Integrating my RESTful web application with SAP client installations

Question

My company runs several B2B applications (written in Rails) that deal with parts and inventory, and we are trying to find a better way to integrate with some of our larger users. We already offer the REST-style API that comes with Rails, but this, of course, requires the IT department to decide to integrate it, so we would like to lower this barrier if possible.

From what we discovered, most of them are in SAP systems. Now, almost everything I know about SAP is 1) dear, 2) huge, 3) and does everything and everything that you will ever need to run your giant business. Naturally, all this is a little intrusive, and the resources on the site are a cross between an impenetrable word loaded with material for sale and an impenetrable jargon loaded with advanced technical materials for a small new, but technically competent user who can drown his teeth in.

So I'm wondering: as a third party that does not start the installation of SAP, is there a way to give us access to our site data through a web service or other API? Is it just a matter of providing or implementing a specific WSDL (and what will it be)? Is this possible for someone without deep experience with SAP? Or is it a complete non-starter?

Answer 1

I would say that this is not possible without someone who knows the SAP system. You probably won't need to hire someone with deep SAP knowledge, but at least for the initial implementation you will need both knowledge and a working system with which you can develop. From a technical point of view, this is not so difficult, but given the fact that SAP systems are designed to process several organizations, countries, legal systems, localizations and several thousand users at the same time, everything should be a little more complicated than almost any other software around - and most of the time they’re not even bloated, it’s easy to get lost in such flexibility.

My recommendation would be to find a client (or potential client) who has someone in his IT department with the necessary technical and technological knowledge and who is interested in carrying out a development project. Thus, you will get access to the real system (testing, of course) and to someone who can explain the basics of the system to you. But, as I said, be prepared for complexity.

Answer 2

vwegert makes some excellent points.

Regarding this part of your question:

So I'm wondering: as the 3rd party that does not start the SAP installation, is there a way for us to offer access to the data of our site through a web service or another API? Is it just a matter of providing or implementing a specific WSDL (and what will it be?)

Technically, you can provide any of your system services as web services for the SAP client system. You do not need any prior knowledge of SAP for this. (SAP should be able to import WSDL, although there may be some limitations in early pre-ECC5 systems).

For example, a service that provides meter readings, airport departure schedules, industry trends, etc., does not depend on what is in the user system or how they configure it. However, as soon as it becomes necessary to initiate updates for client system data, you need access to more specialized SAP knowledge.

Also note that many SAP functions can also appear as web services, but for this you usually need someone with SAP data (ABAP).

The ABAP language is actually quite simple, but there is a huge learning curve for understanding the data model and many custom parameters in SAP.