Guide to using the SAP Integration Plug-in for Adobe

Flex
Table of Contents
Guide to using the SAP Integration Plug-in for Adobe Flex..........................................1
Table of Contents.......................................................................................................1
Introduction................................................................................................................1
Storing Flex Applications in SAP..............................................................................1
Uploading Flex Applications into SAP without the plug-in......................................2
Uploading Flex Applications into SAP with the plug-in............................................4
Transporting Flex Applications from one SAP system to another.............................4

Introduction
The SAP Integration Plug-in for Adobe Flex allows easy and swift deployment of
Adobe Flex applications into the SAP R3 environment. This speeds up development
time by allowing developers to make a change and then quickly deploy and test their
application in SAP R3. This is particularly useful in situations where Adobe Flex is
being used as part of an SAP application and cannot be tested as a standalone
application.
Once the plug-in has been configured, applications can be deployed to SAP at the
touch of a button.

Storing Flex Applications in SAP

Flex Applications are compiled into .swf files in the Flex Development Environment.
These .swf files can be included in a web page (for example, a page generated by a
BSP) and are run on the end users desktop computer by Adobe Flash Player.
For users to be able to download and run the .swf files, they must be uploaded to a
web server, such as the SAP Web Application Server (WAS). In the WAS, the .swf
files can be stored into the SAP MIME repository, which allows them to be retrieved
easily by a web browser over HTTP. Typically, the .swf file will be viewed through a
web page created by a BSP, and the .swf file will be held as a MIME object against
that BSP application.

Uploading Flex Applications into SAP without the plug-in

Uploading the compiled Flex Application is a manual process conducted through the
SAP GUI. The user logs onto SAP and navigates to the transaction SE80, and then
searches for the appropriate BSP Application against which to store the .swf.

If the .swf has been uploaded previously, the user must first delete this .swf before
uploading a new version. This occurs frequently over the lifetime of an application,
and during development and testing; this must be done every time any change is made
to the application.

The user will be prompted for a transport in which to store the change. The user will
then need to upload the new version of the application as a new MIME object. The
user is taken through a number of screens and then the MIME object is finally
uploaded into SAP.

These steps must be completed every time any change is needed to a Flex application.
In addition, if the developer wishes to debug the Flex Application running in the SAP
environment, these steps must be duplicated to load the debug version of the Flex
Application.

Uploading Flex Applications into SAP with the plug-in

The user clicks the Deploy
button, and the plug-in deploys the appropriate .swf
files to SAP automatically. No further step is required.
It is worth noting that when a Flex application has already been loaded, rather than
deleting the MIME object and creating a new one (as per the manual process), the
plug-in loads the new version of the Flex Application into the existing MIME object..
This means that if the MIME object has any properties or transport assignment, these
remain unchanged during deployment.

Transporting Flex Applications from one SAP system to

another
When Flex applications are initially loaded with the plug-in, if the object does not
already exist in the target system, a new transport request is automatically created, and
the application is assigned to that transport. If the MIME object is already assigned to
a transport request, then it will remain assigned to that request after the new version is
uploaded. If the MIME object exists but is not assigned to a transport request, no new
request will be created.
The user can reassign the MIME object to a transport at any time in SAP using
transaction SE80, or can rename the generated transport using transaction SE10.
Expert SAP developers may wish to know that the Flex Application is given an Object
Directory Entry and is assigned to the same ABAP Package as the BSP Application to
which it is assigned. If the BSP Application is a local object (package $tmp) then no
transport will be created for the Flex Application.

Configuring the plug-in

The plug-in needs to be configured to connect to the SAP server in order to deploy the
Flex Application.
In Adobe Flex, go to the menu option Window -> Preferences -> SAP Deployment
Preferences enter information in the five text fields, and hit OK.

R3 System
The host name by which the SAP server is known on the network. An IP address can
also be used here.

R3 Port
The HTTP port number by which the SAP system can be accessed, Common
examples include 80, 8000 and 8080.

R3 Client
The client to which to log on.

R3 Username
The username used to log on to this client

R3 Password
The password used to log on to this client with this username.
An example is shown below

Configuring each Flex Application

Each flex application that you wish to deploy to SAP needs some configuration so
that the plug-in knows how to deploy it.
In Adobe Flex, right-click on the MXML file of the Flex Application that you wish to
deploy, select Properties -> SAP BSP Integration (Application), enter the
information as below, and hit OK.

MIME Folder to deploy to

This is the (case-sensitive) name of the BSP Application, or a folder within that
application if required, where the .swf file will be stored. If this field is empty, the
plug-in will not attempt to upload the application to SAP.

Deploy the SWF

Tick this if you wish to deploy the normal (not debug) .swf file to SAP

Deploy the debug SWF

Tick this if you wish to deploy the debug .swf file to SAP