SAP and Visual Studio 2005

I wrote in a previous blog entry that the design-time of the SAP Connector for Microsoft .NET does not work in Visual Studio 2005. Work-arounds are possible using Visual Studio 2003 to generate the proxies or using SAP Web Services via Exchange Infrastructure (XI) or directly from SAP NetWeaver Application Server are possible.

You can also use the Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 with the Microsoft BizTalk Adapter for mySAP Business Suite to access SAP backend systems from Visual Studio 2005. The adapter offers code-free access to SAP systems. You can access every BAPI, RFC or IDoc from within Visual Studio 2005 with this adapter. In addition, Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 enables you to publish your BizTalk application as a Web Service; a wizard helps you with the steps. The resulting Web Service can be used in your Visual Studio 2005 project and so no additional connector for accessing your SAP system is necessary.

Another alternative is to use third-party adapters such as the Sitrion iQL Studio 2006. This tool from the German based company Sitrion Systems enables rapid deployment and development of Microsoft-SAP based scenarios and .NET-based SAP Composite Applications. The iQL Studio works in Visual Studio 2005 without any restrictions. You can access all SAP instances and Business Entity-Repositories. You have access to RFCs, BAPIs, Queries, Reports, and also to Workflows in SAP. In addition you have the testing functionality of SAP transaction SE37 in Visual Studio and you can start the SAP ABAP Debugger from within Visual Studio. Sitrion also offers business entities and applications based on iQL Studio 2006 such as Travel Management, HR Manager Self Service, Employee Self Service, Sales Opportunity Management and a few more. For more information about the iQL Studio see www.sitrion.com.

- Juergen