XI Process Integration (XI) Messages

The SAP Exchange Infrastructure message format is based on XML. Since a message in SAP XI can also have binary attachments, this documentation refers predominantly to messages in general and not specifically to XML messages.

XML Properties

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) enables you to describe data in a highly intelligible form. An XML schema definition specifies which elements can be used, which attributes these elements have, and how they are structured. More than one instance (a document that matches an XML schema definition) can exist for each schema. The following example of an instance illustrates that the elements in a schema are ordered hierarchically:

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These elements (for example, ) are also known as tags in HTML.

You can describe the structure of a schema by using an XML schema. As well as the description of the structure of an XML document (elements, attributes, hierarchy), this language allows you to define simple and complex data types. Note the following difference:

· XML schema language provides a series of language constructs that you can use to describe an XML schema.

· XML schema definition describes exactly one XML schema and is defined using the XML schema language.

· More than one schema instance can exist for an XML schema. A schema instance is an XML document; its structure and values are defined using a corresponding XML schema definition. The process whereby the system checks whether an XML document matches a schema definition is called validation.

The terms XML instance or schema instance are often used instead of XML document. Whereas the term XML document is normally used to refer to a document on a file system, the storage medium is less important in the other two terms.

The W3C recommendation for XML schema dated May 2, 2001 comprises three parts: XML Schema Part 0: Primer, XML Schema Part 1: Structures and XML Schema Part 2: Data Types.

XI Message Protocol

The XI message protocol of SAP Exchange Infrastructure is based on the W3C note SOAP Messages with Attachments (for more information, see: www.w3.org/TR/SOAP-attachments). The Integration Server expects a message that has the following structure:

The SOAP header of a message contains all the important information that the Integration Server requires to forward the message, while the payload contains the actual business data (such as in the example above). You can also append an unlimited number of attachments to the message before it is sent. Attachments typically comprise non-XML data, for example, pictures, text documents, or binary data.

The information in the message header must have the correct format for the message to be processed on the Integration Server. The payload is not touched unless a mapping needs to be executed.

Discussion

Using XML technology has, among others, the following advantages:

· XML is the standard exchange format in the Internet. Before this standard was created, there were practically no open exchange formats, which made communication in heterogeneous system landscapes very difficult.

· Further standards and tools now exist that make working with XML even easier, examples being XML Schema, XSLT and XPath. XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations), for example, enables you to define mappings for messages with different structures. XPath expressions enable conditions to be evaluated depending on values in the payload. Evaluations of this type are required for receiver determination in logical routing.

· As a standardized format, XML also enables you to connect to external systems. Once data from an external system has been converted to XML using an adapter, then it is a simple step to convert the data to other XML formats for other receivers.