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I have a requirement for doing a catalog data import from SAP to websphere commerce database.

I am trying to figure out the best possible solutions that can be implemented and need your suggestions.

  1. I did research that the data can be loaded through .csv files in the WCS. Is that a good way to ask SAP team to provide the feed in the csv format and upload that directly to the commerce database.

  2. Or I should have a middleware in between SAP and WCS for the data processing which can actually get the data from SAP and convert it into the WCS format and then dataload can be done in WCS.

  3. Is there any other approach which can be done?

Sandra Rossi
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user179516
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  • Is this a one time data export or is it something that's going to happen repeatedly? Are there SAP developers at your disposal? An SAP developer could change the shape of the data and export it however you want it. – IntStarFoo Dec 06 '13 at 15:14
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    Keep in mind that SAP isn't just a database. Depending on the modules installed, SAP can act as middleware (SAP PI, SAP NetWeaver Gateway, SAP Web Services, etc), a data mart (SAP BW, etc), a front end user tool (SAPGUI, WebDynpro, Duet, etc) and more. Having said that, you need to decide based on your scenario how to properly utilize resources. If you have a big SAP team - it might be better to take advantage of them. If not, it might be best to ask for the data in the way they know how use the WebSphere middleware to do the import conversion. – IntStarFoo Dec 06 '13 at 15:22
  • Ya I do have few SAP developers in the team which can work on the change required. But I would like to know of a better approach for data import from SAP to WCS database. Should I have a middleware inbetween SAP -> ESB (MQ) -> WCS or it can be simply SAP -> WCS eliminating the middle layer. – user179516 Dec 06 '13 at 15:32
  • This data import would happen repeatedly. – user179516 Dec 06 '13 at 15:33
  • It is unlikely that you will need anything between SAP and WCS. If the SAP system can access the WCS system, then figure out the best option you have at your disposal to communicate. SAP has modules that allow you to shape and send data to almost any source. But you have to decide what you have before making the decision on what to use. Then follow the typical decision tree of data freshness vs performance vs security vs... etc ad nauseaum. Typically, you would use something like SAP BW to push this kind of data out for consumption on a periodic basis. – IntStarFoo Dec 07 '13 at 00:54

2 Answers2

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There is an SAP to IBM whitepaper. Your IBM technical contact will be able to provide it to you. Also if you do a google search there are quite a lot of entries - https://www.google.com/search?q=websphere+commerce+sap&oq=websphere+commerce+sap&aqs=chrome..69i57j0j69i65l3j69i59.2683j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8.

Personally, If you're using an MDM product, I'd use an adapter. If you're looking for speed, use the WCS dataload utility. If you're looking to do adhoc changes, use the WCS web services. I would also highly suggest you use an ESB since you're most likely going to push content to more than the eCommerce channel. IBM Integration Bus has a SAP adaptor that understands SAP iDoc.

Albert T. Wong
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You can use SAP PO services as a middleware between SAP and WCS. The easiest way is to get the data from SAP and convert the data into the IBM readable format in XML files. These files can be split into different files containing the catentry data, attribute data, catentry - catgroup relation. Drop the files in some location for WCS to pick them and load. Run the dataload utility in WCS by providing the right order of loader.

SAP PO contains all the functionalities of PI, plus BPM and BRM in a single Java stack. I hope you were able to visualize the evolution of SAP middleware.

Puneet
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