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:
  • Ensure that network connectivity is set up. For information about network patterns, see Network connectivity.
  • 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 SAP OData Service on S/4HANA on-premise

To configure SAP OData Service on S/4HANA on-premise, do the following tasks:

• Enable ICM Services
• Activate SAP Gateway
• Activate OData services
• Test activated OData service on SAP server

Enable ICM Services

The SAP OData service functions over HTTP or HTTPS protocols. Therefore, ensure that the relevant services are enabled in the Internet Communication Manager (ICM). Use HTTPS to protect data during transmission.

1. Go to Transaction SMICM.
2. Goto Services.
3. Click Service> Create.
4. Define new service.

When you define service ports, some parameters are pre-populated based on the SAP system.

5. Set the remaining parameters for HTTP and HTTPS protocols.

Activate SAP Gateway

To activate SAP Gateway, perform the following steps:

1. Go to transaction SPRO and select SAP Reference IMG.
2. Expand the node SAP NetWeaver > SAP Gateway > OData Channel > Configuration > User Settings > Connection Settings > Activate or Deactivate SAP Gateway and then right-click and select Edit Activity.
3. Click Activate. If the SAP Gateway is currently active message appears in the dialog, click Cancel.

Activate OData services

To activate OData services, perform the following steps.

1. Go to transaction SICF.
2. Click Execute (or press F8).
3. Skip Filter in selection screen.
4. Navigate to tree node default_host > sap > opu > OData to activate all OData (V2) services.
5. Navigate to the corresponding node deeper in the tree to activate an individual service.
6. Right-click on the OData service node and select Activate.

Test the activated OData service on SAP server

Use the SAP Gateway Client tool to execute OData requests.

Call the following transaction to start the tool: /n/IWFND/GW_CLIENT

1. Specify the OData request URI.
2. Select the HTTP method, the protocol (HTTP or HTTPS), the request headers and the request body.
3. Click Execute to send the request after you enter all necessary request data.

The response headers and response data are displayed after execution.

Configure SAP OData Service on S/4HANA Cloud

To configure SAP OData Service on S/4HANA Cloud, do the following tasks:

• Create communication user
• Create communication system
• Create communication arrangement

Create communication user

Communication user is a special type of technical user used for external OData service calls. It is used for SAP communication with the external system only, it is not possible to log on using SAP GUI using communication user. The Maintain Communication Users app enables you to define these settings in Cloud.

1. Go to Maintain Communication Users App.
2. Click New to create a new user.
3. Enter user name and description of your user.
4. Enter the password. Use propose password to generate the password.
5. Click Create.

Create communication system

A communication system is a specification of a system that represents a communication partner and all the necessary technical information needed for the communication, such as hostname/IP-Address, identity, user information, and certificates. In S/4HANA Cloud systems, these entities are required for external communication. The Communication Systems app enables you to define these settings in Cloud.

1. Go to Communication Systems App.
2. Click New to create a new communication system.
3. Enter system ID and system name.
4. Click + to add the created communication user for inbound communication. Enter the details of communication user.

Inbound communication means that defined system is used from a communication partner to call from external into the SAP S/4HANA system.

5. Click Save.

Create communication arrangement

For information about communication arrangement, see Communication Arrangement.

1. Go to Communication Arrangements App.
2. Click New to create a new communication arrangement.
3. Select your communication scenario, enter arrangement name and click Create.

Communication scenario defines a set of inbound and outbound services for a business process.
Inbound services are Web services that have been created based on an SAP or custom business object, or Web services provided by SAP.
Outbound services are external Web services that have been integrated into your solution.
Based on a communication scenario, a customer can create a communication arrangement in SAP cloud solution to exchange business documents electronically.
For Example, Standard communication scenario SAP_COM_0053 is used for purchase order integration with SAP system.
API API_PURCHASEORDER_PROCESS_SRV is exposed in this scenario to create, delete or update purchase order.

4. Add your communication system and select the communication user to use in this communication arrangement.
5. URL to call OData service can be found in Communication arrangement in this format:https://-api.s4hana.ondemand.com/sap/opu/odata/sap/
6. Click Save

Configure connection

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 49 characters.
      • For connectors that support event subscription, the connection names cannot begin with the "goog" prefix.
   4. Optionally, enter a Description for the connection instance.
   5. Service Account: Select a service account that has the required roles.
   6. To use the connection for event subscriptions, select Enable event subscription. Selecting this, displays the following options:
      • Enable event subscription with entity and actions: Select this option to use the connection for both event subscription and connector operations (entities and actions).
      • Enable only event subscription: Select this option to use the connection only for event subscription. If you select this option, click Next, and then configure event subscription.
   7. Namespace: Specify the service namespace you want to retrieve data from. This is required if the service is not specified in the URL.
   8. Service: Specify the service you want to retrieve data from. This is required if the service is not specified in the URL.
   9. CustomUrlParams: Specify custom query string parameters that are included with the HTTP request. The parameters must be encoded as a query string in the following format: field1=value1&field2=value2. The values in the query string must be URL encoded.
   10. Data Format: The data format to retrieve data in. Select either XML or JSON.
   11. Use Display Names: Boolean determining whether or not to use SAP labels.
   12. 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.

   Note: You can customize the connection node values only if you are a Pay-as-you-go customer.
   13. Optionally, click + ADD LABEL to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
   14. Click NEXT.
5. In the Destinations section, set the URL of your SAP Gateway environment or to the full URL of the OData service. For example format; ${ENVIRONMENT_URL}/sap/opu/odata/${NAMESPACE}/${SERVICE}/ and sample URL is https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com/sap/opu/odata/IWBEP/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/. Add any additional properties using the CustomUrlParams property.
   1. Destination Type: Select a Destination Type.
      • Select Host address from the list to specify the hostname or IP address of the destination.
      • If you want to establish a private connection to your backend systems, select Endpoint attachment from the list, and then select the required endpoint attachment from the Endpoint Attachment list.
        Note: To understand how to create an endpoint attachment, see PSC service attachment and endpoint attachment. After you have created the endpoint attachment, it will be visible in the Endpoint Attachment list.

      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

   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.

Configure event subscription

If you have enabled the event subscription, enter the following values in the Event Subscription Details section:

1. Select any one of the following authentication types for the event listener.
   Note: Before you configure authentication, ensure that you have the event listener endpoint, which is available to you after you create the connection. To view the endpoint, go to the All connections page, and then click the connection that you wan to view. The endpoint is displayed in the Connection Details section.
   • Google Authentication. If you enable this option, follow the steps in Authenticate by using JSON Web Tokens to configure the authentication for ABAP SDK. Also, ensure that the service account has roles/connectors.listener role whose access token is used for authentication.
   • API Key Authentication. If you select this option, you must have created an API key, and then saved the key as a Secret Manager secret. For more information, see Create an API key.
2. Enter the event type field name. This field identifies the type of event associated with the incoming event request.

   {
   "event_type": "user.created",
   ...
   // other request fields
   ...
   }

3. Select Enable private connectivity for secured connectivity between your backend application and your connection. If you select this option, you must perform additional configuration steps after creating the connection. For more information, see Private connectivity for event subscription.
4. Enter the dead-letter configuration. If you configure dead-letter, the connection writes the unprocessed events to the specified Pub/Sub topic. Enter the following details:
   1. Dead-letter project ID: The Google Cloud project ID where you have configured the dead-letter Pub/Sub topic.
   2. Dead-letter topic: The Pub/Sub topic where you want to write the details of the unprocessed event.

Tip: To understand how you can use event subscription in your integrations, see SAP Gateway trigger.

Connection configuration samples

This section provides the sample values for the various fields that you configure when you create a SAP Gateway connector.

Basic authentication - connection type

Field Name	Details
Region	us-central1
Connector	SAP Gateway Connector
Connector Version	1
Connector Name	sapgateway-basicauth-conn
Service Account	[e-mail]
Data Format	JSON
Verbosity Level	5
Host Address	http://192.0.2.0/sap/opu/odata/sap/HOST_ADDRESS
Authentication:	User Password
Username	username
Password	password
versions	1

API Token - connection type

Field Name	Details
Region	us-central1
Connector	SAP Gateway Connector
Connector Version	1
Connector Name	sapgateway-api-token-conn
Service Account	[e-mail]
Data Format	JSON
Verbosity Level	5
Host Address	http://192.0.2.0/sap/opu/odata/sap/HOST_ADDRESS
API Key	API_KEY-example-pet-store.com
versions	1

Proxy - connection type

Field Name	Details
Region	us-central1
Connector	SAP Gateway Connector
Connector Version	1
Connector Name	sapgateway-basicauth-conn
Service Account	[e-mail]
Data Format	JSON
Verbosity Level	5
Host Address	http://192.0.2.0/sap/opu/odata/sap/HOST_ADDRESS
Data Format:	JSON
Verbosity Level:	5
Proxy	True
Proxy SSL Type	Auto
Proxy Server	34.148.1.XX:XXXX
Host Address:	http://192.0.2.0/sap/opu/odata/sap/HOST_ADDRESS
Authentication:	User Password
Username	username
Password:	password
Versions	1

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.

Note: You can view the entities, operations, and actions of a connector in the Connectors task.

• 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:
  • List
  • Get
  • Create
  • Update
  • Delete

  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. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

Note: All entities and actions will have a schema associated with them. For example, an action schema will have the parameter details such as; the parameter names, and its corresponding data type. The schema (metadata) for entities and actions is fetched by the connection at runtime from your backend. If there are any updates to the schema, such updates won't be automatically reflected in your existing connections; you must manually refresh the schema. To refresh the schema for a connection, open the Connection details page of the connection, and then click Refresh connection schema.

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.

  Note: The number of Integration Connectors nodes will autoscale dynamically based on your usage. However, if you want to reserve capacity for large volumes without waiting for autoscaling, you can adjust the minimum node value for a connection. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection. Conversely, fewer nodes are required if a connection processes fewer transactions. To configure the node values, do the following:

  • If you are a pay-as-you-go customer, configure the minimum and maximum node value in the edit connection page.
  • If you are a subscription based customer, contact support.

  The maximum transactions that a node can handle depends on various factors. So, before adjusting the minimum nodes for better throughput, it is recommended you check if your backend systems are set up optimally to handle the required traffic.

• 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.

What's next

• Understand how to suspend and resume a connection.
• Understand how to monitor connector usage.
• Understand how to view connector logs.