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I'm salesforce.com developer and I need to build a simple SFDC/SAP integration scenario for demo purposes.

I have absolutely no experiences with SAP but we have at least a SAP demo system that I can currently access via SAP GUI only. Now a third party integration solution provider passed me some files and told me to transport them into my SAP demo system using transaction STMS. I think I understood that SAP's Transport Managment system is some kind of deployment tool to lift ABAP code from DEV to QA to PROD.

The problem is that the SAP demo system does not include Transport Management or at least the guys from India who host it are not willing to support it.

Now my last hope is to get the ABAP stuff directly into our SAP demo system, but I'm not sure if that's even possible. So if anybody out there can give me a hint on how to proceed I'd be extremely happy!

Thanks and best regards, Henry

Sandra Rossi
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h9nry
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2 Answers2

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Honestly, please, please, PLEASE get someone involved who knows about the system. You'll do yourself and all of us out here who have to support the stuff you build a HUGE favor.

Concerning the transport files, you'll have to upload files to the server and then tell the system to import them. You'll need access to the transport directory, and using the import tools implies that the TMS is configured. If it isn't, you'll need even more knowledge you don't have. All other ways to "get stuff into the systems" are prone to errors you don't even have a chance of anticipating, much less than understanding if you know as little as you say. I don't want to discourage you, but there's nothing to gain in trying to circumvent the TMS, even if doubtlessly someone is going to suggest it along the way. Just take some pointy objects and prod the basis administrators until they import the transport files. It's only a demo system after all. (I hope.)

vwegert
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    thanks for your reply even if i find the introduction quite melodramatic. the longer i'm trying to get myself a bit more familiar with sap the more i get the feeling that especially the technical foundations are stylized as some super high complexity voodoo that only overpaid sap consultants would ever be able to understand. but that's probably just my impression. – h9nry Aug 22 '12 at 12:18
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    It's no voodoo, just about the largest software system you can buy off-the-shelf today. It's possible to learn anything, but it takes time and determination. "Don't wanna know, just wanna do" won't work. ;-) – vwegert Aug 22 '12 at 14:56
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You can try to ask the people who provided you with the transport files to export the ABAP code to XML files using SAPLink. Then you could try importing them in your SAP Demo system using the same tool. Of course at the very beginning you will probably have errors with unresolved dependencies because your demo system might not have all the needed modules installed.

To export/import some special objects (classes, interfaces, function groups, etc.) you will also need to install some plugins for SAPLink

Jagger
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  • hey thanks for your input, i'll try to get in contact with the abap developers who built the integration solution, maybe they can help me to get the xml based version into the system. – h9nry Aug 22 '12 at 12:07
  • That won't work if the third party interface is properly developed in a registered namespace because then you'd need a P-Key for that namespace and the developers would be crazy to hand that out... Just one of the un-anticipatable (is that an acutal word?) errors I was talking about... – vwegert Aug 22 '12 at 14:55
  • @h9nry: In case you do not know what vwegert is telling you. You might ask the ABAP code providers whether they start the names of their objects with letter `Z` or `Y`. In case they start with `/SOMETHING/` you might not be able to import the stuff via `SAPLink`, although I cannot tell this with 100% certainty as I have never used it for importing developments done in a registered namespace. It works with `STMS` even if you do not register the namespace in the SAP Service Marketplace for the system you import to (checked lately in one of my projects). – Jagger Aug 22 '12 at 17:02
  • Jagger, SAPlink uses the same functions to access the repository that every other component does. You can't create a development object in an namespace you don't own without heavily modifying critical parts of the system. It works with STMS because you don't create the object but import it. That's a totally different action. – vwegert Aug 22 '12 at 17:48