We will in the next period of time see a large number of users that will be performing migrations of their SAP PI/PO platfrom to 7.5. I have created a number of resources on SAP PI/PO Migration. One of the big thing in this migration is the migration from Seeburger to B2B Add-on. We do have a tool that allow you to automate the migration from Seeburger to B2B Add-on message mappings.
B2B Add-on from SAP does work and can give you a way to manage your EDI messages. There are still some gaps in the B2B Add-on solution that could be greatly improved and where i see that an alterntaive solution could be better. It is in the area of:
Logging and archiving of messages sent.
Partner management and settings usability
Configuration of partner connections via AS2, VANS or SFTP.
I had a webinar with Paw Pedersen from BizBrains that created a product called Link. Link is a tool build to manage your EDI solution. It is currently being used to manage B2B for Biztalk, but the same system can be used also for SAP PI/PO. They have been running it for a number of customers from small companies wanting to run EDI to big banks. You will learn about what the solution can help with. You can see the replay here.
They have a number of different configuration options and security settings that are required for banks. They also have large customers with many partners, so they know how to make the application scale.
One of the reasons I think it could be useful for you is that you can switch to their platform and then there is no need to upgrade to the PO license and can stay on the PI License. It can save you a great deal of money and speed up your migration process.
There is a number of different ways the Link solution can tie into your SAP PI/PO solution from
Just as an Archive of messages
Partner configuration
Partner configuration that updates your mappings
Using it also for SAP CPI.
If you find the product interesting write to psp@bizbrains.com, and get a trial of what the solution can do.
I will be a part of designing a good solution that will make your migration as simple as possible.
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One of the biggest challenges with SAP PI/PO has been the lack of governance models for users. Documentation part has really been lacking making it and it has required a lot of manual work to get it done.
The process for handling governance for SAP PI/PO is just the same as with SAP XI for 15 years ago. The tooling has not changed much. There have just been a few changes that could say to improve the area. Ever since I started with XI/PI i have been working on different ways to improve the process of documentation but we have not made the dream solution yet.
Last year we added the option to use the ticket and thereby log changes to any object in SAP PI and PO, so all versions between them would be remembered. This was the first step in making documentation easier with Figaf IRT.
Now we are ready with the next big thing liking the full development together. So all documentation of your development is linked to CTS transports. That way you will know why something was changed and can see what is being transported much more transparent.
We have also added a central configuration of your channels. So there is just one place where you need to configure the information. IRT will then apply the configuration once the transport has been imported.
You can then make exports of your Integration scenarios documentation, and then show a changelog of this. And also show what was performed as a result of a ticket that you can add to your Jira, Solman to prove what you have done.
Here you can find the recording of the webniar that I did on 1 May 2019, where we showed this information to the public.
We are soon adding this to the release, so signup to check out the current version, and be the first to know once we have released the new iteration. If you have ideas on how to improve the tool and be a part of the beta program reach out to support@figaf.com.
Documentation is a part of all IT practices. It is there to ensure we document what has been created. This is to ensure that some people later will be able to help support the process. This is also true for SAP PI/PO projects. Documentation is something that does cost a lot to produce, so you need to get value from it and automate it.
I have a problem with the way we normally are documenting your scenarios. In many cases, the requirement for documentation have been small adjusted based on what some people from other departments wished and the types of the object used. It has been a manual process to update all of this documentation. Since I started with XI 3.0 in 2004 one of the things that I have always considered and worked with was how to make the documentation process much better. It has resulted in a host of tools that can create the documentation.
One of the big problems have always been it was almost impossible to create and maintain some documentation so you could keep your previous history. This is the same if you autocreate the documentation or if you make it manually. The Word document will be placed in some repository and then never be touched. I recond that you have seen some thing like the following change history, that will never changed.
The change history of only an inital entry
I wanted to keep the histroy and link it with a business requirmeent for the change. We have added the Ticket concept in Figaf IRT, here you can create a object that look like a Service Request, Request for Change or what jira ticket. The function allow you to handle all your processing in just one application and assign changes to the objects that is affected by a changed. We are working to make this even more connected with your CTS+ transport system, so you can registere all objects in the ticket easier.
When you then generate the documentation after some time you will see what was changed on the ICO, or any linked objects. So if somebody has changed a message mapping used by the ICO then you will it in the list. That way you know when it was changed. If you then later want to drill into what object you can open the link and see the full ticket information. All information in the document will only reflect what is the current values for it.
We still have some way to go with it. We can go into all Repository Objects, fetching and show the most interesting values from the channels, and get documentation from the different objects. We are looking for customer requierments and feedback to see what should make sense in the process.
You can try this out on your own system with the Free part of the Figaf IRT tool, though it will not create the full documentation for you. Then you will need to have a licensed version.
https://figaf.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Documenting-SAP-PI-scenarios-1.png6281200dgraversenhttp://figaf.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/160510_FigafLogo_final_35cm_KW.pngdgraversen2019-04-17 11:09:192019-04-17 11:09:36Documenting your SAP PI/PO scenarios
On a customer demo I got asked what is the test coverage of the tool. We do show in the UI how many ICO’s you have test for but how about message mappings and also modules used in your landscape and how many times they was run.
We already build a report that showed how many times a message mapping was run in a given period based on the data in the PI monitor. So it was just about combining the two sources to give users a good view of what is going on.
For each integration flow we added the number of test cases created with the IRT tool. Then number if then propaged down to each message mapping so we can show how many message mappings is tested and more important which is not.
We also added a tab with the modules used in your landscape and how they performed. Probably we also need to add the IRT test cases to this. But it also depend on how people want to with our with our our modules.
Check out the demo and then try it for free on your own system
You can try it out on your own system. Just download the Figaf IRT tool run it on your laptop and you will be able to see the data after the landscape have been downloaded.
https://figaf.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Test-coverage-of-your-SAP-PI-mappings.png6281200dgraversenhttp://figaf.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/160510_FigafLogo_final_35cm_KW.pngdgraversen2019-04-09 17:04:022019-04-09 17:04:03What is the test coverage of your SAP PI message mappings
Friday the 8 of March was the day that SAP finally released SP 14 of SAP PI/PO 7.5. The big promise was the new testing solution that allowed users to test SAP PI message process. It is called PIT.
“TL;DR the testing solution from SAP has some good features for testing. If you are serious with your testing and want full coverage then try out the Figaf IRT tool. “
As a vendor with a similar product, I have been interested in knowing what was going on with it and how it was working. I had seen some initial working of it but did not know where it would end. If it was going to be a killer product then it would remove part of my market. No customers can see the solution and judge if it will be useful for their use cases.
The key takes away is that testing is an important part of your it process where it is upgrading/patching, development or change of your interfaces. It is something that customer have expected and would like to see improved.
It is also good to know that SAP is taking the same approach as we have for fetching and running test cases.
Let’s start with the good part.
The Good part of PIT
It is a part of your license so you do not have to pay separately for it.
It removes the excuse that you cannot run any tests because you can always set it up
It supports fetching test data from dual-stack systems so you can test when you are performing upgrades for the systems. You will need to apply some ABAP notes to allow the recording.
You don’t need to install extra systems to run it the testing application.
It has a shared repository of data that all developers with the right role can access.
You can configure comparison of attachments
There are batch jobs running message processing and validation.
It is standard software following SAP delivery and support method.
Messages can be stopped before reaching the adapter and thereby not send it to the receiver.
That no changes need to be made to your landscape except you need to switch logging on for a period of time for the interfaces you want to collect data from.
It gives a good overview over how many messages that are affected by a change in one element
One overview i like. In just one screen you can see where the differences are structure across the testing result
I have not seen any roadmaps of the tool and how much resources and new features will be delivered but it looks like there will be more effort in it. So this is all based on the initial release.
Check out the video that I recorded that show my first look at what the tool can do.
My first experience with the tool and what is possible.
I believe that PIT will probably run more tests that my tool because the availability of the tool and customers it is simple to install the system.
What are the requirements
The test system must be installed on a 7.5 sp 14 or above. It can only run a test on the system with that SP level.
PIT is able to collect test data from AEX system 7.31+ that have been updated within the last 2 years (It requires this note 2650265, which seems to have been backported to all service packs on 7.31+).
PIT can also collect messages from ABAP based systems here you need to apply some more support packages to allow the system to read data.
I still see some areas where we have advantages over the SAP tool. (Okay, I may be a little biased, but if you try it out you will hopefully too.)
Why you still need to buy my tool
It enables you to test your modules that way you are ensuring that it is also covered as a part of the test.
We have a number of options for testing including using the SAP logging, but unlike SAP we du support all 7.31+ releases because we have web scraping to get messages. It is not an ideal solution but allows you to create test data on your old system without having to patch them. Because then you will have to do testing.
The speed of recording multiple test cases is a lot faster with the IRT tool because it can handle a lot of configuration needed. You can select multiple iflows and record them at the same time.
We do have a graphical overview to view differences and add ignoring of certain elements like time stamps that you do not want to cover.
Figaf support patterns not covered by PIT like Async-sync, Sync-async, EDISeperator and pattern is determinated automatically
Comparison not only in XML but also JSON, X12, EDIFACT, Text, and Binary
Simple data anonymization. You can select your input payload and then with a few clicks analyze everything and insert random names or number on different locations. This allows you to test with sensitive data and comply with GDPR.
Allow you to run multiple jobs and test cases when you want or scheduled
Excel report of all results so you can show how it worked
Connection with our DevOps solution so you can ensure that you are testing all interfaces that are affected by your change. It also allows you to document what was changed.
For customers the ability to get new features or functions delivered in days.
And so on… I could probably find a few more areas that we cover better.
Will we integrate the Figaf IRT tool with PIT
Since SAP will have a lot of test cases running in the tool we may be able to add some additional benefits of running tests with it. There may be something that can be implemented. We can leverage the way SAP is processing messages if you don’t want to get the test messages into the adapter. We could also use the ability to send a message directly to the message processing without creating an XI30 message.
We cloud probably also leverage the SAP part about downloading messages from dual-stack systems, and use them in our landscape.
IT will probably depend on when customers are adopting 7.5 sp14.
Your take away
If you have a plan to apply 7.5 sp 14 in the near future to your landscape do evaluate it. And see how it fits your plan and idea for working with the tools.
If you want to tool that can help you set up test cases faster, give you full tracking of what is being developed then try out the Figaf IRT tool? And we do support CPI also in the same approach.
You can check out the tool and see if it will suit your testing capabilities better. Check it out at Figaf.com/IRT
https://figaf.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/First-look-at-SAP-PIT-testing-tool.png6281200dgraversenhttp://figaf.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/160510_FigafLogo_final_35cm_KW.pngdgraversen2019-03-13 11:55:012019-03-13 11:57:46The testing solution from SAP to test PI/PO called PIT
