Enterprise SOA

Chapter FIFTEEN. Creating Enterprise Services in ABAP

This chapter discusses how to create services in ABAP. First, we’ll address some developer concerns regarding enterprise services creation and compare web services with enterprise services. The chapter moves on to describe two methodologies for creating services in ABAP. It then explores the capabilities offered by the SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure (SAP NetWeaver XI). The chapter concludes with a brief look at the future of creating enterprise services.

Can I start creating enterprise services today, or should I wait?

Companies can begin developing enterprise services right away, and here is why. Creating enterprise services doesn’t require a big-bang approach. It is an incremental process and can be as simple as turning some piece of needed functionality into a web service. One of the reasons that there is wide industry agreement on the topic of service-oriented architecture (SOA) is that it doesn’t require scrapping today’s investments in favor of a new architecture. Instead, the systems and functionality you have today will become the basis for your SOA. Even more important, taking a step back to consider your essential business processes and beginning to service enable them allows you to move incrementally toward a full-blown SOA.

Another concern often raised is interoperability. SAP is a founding member of the chief standards-setting body for web services, the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I), and it ...