SAP Application Interface Framework (AIF) is an SAP add-on that facilitates integrations of business users and enables their monitoring. It enables businesses to create, deploy, monitor and manage all of their application interfaces in one place. One of the biggest advantages of AIF is that it enables users to perform interface modeling, message processing, error management and error correction efficiently and effectively in the SAP environment.
This plugin can be used for both cloud and on-premises systems. AIF for on-premises systems is available as part of the SAP S/4 HANA on-premises edition. AIF is also available as an add-on that you can install and use on your on-premises system (up to SAP NetWeaver 7.50)
SAP Application Interface Framework is available as a set of applications under the “Message Monitoring” section in the Cloud. This can be a bit confusing because you will not see a section specifically named AIF in the UI, but you can be sure AIF is running in the background.
SAP AIF delivery timelines are the same as SAP S4 HANA on-premises and cloud editions as it is part of Software Stack. You can expect updates to your on-premises AIF setup every 12 months and your cloud apps every three months.
Table of Contents
SAP Application Interface Framework helps businesses to separate interface monitoring according to technical and functional aspects and process and store messages in a single platform log. In this way, users can obtain much more detailed information about all interfaces and messages and make application improvements based on this information.
SAP AIF is a highly functional solution. Thanks to the functionality of the solution, businesses can perform functional isolation, perform operations for error messages in batches, and improve data quality.
SAP AIF's features have the ability to meet some important needs of customers. If we give examples of these needs;
SAP AIF facilitates interface management by providing tools and processes to overcome such challenges.
Some of the features of SAP AIF that can facilitate your work in integration preparation processes can be listed as follows:
After you create a namespace, you can create your integrations using the interface definition feature.
Fix Values is used when a one-to-one translation is needed for field contents. In the inbound integration scenario, a limited number of values that the fields can take are predetermined and each value is translated into a unique equivalent by SAP AIF.
Value mapping is used to derive a value for a field in the target structure from the field in the source structure – up to five.
You can use structure mapping to convert files in different formats and convert the file you send to the business partner's template.
The Data Check feature can be used when performing various checks for an integration. For example, if the A field in the message to be transmitted is missing or takes a value other than the desired one, you can use the Data Check feature to ensure that the integration works successfully. You can define an error message to be written to the log in case the check fails.
An Action causes at least one Function Module call to be triggered. You can also use the Action property to start a post-processing process.
SAP AIF is not limited to Integrations only. Can connect to custom built apps via APIs.
The monitoring features of the SAP Application Interface Framework allow you to monitor your integrations for various technologies. We can briefly list the technologies supported by SAP AIF as follows: Proxy XI Runtime, AIF Runtime XML, ALE / IDoc, Web Service, Enterprise Service and BDoc.
In addition, AIF's monitoring and mass error handling capabilities can be extended to support other technologies. In this way it is possible to support CIF, qRFC, bgRFC, MWB or any other customer specific technology.
With the calendar, you can restrict the data range for the information shown in the messages overview. This can be done by selecting dates in the calendar control. The days with messages in the system are highlighted as follows, depending on the highest error status:
Red: There is an error message for today (success, aborted, and warning messages may also have occurred).
Yellow: There are warning messages (successful or canceled messages may also have occurred; no error messages).
Green: There are only successful or canceled messages.
It provides a personalized overview of the integrations for which the user is responsible. Displays the overall status (okay, caution, errors, and undefined) of an integration. In addition, the number of messages (warnings, application errors, successfully processed, Technical Error, and In Process) for each status is displayed, as well as the sum of all messages. If the integration uses key fields for recipient identification, the key fields are also displayed.
The message summary provides an overview of how often a particular log message is written to the application log and how many different data logs there are. User can view all messages according to a specific error and have clear information about the messages affected by the error and easily fix the problem by using the batch restart or batch cancel function for all messages.
Monitoring and Error Handling functionality allows the user to analyze errors, fix errors and restart or cancel messages. Users' access authorizations such as canceling, restarting integration data can be restricted.
The most important benefits of using SAP AIF can be listed as follows:
You can centrally monitor your integrations between systems. You can also set alerts for errors and most importantly, if there is any business or non-technical error, you can troubleshoot the error without the user having to contact IT.
You can create your own business process using the features provided by AIF. For example, you can create a process to send a file to a business partner using a check to ensure that all required information is included and use the mapping features to convert the file you send into the business partner's template. Then you can use the action property to send this data to the business partner.
You can develop small, configurable components that can be reused between different integrations and systems. Reusing these components in integrations with similar scenarios will save you a lot of time.
You can assign roles to regulate access privileges at an integration level or based on integration data.
Data Security and Privacy (DPP) compliance is very important in today's world and AIF will help you hide sensitive information or files in monitoring, logging, access to personal data, security and deletion of personal data.
Do not hesitate to contact us to benefit from our SAP AIF consultancy service and to get information.
SAP PI/PO Consultant
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