml File

Field Name | Description
--- | ---
CR3_RFC_TID | Field that specifies the transaction ID. See Transaction IDs (TIDs) in Integrating with ALE. Internal Use Only.
CR3_IDOC_CONTROL | Contains one or more control records for the IDOC packet. Internal Use Only.
CR3_IDOC_DATA | Contains one or more data records for the IDOC packet. Internal Use Only.
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 error code and text.
ELINK_APP_ERR | SAP R/3-level error. See Integrating with RFCs.

Note: BEA eLink Adapter for R/3 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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