WebSphere® Adapter for SAP Software provides you with a way to create integrated processes that include the exchange of information with an SAP server. Using the adapter, a client application can send requests to the SAP server (for example, to query a customer record in an SAP table or to update an order document) or receive events from the server (for example, to be notified that a customer record has been updated). The adapter creates a standard interface to the applications and data on the SAP server, so that the client application does not have to understand the lower-level details (the implementation of the application or the data structures) on the SAP server.
WebSphere Adapter for SAP Software complies with the Java Connector Architecture (JCA), which standardizes the way application components, application servers, and enterprise information systems, such as an SAP server, interact with each other.
The adapter component, which you generate with the Adapter Connection wizard, uses a standard interface and standard data objects. The adapter component takes the standard data object sent by the client application and calls the SAP function. It then returns a standard data object to the client application. The client application does not have to deal directly with the SAP function; it is the SAP adapter component that calls the function and returns the results.
For example, the client application that needed the list of customers would send a standard business object with the range of customer IDs to the SAP adapter component. The client application would receive, in return, the results (the list of customers) in the form of a standard business object. The client application would have no need to know how the function worked or how the data was structured. The adapter component would perform all the interactions with the actual SAP function.
Similarly, the client application might want to know about a change to the data on the SAP server (for example, a change to a particular customer). You can generate an adapter component that listens for such events on the SAP server and notifies client applications with the update. In this case, the interaction begins at the SAP server.