XI and PI glossary

XI and PI glossary explains the most common abbreviations and terms used in the XI area.
Please keep the descriptions short as they are just supposed to give a general idea about the term.

SAP XI PI Glossary

A

Adapters

Adapters enable the Integration Engine to communicate with applications that either use different message format (non XML, like: flat files, EDI documents) or different protocols (non HTTP, like: FTP, JMS, JDBC)

Acknowledgement

Informing the sender system(XI) of success/failure of delivery/processing of the message in the receiver system.

Types of Acknowledgements: transport and application.

Alert Framework

Part of the SAP Web Application Server that provides applications with alert functions.

The Alert Framework includes:

- Definition environment
- Administration environment
- Alert creation
- Alert delivery
- Personal settings such as subscription
An application must define its own alert categories and trigger the alert instances to execute Alert Management.

Alert Management

An Alert Management recognizes predefined critical situations and informs interested parties by sending them an alert as soon as possible.

Such critical situations may be an important customer terminating a contract or a budget being exceeded, for example. The alerts are delivered to the recipients in their alert inboxes, which are located in the enterprise portal. They can also be delivered using other channels, such as by Internet mail or to mobile devices.

Alert Management helps prevent delays in the processing of critical situations, because the time between discovering and processing such situations is reduced considerably.

B

Business Activity Monitoring

SAP considers BAM a capability. It's a framework (technical infrastructure) that enables users to act on significant events & take corrective action in the right work context. It allows users to monitor, measure & improve the efficiency of business processes across application boundaries.

Business Process Modeling Language

BPML is a meta language used for modeling business processes.

Business System

Business Systems are located within the System Landscape, entered into the SLD & are systems which you can physically control. They are assigned products in the SLD which allow you to determine which messages can be sent & received by a business system.

Business Service

Business Services represent services of an external service provider. Example: A current exchange rate service where a company enables this service to be addresses via a SOAP interface.

BPM, ccBPM

Integration processes are design objects used to model complex message flows in SAP Exchange Infrastructure. With BPMs you can use many
senders, receivers, loops, correlations, blocks which is not possible in a standard message flow without the BPM. Sample steps used in a BPM: send, receive, transform, block, control.

C

Collaboration Profile Agreement Cache (CPA Cache)

Contains a copy of all objects created during Configuration Time. For example: Adapter metadata, Business Systems and Business Services.

Conversion Agent

SAP Conversion Agent by Itemfield is a data conversion tool that enables you to create interfaces between any data formats (unstructured, semi-structured)
and XML-based systems. It has much more advanced functions that content conversion option of the file adapter. Mappings developed with the use of SAP Conversion Agent can be used as adapter modules in standard SAP Exchange Infrastructure adapters.

Correlations

You can use correlations when you need to assign messages to the same BPM instance. Messages can have different structures but the key on which you base the correlation needs to have exactly the same value for one BPM instance.

Context objects

Context objects are objects based on the XPath expressions. Therefore they can be used to simplify the access to the content of a message.

D

Data type

A data type is a basic unit for defining the structure of the XML data used to exchange messages with the use of SAP Exchange Infrastructure

E

EAI

EAI stands for Enterprise Application Integration. This is a process that brings together enterprise computer applications under a common programming umbrella to increase functionality and performance.

Element

A general term indicating any item used to create a model, including: components, connectors and operators.

ES (Enterprise Services)

A Web service defined to perform functions of an SAP system. Web services are published to and stored within a repository.

ESR

The Enterprise Services Repository and Registry (ES Repository and Registry) support the governed definition of SOA assets (such as services and data types) for SOA by evolution.

F

Fault message type

Fault message types are designed to represent errors that occur on the inbound interface
and can be reported back to the Integration Engine.

I

ICM monitor

Tool to monitor and manage the Internet Communication Manager (ICM) from the SAP System (transaction SMICM).

ICF

Internet Communication Framework. Distributed Integration Engines communicate with each other through a service provided through the ICF. The service must be released in each system that contains its own integration engine.

ICM server cache

Cache for SAP Web Application Server response pages.

The HTTP request handler uses the ICM server cache to store and access frequently requested response pages, such as the main page of an online store.

IDoc XML

IDoc (Intermediate Document) represented in XML down to segment level.

Inbound

One of the two directions (as seen from the SAP system) in which an IDoc can be transferred. In inbound processing, IDocs are sent to the SAP System from an external system.

Integration Broker

Capability of SAP NetWeaver that enables SAP or non-SAP applications running on differing systems to be integrated.

This capability is often used in SAP NetWeaver overview presentations and documents in place of the technical runtime component of SAP NetWeaver (the Integration Server).

Integration Builder

Central tool for designing and configuring all objects which belong to the SAP Exchange Infrastructure. It consists of Integration Repository and Integration Directory.

Integration Directory

Directory that contains all configuration information for SAP Exchange Infrastructure (communication channel parameters, adapters, message routings, business systems, interface determinations)

Integration Engine

Runtime environment of the SAP Exchange Infrastructure that receives XML messages and after processing in the pipeline, transfers them to the receiver systems.

Integration Knowledge

Also know as XI Content is the knowledge which contains all the required Integration Repository Objects necessary for Integration of various Processes which can be shipped to the Customer.

(Integration Repository Objects Includes integration scenarios, interface objects, messaging objects, mappings objects and adapter objects necessary for the Integrating Processes).

SAP Standard XI Content for various standard integration scenarios are available at SAP Service Marketplace.

Integration Repository

Repository is a place where all design objects of the SAP Exchange Infrastructure are stored (like Data types, Message Interfaces, Message Mappings).

Integration Scenario

Describes a cross-component process that is based on messages exchanged between different systems but with the use of SAP EXchange Infrastructure.

Integration Server

A server that has a centrally configured Integration Engine that is used to act as a message broker.

Interface Determination

The Interface Determination defines the format in which the Inbound message must be forwarded to the receiver & which mapping must be used for the transformation.

L

LUW-Logical Unit of Work

Each message in the queues is represented by an LUW. LUW consists of a series of dialog steps, and the results of these are written to the Database in a single Commit. If an LUW in a queue is interrupted during execution, the entire message fails, and the queue fails.

M

Mappings

Mappings are programs that enable the XI to change both the structure and values of messages processed inside it. There are 4 types of mappings:

Message Mappings - Graphical Message mapping,
XSLT mappings - (both on java and abap stack),
Java mappings,
ABAP mappings.

Mapping lookups

These are interfaces developed inside the mappings that allow to check some values based on other values. You can use a lookup API to implement them.

Message Interface

Message Interface is an interface that describes the direction of the message (inbound, outbound), type of it (synchronous, asynchronous) or is it used in the BPM - abstract.

Message Type

A message type is made of a data type and describes the structure of a message on a higher level than the data type

N

Namespace

To create an individual component, you have to first create a separate namespace within the previously imported software component.

P

Payload

Payload is the content of the message that is being exchanged.

PCK

Partner Connectivity Kit is a tool than enables you to connect to SAP Exchange Infrastructure.

The PCK is a J2EE-based application and as XI also uses the SAP XI Adapter Engine.

Proxy

Proxies are program language specific executable interfaces generated from program language independent WSDL documents for interfaces defined in Integration Repository. XI provides options to generate proxies for ABAP & Java. ABAP Proxies can be generated using SE80/Sproxy. Java proxies can be generated using SAP Netweaver developer studio.

Q

QOS

Quality of Service: Specifies the mode of message exchange.

Types of QOS:

BE (Best Effort)[Synchronous]
EOIO (Exactly Once In Order)[Asynchronous]
EO (Exactly Once)[Asynchronous]

R

Receiver Agreement

The Receiver Agreement defines through which communication channel messages are distributed to a receiver.

Receiver Determination

The Receiver Determination defines to whom an inbound message must be distributed. Receiver selection can be determined by the message content. Any number of receivers can be specified here.

RWB

Runtime Workbench is a central place from which you can monitor your XI server. You can do it with various monitors:

Component Monitor
Message Monitor
Performance Monitor
End to End monitor
Cache Monitor
Alert Configuration

S

Sender Agreement

The sender agreement defines how messages are sent into SAP XI for a given sender & sender interface.

SLD

The SAP System Landscape Directory (SLD) is a central place where you store all the information about your system landscape. It consists of two parts:

Component Information: Information about SAP and third party products and components.

Landscape Description: Information about all installed systems (servers).

SNC

SNC is a software layer in the SAP System architecture that provides an interface to an external security product. SAP Systems include basic security measures, which include the SAP authorization concept and user authentication based on passwords. With SNC, you can extend SAP System security beyond these basic measures to include protection offered by an external security product.

Software Catalog

In the Software Catalog, in addition to the information about the technical and business systems, the software components involved in an interface or a business transaction are maintained.

Software Component

Represents a collection of all versions of a software component. Software components represent the reusable modules of a product. They can be upgraded or have patches installed.

Software Component Version

Represents a particular version of a software component.

Software Unit

Represent a logical sub-division and a link between product version and software component version.

SSL

To encrypt communication between clients (Database Manager CLI, for example) and the XI Server, SSL could be used. SSL is a quasi-standard protocol developed by Netscape. It is used with an application protocol, for example, HTTP.

V

Value mappings

Value mapping is a function that allows you to map different object values to other values. You can either store the table in Integration Directory or fill it via mass replication interface.