Usage

This guide describes commonly used functions of the php7-sapnwrfc extension. For a more detailed overview of available methods, refer to the API overview.

For getting started right away, refer to the Quick start.

Connecting to a SAP system

To connect to a SAP system, we create a new instance of SAPNWRFC\Connection, passing connection parameters:

<?php
$parameters = [
    'ashost' => 'my.sap.system.local',
    'sysnr'  => '00',
    'client' => '123',
    'user' => 'DEMO',
    'passwd' => 'XXXX',
];

// connect
$connection = new SAPNWRFC\Connection($parameters);

// do work here

// close the connection
$connection->close();

If the connection attempt fails, a SAPNWRFC\ConnectionException is thrown with details about the error.

We can also use a sapnwrfc.ini file to specify connection details. See SAPNWRFC\Connection::setIniPath($path) and SAPNWRFC\Connection::reloadIniFile() in the API overview for details.

For available connection parameters refer to the sapnwrfc.ini parameter overview.

After we are done using the connection, it is recommended to close the connection using SAPNWRFC\Connection::close().

Calling remote function modules

Looking up the function module

Before we can call a remote function module, we have to lookup the desired function module to retrieve a SAPNWRFC\RemoteFunction object. This is accomplished with the SAPNWRFC\Connection::getFunction($functionName) method. We simply pass the name of the remote function module:

<?php

$remoteFunction = $connection->getFunction('RFC_PING');

If the lookup is successful, an object of type SAPNWRFC\RemoteFunction is returned which can be used for invoking the function.

If the function lookup fails, a SAPNWRFC\FunctionCallException is thrown.

Calling the function module

After we have retrieved a SAPNWRFC\RemoteFunction object, we can invoke the function module by using its invoke() method.

To invoke the function module RFC_PING, we can simply call invoke() without parameters.

<?php

$returnValue = $remoteFunction->invoke();

If the function module returns parameters, invoke() returns them. On any errors, a SAPNWRFC\FunctionCallException is thrown.

Parameters and return values

In practice, most of the remote function modules will require us to pass parameters and/or will return parameters after invocation.

Passing parameters is possible using the $parameters array of the remote function’s invoke() method. Parameters are passed as arrays, with the key being the name of the parameter and the value the value to pass.

The same is true for return values. If a remote function module returns parameters, they will be available in the array returned from invoke().

Note

ABAP function modules know four different types of parameters:

• IMPORT: set by the client.
• EXPORT: set by the server.
• CHANGING: set by the client and can be modified by the server.
• TABLE: set by the client and can be modified by the server.

To call a function module STFC_CHANGING that requires input parameters as well as returns parameters to the caller, we can do as follows:

<?php

$function = $connection->getFunction('STFC_CHANGING');
$result = $function->invoke([
    'START_VALUE' => 0,
    'COUNTER' => 1,
]);

/*
$result looks like this:

array(2) {
  ["COUNTER"] => int(2)
  ["RESULT"] => int(1)
}
*/

The types of the parameters and return values are mapped to standard PHP types.

Parameter type mappings

Remote function modules execute ABAP code and therefor use ABAB data types. This extension maps between RFC data types and builtin PHP data types as follows:

ABAP type	RFC type	PHP type	Meaning	Notes
C	CHAR	string	Text field (alphanumeric characters)	right-padded with blanks; see rtrim option
D	DATE	string	Date field (format: YYYYMMDD)
T	TIME	string	Time field (format: HHMMSS)
X	BYTE	string	Hexadecimal field	use hex2bin() to convert to binary
N	NUM	string	Numeric text field
STRING	STRING	string	String (dynamic length)
XSTRING	BYTE	string	Hexadecimal string (dynamic length)	use hex2bin() to convert to binary
I	INT	integer	Integer	INT1 and INT2 are also mapped to integer
P	BCD	double	Packed number / BCD
F	FLOAT	double	Floating point number

Additionally, there are also tables and structures:

• A structure is mapped to an associative array, with the keys being the field names and the values the field values.
• A table is an array of structures.

Passing options when calling function modules

When calling function modules using RemoteFunction::invoke() a second parameter can be passed specifying options for the function call.

<?php

// ...
$options = [
    'rtrim' => true
];

$function->invoke($parameters, $options);

The following options are available:

rtrim

In ABAP, there are two ways to store strings: as fixed length string type C or as dynamic length type STRING. When using type C strings are right-padded with blanks, if the string is shorter than the predefined length. To unify the extensions behaviour with strings, the rtrim option is available. If set to true, type C strings are right-trimmed before being returned.

Default: false

Activating/Deactivating parameters

The SAP NW RFC library supports the activation and deactivation of parameters of a function module. This is especially useful if a function module has a lot of (possibly big) return values that you are not interested in.

To activate or deactivate a parameter, we call the method SAPNWRFC\RemoteFunction::setParameterActive($parameterName, $isActive) on the remote function object. We can use SAPNWRFC\RemoteFunction::isParameterActive($parameterName) to check if a parameter is active or not.

<?php

$function = $connection->getFunction('STFC_STRUCTURE');

$function->setParameterActive('IMPORTSTRUCT', false);
$function->setParameterActive('RFCTABLE', false);

$function->isParameterActive('IMPORTSTRUCT'); // returns false

// we don't need to pass parameters when invoking the function module,
// as we deactivated all of them
$result = $function->invoke([]);

// $result will not contain the 'RFCTABLE' parameter

$function->setParameterActive('RFCTABLE', true);
$function->isParameterActive('IMPORTSTRUCT'); // returns true

// we need to pass the 'RFC_TABLE' parameter now
$result = $function->invoke([
    'RFCTABLE' => [],
]);

Function module details

The SAPNWRFC\RemoteFunction object defines a name property containing the name of the function module it represents.

Additionally, a property for each parameter of the function module is defined on the object that can be used to get detailed information about the parameter.

Trace levels

The SAP NW RFC library allows the creation of trace files to troubleshoot connection and/or function call problems.

We can set the desired trace level via the trace parameter when establishing the connection or change it at any time using the SAPNWRFC\Connection::setTraceLevel($level) method.

The extension defines constants on the SAPNWRFC\Connection class for the four trace levels (from least to most verbose): TRACE_LEVEL_OFF, TRACE_LEVEL_BRIEF, TRACE_LEVEL_VERBOSE, TRACE_LEVEL_FULL.

Additionally, we can set the directory for the generated trace file using SAPNWRFC\Connection::setTraceDir($path). The default location for the trace file is the current working directory.

Getting the version

The extension provides the methods SAPNWRFC\Connection::version() and SAPNWRFC\Connection::rfcVersion() for getting the extension version and the RFC SDK version in use.

Both methods return a string formatted as MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH (for example 1.1.3);

Exceptions

If an error occurs during any interaction, an exception is thrown with error details. Currently, there are two exception classes:

• SAPNWRFC\ConnectionException for any errors that concern the connection itself.
• SAPNWRFC\FunctionCallException for errors that stem from function module invocations.

Both exception classes extend the base exception class SAPNWRFC\Exception, which adds an additional getErrorInfo() method to the standard methods and properties provided by RuntimeException.

getErrorInfo() returns an array with detailed error information and contains at least the keys code, key and message.

Depending on the type of error, the following additional keys might be available with detailed information: abapMsgClass, abapMsgType, abapMsgNumber, abapMsgV1, abapMsgV2, abapMsgV3, abapMsgV4.