Invoke Objects and Methods Properties

When the Objects and Methods page is displayed, you can choose which of the following categories to use:

Business Objects (BAPIs): The Business Application Programming Interface is the standard SAP interface. BAPIs allow integration at the business level rather than the technical level. This provides for greater linkage stability and independence from the underlying communication technology.
Function Modules (RFCs): RFC allows for remote calls between two SAP systems (R/3 or R/2) or between an SAP system and a non-SAP system.
ALE/EDI Messages (IDOCs): Intermediate Document is a standard data structure for electronic data interchange (EDI) between application programs written for the popular SAP business system or between an SAP application and an external program.

Depending on which category you choose, you are asked to select objects or methods. After you choose objects or methods, click the Processing Options link to change runtime behavior.

Business Objects (BAPIs)

The following table describes the page you see if you select Business Objects (BAPIs).

Element	Description
Processing Options	Use the Commit Transaction option to specify whether the interaction with SAP is stateful or stateless.
Application Components	Expose a hierarchy of components such as sales, finance, and HR.
Functional Area	Select a functional area, such as Sales and Distribution.
Objects	Select an object, such as Sales Order.
Methods	Select a method, such as CreateFromData.
Available Methods	Displays a list of methods to select. You are shown the list of available methods based on the functional area and object you selected above. You can use the arrow buttons to move the method to the Selected Methods list. The methods are moved to the Selected Methods list as you select them.
Selected Methods	Displays the list of methods you have selected.

Function Modules (RFCs)

These are the SAP communication methods that are supported by the SAP adapter for outbound processing.

Transactional RFC (tRFC): This is an asynchronous communication method that executes the called function in the target system only once. The listener to the port need not be available at the time the SAP RFC client program executes a tRFC. The tRFC component stores the called RFC function together with the corresponding data in the SAP database under a unique transaction ID (TID).

Queued RFC (qRFC): This is also an asynchronous communication method that guarantees that multiple requests are processed in the order specified by the sender. tRFC can be serialized using queues (inbound and outbound queues). The tRFC requests that are serialized using the inbound/outbound queues in SAP are called queued RFC (qRFC). qRFC is an extension of tRFC that processes requests that have no predecessors in the same queue. You can use qRFC to guarantee that several requests are processed in a defined order.

The following table describes the page you see if you select Function Modules (RFCs).

Element	Description
Processing Options	Use the Commit Transaction option to specify whether the interaction with SAP is stateful or stateless. Use the RFCOptions option to specify: SYNC RFC — No RFC processing. Transactional RFC — Transactional RFC communication. Queued RFC — Process the requests in a queue. You are prompted for the name of the queue which is already defined in SAP.
Functional Area	Select a functional area, such as Sales and Distribution.
Methods	Select a method, such as CreateFromData.
Available Methods	Displays a list of methods to select. You are shown the list of available methods based on the functional area and object you selected above. You can use the arrow buttons to move the method to the Selected Methods list. The methods are moved to the Selected Methods list as you select them.
Selected Methods	Displays the list of methods you have selected.

ALE/EDI Messages (IDOCs)

The following table describes the page you see if you selectALE/EDI Messages (IDOCs).

Element	Description
Processing Options	There is one processing option for IDOCs — QueueName. Use the QueueName option to process the requests in a queue. You are prompted for the name of the queue which is already defined in SAP.
Groups	Select a group of methods such as `matmas`, rather than an individual method.
Methods	Select an individual method, such as `matmas01`.
Available Methods	Displays a list of methods to select. You are shown the list of available methods based on the functional area and object you selected above. You can use the arrow buttons to move the method to the Selected Methods list. The methods are moved to the Selected Methods list as you select them.
Selected Methods	Displays the list of methods you have selected.