How to Execute SAP RFC using SOAP?

Question

I have a requirement where I need to run an RFC from an ETL (Datastage) job. It can be done by executing a Unix command also, of course (the Datastage server is Unix). I don't think they have the SAP plug-in for Datastage, though.

I've tried and succeeded using the startrfc command fired as a Unix script, but the client's preferred solution would be using SOAP - which I don't know much about, but I do have the URL for the RFC. Now, only if I knew how to use it...

Any ideas? Experiences? Tutorials? I'm grasping at straws at this point. This is quite, quite different from stuff I'm used to.

Any and all help much appreciated!

Answer 1

Like Ben said, You should ask the SAP responsible for an SOAP endpoint in their system. If you or the SAP staff are looking for an explanation how to expose a RFC as Web Service, there are a lot of articles about it on the SAP Developer Network. E.g. this one: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/f02b33fc-9eb1-2c10-0599-f2ef9fb5c5b6?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true

Answer 2

If you have a URL pointing to the RFC it sounds like they may have exposed it as a web service. If this is the case you can just tack a ?wsdl on the end of the URL and use the WSDL to generate a web service proxy on the DataStage side.