ERPConnect Services Web Service Designer

2013 · Theobald Software · .NET · C# · WPF · SharePoint

In 2013 I developed the Web Service Designer application as part of the ERPConnect Services product suite, which covers the full range of data integration between SharePoint and SAP.

The designer visually designs and deploys no-code SOAP or OData web services for SharePoint on a workflow designer surface, with C# expressions available to fine-tune each data mapping. It is a WPF application with a ribbon menu.

How a service is built

A designer project file holds the definition of one service with any number of operations. Each operation has input and output parameters. SOAP services allow several output parameters, OData services are more restricted. A parameter is either a primitive type or a custom data type (CDT). A CDT is defined once per service and reused across operations.

Every operation gets a workflow. The designer offers base, flow and SAP activities to build the logic of the operation.

Activities

Base and flow activities:

  • Check Condition Activity (IfElse)
  • Switch Cases Activity
  • For Each Activity
  • Do While Activity
  • Custom Code Activity
  • Assign Value Activity
  • Add Item (to collection) Activity

SAP activities:

  • Execute Table Activity (reads data from an SAP table)
  • Execute Function (execute an SAP BAPI function module)

Mappings and deployment

The data mappings describe how the SAP data objects turn into the primitive or custom data types. C# expressions are allowed in every field and property mapping.

  • One-Click and direct solution deployment on SharePoint servers
  • One-Click SharePoint solution generation
  • One-Click Visual Studio exporting (the visually designed web service can be exported as VS solution)

The Deploy button creates and compiles the service code, generates a SharePoint solution file (WSP) and deploys it on the server.

Screenshots

The main window of the Web Service Designer
The main window: service definition, custom data types and operations.
The workflow of the GetCustomers operation
The workflow of the GetCustomers operation: a check condition and two Execute Function activities.
The Execute Function activity dialog
The Execute Function activity with the parameter mappings for SD_RFC_CUSTOMER_GET.
The mapping structure dialog
Mapping a table structure to a custom data type, with expressions per property.
Editing a custom data type
Editing the custom data type Customer.

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