BAPI Learning Guide

By Vicki-lynn Brunskill
05 Feb 2004 | SearchSAP.com

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Baffled by BAPIs? This guide explains what a BAPI is, how BAPI is used, and where it fits into your integration development. You'll find articles, tutorials, examples, tips, tools, expert advice and more to help you understand and use BAPIs.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BAPI Quick Start

Finding BAPIs

Understanding BAPI development

BAPIs, RFC and IDOCs- who's on first?

The connection conundrum- BAPIs, Java and JCo

BAPI errors

BAPI chat

Quick tips

Additional resources

BAPI Quick Start
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BAPI (Business Application Programming Interface) is a set of interfaces to object-oriented programming methods that enable a programmer to integrate third-party software into the proprietary R/3 product from SAP. For specific business tasks such as uploading transactional data, BAPIs are implemented and stored in the R/3 system as remote function call (RFC) modules.

A good place to get started is this Introduction to BAPIs presented by sappoint.com.

SAP also provides this in-depth BAPI User Guide to help you master the basics. Terminology, rules for usage and prerequisites are included.

Also, SAP provides this BAPI Programming Guide

These definitions will help you to understand related terms used in this guide.

Glossary Definition: IDoc

Glossary Definition: RFC

Glossary Definition: ABAP

Glossary Definition: Java

Finding BAPIs
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Looking for a specific BAPI? Here we've gathered several lists of BAPIs by version.

Keep these invaluable tools bookmarked for easy reference.

List of all BAPIs -version 4.6x (Planetsap.com)

List of all BAPIs-version 3.1G (Sappoint.com)

Lookup tool-BAPIs by version(zoption)

In addition, use this excellent article from SAP Info to learn how to find a BAPI.

Understanding BAPI development
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This section will help you to understand BAPI conventions and make sense of the rules and tools for programming with BAPIs.
Methods, standardized conventions and development tools are explained in these links.

BAPI conventions(sap-img.com)

Enhancements to released BAPIs (SAP Knowledge Warehouse)

Programming with BAPIs (SAP Knowledge Warehouse)

Examples of BAPI calls (SAP Knowledge Warehouse)

BAPIs, RFC and IDOCs- who's on first?
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BAPIs, RFCs and IDOCs are often confused. This section will help you to understand how RFCs relate to BAPIs.

A BAPI is a business object. An RFC is functional code. IDOCs OR intermediate documents are standard data structures for electronic data interchange (EDI) between application programs. IDocs are used for asynchronous transactions: each IDoc generated exists as a self-contained text file that can then be transmitted to the requesting workstation without connecting to the central database.

Included here is expert BAPI advice from SearchSAP.com Ask the Expert panelists Thomas Schuessler and Axel Angeli.

Clarifying BAPIs, IDocs and Partners (SearchSAP.com)

BAPIs vs. IDocs (SearchSAP.com)

BAPIs vs. IDocs tip (SearchSAP.com)

Difference between BAPI and RFC (SearchSAP.com)

Will the BAPI function names change? (SearchSAP.com)

The connection conundrum- BAPIs, Java and JCo
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Every developer wants to know how to call BAPIs using JCo. This section will teach you the ins and outs of using the SAP Java Connector.

Calling BAPIs through JCo (SearchSAP.com)

Why build a custom JCo repository?(tip) (SearchSAP.com)

Developing Applications with the "SAP Java Connector"(PDF) (ARAsoft)

Introduction to SAP Java Connector (JCo) Client Programming (webcast) (SearchSAP.com)

In this webcast, Schuessler will show you step-by-step how to build a simple client application calling BAPIs from Java.

A Brief Introduction to the JCo Server (SearchSAP.com)

How can I get a JCo list of supported BAPIs? (SearchSAP.com)

Talk to SAP with JCo (SearchSAP.com)

BAPI errors
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This section explains some common BAPI errors and their solutions.

BapiGetOpenItems error (SearchSAP.com)

BAPIs with bad return codes (SearchSAP.com)

Checking if a BAPI call is successful (SearchSAP.com)

BAPI chat
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In this section we present answers to frequently asked BAPI questions, an interview with BAPI expert Thomas Schuessler of ARAsoft and helpful discussion threads from the SearchSAP.com developer forum.

Interview with Mr. SAP, Thomas Schuessler (SearchSAP.com)

FAQ's -BAPIs and integration (SearchSAP.com)

Discussions

BAPI return code (SearchSAP.com)

Transforming BAPI XML output into HTML using XSL (SearchSAP.com)

BAPI_ENTRYSHEET_RELEASE(SearchSAP.com)

BAPI_GOODSMVT_CREATE(SearchSAP.com)

BAPI_MATERIAL_SAVEDATA(SearchSAP.com)

BAPI or RFC for payment posting(SearchSAP.com)

Uploading Appraisals into SAP using BAPI (SearchSAP.com)

Quick tips
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These development tips will help you tackle some of your toughest BAPI issues. Learn the difference between asynchronous and synchronous BAPIs, get BAPI COMMIT advice and messaging help here.

R/3 Reporting through BAPIs (SearchSAP.com)

The difference between Asynchronous and Synchronous BAPIs (SearchSAP.com)

ALE/BAPI Messaging (PDF) (ERP home)

Standard vs. homemade BAPIs (SearchSAP.com)

BAPI to retrieve "Check Values" (SearchSAP.com)

Using the SAP Password BAPIs (SearchSAP.com)

Additional resources
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SearchSAP.com is constantly adding resources for SAP developers. Post questions in our busy forums for a quick response or search our Development Best Web links for helpful Web resources.

Best Web links- SAP development (SearchSAP.com)

Developer tips section (SearchSAP.com)

Developer topics section (SearchSAP.com)

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