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Flash Builder Plug-in for SAP Netweaver Gateway

From Adobe Labs

We are happy to announce the second release of our Tech Preview of the new Adobe® Flash® Builder® Plugin for SAP® NetWeaver® Gateway Services (NGS). The plugin enables Flex developers to build web and mobile applications that access SAP data published via REST-based NGS. The plugin works within the existing Flash Builder Data Centric Development (DCD) workflow. Simple wizards allow developers to connect with and browse a Gateway Server’s Service Catalog and then generate ActionScript service wrappers and value objects for selected services.

This release addresses bug fixes raised during development and user testing since the last release. We appreciate the time users have put into trying the preview and being active on the forums.

Table of contents
1 Overview
2 Bug Fixes in Preview 2
3 Features Introduced in Preview 1
4 Remaining Known Issues
5 Features Not Implemented

Overview

Information on SAP NetWeaver Gateway Services (Gateway) can be found on the SAP Developer Network pages and there is a demo system available for testing and prototyping.

Fundamentally, Gateway offers connectivity to SAP data using any programming language or model without the need for SAP knowledge by leveraging REST services and OData/ATOM protocols. Gateway is a combination of:

  1. Technologies that provide a simple way to expose SAP data as REST services for anyone to access;
  2. Tools that enable you to build and publish Consumption Models (sub-sets of SAP data) which are logical groups of related entities (tables/views) specific to a use case (application);
  3. Hosting services (Gateway Server) that provide access to a service catalog, service descriptions (metadata) and operations; and
  4. Exposed SAP data as Gateway Services that are essentially a set of REST resources (Entity Sets/Collections such as Person, Account,…), accompanying relationships (associations) and operations (CRUD).

Bug Fixes in Preview 2

  1. Multiple service namespace conflicts resolved
  2. Service Template: "getItem" comment correction
  3. Flight_Details (SAP demo service) runtime error in the SAPOData.swc
  4. Key properties now identified on Service Details page
  5. Mac UI issues resolved
  6. Service name is now reset after selecting a service which doesn't work
  7. SSL issues resolved
  8. Imported project no longer falls back to default template
  9. Use association's original name in "Associations" tab in Service Browser
  10. Text for uninstall dialog

Features Introduced in Preview 1

  1. Data-Centric Development (DCD) Support for SAP's extensions to the OpenData Protocol
  2. SAP NetWeaver Gateway wizard for Flash Builder DCD workflows
  3. NGS catalog browser
  4. Service introspection and ActionScript service wrapper generation
  5. Flash Builder Data Services panel and Design view drag-and-drop integration
  6. Support for Create, Read, Update and Delete operations
  7. HTTP Authentication
  8. Design View drag and drop support for binding data services to: 
	spark.components.Application
	spark.components.Button
	spark.components.ComboBox 
	spark.components.DataGrid
	spark.components.DropDownList
	spark.components.Form
	spark.components.Label
	spark.components.List
	spark.components.RichEditableText
	spark.components.RichText
	spark.components.TextArea
	mx.containers.Form
	mx.controls.AdvancedDataGrid
	mx.controls.Button
	mx.controls.ComboBox
	mx.controls.DataGrid
	mx.controls.HorizontalList
	mx.controls.Label
	mx.controls.List
	mx.controls.Text
	mx.controls.TextArea
	mx.controls.TextInput
	mx.controls.TileList
	mx.controls.Tree
	mx.core.Application
	mx.core.WindowedApplication
	mx.charts.AreaChart
	mx.charts.LineChart
	mx.charts.ColumnChart
	mx.charts.BarChart
	mx.charts.PieChart

Remaining Known Issues

  1. Service not created if service name has max allowed characters
  2. SAML and x.509 authentication not specifically implemented or tested (none of these protocols were available during development)
  3. keyString property sometimes not generated
  4. spark.components.View should be supported
  5. Add "Connect to SAP Gateway..." in Data menu
  6. Unable to create Flex Project in Resource View
  7. FormItem should have max allowed width

Features Not Implemented

  1. Fully tested Mac support
  2. Support for SAML and X.509 authentication
Retrieved from "http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Flash_Builder_Plug-in_for_SAP_Netweaver_Gateway"