SAP Gateway

The SAP Gateway connector lets you perform insert, delete, update, and read operations on SAP Gateway database.

Supported versions

This connector uses the SAP Gateway API to enable bidirectional access to SAP services that use the gateway. The following SAP editions are supported:

  • S/4 HANA Cloud
  • S/4 HANA
  • SAP ERP
  • Any other SAP editions that support the SAP Gateway API

Before you begin

Before using the SAP Gateway connector, do the following tasks:

  • In your Google Cloud project:
    • Grant the roles/connectors.admin IAM role to the user configuring the connector.
    • Grant the following IAM roles to the service account that you want to use for the connector:
      • roles/secretmanager.viewer
      • roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor

      A service account is a special type of Google account intended to represent a non-human user that needs to authenticate and be authorized to access data in Google APIs. If you don't have a service account, you must create a service account. For more information, see Creating a service account.

    • Enable the following services:
      • secretmanager.googleapis.com (Secret Manager API)
      • connectors.googleapis.com (Connectors API)

      To understand how to enable services, see Enabling services.

    If these services or permissions have not been enabled for your project previously, you are prompted to enable them when configuring the connector.

Configure the connector

Configuring the connector requires you to create a connection to your data source (backend system). A connection is specific to a data source. It means that if you have many data sources, you must create a separate connection for each data source. To create a connection, do the following steps:

  1. In the Cloud console, go to the Integration Connectors > Connections page and then select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Go to the Connections page

  2. Click + CREATE NEW to open the Create Connection page.
  3. In the Location section, choose the location for the connection.
    1. Region: Select a location from the drop-down list.

      For the list of all the supported regions, see Locations.

    2. Click NEXT.
  4. In the Connection Details section, complete the following:
    1. Connector: Select SAP Gateway from the drop down list of available Connectors.
    2. Connector version: Select the Connector version from the drop down list of available versions.
    3. In the Connection Name field, enter a name for the Connection instance.

      Connection names must meet the following criteria:

      • Connection names can use letters, numbers, or hyphens.
      • Letters must be lower-case.
      • Connection names must begin with a letter and end with a letter or number.
      • Connection names cannot exceed 63 characters.
    4. Optionally, enter a Description for the connection instance.
    5. Service Account: Select a service account that has the required roles.
    6. Namespace: Specify the service namespace you want to retrieve data from. This is required if the service is not specified in the URL.
    7. Service: Specify the service you want to retrieve data from. This is required if the service is not specified in the URL.
    8. Data Format: The data format to retrieve data in. Select either XML or JSON.
    9. Use Display Names: Boolean determining whether or not to use SAP labels.
    10. Optionally, configure the Connection node settings:

      • Minimum number of nodes: Enter the minimum number of connection nodes.
      • Maximum number of nodes: Enter the maximum number of connection nodes.

      A node is a unit (or replica) of a connection that processes transactions. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection and conversely, fewer nodes are required to process fewer transactions. To understand how the nodes affect your connector pricing, see Pricing for connection nodes. If you don't enter any values, by default the minimum nodes are set to 2 (for better availability) and the maximum nodes are set to 50.

    11. Optionally, click + ADD LABEL to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
    12. Click NEXT.
  5. In the Destinations section, enter details of the remote host (backend system) you want to connect to.
    1. Destination Type: Select a Destination Type.
      1. In the Host address field, specify the hostname or IP address of the destination.
        1. If you want to establish a private connection to your backend systems, follow these steps:
          1. Create a PSC service attachment.
          2. Create an endpoint attachment and then enter the details of the endpoint attachment in the Host address field.
        2. If you want to establish a public connection to your backend systems with additional security, you can consider configuring static outbound IP addresses for your connections, and then configure your firewall rules to allowlist only the specific static IP addresses.

      To enter additional destinations, click +ADD DESTINATION.

    2. Click NEXT.
  6. In the Authentication section, enter the authentication details.
    1. Select an Authentication type and enter the relevant details.

      The following authentication types are supported by the SAP Gateway connection:

      • Username and password
      • Anonymous

      2. To understand how to configure these authentication types, see Configure authentication.

    2. Click NEXT.
  7. Review: Review your connection and authentication details.
  8. Click Create.

Configure authentication

Enter the details based on the authentication you want to use.

  • Username and password
    • Username: Username for connector
    • Password: Secret Manager Secret containing the password associated with the connector.
  • Anonymous

    If you want to use anonymous login, select Not Available.

    • API Key: The API key of the currently authenticated user.

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

  • Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.

    However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.

  • Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:

    Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.

  • Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

System limitations

  • The SAP Gateway connector can process a maximum of 9 transactions per second, per node.

    For information on the limits applicable to Integration Connectors, see Limits.

  • The following features aren't supported:
    • OAuth2.0 based authentication
    • Etags
    • Deep insert
    • File based operations

Entity operation examples

This section shows how to perform some of the entity operations in this connector.

Example - List all records

This example lists all the records in the SalesOrderSet entity.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
  2. Select SalesOrderSet from the Entity list.
  3. Select the List operation, and then click Done.
  4. Optionally, in Task Input section of the Connectors task, you can filter your result set by specifying a filter clause. For example, City='Bangalore'. You can also specify multiple filter conditions by using the logic operators. For example, City='Bangalore' and region='asia-south2'.

Example - Get a record

This example gets a record with the specified ID from the SalesOrderSet entity.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
  2. Select SalesOrderSet from the Entity list.
  3. Select the Get operation, and then click Done.
  4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click EntityId and then enter 13 in the Default Value field.

    Here, 13 is a primary key value in the SalesOrderSet entity.

Example - Create a record

This example creates a record in the SalesOrderSet entity.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
  2. Select SalesOrderSet from the Entity list.
  3. Select the Create operation, and then click Done.
  4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field: 
    {
"Vbeln":"999",
"Erdat":"2020-08-25 00:00:00",
"Erzet":"13:12:31",
"Ernam":"Test"
}

    If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

    {
"Vbeln": "999"
}

Example - Create a record

This example creates a record in the SalesPriceSet entity.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
  2. Select SalesPriceSet from the Entity list.
  3. Select the Create operation, and then click Done.
  4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field: 
    {
"Vbeln": "129",
"Posnr": "000000",
"Knumh": "SUN25MAY",
"Kpein": 1.0
}

    If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

    {
"Posnr": "000000",
"Vbeln": "129"
}

Example - Update a record

This example updates a record in the SalesOrderSet entity.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
  2. Select SalesOrderSet from the Entity list.
  3. Select the Update operation, and then click Done.
  4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field: 
    {
"Ernam": "Test123"
}
  5. Click entityId, and then enter 99 in the Default Value field.

    If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

    {
"Vbeln": "999"
}

Use terraform to create connections

You can use the Terraform resource to create a new connection.

To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands.

To view a sample terraform template for connection creation, see sample template.

When creating this connection by using Terraform, you must set the following variables in your Terraform configuration file:

Parameter name Data type Required Description
namespace STRING False Specify the service namespace you want to retrieve data from. This is required if the service is not specified in the URL.
service STRING False Specify the service you want to retrieve data from. This is required if the service is not specified in the URL.
custom_url_params STRING False The CustomUrlParams allow you to specify custom query string parameters that are included with the HTTP request. The parameters must be encoded as a query string in the form field1=value1&field2=value2. The values in the query string must be URL encoded.
data_format ENUM False The data format to retrieve data in. Select either XML or JSON. Supported values are: XML, JSON
use_display_names BOOLEAN False Boolean determining whether or not to use SAP labels.
verbosity STRING False Verbosity level for connection, varies from 1-5. Higher verbosity level will log all the communication details (request,response & ssl certificates).
proxy_enabled BOOLEAN False Select this checkbox to configure a proxy server for the connection.
proxy_auth_scheme ENUM False The authentication type to use to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy. Supported values are: BASIC, DIGEST, NONE
proxy_user STRING False A user name to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.
proxy_password SECRET False A password to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.
proxy_ssltype ENUM False The SSL type to use when connecting to the ProxyServer proxy. Supported values are: AUTO, ALWAYS, NEVER, TUNNEL

Use the SAP Gateway connection in an integration

After you create the connection, it becomes available in both Apigee Integration and Application Integration. You can use the connection in an integration through the Connectors task.

  • To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Apigee Integration, see Connectors task.
  • To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Application Integration, see Connectors task.

Get help from the Google Cloud community

You can post your questions and discuss this connector in the Google Cloud community at Cloud Forums.

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