Juergen (CTSC): New joint whitepaper about reliable messaging on SDN

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This week a new whitepaper with the title “Reliable Messaging between SAP XI 3.0 and Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 Using SOAP-Compliant Communication” was published on SDN. The whitepaper can be found on https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/7521a237-0701-0010-499b-b3285b789c0d.

The topic of this document is reliable messaging and Quality of Service ”exactly once”  message delivery between the Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 and the SAP Exchange Infrastructure (SAP XI) 3.0 using SOAP compliant communication.

In order to use as much out-of-the-box functionality as possible for reliable messaging the BizTalk Framework 2.0 is used for sending messages from the SAP XI to BizTalk Server and the SAP XI SOAP Header for sending messages from Microsoft BizTalk Server to the SAP XI. The whitepaper contains a detailed walkthrough of how to setup BizTalk Server 2004 and the SAP XI.

To enable SAP XI to send BizTalk Framework compliant messages, an XI Adapter Framework module for the SOAP Adapter was developed that transforms the XI SOAP message to a BizTalk Framework message that BizTalk Server 2004 can process. BizTalk Server will then retrieve the message and send back an acknowledgement to SAP XI. If SAP XI does not receive the acknowledgement, the original message will be resent. This resend mechanism is based on the PBE (Business Process Engine) of SAP XI and is also explained in detail in the whitepaper.

The SAP XI SOAP Adapter supports Exactly-Once end-to-end processing using unique message IDs. The dynamic send port of BizTalk Server is used to generate unique message IDs; the BizTalk message ID is used as this will be unique. The ID is added as a parameter to the URL that is used by the dynamic port which calls the Web Service of the SAP XI. 

The whitepaper describes what is possible today based on the supported standards of both products. In an announcement made last year from Microsoft and SAP both companies agreed to expand their cooperation in the interoperability of enhanced Web Services. As an example WS-ReliableMessaging specifications have been submitted to the “OASIS Web Service reliable Exchange (WS-RX) TC”, a working group inside OASIS. As a result, Microsoft BizTalk Server and SAP Exchange Infrastructure will support enhanced Web Services in their next major releases (mid-06). Based on the support for these enhanced Web Services, “adapterless” communication will be possible.

- Juergen