Adapter Framework

The Adapter Framework is part of the Adapter Engine and the PCK. It provides interfaces for configuring, managing, and monitoring adapters. The Adapter Framework is used to connect any external system to the Integration Server. The Adapter Framework is based on the AS Java runtime environment and the J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA).

The Adapter Framework is responsible for communication between the Integration Server and any SAP or non-SAP systems.

In the figure, the components Integration Server, Integration Directory, System Landscape Directory, Runtime Workbench, and Integration Repository are shown on the left. The Adapter Framework and its modules are shown in the middle and the external system to be connected is on the right. The following are examples of external systems:

●     An ERP system such as Peoplesoft

●     A CRM system such as Siebel

●     A data pool such as UCCnet

●     A Web service

●     An EDI subsystem

AEDAPTIVe's produts are fully integrated in the Adapter Framework of NetWeaver. See the figure below. The orange parts are SAP components. Grey is AEDAPTIVe as well as the Adapter Metadata en Message Definition at the bottom of the figure.

The Adapter Framework communicates using JCA 1.0 connections (2) and the JCA 1.0 Common Client Interface (CCI) with an adapter. The JCA 1.0 container of the SAP J2EE server uses the JCA 1.0 Service Programming Interface (SPI) to exchange server-relevant information with the adapter according to JCA 1.0 (1). Therefore, the adapter is a JCA 1.0-compliant resource adapter. Since JCA 1.0 does not define the communication direction from the adapter to the Adapter Framework (application in the JCA sense), the Adapter Framework is called from the adapter with a standard Enterprise JavaBean 2.0 session bean.

A message from the Integration Server is received in the Adapter Framework by the messaging service. Based on the receiver information, the corresponding module chain is selected in the module processor for further processing.

Message processing in the sender/inbound direction proceeds in a similar way. In this case, the adapter calls the module processor in the form of an Enterprise JavaBean 2.0 local session bean and transfers the message object either as an XI message or in its own format.