Invoke SAP BAPI Smart Service

Overview

The Invoke SAP BAPI Smart Service allows designers to safely invoke BAPIs with side effects in process. See Functions and Side Effects for more information.

The two main benefits of using this smart service are:

The ability to make unattended write calls to SAP.
The ability to process return values from the BAPI. Return values allow you to verify that the invocation was successful.

For making BAPI calls to SAP servers outside of a process (for example, on an interface), use an HTTP connected system.

Properties

Category: Integrations & APIs
Icon:
Assignment Options: Unattended/Attended

Configuration options

This section contains tab configuration details specific to this smart service. For more information about common configurations see the Process Node Properties page.

Data tab

Node inputs

Input	Data Type	Description	Required	Multiple
Scs External System Key	Text	The key from the Third Party Credentials admin console page that corresponds to the set of credentials that should be used to authenticate.	Y	N
Use Per User Credentials	Boolean	If `true` the credentials set in the Third-Party Credentials settings page by the current user running the expression will be used. If `false` the site-wide credential values will be used.	N	N
Hostname	Text	The application server host of the SAP server (ASHOST). The value can be an IP address, a fully-qualified domain name, or SAP's router string format. For example, "/H/sap_router/W/password/H/app_host/S/service_port".	Y	N
Clientnumber	Text	The SAP client number.	Y	N
System Number	Text	The SAP system number.	Y	N
Bapi	Text	The name of the SAP BAPI to invoke.	Y	N
Import Parameters	Any Type	The import parameters to send to the BAPI function, given as a dictionary. The dictionary fields are the import parameter names, and the values are the parameter values to send.	Y	N
Table Parameters	Any Type	The table parameters to send to the BAPI function, given as a dictionary. The dictionary values can also be given as dictionaries, allowing for the requisite table structure to be defined.	Y	N
Connection Properties	Any Type	The connection properties to use when creating the connection to the SAP instance, given as a dictionary. The dictionary fields are the camel-cased names of the properties with periods removed, and the values are the properties values to use.	N	N
Commit Transaction	Boolean	Flag used to execute a standard BAPI Transaction Commit. Set to `true` (the default) to execute the commit. Set to `false` when implementing a BAPI with a built in commit.	N	N

Node outputs

Output	Data Type	Description
Success	Boolean	A boolean set to `true` if the call was successful or `false` if it was unsuccessful
Result	Any Type	If success was `true`, a dictionary or list of dictionaries containing the data returned by the BAPI, otherwise, `null`
Error	Any Type	If success was `false`, a dictionary with the 'title' field and a 'message' field, otherwise `null`. The dictionary's fields contain the title and message of the error, respectively.

Because the response from a SAP server instance is a dictionary or list of dictionaries, the result output must be stored into custom data type process variable or the data field of a DataSubset process variable using a!dataSubset(). If saving the values into a DataSubset, you will need to view the values from the "Variables" tab of the process details dialog.

Once you understand the SAP return value's structure, you can access and manipulate the values in a custom output. For example, the BAPI return value may not map directly to your data types and may require some manipulation. Imagine the BAPI returns a value similar to this:

{
  Customers: {
    {id: 1, name: "Alliance Marketing", industry: "Marketing"},
    {id: 2, name: "Global Firm", industry: "Insurance"}
  }
}

If you have a Customer data type and therefore want only the values contained in the "Customers" field, you could create a custom output that indexes the result of the BAPI call and saves it to a List of Customer process variable: index(ac!result, "Customers", {}).

Best practices

Example Interface Expression

In this example, the BAPI_ACC_GL_POSTING_POST is called to create an accounting document on a SAP server from sales data in the Appian system. This BAPI requires the commit flag to be set to true().

=a!localVariables(
  local!sapPostResult,
  a!formLayout(
    label: "Account Posting",
    instructions: "BAPI_ACC_GL_POSTING_POST is a standard SAP function module that performs Accounting: General G/L Account Posting functionality. This is available within standard R/3 SAP systems depending on version and release level.",
    contents: {
      a!textField(
        label: "Result",
        value: local!sapPostResult,
        readOnly: true()
      )
    },
    buttons: a!buttonLayout(
      primaryButtons: {
        a!buttonWidget(
          label: "Post",
          style: "SOLID",
          saveInto: a!sapInvokeWithCommit(
            scsExternalSystemKey: cons!SAP_SCS_KEY,
            usePerUserCredentials: false(),
            hostname: cons!SAP_HOSTNAME,
            clientNumber: cons!SAP_CLIENT_NUMBER,
            systemNumber: cons!SAP_SYSTEM_NUMBER,
            bapi: "BAPI_ACC_GL_POSTING_POST",
            importParameters:{
              DOCUMENTHEADER:{
                OBJ_TYPE:"BKPFF",
                OBJ_KEY:"1",
                OBJ_SYS:"T90CLNT090",
                USERNAME:"SAPUSER",
                HEADER_TXT:"BAPI TEST",
                COMP_CODE:"3000",
                DOC_DATE:date(2016, 11, 02),
                FIS_PERIOD:"11"
              }
            },
            tableParameters:{
              ACCOUNTGL:{
                {
                  ITEMNO_ACC:"0000000003",
                  GL_ACCOUNT:"474210",
                  COMP_CODE:"3000",
                  PSTNG_DATE:date(2016, 11, 02),
                  DOC_TYPE:"SA",
                  FISC_YEAR:"2016",
                  FIS_PERIOD:"11",
                },
                {
                  ITEMNO_ACC:"0000000002",
                  GL_ACCOUNT:"113100",
                  COMP_CODE:"3000",
                  PSTNG_DATE:date(2016, 11, 02),
                  DOC_TYPE:"SA",
                  FISC_YEAR:"2016",
                  FIS_PERIOD:"11"
                }
              },
              CURRENCYAMOUNT:{
                {
                  ITEMNO_ACC:"0000000003",
                  CURRENCY:"USD",
                  AMT_DOCCUR:"5000",
                  EXCH_RATE_V:"0"
                },
                {
                 ITEMNO_ACC:"0000000002",
                 CURRENCY:"USD",
                 AMT_DOCCUR:"-5000",
                 EXCH_RATE_V:"0"
                }
              }
            },
            commitTransaction: true(),
            onSuccess: {
              a!save(
                local!sapPostResult,
                fv!result
              )
            },
            onError: {
              a!save(
                local!sapPostResult,
                fv!errorTitle
              )
            }
          ),
          submit: true
        )
      }
    )
  )
)

a!sapInvokeWithCommit() [Deprecated]

This feature has been deprecated, and will be removed in a future release of Appian. Use an HTTP connected system to integrate with SAP instead.

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