Integrate with SAP RFC

Loftware Spectrum® Integration for use with SAP® Applications allows Spectrum to register with an SAP Application Server as a program that SAP Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) applications may call and to which they can send print requests.

You can configure as many SAP RFC integrations as your Spectrum license allows. More than one integration may point to the same SAP Application Server and even to the same RFC Program ID.

Before You Begin: Before you create SAP RFC integrations, you must create an RFC Destination for the Spectrum interface in SAP ERP in Transaction SM59. For more information, see Configure SAP ERP for RFC Communication.

Note: An SAP RFC integration field value has a limit of 1000 characters.

To create an SAP RFC integration that allows print requests from an SAP Application Server to be processed by Spectrum, do the following.

In Integrations , in the ribbon click > SAP RFC to create an SAP RFC integration.
In the General panel, configure the following details about SAP.
1. A different job target folder must be configured for each integration. For Job Target Folder, select a unique folder in Spectrum to which status information about print jobs related to this integration should be directed.
2. For Default Process, select either a process that you have created that should be applied to the integration, or else select the Generic Document Process in the root folder.
3. For Transaction Size, enter the number of labels to allow in a batch. It is recommended to set this value to be greater than the size of any expected batch of print job details you may need to send. For example, if you have a stacked job with 200 labels being printed to the same device, the transaction size should be set to 201 or greater.
4. For Run As, select the Spectrum user account under which print requests from SAP applications should be run. This user account must have at least the INTEGRATOR role or equivalent permissions.
In the SAP panel, configure the following details about SAP.
1. For SAP System Name, enter the name of the SAP Application Server, typically 8 characters in length.
2. For SAP Client, enter the three-digit identification number from SAP Transaction SCC4. This is the client ID with which the SAP user specified by the SAP Username is authorized to log on.
3. For SAP Username and SAP Password, enter SAP credentials for the integration to use when connecting.
4. For SAP Gateway Service, enter the SAP network gateway (port) available for registration.
5. To support SAP Load Balancing connection mode to permit multiplexing of communication with all SAP Systems in your SAP environment, select Load Balance Connection. Otherwise, clear the check box to use SAP Single Server connection mode instead.
6. If you selected Load Balance Connection, configure the following options.
  1. For SAP Message Server (MSHOST), enter the name or IP address of the message server that performs load balancing of communication between application servers in an SAP System. This name must be the same on all application servers belonging to the same SAP System.
  2. For SAP IP Address (GWHOST), enter the IPv4 address of the SAP Application Server.
  3. For SAP Group, enter the name of the SAP logon group.
  4. For SAP System ID (R3NAME), enter the name or IP address of the SAP R/3 System.
  5. For SAP Message Server Port (MSSERV), enter the name of the load balancing service used for SAP.
7. If you cleared Load Balance Connection, configure the following options.
  - For SAP IP Address (GWHOST), enter the IPv4 address of the SAP Application Server.
  - For SAP System Number, enter the two-digit identification number for the SAP instance to which to connect.
In the Advanced panel, configure the following details.
1. For Connection Count, enter the maximum number of RFC requests to allow to be simultaneously processed. Any additional requests are queued until an active request is completed.
2. For RFC Program ID, enter the registered program ID of the RFC program from the RFC Destination in the SAP Application Server.
3. To ignore empty field names, select Ignore Empty Fields. Otherwise, empty field names will cause a job to fail.
4. To ignore invalid field names, select Ignore Invalid Field Names. Otherwise, invalid field names will cause a job to fail.
In the Archive Options panel, it is recommended that you clear Archive Original Job File and Archive XML check boxes except during testing. However, for Archive Folder you must enter a UNC path to a shared folder or a path to a local folder on the Spectrum Application Server to which files can be saved if archiving is turned on. For example, \\Server01\Archive or C:\Archive. If the folder does not exist, it is created.
In the Properties pane, enter a description of the purpose of the integration.
Click File > Save or click Save in the toolbar.
1. In the Save dialog box, enter a name for the integration.
  Important! For SAP BC-XOM integrations, the Integration Name must match the name included in the Submit command in the Logical Output Management System (LOMS) on the SAP Application Server. For more information, see Configure SAP ERP for BC-XOM Communication.
  Characters permitted in names
  The following characters are permitted in the name: letters, numbers, parentheses, square brackets, ampersands, plus signs, commas, semi-colons, and tildes. Additionally, the following characters are permitted but cannot begin or end the name: spaces, double quotation marks, single quotation marks, hyphens, underscores, periods, and grave accents. For letters, the case that you specify is displayed, but case is ignored when Spectrum interprets a name. If you will be installing the Spectrum application on a computer running Windows Server, and transferring data between Spectrum instances, see the "Transferring Spectrum Data in a Compressed File" section of the Loftware Spectrum Data Transfer Guide.
2. In the left pane of the Save dialog box, select the folder in which to save the integration. You can click a folder to display subfolders.
3. Click OK to save the integration. Creation information is displayed in the Properties pane.
In the ribbon, click Home > Start Integration.
To verify that the integration has started, view the Status in the Properties pane.

After the integration is started, its associated function becomes available until the integration is stopped. If the integration is stopped or cannot be accessed due to network issues, print requests remain pending.

Tip: To ensure that SAP BC-XOM integrations and SAP RFC integrations can function successfully, use only uppercase text in the Data Ref fields in label templates in Label Design . By default, Data Ref fields are case sensitive.

Important! Whenever you add a new device, data service, integration, or facility, you must ensure that the service is activated on all Spectrum Application Servers on which it should be available to run and started on at least one. In an environment with only one Spectrum Application Server, these types of services are automatically activated and started when they are created. For more information, see High Availability with Distributed Services.