Write your own RFCs without using SE37!

Of late - I have found a need to be able to write RFCs on the fly - partly to be able to deliver new functionality to my user base for my RFC implementations for Perl, Python, and Ruby. Using transports is not an option because of potential licensing issues, and the practicalities of release support. I started looking into how you can actually write Function Modules on the fly, and ended up with SAP::Tools which I have first released for Ruby.

Here is an example (albeit a pointless one) of how to build up an interface, and then insert the code into an RFC that is ready to run.

require "lib/SAP/Tools"

rfc = SAP::Tools.new(:ashost => "seahorse.local.net",
                   :sysnr  => 00,
                   :lang   => "EN",
                   :client => 000,
                   :user   => "DEVELOPER",
                   :passwd => "DEVELOPER",
                   :trace  => 1)

func_pool = "ZMYRFC1"
func = "ZTEST"
short_text = "Some function group - #{func_pool}"
func_desc = "description of #{func}"

# get the connection ID
print "[main] connect id: ", rfc.connection, "\n"

# test the connection
print "[main] is_connected: ", rfc.is_connected(), "\n"

if rfc.existsRFC(func)
  print "[main] deleting: #{func}\n"
  rfc.deleteRFC(func)
end

ztest = SAP::Iface.new(func)
ztest.addParm(SAP::Parm.new(:name => "PARMIMP", :type => RFCIMPORT, :like => "SY-REPID", :optional => true))
ztest.addParm(SAP::Parm.new(:name => "PARMEXP", :type => RFCEXPORT, :like => "TRDIR"))
ztest.addParm(SAP::Parm.new(:name => "SYSTEM", :type => RFCEXPORT, :like => "SY-SYSID"))
ztest.addParm(SAP::Tab.new(:name => "WAHOO", :like => "TAB512", :optional => true))

src =  [
      'TABLES: TRDIR.',
      'SELECT SINGLE * FROM TRDIR WHERE NAME = PARMIMP.',
      'SYSTEM = SY-SYSID.',
      'PARMEXP = TRDIR.',
     ]

test = rfc.makeRFC(:func => ztest,
                    :desc => func_desc,
                    :group => func_pool,
                    :grouptext => short_text,
                    :source => src)

# close the connection
print "[main] close connection: ", rfc.close(), "\n"

You may ask why would I bother to go to this trouble, and my reply is that I have been banging my head against SAP's inertia, and internal politics for the last year, trying to get access to the new features for handling complex data types in RFC . As a result I have had to build a complex framework for automatically generating RFC to support my efforts for dynamically instantiating ABAP Objects, and calling methods etc. from Perl, Ruby etc.

However - a side effect is that this can open up the way for accessing lots of Function Modules that aren't RFC enabled without having to go to the trouble of developing wrappers from within R/3 (these wrappers can be automatically created for you).

If you think this is a "Hack" then you're right - but as I've eluded to before - this is a Hackers (an artistic programmer as opposed to an nefarious evil-doer) response to the reluctance I have experienced from SAP, in the pursuit of extending the sophistication of integration of R/3 with scripting programming languages from the Open Source world. Further to this - I am noticing a worrying trend in Senior SAP Executive rhetoric with respect to Open Source, and am wondering if this is signalling a change in some of the founding principles that have carried SAP to such heights as it enjoys now.

Posted by PiersHarding at November 15, 2005 8:03 AM

Comments

Posted by: Jonathan Groll at November 17, 2005 9:47 AM

Posted by: Cesar at November 24, 2005 9:43 AM